ITB 2009’s official partner region is The Ruhr area, the metropolitan area which will in 2010 be the Cultural Capital of Europe.
This title has united the 53 cities, towns and parishes that make up the region and its 5,300,000 inhabitants into a new metropolitan area. Germany’s Ruhr area has had a 150 year industrial history, making made it into one of the largest European population centres, a melting pot of nations and cultures. For centuries it was dominated by the coal and steel industries which drew different cultures from all over the world together for work.
The decline of the coal and steel industries was a huge challenge for the people in the Ruhr, and RUHR 2010 is all about repositioning culture in an urban society, according to its tourism promotion board. It aims to encourage the inhabitants of the metropolitan Ruhr area to reinvent this area.
A major celebration here is to be the ‘Still-Life A40/B1’ project, where the main traffic artery the A40/B1 motorway (60 km long), will on July 18, 2010 be closed to all traffic for one day. The road will be turned into a stage for a selection of cultural events from school, club and church groups, plus there will be choirs and brass bands and other events from all nationalities.
“In addition, the Ruhr metropolitan area will be erecting a 60 kilometre long banqueting area consisting of no less than 30,000 tables to celebrate the largest and most colourful street festival in Europe,” said Miriam Czepluch of the Ruhr 2010 promotions board. The inhabitants from 170 different nations are also expected to take part in a huge international picnic.
So what is there to do here apart from visit mines, high ovens or climb up one of the chimneys? There is a nostalgic steam train journey along the Ruhr Valley Railway line, once the most important traffic artery in for the iron, steel and coal industry. A steam locomotive runs between Hagen and Hattingen, and one of the many stations along the 40 kilometre trip is the Railway Museum in Bochum-Dahlhausen.
Another excursion worth considering is a Ruhr Valley cycle trail, where bike riding visitors can also explore museums like the world’s largest accessible Camera Obscura with the Museum on the Prehistory of Film, and the Aquarius Water Museum, both housed in historic water towers near the River Ruhr.
During a four hour Viking Tour of the River Ruhr guests row down the Ruhr Valley from Essen-Kettwig to Mülheim an der Ruhr in a replica of an original Viking ship, the “MüWi”, accompanied by an experienced captain who can show guests the ropes..
See Mülheimer Stadtmarketing und Tourismus www.muelheim-ruhr.de