Düsseldorf Rhine River City Sightseeing Cruise

The Rheinwerft landing and the Rhine embankment promenade

The cruise starts from the Rheinwerft, the stone quay directly below the Rhine embankment promenade, the Rheinuferpromenade, in front of the Old Town. The promenade is one of the best urban planning stories in Germany: until 1993 a four-lane road ran along the river here, then it was buried in a tunnel and replaced by a 1.5-kilometre walkway of plane trees, cafés and steps down to the water that stretches from the parliament to the Oberkasseler Brücke. Boarding is right in front of the ticket office, and the first minutes of the Düsseldorf boat tour give the classic view back at the promenade, the castle tower and the Old Town roofs.

Arrive about fifteen minutes before departure to find the landing and board calmly; the quay is reached by the steps and ramps from the promenade near Burgplatz, and the boat returns to the same landing after about one hour.

Burgplatz, the Schlossturm and St Lambert's

As the boat pulls away you get the best possible view of Burgplatz, the square on the site of the ducal palace of Düsseldorf, which burned down in 1872 and was never rebuilt. Only the round Schlossturm survived; the castle tower, with roots in the thirteenth century, now houses the city's maritime museum devoted to shipping on the Rhine. Behind it rises St Lambert's Basilica, the oldest church in the Old Town, whose spire has been twisted since a nineteenth-century rebuild used green timber that warped as it dried, giving Düsseldorf its most famous silhouette.

The commentary tells the story of the city's founding charter of 1288 and the legend of the cartwheeling children celebrated by the fountain on Burgplatz. From the water the Old Town front of brick houses, the Rathaus tower and the promenade cafés makes the most photographed stretch of the whole Rhine sightseeing cruise in Düsseldorf.

Rheinturm, the state parliament and the Rhine bridges

Heading upstream the boat passes under the Rheinkniebrücke, a cable-stayed bridge of 1969 named after the bend, the knee, that the Rhine makes here, and approaches the Rheinturm, the 240-metre television tower of 1981 that is the tallest structure in Düsseldorf. Its shaft carries a light sculpture that works as the largest digital clock in the world, and the viewing platform and revolving restaurant near the top are open daily. At its foot stands the Landtag, the parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, a low circular building of 1988 whose glass front faces the river.

This is the part of the cruise where the modern city shows itself: the towers of the government quarter, the river police, the sports harbour and the long line of barges that make the Rhine the busiest waterway in Europe. The audio commentary explains the river traffic and the flood marks on the walls.

The MedienHafen

Beyond the Rheinturm the boat turns into the mouth of the old commercial harbour, the MedienHafen, which has been transformed since the 1990s from warehouses and grain silos into a district of media companies, hotels, restaurants and striking architecture. The landmark is the group of three leaning, curving office buildings in white plaster, red brick and stainless steel designed by a world-famous architect and completed in 1998, but the basin also shows old cranes, converted silos, a coloured facade of climbing figures and the Living Bridge footbridge.

The contrast with the Old Town is the point: in less than fifteen minutes the Düsseldorf river cruise moves from a medieval church spire to some of the most photographed contemporary buildings in Germany. The boat does not dock here; you see the harbour from the water before turning back downstream.

Oberkassel and the Rheinwiesen

On the return the commentary turns to the left bank, where Oberkassel lines the river with a seamless front of Art Nouveau and historicist apartment houses built around 1900, the most expensive addresses in the city, backed by the wide Rheinwiesen meadows where the fair and the fireworks of the big July funfair take place. The boat passes under the Oberkasseler Brücke, which was built beside the old bridge in 1973 and then slid 47 metres sideways into position in 1976, a feat still explained with pride on every Düsseldorf boat trip.

Downstream of the bridge you see the Tonhalle, the domed concert hall that opened in 1926 as a planetarium, and the Rheinpark before the boat swings round and returns to the Rheinwerft landing in front of the Old Town after about an hour, the ideal moment for a late lunch on the promenade.