| Ruhr region | |
 | |
Location  | |
Flag  | |
| State | Germany |
|---|---|
| Region | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Surface | 4,435 km² |
| Inhabitants | 8.572,745 |
| Institutional website | |
Ruhr region (Ruhrgebiet) is a historical region of the North Rhine-Westphalia.
To know
The Ruhr region is the largest metropolitan area in Germany and is the fifth on a European scale. It takes its name from the River Ruhr, which flows through it from east to west, flowing along its southern edge. Together with the surrounding areas and the conurbations on the Rhine that extend south to the Cologne basin, it forms the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, where more than ten million people live in an area of approximately 7,000 square kilometers. .
Despite the high population density, the Ruhr region is characterized by large green spaces. With the dismantling of industrial plants following the crisis in the steel industry in the second half of the twentieth century, many plants were either dismantled or transformed into unique landscaped parks. The same fate befell the coal mines now turned into industrial museums.
Territories and tourist destinations
Urban centers
How to get
By plane
- Dortmund International Airport. The Ruhr has its own international airport located near the city of Dortmund. Several low-cost airlines operate there such as easyJet, Eurowings, Ryanair and Wizz Air but none of these currently (2017) carry out flights to / from Italian airports.
- Düsseldorf International Airport. The airport of Düsseldorf It has much wider options but as the cost of flights is high many budget travelers fall back to one of the two airports listed below.
- 1 Cologne-Bonn Airport (Flughafen Köln / Bonn). The airport is served by Ryanair flights and has a train station and a suburban bus station.
- 2 Weeze Airport. The small Weeze airport, with frequent Ryanair flights also from Italian airports (Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Palermo, Rome-Ciampino, plus other seasonal from Alghero, Ancona, Cagliari, Comiso, Lamezia Terme, Pescara, Pisa) is located right on the border with i Netherlands but it is just 48 km from the city of Duisburg, the western entrance to the Ruhr. There are buses for Essen, with intermediate stop at Duisburg but you will have to book them otherwise you risk not getting on board if, quite frequently, the seats are all occupied. Alternatively, you can take the shuttle bus to the nearby stations of Weeze, Kevelaer and Goch from which the regional trains of the VVR company (shown below) depart and stop in the various Ruhr centers.
How to get around
Regional trains and buses belong to the company Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr. With a single ticket you can move not only within the Ruhr but also to the centers of the adjacent Lower Rhine region such as Düsseldorf and Weeze Airport. Tickets are of different denominations (from 20 minutes up to 5 hours after their validation). There is also a day ticket valid until 03:00 the following day. Their cost is determined by the areas for which you intend to travel (A, B, C, D). Those of level "D" cover the entire territory of the Ruhr and the Lower Rhine. Tickets can be purchased at the ticket machines present in the various stations or by downloading on your own device the VVR app present in the various stores.
What see
What to do
At the table
Safety
Other projects
Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Ruhr region
Commons contains images or other files on Ruhr region
