Essen Hotels and Such, Germany

On our trip to Essen for the big board gaming convention, we stayed at an apartment in Mulheim, which is about a 15 to 20 minute drive from the conference center where the convention is held. The apartment is the top floor of a charming little building two minutes from the highway--close enough for easy access but far enough to avoid noise.

Our car and apartment building

The apartment has two large bedrooms, a long living and dining room (with a cabinet full of every kind of drinking glass you can imagine). The kitchen is a good size and well stocked with appliances, dishes, utensils, and even some milk and sundries in the refrigerator which we didn't have to pay for! Having milk right away was handy with the little ones.

And also this awesome teapot

The living room has a good size table, letting us have meals for six (us plus the couple we traveled with) and play games from the fair. The TV was nice and we watched some German cartoons, including a dubbed version of Spectacular Spider-man. The balcony looks out over the back yard and into town. Since the town isn't that big the view is mostly trees. If the weather had been nicer we would have taken pictures or taken tea outside.

Our friends stayed at a charming hotel within walking distance of the convention. It is situated on a little square that had a farmers' market on Saturday morning.

Our friends' hotel

We could easily imagine a lively summer festival in the square.

At the other end of the square is the nicest-looking supermarket ever!

In addition to the farmers' market, we also went to the High Street in Essen to get local phone cards so we could call each other. While there, we discovered the town clock, which is beautiful.

Clock on the shopping street

Back at our place, we decided to leave some of the art the children made at the convention. A small note described our thanks and our hope that they'd cherish the art always as we cherished visiting their place.

Art samples

This piece represents the long line for the toilet at the convention center

We get to the convention in the next post!