Round trip through the Ruhr Area

Industrial Culture Route.

You cycle directly to the industrial and cultural highlights of the Ruhr area on former railway lines and beautiful canal shore paths, on the newly created Emscher cycle path and the green Ruhr valley cycle path. The round tour leads to former steelworks, collieries and coking plants, spectacularly designed heaps or beautiful villas of entrepeneurs and combines the topics of industrial culture, enjoyment of nature, fun and leisure in an almost unique way. The daily tours take you underground and to lofty heights, through the Duisburg-Nord landscape park and through the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein, you stand by the blast furnace and discover the Duisburg harbor. You will get to know the many sights in a varied way, experience a very special journey to fascinating, extraordinary places in the "Radrevier-Ruhr" and at the same time be amazed at how fresh and green the Ruhr area is today.

This individual bike tour is unique because it includes 5 exciting, varied and informative guided tours (in German) on the diverse topic of industrial culture, mostly exclusively for our guests. (The trip can also be booked without the guided tours, then we grant a discount of € 50 per person).

1. day Herne Arrival

All places in the Ruhr area can be easily reached by train or car, including Herne. If you arrive early, you can plan an excursion to the German Mining Museum in Bochum or to the heritage-listed substation in Recklinghausen with the “Electricity and Life” museum to get in the mood for the next few days.
If you arrive by car, there are free parking spaces at the hotel or near the hotel.

2. day Herne - Dortmund 48 km

In the morning you cycle directly on the quiet cycle path "Route der Industriekultur" along the Rhine-Herne Canal to the "Henrichenburg ship lift industrial museum", a "14 meter elevator for ships" from 1899, which was considered a technical masterpiece when it was built. The steel construction is explained in the historical machine hall and museum ships are at anchor. Then follow the well-developed Emscher cycle path towards Dortmund, where you can cycle through the first ecological sections from the generation project “Emscher conversion”. Excursions to the Hansa coking plant and the Borussia Dortmund football stadium are possible on the way. The gigantic structure of the Phoenix West ironworks, which was active until 1998, is right next to the bike path in the afternoon. This is where the Skywalk starts, a two-hour tour full of anecdotes, a fascinating tour through the complex industrial plant up to the blast furnace.

Then enjoy the evening at the Phoenixsee, the new landmark and leisure area of ​​Dortmund with a variety of restaurants on the beautiful promenade. Have a walk around the lake and taste the local beers.

3. day Dortmund - Hattingen 37 km

The city exit leads past the Phoenixwerk once more and along the extensive green area of ​​the Rombergpark. You will quickly reach rural surroundings with horse farms and agriculture . Here you cycle on the 'Rhenish Esel', a disused railway line, into the Ruhr Valley to Witten. Soon you come to the "cradle of Ruhr mining" with the Muttental circular route, where over 60 small mines were in operation in the 18th century and the coal seams come to the surface and the Nachtigall colliery, which was opened in the 19th century as one of the first underground mining shafts went into operation. Here you go in the visitor mine, equipped with a helmet and miner's lamp. You walk in a horizontal underground tunnel to a real coal seam and get to know the technology and difficult working conditions of the miners in the 19th century. In the historical machine house you will experience an audio-visual journey into the time of industrialization and you will understand the beginnings of the Ruhr mining industry with all your senses in an exciting and vivid way.

In the afternoon you cycle on the well-developed Ruhr valley cycle path. You can take a break at the dammed lake Kemnader, and finally come to Hattingen with its half-timbered idyll in the historic center.

4. day Hattingen - Kettwig 41 km

The day begins with an exciting tour of the Henrichshütte Industrial Museum Hattingen. You will see the oldest blast furnace in the area, which was in operation until 1987. 10,000 people worked on the huge area, producing coke, iron and steel and casted, rolled and forged the metal. Back in the saddle, you cycle the entire day on the comfortable Ruhrtal cycle path through the green landscape, take a short excursion to the Bochum Railway Museum and relax on the shores of Lake Baldeney. In the afternoon, it is worth visiting Villa Hügel with its extensive English landscape park. The palace-like villa, was built by the industrialist Alfred Krupp as his own residential and prestigious house. It has 269 rooms which today represent the multi-layered Krupp history of the company and family in historical rooms. Back on the Ruhr valley cycle path, it is not far to Kettwig with its cute old town and the Mühlengrabenbrücke directly at the Ruhr.

