It is one of the economic centres of the country, and a major city within the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area, with a population of , The city is famous for its nightlife, carnival, events, shopping and for fashion and trade fairs like the Boot Messe trade fair for boats and watersports and Igedo fashion fair. Every year, more than 4 million people visit the Kirmes fun fair which runs for 10 days in the summer. Tourists are most likely to concentrate on District 1, with its quarters of Stadtmitte "city centre" spreading northwest from the train station, as well as Altstadt "old town" and Carlstadt on the Rhine.
Many will continue further south along the Rhine through Unterbilk in District 3 to the haven Hafen , which has been largely converted to commercial and leisure use from its original industrial and transportation functions. The first is the name of a little stream that flows through the city mostly underground nowadays. Origins of this name go back into the old German language, when over time vowels and consonants shifted slightly. Be careful not to misspell the name of the city as "Dusseldorf" without an umlaut, because if you do, you are calling it "Village of Fools": "Dussel" is a dated word meaning "fool".
When they see you are a foreigner they will no doubt forgive you. They offer a lot of brochures: a monthly calendar of events, a city guide and free maps with walking routes designed around a specific theme e. You can also book their guided tours, and note that there are also tours for disabled and deaf people. It receives flights from destinations worldwide. Intercontinental destinations include Dubai, and Tokyo. You will find flights from most major European airports operated by other major or minor airlines.
The airport is about 15 km from the main railway station. The airport has two train stations:. Fares are the same for both stations, and while more trains call at the larger of the two, it also takes more time to get there. Both trains are RRX. The airport is not connected directly to the railway network, something that is rather unusual in Germany. Local bus fare is included in Deutsche Bahn tickets. The bus from Weeze train station leaves hourly for the airport until The train goes every hour.
The bus takes you straight to Weeze Airport. The The statewide network is covered by S-Bahn, Regionalbahn, and Regionalexpress. Flixtrain serves the city. All tickets will have to be validated before departure. For the trains like Regionalbahn or Regionalexpress there's an orange machine before you go up the stairs to the platform, where you have to stamp your ticket. Not being German, not understanding the language or complicated system, or the fact that you have purchased a ticket will not be accepted as excuses: if it is not stamped, it is not valid, and travelling with a non-stamped ticket is considered an offence.
