4
Ruhrgebiet
In Your Pocket
ForeWord
5
June - July 2006
ESSENTIAL CITY GUIDES
The Ruhrgebiet area hasn’t had it easy. After all theindustrial development, incredible immigration andurban growth, wartime
desctruction
and blandrebuilding efforts, the industries that poweredGermany for so long turned out to be too inefficient and the workfoce too expensive to compete withothers. More recently, the development of thearea away from heavy industry and towards ahigh-tech economy seems to have paid off, and theRuhrgebiet is witnessing something of a revolution.And finally, the decaying industrial landscape isbeing opened up for the public, with many exciting sights now accessible to clamber over, dive into or simply gawk at by night.This Ruhrgebiet In Your Pocket guide focuses on theWorld Cup cities Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen, andthe regional heavyweights Essen and Bochum. If you’re here for the World Cup, don’t be deterred by the endless built-up areas you see from the highway or the train window - there’s a wonderful new post-industrial world out there that’s well worth a visit.Enjoy the Ruhrgebiet, and let us know what youthought of the place, and this guide, at ruhrgebiet@inyourpocket.com.
Essen’s glorious Unesco-listed Zeche Zollvereinmine basks in evening light. The mine was closedecades ago, but now isrenovated and housesa fascinating museumcomplex.
Cover story
EditorialEditor-in-Chief
Jeroen van Marle
Editorial Contributors
Sco, Ali Lemer
Research
Morwenna Parkyn
Layout & Design
Tomáš Haman
Maps
Kartographie Eichner,kaeichner@online.de
Photos
Sco
Cover photo:
The Zeche Zollverein mine lift tower © EMG/Peter Wieler
Sales & CirculationGeneral Manager
Stephan Krämer
Accounting
Martin Wollenhaupt
Advertising Manager
Sebastian Rudolph, Philippe Krüger,Corina Alt, Notker Hilbrenner
Copyright notice
Text and photos copyright In Your Pocket GmbH 2006. Maps copyright cartographer. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedin any form, except brief extracts for the purpose of review, without writtenpermission from the publisher andcopyright owner. The brand name In Your Pocket is used under license from UABIn Your Pocket (Vokieciu 10-15, Vilnius,Lithuania tel. (+370-5) 212 29 76).
Editor’s note
The editorial content of In Your Pocket guides is independent from paid-for advertising. Sponsored listings areclearly marked as such. We welcome allreaders‘ comments and suggestions.We have made every effort to ensurethe accuracy of the information at thetime of going to press and assume noresponsibility for changes and errors.
In Your Pocket GmbH
Axel-Springer-Str. 3910969 BerlinTel: (+49)(0)30 27 90 79 81 Fax: (+49)(0)30 24 04 73 50ruhrgebiet@inyourpocket.comwww.inyourpocket.com© In Your Pocket GmbH, a company of UAB In Your Pocket Vokieciu 10-15Vilnius, Lithuaniatel. (+370-5) 212 29 76Printed by Druckteam GbR Berlin.June/July 2006, 150.000 copiesWelcome to our city. Dortmundis happy to receive visitors tothe city who are to watch theWorld Cup football matches.Here, you’ll see that we’revery close to football - it’s only 3km from the main station tothe stadium, and just 500mto the Fanfest venue on Frie-densplatz.Enjoy many exciting games inDortmund, a vital city; a city that’s dressed up from headto toe, ready for football. Celebrate in a worldy way withthe inhabitants of Dortmund.Of course our city has more to offer than football - first class hotels and restaurants, sport, entertainment, and adiverse cultural offer. Welcome, and enjoy our city.Dr. Gerhard Langemeyer Mayor of Dortmund
Welcome to Dortmund
Driving
Germany has a brilliant network of Autobahn (motorways,prefixed A) and Bundesstrasse roads (major roads, prefixedby B. Traffic drives on the right with speed limits of 130km/hor 100km/h outside built-up areas, and 50km/h in built-up areas. And indeed, there are really no speed limits onAutobahnen which makes for some fun driving and sometruly ghastly accidents. Keep a close eye on the rear mirror if you’re planning to overtake or if you’re in the left lane,as those headlights in the distance behind you may get uncomfortably close very quickly. Seatbelts must be wornat all times and children under 12 years can only travel inthe front seat with a child restraint. German laws are strict by many accounts when it comes to driving after you havehad a few pints, glasses or snifters full of booze. The legalmaximum alcohol to blood ratio for driving is 0.05%.