5. day Kettwig - Duisburg 26 km

Today's cycling day on the Ruhr Valley Cycle Path is again peppered with highlights. The award-winning Aquarius Water Museum in Mühlheim with its multimedia museum on 14 levels lies on the short bike stage so that you reach Duisburg in the early afternoon. You have enough time to take part in a harbor tour through the world's largest inland port. The widely ramified navigable waterways in the Ruhr area were considered to be the lifelines of heavy industry and the port of Duisburg as the most important transshipment point.

In the evening you can stroll in the urban inner harbor, which serves as a prime example of the structural change in the Ruhr area. Here, where the city's central port and trading center was for over a century, is now a place that combines work, living, culture, gastronomy and leisure in an attractive location at the water.

6. day Duisburg - Essen 46 km

Today's stage offers everything you can imagine on this trip: You cycle a short distance on the Rhine Cycle Path and then follow the “Route of Industrial Culture” cycle path to the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park. This disused ironworks has become a big city oasis with around 250 cultural events and 1 million visitors per year. (The British daily newspaper The Guardian counts the Landschaftspark Nord among the ten best city parks in the world.) Here you can experience a guided tour by bike. You cycle through the 180 hectare area and learn everything about the history of the ironworks, the adjacent coking plant and the present day diverse leisure, recreation and sports offers on the spacious grounds.

You then cycle on a disused freight railway line to Oberhausen, where you can visit the famous Gasometer. From here the “Route of Industrial Culture” cycle path continues to the Bottrop Tetrahedron, the viewing platform with an all-round view of what was once a mighty spoil dump. In the afternoon the route leads through the former colliery settlement Gartenstadt Welheim and again on a former railway line to Essen directly to the Zollverein colliery.

7. day Essen - Herne 37 km

The day begins on foot with a guided tour through the Zeche Zollverein (UNESCO World Heritage Site and known as the most beautiful colliery in the world) and an individual visit to the Ruhr Museum in the former coal washing plant of the Zeche Zollverein. Together with the impressions of the last few days, the picture of the unique history and development of the Ruhr area is now complete. Back in the saddle, you cycle on a former colliery railway line to the iconic cycling meeting point "Holgers Erzbahnbude", where you have the best opportunity to eat the original red and white "Currywurst" (curried sausage). In the afternoon there is a real highlight on the route, you reach the Hoheward waste dump, which, together with the Hoppenbruch dump, forms the largest dump landscape in Europe with around 220 hectares. Today it is a developed local recreation area and offers a variety of viewing platforms on the balcony promenade which is leading around it. And those who make it to the top will be rewarded with the best all-round view of the entire trip. Here you can't stop being amazed - the Ruhr area is so green in front of you, no matter where you look! Over the dragon bridge it goes down again and soon Herne is reached and the eventful round tour comes to an end.

8. day Herne Abreise

You have now got to know the Ruhr area on beautiful bike paths and on many visits on water, land, in the air and underground - and you probably fell in love with it! Even after the end of this trip, you will remember this unique cultural landscape in Europe for a long time!

Worth knowing about the Round trip through the Ruhr Area

Below you will find specific information about the Round trip through the Ruhr Area. If you have further questions about this trip, you simply call us: Phone: 06421 – 886890.

Arrival by train

Herne is easily accessible from all major cities in Germany by train. The preffered starting hotel in Herne is about 1.5 km from Herne train station. The best way to get there is with a short taxi ride. Current schedule information and price information can be found at: www.bahn.de.

Train schedule information

Parking facilities at the hotel in Herne

The hotel in Herne has free parking spaces. that cannot be pre-reserved. In addition you may leave your car in the streets near the hotel. You will receive detailled information on the parking facilities together with your travel documents 2 weeks prior to your arrival.

