The Tired Tourist (Day Tripping in Oberhausen)
My host, Dietmar Rudolph, noted it the irony of me staying three nights in his home town of Essen, yet I am seeing none of it, 'cepting his quiet street.
Our second day we headed to Oberhausen, once the center of Germany's massive steel industry, especially the name Krupp. Steel was located here in in the Ruhr Valley for the large underground deposits of coal (energy) and the Ruhr and Rhine rivers (transportation). The hills ("mountains," in local parlance) that dot the region are artificial: they are the now-green dumping grounds of rock separated from the mined coal.
The site of one former steel mill has been turned into a mini-Disneyland-like experience. The land now hosts Europe's largest shopping mall, a Six Flags-like amusement park, outdoor adventure park, Germany's largest aquarium, a canal lined with restaurants, and most unusually, a converted natural gas storage tank.
Based on my in-situ observations of the densely crowded shopping mall, I can confidently report that there is no recession.
The massive food court of the Centro shopping mall, named Coca Cola Oasis.
The storage tank is now an exhibition hall and viewpoint. Taking the elevator to its roof affords a wonderful view of the Ruhr Valley.
View of the green Ruhr Valley.
Inside the storage tank, an exhibit of the solar system was current. It featured the largest scale model of the moon ever created, some 25m [80 ft] in diameter, and a bright glowing sun in the center.
The sun shines inside the former natural gas storage tank.
While my daughter haunted the shopping mall, the other three of us took in a mammoth model railway layout. It reproduces the Oberheim area as it was in the 1960s. Employees were determined to carry on, despite the impending bankruptcy; they wore T-shirts that sported the defiant slogan, "Wir machen weiter; jetz erst recht!" (We carry on).
Detail view of the model railway layout during an evening phase.
Germans love their ice cream ("Eis"), and we ended our Centro day with a stop at an Eis specialty shop. Each concoction is roughly e5 ($7).
Elaborate ice cream is served in glass cups over a foot tall.
On the way back to Essen, we stopped at the planned community of Margarethenhoehe, created by Krupp for his employees and named after his wife ("Margarethen heights"). He provided employees with nice homes, garden areas (unusual for the workers at the time), hospital, education, and subsidized grocery stores. And they rewarded him with loyalty.
Town houses in the idyllic community of Margarethenhoehe.
After seven days of hardcore touristing and conference attending, my daughter and I were glad to have a more leisurely day.
Resting in Dietmar's quiet backyard.
Worn out, yet thrilled with all we accomplished, we returned home to Canada the following day.
Recent Comments