TOUR DE RHUR OCTOBER 2015

I should begin by declaring a fascination with the aesthetic pertaining to the industrial age. My genetic lineage stretching back to the height of the steam age has embedded in me an appreciation of the beauty in machinery of all sorts. I accept that not everyone has an interest in such things, but for those who marvel at the architecture, design, inventiveness and the enduring legacy of this fading time, it is reassuring to know that its best features are being preserved. With a few weeks to fill in before we return to Polch for MoHo servicing, Belinda and I decided to follow the course of the Lippe River, which runs for about 120km from Detmold before adding it’s volume to the mighty Rhein at Wesel.

The Ruhr region is dominated in every aspect by its historical role in industrial Germany. The relatively flat landscape is punctuated with enormous mountains of discarded rock from the numerous coalmines. Here the abundant supply of power and raw materials allowed heavy industry to flourish and ultimately attracted the vengeance of allied bombing during WW II.

The war obliterated much of the urban environment but led to a new time of prosperity for industry and the subsequent march of modernity brought ambitions for a better life to the citizens. Whilst industry remains the economic focus of the region, the push for a better environment and improved leisure options has resulted in a massive project of urban renewal.

The main objective was to preserve the historical heritage by converting disused infrastructure into community facilities and reclaim the damaged landscape for recreation.

So it was that we followed the “Industrial Heritage Trail” for almost two weeks and immersed ourselves in what had once been an ocean of ugliness now in the process of beautification. There have been too many wonderful experiences to relate them all but I will try to do justice to some of the high points.

Many of the formerly unsightly tip mountains have been revegetated and are now peaceful places to walk or cycle through refreshing forests.

The first of these we came across unknowingly when we took our friends Liz and Lloyd to visit a massive sculptural piece called Tiger and Turtle – Magic Mountain near Duisburg.

I had seen images of what looks like a rollercoaster but it is in reality a looping staircase that serves as a lookout on top of a disused mine “tip”.

I have created a Flickr album where you can view more detailed images theatre in this blog. Just click on this link: http://www.flickr.com/gp/davidponton/30396c

It had us bemused and enthralled at the time we visited but having now travelled the “Route der Industrielkulture” and seen many of the other oversized sculptural installations adorning the hilltops it makes more sense.

Another similar installation is the Tetraeder (Tetrahedron).



















Here after a solid walk up the hill and several hundred steps you can view the peculiar magnificence of the Ruhr region.

We both agreed that the highlight of all the attractions we visited was in a town called Bad Rothenfeld, which is a spa town. These centers for remedial therapy are popular in Europe and this one like several others is based around an enormous “gradierwerk” or graduation tower.

These magnificent wooden structures were originally built to concentrate salt by running water over an almost vertical surface of densely packed brush bush and allowing the wind to evaporate the water.

They have found a new use for the several nearby health clinics, as the salty, humid atmosphere is believed to cure many illnesses.



















Light Sight is a festival of projected video held every second year between September and February when a number of world-class videographers are invited to exhibit their work that is projected onto the side of the towers.

The audience simply walks the paths at the base of the towers and takes in the amazing spectacle. We spent three hours the first night and were so enthralled by the images that we stayed another night to see them again.

One artwork by Ryoji Ikeda from Japan spanned a hundred meters of wall space and I estimate 20 meters in height. It is projected with 25 massive projectors mounted on tall poles. Other artists included William Kentridge of South Africa and Daniel Crooks of New Zealand. This event has gone on our must do list for 2017 and is one of the most amazing art exhibitions we have ever witnessed. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words so I would encourage you to visit the web site…….. http://www.lichtsicht-biennale.de/uk/start/

Staying on the theme of art museums and light we also visited the unique Zentrum Fur Internationale Lichtkunst. Located at Unna and utilizing the enormous and labyrinthine underground spaces of a disused brewery this museum is the world’s first (2010) and only museum dedicated to light art. http://www.lichtkunst-unna.de/en/start-page.html

The permanent collection includes the monumental work by the illustrious James Turrell called Third Beneath which uses a camera obscura to project a sky image into a dark room underneath an observation room in the form of a “open sky” installation.

The newly opened temporary exhibition called “!DARK!” was also a delight both for the outstanding art works and to enjoy the underground facility.

IMAGES from DARK

1)CONNECT, BACK TO BACK. Regine Schumann (2012/2014) Acrylic




















2)TUNNEL of TEARS for UNNA. Keith Sennier (2002) Neon and Argon.