Condition of the bike paths

The varied round tour was specially designed by Velociped. You usually cycle on separate cycle paths, or along the river or canal, or on disused railway lines. You rarely cycle on small or large roads without a separate cycle path. The tour is mostly flat, with short climbs only around Dortmund. Two worthwhile rises to former spoil heaps with a beautiful all-round view are optional. The route that has been worked out is well signposted and the junction system also facilitates orientation. You will receive our special Bikeline as map material with an exact route description (in German language).

Available rental bikes

If you would like a velocipede rental bike for the tour, we will bring it to your starting hotel and of course pick it up at your destination. You can choose from women's and men's bikes with either a 7-speed gear hub and coaster brake or 27-speed derailleur gears and free-wheeling. All women's bikes have a deep step-through and men's bikes are available in different frame sizes. Our women's bikes are suitable for all cycling enthusiasts from 150 cm in height and the men's bikes from 165 cm. Furthermore, 8-speed unisex e-bikes are available on request.

Velociped rental bikes

5 included guided tours

The trip through the Ruhr area includes 5 exciting tours of cultural highlights in the Ruhr area:

Guided tour of the Skywalk Phoenix-West

• Experience the gigantic construction and technology of a blast furnace up close and walk safely over the fascinating skywalk at lofty heights.

Guided tour of the underground LWL industrial museum, Zeche Nachtigall

• A guided tour through the visitor mine is one of the highlights of the museum visit. Equipped with a helmet, you advance to a coal seam in Hettberg, learn how to work with a jackhammer and compressed air drill and experience the typical atmosphere of a coal mine on the Ruhr “on site”.

Guided tour of the LWL industrial museum Henrichshütte Hattingen

• The oldest blast furnace in the area is on the Henrichshütte in Hattingen. Let yourself be fascinated by the relics of the ironworks, marvel at the huge gas machines, enjoy the panoramic view from the blast furnace and visit the show foundry in the Bessemer steelworks, where metal is flowing again today.

Guided tour by bike in the Duisburg-Nord landscape park

• On a bike tour you can explore the diversity of the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park - safely guided over secret paths and old railway embankments. Compared to the guided tours on foot, you have the advantage of exploring the 180 hectare area in full. You can find out everything about the history of the iron and steel works, the adjacent Friedrich Thyssen 4/8 colliery and coking plant.

Guided tour of the Zollverein Coal Mine UNESCO World Heritage Site

• Discover industrial history in a place that stands for superlatives like no other: Get to know what was once the largest and most powerful coal mine in the world and the largest central coking plant in Europe. The colliery has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.

If you do not want to take part in the tours, the travel price is reduced by € 50 per person.

Extra costs which are not included in the price

Further sightseeing options are on the route, these must then be paid for on site. A possibly applicable city tax is not part of the tour price and has to be paid at the hotel locally.

7 day hotline service

Just in case the bike chain breaks, flooding makes it impossible to continue your tour or any other nasty surprise: You can reach us seven days a week and we will do anything to help you as fast as possible.

Passport and visa requirements, health regulations

For EU citizens, there are no special passport or visa requirements and no health formalities to be considered for this trip.

Corona travel information:
Before booking your trip, please inform yourself about the measures in place to contain the Corona pandemic.

Information on current decisions of the German Federal Government can be found here:
https://www.bundesregierung.de/corona-these-rules-and-restrictions-apply

Current information on entry requirements to Germany can be found here:
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/coronavirus

You can also find more information on our website at:
Corona virus and holiday planning

Travel insurance

The tour price already includes the statutory insolvency insurance. In addition, we recommend that you take out travel cancellation insurance upon receipt of your travel confirmation in order to protect yourself against financial disadvantages in the event of travel cancellation, interruption of travel, illness or accident.

Dortmund: Skywalk Phoenix West - on the tracks of a former iron ans Steelworks

Would you like to see the Ruhr Area from a new perspective? On the Skywalk Phoenix West you can enjoy the great view of the former ironworks. Where until 1998 iron ore Would you like to see the Ruhr Area from a new perspective? On the Skywalk Phoenix West you can enjoy the great view of the former ironworks. Where until 1998 iron ore was smelted in pig iron in blast furnaces at over 2,000 degrees Celsius, now let your gaze wander over the green east of the city – and all this against an impressive industrial backdrop. You won't soon forget these (photo)perspectives!

