Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf
<map lat='51.54066343916916' lng='6.885702610015869' zoom='12' view='3'/>
Information
Country:	Germany
State:	North Rhine-Westphalia
Population:	577,505 (31 Dec 2006)
Licence plate:	D
Major roads:	A 3, A 44, A 46, A 52, A 57, A 59
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Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German Bundesland North Rhine-Westphalia. It's located in the west of Germany.

Hitchhiking out

West towards Aachen, Belgium, Paris

Take public transportations to the bus stop Grevenbroich, Daimlerstraße in order to get to the petrol station on the A 46 in Grevenbroich. You can find a schedule here or have a look at www.vrr.de. It's easy to find. The bus ride will take you less than an hour.

You can also start from the Aral petrol station at Südring 115. Take tram 712 to "Südring". From there walk about 500m the "Südring" towards the city (when you see the Rhine, you walked to the wrong direction). On Saturday evening there's always a "muscle car" meeting.

North, East towards Hamburg, Osnabrück, Münster, Hannover, Berlin

The best way to head this direction is probably to take the public transportations to "Heinrichstraße". There are several Busses, Tram and Undergrounds towards it. When you arrive just walk the street "Münsterstraße" northwards til "Shell"-gas station. Turn left and walk until you arrive in front of "Carglas". There is the best spot for hitchhiking in Düsseldorf. Much traffic at every time of the day with license plates from all over Germany and drivers going for long distances. Even in the dark hours the visibility is very good, thanks to the lights above the street. The minimum you should get is a lift to your destination if it is within the direction of Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund or the petrol station along the A 2, called "Bottrop-Süd" if you want to go further. Waiting takes an average under fifteen minutes.

North-West towards Arnhem, Netherlands

Similar to above: take the train to Oberhausen-Sterkrade. Take the 979 Bus, but get out at Turmstraße. There is an on-ramp for the A516 to Arnhem there, and cars have to wait at traffic lights before going on to the motorway. The next service station from there is "Hünxe", which is strongly frequented by Dutch drivers, so if someone offers to take you there, you're probably in luck. Take a sign. (This spot does not have a lot of traffic going towards Arnhem. A lot of traffic is inter-Oberhausen. I waited there for 3 hours without a ride. Walking to Hunxe will take about 3 hours which might be a better option.)

South towards Cologne, Bonn, Frankfurt am Main

<map lat='51.129142' lng='6.603041' zoom='12' view='0' float='right'/> Take the public transportations to the petrol station in Hilden, Ohligser Heide at the A 3. There are several ways to get there. If you are in Düsseldorf-Bilk, type in the busstation next to you at vrr.de, because there are buses going there. That would be very quick. You can also just ask at the service point of Düsseldorf central station how to get to Hilden - Südfriedhof or Hilden S, or go to vrr.de and type in the connection. If you go to Hilden S-train station, you will have to walk a bit (see map). It will take you ca. 40 Minutes to get there.

An other option is to start hitchhiking (to Frankfurt) at the 'Esso' (Mecumstraße 45, 40225 Düsseldorf) that's close to the public transport station 'Auf'm Hennekamp'. A lot of people stop there, before they go directly to Frankfurt am Main Airport. This spot is not so far away from the city centre, so you could walk there from the centre (takes about 40 minutes to walk there from Heinrich Heine Allee, by tram you need only 7 minutes).

If someone goes to Frankfurt am Main ask him to leave you at the second petrol station without Motel, because mojo rising got stuck on the first one for a few hours and after asking one truck driver what's the best way he said that going to the next station would be better (30 km further). There he didn't wait more than 20 minutes.