"Challenger's Duisburg Pages" a Duisburg Travel Page by challenger

My place of birth and place of residence for the first 28 years of my life, I guess I should feel all misty eyed and nostalgic about Duisburg, but can’t say I was sad to move away from it eventually.

With about 550.000 people living in there, Duisburg is actually Germany’s 10th biggest city, though you wouldn’t guess it when you see the empty streets at night.

Right smack in the middle of the Ruhrgebiet - the industrial Ruhr Valley –, home of the largest inland harbour of the world and originally dominated by steel factories and heavy industry that have now gone bust, this is not necessarily a favourite holiday resort for most people.

Duisburg, however, is an ideal place to stay when you can’t find accommodation in Duesseldorf or any other city in the area. The airport is as far away from Duisburg as it is from Duesseldorf and public transport is pretty fast, affordable and reliable.

You may also not necessarily think so when visiting the city, but Duisburg is actually very well regarded amongst the people living in it. Despite high unemployment and a general lack of having sweet eff all to do, most of its citizens appreciate the cleanliness and relative safety of its streets and are quite often very proud of being a “Duisburger”. Having nothing majorly exciting happening on your doorsteps here seems to be considered a virtue for a city to call home.

So while you may not be itching to get there anytime soon, should you ever end up here, you can make the best of it provided you follow my little VT survival kit here.