The path through the heights takes you past the steel mill and offers a good overview of the newly developed Phoenix West area. You will follow the route of the former blast furnace gas pipeline. On the guided tour of myHeimat.ruhr over the Skywalk Phoenix West, you find out some interesting facts about the past and the present of the region. This makes the change from an industrial to a technology location comprehensible from a completely different perspective. At the end of the round, you reach the blast furnace plant at a height of 64 metres and can enjoy the fantastic view of Lake PHOENIX and the city.

Skywalk Phoenix West

The Nightingale Mine

The Nightingale Mine is located at the entrance to the idyllic Mutten Valley in Witten. This is where mining in the Ruhr began more than 300 years ago. Initially horizontal galleries were driven into the hillside to get to the "black gold", and subsequently vertical shafts were also built. In the low galleries in our visitor's mine you can relive the special working atmosphere in the past. After the mine ceased operations a quarry and brickworks business moved on to the site. Our exhibitions allow you to immerse yourself in the world of raw materials and the pioneering days of mining.

Witten, Nightingale Mine

The Henrichshuette: Iron and Steel Works in Hattingen

The oldest blast furnace in the area can be found at the Henrichshütte works in Hattingen. It is 55 metres high and was built 80 years ago. In its heyday this huge plant near the River Ruhr employed 10,000 people. You will be fascinated by the relics of the smelting era, gaze in awe at the huge gas engines, savour the panoramic view from the blast furnace, before paying a visit to our show foundry at the Bessemer steelworks, where molten metal is once again flowing today.

Henrichshuette Hattingen

UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein Essen

Previously the site of toils, today Zollverein offers industrial culture at its best: art, concerts, festivals and sport­ing opportunities set against an impressive backdrop.

The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex was awarded the designation of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001, and is one of the most impressive industrial monuments on the planet. Since the final working shift in 1986, Zollverein has been transformed into a prime site for the art, culture and creative sectors, attracting more than two million visitors a year. This building symbolises the structural change in the Ruhr metropolis like no other.

During its active industrial period, the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex was the largest coal mine in the world, with the largest coking plant in Europe. Along with its sheer size, the architecture of the Zollverein complex is simply magnificent – it’s not for nothing that the Zollverein is also called the most beautiful coal mine in the world. The celebrated twin-trestle winding tower is the most famous emblem of the Ruhr district, and a symbol for the industrial heritage of an entire region.

The Denkmalpfad (Heritage Trail) offers a particularly good insight into the time when the Zollverein plants were still active. Former miners guide visitors through the mine’s pithead facilities and coking plant, leading them past huge machines standing idle and whisking them off to times of yore with true stories from the pit.
Visitors to the Ruhr Museum will learn even more about the region’s history and its present day. Design fans will love the Red Dot Design Museum, which is also located on the Zollverein site. Numerous studios, offices and restaurants have also found their home in the extensive grounds.

Especially in summer, the colliery site hosts numerous events such as concerts, open-air cinemas and even a gourmet festival. Other highlights include the Zechenfest (Coal Mine Festival) and the Contemporary Art Ruhr fair, as well as festivals like ExtraSchicht and the Ruhrtriennale, both of which use the Zollverein as a venue. For visitors interested in athletic adventures, an ice rink awaits in winter while the Werksschwimmbad swimming pool invites visitors to cool off – entry is free.

Essen, Zeche Zollverein

Landscape Park Duisburg Nord

North Duisburg Landscape Park is one of the Ruhr Area’s most iconic industrial heritage monuments, now transformed into a leisure park for the whole family.

A truly amazing transformation has taken place in Duisburg in the last few decades. Up until 1985, the chimneys here were still belching smoke and workers were enduring sweltering heat to produce crude steel. But all that belongs to the past. Today, a green leisure park has sprung up, providing recreation for locals and tourists alike. The old blast furnace site, which was in danger of becoming an ugly industrial wasteland, has been transformed into North Duisburg Landscape Park (Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord), and is now regarded as a symbolic landmark of the city.

