The Essen Trip 2006

A guide to time, money and stuff - since you can read about all the board games elsewhere.

We began our trip, from Mike's house in Frome, at 6:20am Wednesday. The 5 in our car (Me, Ester, Graham, Mike and Paul) had packed lightly for the trip to leave space in the boot of Mike's car for the return journey.

Traffic was not too bad and we made it to the Port in Dover about 4 hours later at about 10:35am. We were about 5 minutes late but having an express loading ticket allowed us to drive all the way down an empty lane and park right next to Pete and Helen at the front of the queue. They had stayed over night in Dover and could have taken an earlier trip, but had chosen to wait for us and take the same one. Ray had taken the earlier one. As a result of our express ticket we were loaded on first.

The smooth trip lasted about 90 minutes and there was of course a time zone change on the other side. Then we were off again, leaving all the queues (including Pete and Helen), behind us at 1:15pm. Once again we were on the road again.

The second part of the driving was straight forward as we passed though France, Belgium, Holland and in to Germany. The only minor problem that we did have was traffic and poor road signs around the ring road at Antwerp.

About 4 hours later at 5:30pm we arrived at the Ibis Hotel. This was 1 hour before Ray and hours before Pete and Helen - but that's another story that I'll let Pete tell you.

After checking in two to a room, for 5 nights bed and breakfast, and getting changed, we made our way to the Tourist Information to buy the 4 day pass for the Messe.

We then drew out some Euros for the next day and made our way to Toys R Us for a look at the prices. The shop is located under the library nearby the hotel and there is a good selection of games here, some are at very good prices. I think that Thurn and Taxis was 16 Euros (which was cheaper than the cheapest price at the show). Mike even bought a game that I had just bought second hand for about 3 pounds a few weeks ago. He paid 50 Cents!!!

After taking note of a few prices we made our way to Home - a friendly and cheap place to eat and the food is very good. There is an English menu and there are 5 things on the menu that are Vegetarian. I ate most evenings for around 10 Euros and this was with a good large beer.

We returned to the Hotel and played a few small games before going to sleep to be ready for the first day at the show.

Since we did the "get there as the doors opened" last year most of us thought that we'd just get there when we got there in the morning. So after a huge “all you can eat” big breakfast we set off at about 9:45am. Some took the train to the show others took a leisurely walk across town, partly through the park (a route that Mike had found last year - following blue lights in the pavement!). It's about 3km and 30mins walk. I think that the train is about 2 Euros for a single trip. There is also ticket for multiple rides that works out quite cheap. I did use the train once when my legs had had enough on Saturday. Well done to Mike who walked both ways every day.

Anyway, I spent the morning buying a few limited number things, grabbing free things and getting prices from the traders for the games that I wanted to take home. Games on the traders stands are cheaper than the publishers stands usually, but their prices also vary. So it's worth shopping around a bit. We also had a look at a few games that were only available in German to see how language independent they were. I have to say that this year there were a lot of games that had multi language rules. The afternoon was filled with buying games and Mike looked at a look of dice!

Food at the Messe seemed reasonable for a large portion ( I remember it being more last year). There is also the option of grabbing something good and also cheap from a bakery on the walk in.

Following the show each day we walked back and returned to Home for something nice to eat. Then we returned to the Hotel where the whole restaurant was taken over by gamers playing games that they had bought. Smoking in the Hotel as in the Messe was more so than last year.

The remaining days were filled with less buying and a little more playing games. The background noise is also high so not really the idea place to concentrate on playing. At some stands there were also people playing games on the floors!

A few of us also did a little bit of shopping in the Town during the morning of Saturday since that it when the show is busiest. Prices, as with everywhere outside the UK we very reasonable.

We had good weather for the days that we stayed there and only a bit of rain – course this did not matter too much since we were inside most of the time.

The final day usually has a few reduction after midday - although I did not notice anything this year and spent the last of my funds, saving only 10 Euros for the evening meal.

After packing in all the games and luggage in to Mike's large car boot, and finding that we had little space to spare, we started the early return trip home. The trip was straight forward and uneventful as before. We reached the ferry in about 4 hours, took the 90 minute ferry and avoiding a huge queue on the M25 finished the trip home in about 3 and a half hours. I got home at 5:30pm.

Here is the stack that I returned home with. Yes it cost a bit and the next post will list the costs (but fortunately I transferred just enough from my PayPal funds before the trip. So the whole thing cost nothing other than the major effort of a month of eBay auctions). 


That's 34 games for me 1 for Holly and some freebies.

And these are the prices. The red ones are my estimates for the UK price when the game gets here - could be more could be less. Most likely more.

These prices are based on the 0.69 exchange rate that I got from the cash machine.

So, finally, is it worth going to Essen? With the cost of getting there and such it's not such a saving really is it? However, if you are interested in board games it's not just the saving that you are going for. The whole experience is a great. You have to do it a least once to see for yourself. This was my second trip out to the event.