Into the Ruhrgebeit

Last Sunday (Sept. 11), we (Ralf-Juergen, Marlies, Richard and Judith) went for a bike ride.  This was no small task, especially for R&M because they first had to load their bikes onto their car and drive to a parking lot near us so that we could set off together.  We headed through the grey forest, then south of the university until we came to the Ruhr valley and a dammed lake and on to the nearby
town of Hattingen.


Now lest you think that this would be a) a ride through semi-urban areas, or b) rural, let us assure you that it was both and more.  Let us describe some of the variety that we saw or passed during several hours of biking, some of which we have pictures of and some of which we don't.

We start with the oldest farmhouse (now redone) in the area. Since a week has now gone by, we can't remember exactly what its age is.  Judith thought it was medieval but Richard thought it was 16th century.


Cornfields, open areas, and busy narrow streets, along with a red-baron-style biplane flying overhead.
An old closed-down coal factory and coal-mine entrance.



Lots of roller-bladers (they have their own paved path since there are so many) and joggers, and swans on the lake.

A site from which dinosaur bones have been unearthed, these dating from more than 250 million years ago.
A stop for coffee.

An old castle on a hill.


A trailer park and many kayakers and canoers (in plastic ones).



An artificial white-water chute for the canoers.



The charming town of Hattingen with its cross-beamed framed buildings.



And its church with the crooked steeple.



A Hattingen store window which was rather upsetting until we realized that it was showing food for pets!


By the time we had lunch in Hattingen, we lacked the energy to bike back, so loaded the bikes onto the tram which eventually returned us safely home.  I don't think we've ever seen so much variety on a bike ride before.  We 'crawled' up the stairs to our apartment and promptly fell asleep.