Another couple of hours driving in the morning and we reached Dussledorf just before lunchtime. My earlier research had found out about the tourist pass that gets you free transport access along with several free museums and activities plus plenty of others with a discount.
One I knew the kids would enjoy was to the aquazoo and the cost of the ticket alone and getting their was more expensive than the pass so whatever else we managed to fit in was a bonus. The aquazoo was a mix between an aquarium and a natural history museum according to their website and it didn't disappoint. We spent a good couple of hours watching all the fish, learning about their skeletal systems and more. Along with the fish they also had penguins, birds, crocodiles, turtles and lots of reptiles and insects.
There were plenty of free art museums on the list but there was also a film history museum that I thought would be more interesting. Before we went however we'd read about an area called little Tokyo which even had the largest Japanese bookshop outside of Japan. It was interesting enough and the bookshop had lots of things the kids wanted despite the books either being in Japanese or German! We did buy a few treats from the supermarket though and the kids loved the fruit mochi. The film museum was down by the river Rhine in the main area of the city.
We only had an hour before closing but it was just enough time to visit all the exhibits. It was quite interactive and the kids loved driving the car and the green screen effects. They also had a lot of very early moving pictures in the form of flip books which were really interesting.
On the way back to the moho we passed a cinnamon roll shop with a huge queue so the boys just had to try it.
We had food in the moho before a 1hr45 minute drive back to Belgium (travelling through the Netherlands again). We've decided against Brussels for our last day trip and have decided on Ghent instead. Just hoping the rain holds off as it will mostly be a day outdoors walking through the town.