We woke up early Saturday morning in order to take the train from Heidelberg to Dusseldorf. Bayer Leverkusen was playing in Dusseldorf for the second half of the season because they were re-building their stadium in Leverkusen. We had chosen to attend the Bayer Leverkusen match rather than the Borussia Dortmund match for several reasons:

1) Borussia Dortmund was sold out and Bayer Leverkusen was not.
2) Dortmund was further away than staying in Dusseldorf.
3) We had a friends and family certificate to stay at Marriott hotels. Dusseldorf has a Renaissance Hotel while Dortmund has none.

Obtaining Tickets
I called Leverkusen to purchase tickets before flying to Germany. When I tried to purchase the tickets, the ticket office told me they had reserved 2 tickets for me and that I would pay for the tickets when I picked them up at the stadium. However, when we picked up the tickets, they said we did not owe anything. I am not sure where the confusion was, but we ended up receiving free tickets.

LTU Arena and the Game
We did not find any restaurants or pubs around LTU Arena. It was basically a stadium on the outskirts of town. Once again, we could purchase beer in the stadium and drink at our seats. However, LTU Arena charged one Euro for each cup. Fans needed to return their cup in order to receive the Euro back.

Karlsruher defeated Bayer Leverkusen on a goal in the 72nd minute by Sebastian Langkamp.

Post Game Dining
After the game we took the subway back to Dusseldorf’s Altstadt (“Old Town”). We walked into the main part of the area and found an outdoor beer garden – Uerige. Uerige has been brewing beer since 1862. Servers walk by each table with about 20 beers on their tray. When the pass you ask for the number of beers you want and pay the server – quick and easy. No trip to Dusseldorf is complete without a stop at Uerige.

After a few beers, we decided to eat a German dinner at Alstadt Restaurant – a short walk from Uerige. We did not find many actual German restaurants in the area which is why we chose the restaurant we did.