Mine ride – Experience the mining

The Ruhr area was once the so-called coal pot of the republic. 2018
closed the last hard coal mine, but proud of the mining history
gets bigger and bigger. Old headframes become beacons of history,
Zollverein - probably one of the most famous collieries - even a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This approximately 41-kilometer bike tour connects several important colliery locations.

The starting location
The UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein in Essen is also the starting point for this bike tour. The area can be reached quickly by train via tram line 107 from Essen main station. Alternatively, you can also take the regional train to Essen Zollverein-Nord station.
 
Those arriving by car will find plenty of parking spaces around the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visitors can find a good rental bike at the RevierRad station almost directly in front of the distinctive Doppelbock.
  
start of the tour
Junction 59 is in the immediate vicinity of pit 1/2/8. The tour leads directly past the striking Sanaa building, a large concrete cube. Here the route leaves the UNESCO World Heritage site via the Zollvereinweg, a former railway line. After just a few hundred meters, cyclists reach junction 60, where you keep slightly to the left. The tour now leads via the Nordsternweg to the Rhine-Herne Canal, where cyclists pass the site of Tripple ZZZ, which originally also belonged to the Zollverein colliery and today houses the world's only carrier pigeon clinic, among other things.

A slab for the Ruhr area
At junction 61, a short detour up to the Schurenbachhalde is worthwhile. It was created from overburden from several collieries, including from the Zollverein. These man-made hills are important evidence of mining and today are attractive landmarks in the otherwise rather flat landscape of the central Ruhr area. The slab for the Ruhr area by the artist Richard Serra stands on this tip of the heap, which is around 50 meters higher.

A detour to the Nordstern colliery
Another short detour from junction 61 leads to the nearby Nordstern colliery. In addition to the park of the former Federal Horticultural Show, the ascent to the viewing platform of the Nordstern colliery and the view of Hercules, which has been enthroned on the colliery tower since the Capital of Culture RUHR.2010, are particularly worthwhile.

Mine settlement and heap happiness
The round trip continues through Bottrop. You cycle through the beautiful garden city of Welheim – miners from the United Welheim colliery lived here. Only a little later, the ascent up to the Tetraeder Bottrop is worthwhile. The heap on Beckstraße received its pyramid-shaped crown as part of the International Building Exhibition IBA Emscher Park in the 90s. From the heap plateau you have a direct view of the Prosper Haniel coking plant, which is still in operation, and the last Prosper Haniel hard coal mine next door, which was shut down at the end of 2018. On the huge colliery areas that are no longer needed on the Bottrop/Essen border, a city-spanning commercial area with a modern layout is being built, the “Freiheit Emscher”.

From Bottrop to Oberhausen
The tour continues in the direction of Oberhausen. Vondern Castle is a medieval complex with a manor house and outer bailey, the history of which dates back to the 13th century. At junction 7, the Rhine-Herne Canal is crossed again with a beautiful view of the nearby Gasometer Oberhausen. An information center for the Emscher Landscape Park has been set up in Haus Ripshorst. Here visitors will find a lot of interesting facts about the industrial nature and the heap landscape in the Ruhr area. Only a few meters away is the magician's apprentice - a dancing power pole that was erected as part of Emscherkunst 2013.

unexpected nature
From Oberhausen, the route leads south through the beautiful Hexbachtal. At junction 56, the tour meets the new Radschnellweg Ruhr (RS 1), which will one day lead from Duisburg to Hamm. The section to Essen city center has not yet been fully developed, but it is still a wide cycle path away from road traffic.

Between new and old
The newly created Niederfeldsee with the cyclists' meeting point Radmoshäre is passed and to the left cyclists look at the scaffolding of the Amalie colliery, a little later the Kruppsee with a view of the new company headquarters of the industrial group ThyssenKrupp. For those interested in history, it is worth taking a short detour to the historic Krupp family headquarters, which is located right next to the mighty company headquarters.

Back to Zollverein
The route leads from Essen city center back to the Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site. As a final highlight of the tour, you should take the time for a tour of the monument path, the Ruhr Museum is also a must. Award-winning design products are presented in the Red Dot Design Museum.