Invitation CER Meeting Düsseldorf 27 & 28 June 2015

Dear CER members,

We hereby invite you for the June 2015 CER meeting in Düsseldorf, the capital city of North-Rhine-Westphalia which 80 % of people in Europe can reach in one day by car.

Düsseldorf (German pronunciation: [ˈdʏsəldɔɐf]) ranks as one of the country's five global cities (population without you: 586.000). Düsseldorf are members of Triborder Intergroup.

Düsseldorf Website (in English): http://www.duesseldorf.de/en/index.shtml Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf

CER Meeting Location: The CER meeting on 27 & 28 June 2015 would be held at the

Youth Hostel Düsseldorf Oberkassel Düsseldorfer Straße 1a 40545 Oberkassel, Düsseldorf http://www.jugendherberge.de/jh/rheinland/duesseldorf/index.shtml.en?m

Our meeting room in the hostel is pre-booked for Saturday and Sunday, which allows us to leave our belongings there overnight. The place is a modern building with great acoustics and lots of possibilities to use your PCs. We have booked Internet access for the meeting room.

We do not need to clean up when we leave on Sunday as cleaning is included in the rent for the room.

Beverages during the meeting: The hostel will serve us as many bottles of mineral water or juice as we need and take back what we don´t need. Price per bottle will be 2.50 €.

Coffee or tea can be ordered as well and will cost 1 € per cup. A sandwich will cost about 1.50 €. We will pre-order some snacks and ask you to keep the 7th tradition in mind.

Dinner Saturday: We invite you to join us for dinner on the premises after the meeting on Saturday for 5.50 € per person at 18:00. Because the hostel needs to prepare the right amount of food, we need to let them know as early as possible who wants to have dinner at the premise. So please let us know by email to [email protected], if you will be having dinner with us at the hostel.

We invite you for a sightseeing walk after dinner around 19:00, weather permitting.

AA meetings Friday and Saturday: There is a regular English meeting on Friday night at 20:00 at the Christ Church in Düsseldorf. DÜSSELDORF INTERNATIONAL GROUP – Member of Triborder IG Christ Church Rotterdammerstraβe 135 40474 Düsseldorf-Golzheim, Germany

The best way to get there from the hostel is via Taxi for about 14 € per taxi: 4 passengers = ca. 3.50 € per person.) one way. If you order a group taxi for up to 8 people, it will cost about 17 € one way (comes down to ca. 2.12 € p.p.).

There is no regular Saturday night English-language AA meeting in Düsseldorf. However, we have the option of using our business meeting room at the hostel for an AA meeting if we care to do so. Last time, we hold a meeting at 21:00 so that people, who went for the walk had time to get back.

Where to stay in Düsseldorf: The closest and easiest option is to stay in the Youth Hostel itself.

Youth Hostel Düsseldorf Oberkassel (information above)

You have to make the reservation for yourself, quoting “ CERES¤” at the reservation.

The rooms have internet access at an additional cost of 10 € per day. Wi-Fi is available in the lobby for 1.50 € per hour.

If you don’t have a room yet and want one, or if you have one but would like to share, we suggest you ask someone if they would like to share with you.

We have also made direct inquiries to the two closest hotels to the hostel

Hotel Oberkassel Haus Wilke Hotel Düsseldorfer Straße 93 Adalbertstraße 11 40545 Düsseldorf 40545 Düsseldorf hotel-villa-oberkassel.de hotel-haus-wilke.de

CER meeting Düsseldorf 27 & 28 June 2015. Jugendherberge Düsseldorf 2

Weather Forecast You can use this link to find the latest weather forecast for Düsseldorf: http://www.wetteronline.de/Nordrhein-Westfalen/Duesseldorf.htm

Getting to the meeting location in Düsseldorf:

At the airport: On arrival at the Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), exit at baggage claim No. 15 even if you only have hand luggage (walk from your arrival gate towards baggage claim No. 15 and exit). If you don´t see a number at the exits from inside the baggage claim area, just exit, and you will find the numbers on the doors from outside the baggage claim area for sure. The S-Bahn is located in Terminal C. Look for the S-11 Signs.

Outside Exit No. 15, look around. On your right side will be a McDonald´s and right next to it a moving staircase going down to the “S-Bahn”. Go to S-Bahn S11 direction “Düsseldorf Hbf”. (Be careful not to enter the opposite direction Solingen. Solingen Hbf is the WRONG direction!)

Before or after getting on, buy a ticket “A” to the main train station “Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof (Hbf)” (directions are in English. One-way fare, as of September 21st 2009, is € 2.30, ticket name: “A”. This ticket will get you all the way to the hostel, even if you switch lines.) Trains from the Düsseldorf Airport to the Düsseldorf main station take about 12 minutes and there are approximately 5 stops. The S11 usually departs 4 times an hour around the minutes 03, 23, 33 and 43. Saturday and Sunday may differ.

At Düsseldorf Central Station: On arrival at the main train station “Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof (Hbf)”, take a U-Bahn (5 different U-Bahn trains go to the district in town “Oberkassel” where the Hostel is located) and exit 5 stops later at the stop “Luegplatz” in Oberkassel with the same ticket. You don´t need to buy a new ticket if you bought yours at the airport. The U-Bahns with the numbers:

U70, U76, U74, U77, U75 will all get you there and come regularly every 3-5 minutes. Just watch to take the right direction! (the part of town you want to go to is called “Oberkassel”).

