Essen
by Carnation
Another fascinating place to visit is the Kettwig sculpture park where you can admire all kinds of outdoor sculptures dotted about the grounds. Essen offers a lot of sporting activities such as baseball, softball, basketball, billiards, eishockey, football, inline skating, self-defence arts, canoe and kayaking, swimming, tennis etc. something for everyone. If your into modern square dancing then why not pop along to the Mining Twirlers club situated in Frohnhausen, Koelner Strasse, every Friday evening starting at 8.30pm.
Trade Shows
Temple Bar
by evilboomer about Temple Bar
This s a irish modern bar. You can drink irish beer and eat also irish, but you can also drink german and other inetenational beer. They play loud House Music and Trance and many electro music. The customers are mostly students and young people. But in the summer you can sit outside and the customers are in all ages. No special dresscode at the day. In the Evening you can wear anything that looks good for Party, Clubbing and Disco, because the Temple Bar is a stopover for partypeople.
Zeche Zollverein (Zollverein Pit)
by sabsi
This place used to be Europe's biggest coalmine. It had to be closed down in 1996 unfortunately. Luckily the federal state of Northrhine Westfalia bought it and turned it into a cultural centre and museum.
I love this place. As I am into architecture and industrial stuff I think it's gorgeous. I could spend hours here just walking around and taking pictures trying to imagine what it must have been like when people were still working here....
The pit was added to the list of world heritage in 2001 and some of the buildings were redesigned by Sir Norman Foster.
Zollverein: Ruhrmuseum
by Kathrin_E
The newly installed exhibition halls of the Ruhrmuseum fill three floors of the coal washing plant below the visitors centre. They are based upon the collections of a much older museum. The Ruhrmuseum has been founded some 100 years ago as a museum of geology, culture and history with the purpose of "educating the workers".
There is a lift but if you can, walk. The orange staircase downwards from the visitor centre is IMHO far more impressive than the orange escalator outside!
After walking down you reach the first hall which is dedicated to the present situation of the Ruhrgebiet. It starts with a photo exhibition, sorted by many topics. At first the long rows of rather smallish photos appear boring and tiresome but as soon as you have a closer look at them they become more and more fascinating. They tell about the life of local people, their work and their leisure, the appearance of the cities, nature and environment, art projects and sports... Explanations are provided in both German and English. Religious items and sports trophies are also on display.
The back half of the upper floor is filled with glass columns, each with one item: minerals and fossils, old toys, household items and treasures that are unique and have a special menaning in the life of a special person. Full of discoveries and stories.
The middle floor gives an overview of the history of the region before the industrialization. It also shows the museum's old collections of archeology and art.
The bottom floor is dedicated to the topic of coal mining. It begins with the forming of coal millions of years ago, fossils found among the coal, and a geology display with many varieties of coal and ore. The history of industrialization is then presented in many details with a lot of background about the political changes in the late 19th and 20th century to the present.
Take your time. Four hours are easily spent in the coal washing plant with movie, viewpoint and Ruhrmuseum.
essen
by littlebush
essen is part of the area that incldues dortmund and dusseldorf and gelsenkirchen where england played portugal and lost as usual on penalites.
the campsite was realy nice, the most friendly ive been on , the locals were great.
Kirchtreppe
Convent building with treasure chamber
The orange escalator, empty because of fire alarm
Adveniat Crypt
