Moving to Dusseldorf

Hi Ladies,

My husband is in the process of accepting an offer in Dusseldorf. We will be moving to Germany from Texas. We have lived in the US for almost 15 years, so this will be a major move for us!! I am a stay at home mom to 2 kids 6 1/2 and 1 1/2. Feeling very anxious about the move as well as excited since it will be such a different experience.

I wanted to find out from this forum about living in Dusseldorf. Plan to enroll my son in the International school in Kaiserswerth. Any of your kids go to this school? If any one of you have done a similar move - how have they adjusted? Also any suggestions on areas for apartment hunting would be useful.

Thanks!!!
Shoba

Hi Shobha,

Welcome to Germany. I had lived in Dusseldorf for 4 years before moving to Munich. I have never been in US so i can't say much how different life would be in comparison to Germany. All I can say is Dusseldorf is a very pleasant and chic city. There is a very good International Library in the city. It is not very tough to live without knowing the language but it would definitely be an advantage. An acquaintance had her daughter at the International school and she was very pleased. They have since moved to Sydney. It'd be better you find an apartment in the Kaiserswerth area because it's closer to the school. And the area is also a lovely one. It's also not far from the city centre (dusseldorf itself isn't a large city) for you to do shopping. There is a very good indian grocery shop run by Srilankan tamil and he has practically everything. This is near the central station (hauptbahnhof).

If you need any other details in specific please ask me.

Latha

I have not much to add since I have not stayed in Germany but I have been to Dusseldorf for about a week. It is a beautiful place and the Rhine flows through that city too. A friend of ours stayed along the banks of the Rhine(Kaiserswerth) and it is a picturesque place to go for walks,cycling ,trails etc.You can see these huge cargo ships sailing by and it is truly a wonderful scene! One thing different from U.S. is the public transport-well connected by trains.

You will love it ,especially after staying in the U.S.!

hi, i have moved to dusseldorf recently and know of the international school in kaiserswerth. its a good school for kids so dont worry about the kids, theyl get good education.

if your still looking for a place then the best areas for you would be kaiserswerth or wittlaer. these areas however are not cheap as they in very posh side of dusseldrof. i stayed there and behind it is all farms. its nice private clean area. if you need advice on how to find a place here let me know and il send you some letting agents web links.
also be ready as generally people here are miserable and if your catching the trams or tubes then be ready to get pushed away. am from uk and try go bak as much as possible as only working here. but overall if your with ur family and u get a nice place to stay then it wont be so bad for you. i know of 2 other indian girls who moved with there husbands and have kids goin to the international school. ul find urself geting introduced auto matically. oh and yes i hope u love sausages as this country lives by them and every corner you turn thats all people seem to eat here.

Originally Posted by Traveller

Hi Shobha,

Welcome to Germany. I had lived in Dusseldorf for 4 years before moving to Munich. I have never been in US so i can't say much how different life would be in comparison to Germany. All I can say is Dusseldorf is a very pleasant and chic city. There is a very good International Library in the city. It is not very tough to live without knowing the language but it would definitely be an advantage. An acquaintance had her daughter at the International school and she was very pleased. They have since moved to Sydney. It'd be better you find an apartment in the Kaiserswerth area because it's closer to the school. And the area is also a lovely one. It's also not far from the city centre (dusseldorf itself isn't a large city) for you to do shopping. There is a very good indian grocery shop run by Srilankan tamil and he has practically everything. This is near the central station (hauptbahnhof).

If you need any other details in specific please ask me.

Latha

Thank you all for the information you have provided. We finally arrived in Dusseldorf this week and are kind of settling down. We will be visiting the director of admissions at the school this week. So far the experience in the city has been nice. We are in the Aqua zoo area. Could not locate the grocery store near HBH but got to a store called Raja stores which had some stuff. The people in the tram/train have been courteous to us but it is a bit of tricky situation to ride on these with a stroller especially when it is crowded!!

Hi Shobha,

Glad that you like the place. I know the trams in Dusseldorf.. esp the old ones. I am glad we got rid of them in Munich!

The tamil grocery shop is in Acker Strasse... i'll try to direct you to my best: get off at Worringer Platz and you've to walk not towards the Hauptbahnhof but the other direction. You can see the road splitting into 2 and you've to take the right one; that's Acker Strasse. The shop comes on the left hand side of the road; next to it is a Deichmann shoe shop.

Zoo is a nice place to live.

Regards,
Latha

Hello

We have moved to Dusseldorf from London/Paris and live in the Duseltaal area. We are expecting our first baby in November and I am very interested in meeting other mothers with babies, young children.

Warm regards
Ranjana

Hi IL's
Nice to see about dusseldorf, i was there for a month or two.. i like the city and the country. i was staying very near to HBF. really a good pulic trasportation and connectivities to other places. Trams are crowded at peak times... But After 8PM you can;t find any grocery/shopping malls open other than restaurant... we need to rush up to shop anything for the day. But a great place to live... anyone know how to move there permanently for a job . if anyone know PM me.. hope this may not against the forum ethiques..