Language
The German language has been somewhat misrepresented inthe foreign media over the past decades, and when you hear it spoken it’s not as harsh as you may expect. Although you won’t be able to learn it on a short trip, it’s always nice to memorisea few key terms like thank you (
danke
), please (
bitte
), hello(
gutentag
) and goodbye (
auf wiedersehen
). You’ll noticethat written German has some odd characters, such as theß, the ü, ö and ä. Annoyingly, these are interchangeable withcombinations of letters and can (and often are) replaced by ss,ue, oe and ae respectively – which explains why the websiteof Cologne (Köln) is spellt www.koeln.de.
Money
The best way to get cash in Germany is to use an ATMmachine, of which there are plenty all over the country.German banks do not charge for using foreign cards intheir machines, so check with your own bank if you’ll pay any commission. Even if you do have to pay a euro or twoto use an ATM, it’ll be better value and easier than going toone of the banks or train station exchange offices (like theReisebank chain) as they have worse exchange rates andwill charge a commission.Germany ditched the Deutsche mark in 2002, adopting theeuro, pronounced locally as
oi-ro
. Germany’s economy isthe largest in Europe, and therefore the majority of coinsin circulation now are German ones; you’ll see Berlin’s
Brandenburg Gate on the €0.10, €0.20 and €0.50 coins,and the German eagle flapping around on the €1 and €2. the
banknotes, if you’re wondering, are the same for the whole of euroland, and are adorned with generic European bridges.
Shopping practicalities
German retail laws were incredibly strict in the past, withshops not even regularly opening on Saturdays a year just a decade ago, and still are not as flexible as elsewhere. OnSundays nearly everything shuts down, with perhaps just a few shops at the train station open, and on Saturdays you’llsee many smaller shops closing around 14:00. Though it may thwart your purchasing plans, it does result in a specialrelaxed feel to the Sundays, which is quite nice for a change.Credit cards are still to be embraced by most shops, much tothe annoyance to big-spending foreigners. This is due to thesystem of electronic debit card payments that was in placein Germany and other mainland European countries muchearlier; this is a safer and cheaper system than credit card asit always requires PIN identicication rather than a signature,and is free of the 3% commission for the shopkeepers(eventually paid by you, dear shopper).
Safety
Germany is a very safe country to travel in, and other thanthe usual precautions against pickpocketing, there are nospecial preparations you should make. Although Germany has been in the news recently for racist attacks, theseincidents are quite rare and are by no means a purely Germanphenomenon. Germans are aware that their country is moreclosely scrutinised than others when it comes to this, andracism and violence is not tolerated, witness the impressivelevel of security around synagogues and Jewish institutions:sturdy barriers and round-the-clock armed guards.
Time
Germany uses the 24-hour clock system, known as military time in some places, but as simply as ‘the time’ here. By doing away with all the am, pm, noon and midnight nonsense,it’s really quite useful for avoiding confusion, and Germany is one of the few places where the 24-hour clock is evenused in spoken language. You may be told that the museumcloses at sixteen-thirty, or that the train departs at twenty-thirtyeight.
Visas
Citizens of EU and EEA countries do not need visas to enter Germany; most others do. For more details, visit the websiteof the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, www.auswaertiges-amt.de. Germany is part of the Schengen treaty, which allows free flow of goods and traffic between member states. Thismeans that your passport only gets checked when entering and leaving the Schengen area, and once you’re in, youcan travel overland from Portugal to Finland without being stopped at the borders.
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