The industrial heritage monument in Duisburg-Meiderich is one of the most iconic symbols of the booming industrial age in the Ruhr Area. This is where Thyssen produced steel for the whole world – until overproduction in the European market led the company to close its long-established site. It was feared that the smelting works would fall into decay after decommissioning. In actual fact, there is more going on today than ever before: concerts and theatrical performances are staged in the former workshop halls, the old gasometer is home to Europe’s largest man-made diving centre, the former ore bin has been transformed into an Alpine-style climbing garden, and a decommissioned blast furnace is now a freely-accessible 70-metre-high observation tower.

Landscape Park Duisburg Nord

Henrichenburg Shiplift

The Prussian eagle has been flying high above the Dortmund-Ems Canal on the impressive towers at the Henrichenburg ship lift in Waltrop for the last 120 years.  To this day the steel lift has lost none of its fascination. It was built to enable waterway traffic to negotiate a 14-metre-high section of the canal, and was in operation for over 60 years. Today the landmark is a popular destination because it offers visitors a water playground and boat tours, alongside many other opportunities to explore life and work on the water.

Henrichenburg Shiplift

Emscher Conversion

The face of the Emscher region is changing once again. It is more than a hundred years since a sparsely populated agricultural landscape was transformed into an industrial metropolitan area, and the naturally flowing Emscher became a manmade system of open sewers. With the decline of mining, a further structural change has set in, with the traditional heavy industry making way for high technology and the service sector. The end of mining subsidence now also makes it possible in our region to drain wastewater in closed underground sewers, and step by step to transform the river and its subsidiary waterways into near-natural bodies of water – an intergenerational project.

The Emscher Conversion not only offers the chance of a century to give a new face to the urban landscape between Holzwickede and Dinslaken. The aim is to decisively enhance the value of the Emscher region through projects that extend far beyond the waterway, sustainably changing the living and working environment of the population. The planning basis for this is the Emscher Future masterplan, published in 2006. Many of the ideas it drafted out have today become reality, the Emscher Present. This can be experienced in many places, e.g. along the converted Emscher and at Phoenix Lake in Dortmund, in the Berne Park in Bottrop and at the Emscher Experience in the Oberhausen Kaisergarten. Through its updates, the masterplan will now contribute to bringing together the experience of the water management sector and the latest requirements for the development of a future-proof Emscher region.

Emscher Conversion

Mining Trail im Mutten Valley (6 - 9 km)

See and experience the early mining of the Ruhr area in an idyllic valley. Some see it as the queen of all mining trails in the Ruhr area. No other region shows in such a diverse and impressive way the evidence of early mining coupled with a wild romance of the valley, forests and the leisurely babbling Muttenbach - knowing full well that you are still standing here in the actually so densely built-up Ruhr area.
It is here in the Muttental that the first coal was probably found in the Ruhr area. Numerous mines and mines once brought coal to light here in tunnels and first shafts. Today, many relics of the past can be seen on the basis of reconstructed and preserved objects on a walk on the mining trail. The Hardenstein ruins, the industrial museum Zeche Nachtigall and the mine and field railway museum on the site of the former Zeche Theresia can also be accessed via the hiking trail, which can be freely chosen. A detour to Steinhausen Castle is also an option.

Mining Trail im Mutten Valley 

Railway Muuseum Bochum

The Railway Museum Bochum is one of the largest private museums of its type in Germany today.
It is mainly maintained and enlarged by voluntary employees.
Since 1977 the museum is based on the site of an old locomotive depot built during World War I.
Its most striking features are the roundhouse with 14 tracks and the water tower (still in use).

On the 70.000 square metres area are displayed more than 120 historical railway vehicles. They give a comprehensive overview of the development of German locomotives and carriages from 1853 up to the present.

Important and trend-setting locomotive types can be seen as well as significant passenger and freight cars. Many exhibits are rarities. In some cases they have been saved from scrapping. Some of them are - according to what is known - the last remaining exemplars.

Railway Museum Bochum

The Villa Huegel Essen

The Villa Huegel in Essen was home to the industrialist Krupp family from 1873 to 1945. With its 269 rooms, set in the middle of a 28-hectare park overlooking Lake Baldeney, it is far more than simply the residence of a famous entrepreneurial family – it is a symbol of the Age of Industrialisation in Germany.