Get off the U-Bahn and walk 7 minutes (1 km) on the street “Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring” along the beautiful Rhine River to the Youth Hostel, keeping the Rhine at your left side while you walk.

To look at a Google map, copy and paste the link below in your browser: http://maps.google.de/maps?q=51.22716,6.757143&num=1&sll=51.231445,6.748057&ss pn=0.013975,0.032015&gl=de&hl=de&ie=UTF8&ll=51.227474,6.757321&spn=0.01542 6,0.045104&z=15

CER meeting Düsseldorf 27 & 28 June 2015. Jugendherberge Düsseldorf 3

One way cab fare from the Airport to the hostel will cost about 18 € for 7.6 km and take about 20 minutes.

In regards to public transportation in Düsseldorf: look for the “A” ticket

With the ticket named “A” you can ride on any bus, tram or subway in Düsseldorf city. This ticket can be bought at most stops in confusing ticket machines or in the trams and busses themselves in not less confusing ticket machines. Just look for the “A” ticket and you will be fine. At most machines coins are required, but some take EC cards. However, there are only a few of these EC-possible-machines. Tickets can be bought inside the tram (U-Bahn or bus as well for the same price).

One way “A” tickets cost € 2.30 (for example, from the airport to the hostel. It does not matter that you might have to change the line). An “A” one-way ticket for 4 people or for riding for times costs 8 €. An “A” day-ticket for one person costs 5.30 €. An “A” group day-ticket which can be used by up to 5 people traveling together all day costs 11.70 €.

Group and day tickets can be bought online and printed out on your computer at home, but the website is in German https://shop.tsvr.de/vrr/?profileid=999

If you are traveling only 2 stops you can use the cheaper ticket “K” (= Kurzstrecke) .

Tickets that haven´t been used will not expire and can be used any time later.

Maybe we can do this again sometime? J

Traveling to Düsseldorf

By rail: The German national train service, the Deutsche Bahn http://www.bahn.de/p/view/index.shtml offers connections to and from most of the Continent in cooperation with other national train systems. The high-speed Deutsche Bahn ICE and multinational Thalys trains both service Düsseldorf.

Note: Please notice that when you travel by rail to Düsseldorf, your Train Ticket is normally valid to get you all the way to the hostel without any extra ticket needed. Please check on that when you buy your train ticket.

By air: The closest airport is Düsseldorf (DUS). Another option is the Ryanair Düsseldorf Airport Weeze, which we don´t recommend. It is about one hour from Düsseldorf itself and a real hassle to get to and from.

Air Berlin and Lufthansa have major operations here in Düsseldorf. Here are their websites:

• Air Berlin: www.airberlin.com CER meeting Düsseldorf 27 & 28 June 2015. Jugendherberge Düsseldorf 4 • Lufthansa: www.lufthansa.com

The best online search engine is:

www.flugsupermarkt.de

Note: Less expensive flights may be available if your are traveling other than Friday and Monday. Please book as early as possible because there will be a trade fair on Friday and Saturday in Düsseldorf, and Hotels and Flights might be booked up early.

Check surrounding dates, if you can be flexible, to ensure the lowest possible airfare.

By car: If you are coming to Düsseldorf by car, these are the three main Autobahns which reach the city directly:

A57 from and Krefeld A 46 from Aachen and A 52 from Essen and Mönchengladbach A 3 (meets A 46, above) A 44 from the airport

Check a map at: http://www.hot-maps.de/europe/germany/nrw/duesseldorf/landkarte.html

From Mönchengladbach/Krefeld: Head through the „“ interchange using A52 towards Düsseldorf, Exit Düsseldorf- Oberkassel. At the second light, turn right onto “Düsseldorfer Straße”.

From Essen: Take A52 until „Kreuz Breitscheid“. Get on the A3 until „Autobahnkreuz Hilden“ and then onto the A46, exiting at „Düsseldorf-“. At the end of the Autobahn, turn left onto „Südring“, after ca. 2 km right (Völklinger Straße direction Messe/Zentrum), in the tunnel exit right direction „Oberkassel“. Cross the Rhine Bridge. Exit the bridge right hand and keep left. The hostel is on the left after the stoplight.

From Frankfurt/Oberhausen: Take A3 until „Autobahnkreuz Hilden“ and then onto the A46. Exit „Düsseldorf-Bilk“. At the end of the Autobahn turn left onto „Südring“, after ca. 2 km right (Völklinger Straße direction Messe/Zentrum), in the tunnel exit right direction „Oberkassel“. Cross the Rhine Bridge. Exit at the end of the bridge right hand and keep left. The hostel is on the left after the stoplight.

Parking: There is no inexpensive parking in Düsseldorf. But the hostel offers parking spots that can be booked additionally for 10 € a day. Or you can try your luck finding a spot on the streets around the hostel.

CER meeting Düsseldorf 27 & 28 June 2015. Jugendherberge Düsseldorf 5

Have a safe journey. We look forward to seeing you in Düsseldorf.

Questions? For answers please contact Jens at [email protected] or by phone at + 45 53 61 04 85

Yours in Service

Jens V. Secretary CER Continental European Region, English speaking AA, Region 15, GSO, York, England, living in Copenhagen Denmark [email protected] [email protected] Skype: jens.vexoe2

CER meeting Düsseldorf 27 & 28 June 2015. Jugendherberge Düsseldorf 6