Münster; Friday, 20 December, 2024

As I had an early afternoon flight I for once was able to head to the airport from home, rather than having to stay overnight at the airport.

I had a smooth journey through the airport and onto the flight which arrived pretty much on time in Düsseldorf and with an incredibly smooth journey through the empty immigration hall, I was able to catch a train from the Airport Terminal station within 15 minutes of landing. It also meant that I could catch the train to Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof to pick up my train to Münster from there, rather than trying to pick it up at the Airport main station.

This turned out to be a very good idea as the train was over 15 minutes late leaving Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof and was already full and standing at that point. If I’d boarded at the airport I would have had a long wait on the platform for the train to arrive and rather than having a seat I would have had to stand most of the 90 minute journey.

By the time we got to Münster the train had lost even more time, in part due to the train being so full that it took ages to stop at each station as people tried to get on and off, so I was glad it was only a very short walk through the station underpass to my hotel where I was able to checkin, drop my bags off and then head back out into town.

The railway station, and my hotel, sit on the southeastern corner of the city, outside the former city walls which were demolished in the 17th century, but the land was retained as a path, which today has been developed into a path and cycle track, creating a green fortress style ring around the city.

I headed straight for the centre of the city and the Domplatz to take in the cathedral, expecting to find one of the city’s Christmas markets there, but it turns out the domplatz is the main weekly market square and consequently doesn’t host the Christmas market, however a short walk away was the Überwasserkirche and that did have one of the main markets located in it’s grounds so I spent a bit of time wandering around that, stopping for some Glühwein and bratwurst before heading back in towards the centre of the city and exploring more of the old town and discovering several more of the city’s Christmas markets, though all in the process of closing at it was gone 9pm.

I took that as a hint to start making my way back to the station and my hotel room, stopping off in the bar for a quick nightcap before turning in.