This is a symbol that you can visit, enter and experience ‒ because the Villa Hügel and the park, with its many paths and sculptures, are open to the public. A permanent exhibition in the so-called Small House  tells the story of the family and the Krupp company. It also houses the Krupp Historical Archive which, thanks to its extensive inventory, serves as a resource for researchers from Germany as well as abroad.

Essen, Villa Huegel

Aquarius Water Museum Muelheim

In 1893 August Thyssen erected the Styrum water tower to supply his rolling mills and collieries with water. In 1912 the industrialist parted company with his water activities on the river Ruhr, and the tower became the property of the newly established RWW Rheinisch-Westfälische Wasserwerksgesellschaft mbH. After its closure in the 1980s RWW decided to preserve the industrial monument and develop it into a place of knowledge about water. The Aquarius Water Museum was opened in 1992.

Aquarius Water Museum Muelheim

Port Tour Duisburg

Right in the heart of Europe, right at the confluence of the Ruhr with the Rhine, is the largest inland port in the world! Duisburg is "the" city on the water and even has more bridges than Venice! Go "on a long voyage" and cruise through the jumble of docks, past barges and warehouses. The harbor tour takes around two hours around Schwanentor, Marientor and through the outer harbor to the Rhine. From there it goes back to the starting point via the Ruhrorter Hafen. Each harbor tour is commented live and individually by skippers.

Port Tour Duisburg

Gasometer Oberhausen

Where once gas was stored a panoramic elevator now operates: wonderful views from 117 metres above sea level and fascinating exhibitions are sure to inspire at the Gasometer Oberhausen.

The astonished whispers of visitors travelling in the panoramic lift up to the dome are an everyday occurrence here: this gas holder is a monumental witness to heavy industry and an inspiring space for artistic debate. The Gasometer Oberhausen (Oberhausen gas holder) impresses visitors with an incomparable experience of space within the 117-metre former gas storage tank. A glance outside then reveals a panoramic view from the observation platform across the western Ruhr Area , with much more still in store.

Although its outer wall actually has twenty-four corners, it appears to be a smooth cylinder from both inside and outside. There is a powerful sensation of emptiness, which attracts internationally-renowned artists and exhibition organisers to Oberhausen. Concerts and exhibitions have chosen to make the most of what this industrial monument’s range of extraordinary acoustic and spatial features have to offer. Examples include Christo’s stacks of colourful barrels, a huge model of the moon, mystical video installations and a 40-metre high primeval tree.

Oberhausen, Gasometer

Tetraeder Bottrop

The slag heap (Halde) at Beckstrasse in Bottrop is one of the biggest in the Ruhr area. Its height of approximately 60 metres meant that is was predestined for a special kind of slag heap event – the tetrahedron. This creation by architect Wolfgang Christ is a monumental look-out tower in the form of a pyramid which can be climbed by visitors. Because it can be seen for miles around, the tetrahedron has become a landmark for the people of the region and its visitors. The 50-metre-high steel construction above the plateau of the slag heap rests on four columns. Viewed from afar, it thus seems to be “hovering” despite its ton weight.

Bottrop, Tetraeder

Substation Recklinghausen and the Museum of Electricity and Life

When the United Electricity Works of Westphalia put the Recklinghausen substation into operation in February 1928, nobody suspected that it would one day be the location of an unusual combination of industrial monument, modern business premises and a museum. Located directly on the Herne city limits on the Emscher and Rhine-Herne Canal, the system comprised five buildings at the time: a 110,000-volt and a 10,000-volt switchgear house, a control room, a residential building for the employees and a transformer building. Since December 2000 the "Museum Strom und Leben", Germany's largest electricity museum, has been taking its visitors on a journey through the history of electrification on an exhibition space of 2,500 square meters. A specialty of our house are its many tangible objects. The spectrum ranges from the largest plasma balls in Europe to trams that can be walked on to old household appliances and the already "historic" video games "Ping" and "Tetris". They and many other small and large objects invite you to try out, marvel and linger.

Substation Recklinghausen