From River Cruise to Running Shoes: A Festive Parkrun Journey in Düsseldorf
Cruise, Christmas, and 5K Cheer: My Festive parkrun Adventure
So two of my favourite pastimes (some may say obsessions!) is Parkrun and Cruising! I have always checked our cruise itineraries to see if a Parkrun would be possible, but up until last year was not in luck. Then last minute in 2024 we decided to book a Christmas Market cruise to Germany, 5 days on the Tui Isla visiting Frankfurt, Koblenz, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Rüdesheim. I was apprehensive at first, I do love Christmas, but 5 days of Christmas markets may be a little too much for me!
But after we booked I had a thought, Parkrun operate in Germany… I wonder! I was in luck on the Saturday we would be in Düsseldorf, who host the Volksgarten Parkrun – would it be possible? So I set upon my research!
The cruise itinerary said we were in Düsseldorf for a full day, there were a number of places along the Rhine that we may moor, but all were within 15-30 minutes’ drive of the Parkrun, if the timings worked I was on! Plus it’s an elusive ‘V’ for the Alphabeteer challenge (if you know you know!)
So at the point of packing, it was a possibility, if we docked in time, if I could sort transport, I could tick off a Parkrun in another country and do a bit of sightseeing at the same time, so I packed my running shoes and my barcode and hoped for the best.
My wife and I set off for Gatwick, made the short flight over to Frankfurt, and started to enjoy the Christmas Markets, despite my concerns, they were amazing, everything we imagined they would be and more, as to was the ship, it was not only our first ever time at the German Christmas markets, it was our first experience of a River Cruise, we really enjoyed the intimate feel of the ship, the staff were fabulous, as was the food and drink, we were having a great time and enjoying not only the food on the ship but at the Christmas markets as well and the Glühwein was flowing!
Our second day was in Koblenz, an amazing place, full of history and an amazing cable car, that morning I popped down to reception and bumped into the cruise Director, and asked the question – any idea what time we will be mooring on Saturday at Düsseldorf I was hoping to do Parkrun? His face was a picture, why? He said, why would you want to get up really early in freezing temperatures when you are on a Christmas market cruise and go for a run, it was the first time he had been asked the question and I don’t think he thought I was serious, but he very helpfully answered my questions, but he couldn’t say where we would moor, it will be known by the captain at some point as we are travelling into Dusseldorf, we looked at the port map, and the parkrun wasn’t covered on it, so whilst he tried to be helpful, I wasn’t much further on, he did say that I should be able to get off the ship at around 8am all being well, but I wouldn’t know where I was until I was there!
Anyway we carried on enjoying Koblenz, enjoyed our meal on board and a few drinks in the evening and went off to bed.
The next morning I was up, bright and early, donned my running gear and headed to reception (via the restaurant for a quick breakfast!), it was 8am and I couldn’t get off, they were still sorting out the bridge to the riverside. I bumped into the Cruise director, ‘oh, you were serious!’ he said, it’s freezing out there, rather you than me!
Around 8.15am I was allowed off, I immediately ordered an Uber to my location ‘Robert-Lehr-Ufer’, the Uber took no more than 2 minutes and it was a 15 minute drive to the Parkrun through the city – was a pleasant drive, fairly quiet at that time of day, but was good to see the scenery (even with the slight doubt that you get in your mind when you are in an Uber and don’t know where you are going and wondered if you would ever get out alive!)
We arrived just after 8.30am on the edge of the park and I was dropped off. It was cold -1 degree Celsius, I couldn’t see the start or any other parkrunners, was I in the right place? I went for a wonder and to my relief I saw some marshals setting up and some other runners warming up - I had made it!
I headed off to the welcome talk, and thankfully they did it in both English and German (my only recollection from GCSE German was ‘Entschuldigen Sie bitte, wo ist der Bahnhof‘ or ‚excuse me please where is the train station‘ – not going to be much help in this situation!
But as with all Parkruns, everyone was really friendly and happy to welcome me, I’m not the fastest of runners so it’s fairly easy to follow those in front of me!
It was a lovely course 2 laps of 2.5km around the park, just 89 runners which gave it a lovely relaxed feel, mainly gravel paths and grass, some areas frozen, and I couldn’t feel my nose, but I got a time of 34:02, but more importantly ticked off Germany and‘V‘ in my challenges.
Getting the Uber back to the boat was just as easy (oh and by the way cost around 20 euros each way), I returned to the boat and the staff were happy to see me and interested in how I got on, and after a quick shower, we set off to enjoy the Christmas markets of Düsseldorf (including missing the shuttle bus back to the boat and having a heated ‚disussion‘ with my wife when the Ubers let us down later on in the day... but that’s a story for another time...)
So in summary, Parkrun and Cruising is absoutley possible, you have to have a bit of luck, and be willing to put your research in and have plans in place, but it’s doable, and the more I look into it the more ports are possible – Stravanger, Liverpool, Southampton, Oslo, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt to name but a few – better get booking some more cruises!