3)LOTUS SHADOWS. Rebeca Horn (2006) Copper, glass, steel & light.













4)THE NIGHT IS THE EARTH’S SHADOW. Vera Rhom (2005)

What do you do with a 110 meter tall, obsolete gasometer?















Turn it into and art gallery and produce another surface on which to project an intriguing 20 minute video work.

This time the images are projected not on the outside but on the inside of this industrial behemoth.

Two lower levels of gallery space for temporary exhibitions lead to the open cavity, which again uses many projectors to create illusions and patterns on the internal walls of the gasometer cylinder. Had it been any longer than twenty minutes we may have nodded off in the comfort of the bean bag chairs.

Top all of this off with a glass elevator ride to the roof of the structure for an overwhelming vista of the Ruhr with it’s snaking railways, steaming power plants, green canals and clustered urban communities.

Along the way we found some interesting places to spend the night. Belinda has become adept at finding diamonds amongst the coals and we have enjoyed everything from carparks by canals to paddocks next to pubs. Every site has its advantages and in the midst of these congested urban environs we always enjoy a restful nights sleep but can’t always manage an outdoor BBQ.

Several of the obsolete industrial sites have been renovated and turned over to community usage in the form of theatres, museums of every theme and conference/function centers. One such site we visited and were granted the privilege of a personal tour was Wunderland in Kalkar.

This gem of repurposing is the brainchild of a Dutchman who in 1995 bought an unused fast breeder nuclear reactor and turned it into an utterly bizarre amusement park/convention motel. You can climb the cooling tower, ride the usual amusement park rides or take to the numerous themed bars including the Wild West and Egyptian, or take a competitive challenge in the bowling alley bar.

It all seemed too improbable to be true but when we asked our guide we were told that there was 100% occupancy for that weekend. This seemed a weird clash between children’s entertainment and adult bucks/hens nights. Welcome to Wunderland!

Next on our list of disused industrial relics turned into tourist attractions was the Aquarius Wassermuseum. Where do you house a museum about water? In an historic water tower of course. These inherently beautiful water towers made from brick and steel were critical to the growth of industry and the communities that worked in the Rhur.

Many have been preserved because of their obvious elegance and this one near Mulheim has been cleverly adapted to house a museum dedicated to all things to do with water. Although it is aimed mainly at school aged “kinder” we enjoyed seeing inside the structure and pressing and tweeking the many knobs of the interactive displays.






To Belinda’s delight and my disappointment several of the bigger museums were closed the Monday that we were close by. Enormous halls that used to pulse with the rhythm of heavy machinery and bring the contradiction of employment at the expense of health or life now lay silent except for the footsteps of museum visitors.

We did manage to visit a few museums where intriguing displays have been crafted from collections of gargantuan memorabilia. Steam trains, blast furnaces, cannons and drop forge presses are presented in splendid context that describes their lost place in the modern workplace. It is a terrific experience to see that so much effort has been put into preserving this heritage, which seems so brutal and yet so magnificent.

The alluring industrial architecture where aesthetics found harmony with purposeful functionality has not simply been preserved but reinvigorated into recreational facilities to perpetuate the memory of a fading era.

On this site the entire former colliery along with the coking plant which “was the most modern and beautiful colliery in the world”, has been given a new life as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The vast Ruhr History Museum sits in contrast to the Red Dot design museum that focuses on prize winning contemporary designs. One is left to admire the vision and creativity that has turned these monuments to industry into places charged with ambience for relaxation and education.

The roads in this congested metropolitan region present challenges of many kinds when you travel in a large MoHo. Fortunately after almost a year and 27,000kms under our belt, I am much more at ease with driving and maneuvering our 7.5 tonne home on six wheels. In all truthfulness I love driving the MoHo and if we are camped for more than a couple of days I really look forward to hitting the road again and seeing the world pass by from our elevated seating.

When you have the opportunity to saturate yourself in something that is so absorbing as this region, it is easy to have too much of a good thing. Yesterday we realized we had reached our limit of the urban environment and headed for what in the guidebooks looked to be a quite camp by a lake in nearby Netherlands.

Some much needed nature therapy was required and once again Belinda found a peaceful camp right on the shore of a pretty waterway with only one other motorhome for company. We keep a record of the places we stay and rate them out of “5”. This one is definitely a 5. A rosy sunset and some duck breast on the Weber brought the day and our peripatetic “tour der Rhur” to a restful end. N51.7324 E05.9168