Essen; Sunday, 12 January, 2020

I had a really good nights sleep, waking just after 8am which left me more than enough time to have a leisurely breakfast in the hotel before checking out and heading back to the Hauptbahnhof to drop my bag into the left luggage and pick up the train out to the small town of Werden.

Werden is now a part of the greater city of Essen, but it has a history that goes back to at least the 13th Century and, unlike the centre of Essen itself, is actualy on the River Ruhr. The train from Essen took just over 10 minutes to make the journey and connected with the local buses heading over into the centre of town. I caught one up to one of the higher points in the town to take in the views over the river and the opposite bank. I then slowly wandered back down through the town taking in the picturesque church of St Lucius and the impressive Basilika St. Ludgerus which puts Essen’s own cathedral a bit in the shade.

I made it back to the station with a couple of minutes to spare before the next train back into Essen where I changed and then headed back out on the tram to Zollverein. The site has been transformed from a former mine and coking plant into a series of museums, and an entertainment complex. By a pure fluke it also happened to be the first weekend of celebrations leading up to the sites 10th anniversary of its rebirth later in January so everything was free.

I spent quite a bit of time looking round the museums housed in the main building – these include the Ruhr museum that looks at the history of the region and some of the geology that made it such an important location in Germany.

I also headed up onto the roof of the main building to take in the views over the city and the former industrial landscape. Even with the rain clouds rolling in and cutting visibility down it was still possible to see several other former mine lifts dotted across the landscape – a history of how much industry was once in this area.

I had a bit more of a wander around the site, but the weather was clearly taking a turn for the worse with the damp drizzle starting to strengthen into something more unpleasant. Thankfully, just as the weather was starting to turn particularly unpleasant – mostly caused by a biting cold wind – I arrived at one of the restaurants dotted around the site, so I stopped there for a late lunch and a nice warming cup of coffee.

By the time I’d finished the weather was back to a mild drizzle, but rather than continue to get wet I decided it was probably time to start making a move towards the airport. I headed back to the tram stop and caught the tram back into Essen to collect my luggage. Clearly, I must have had some kind of premonition as when I got to the station most of the RE trains to the airport were cancelled for no obvious reason. Thankfully the slower S-Bahn was still running so I was able to catch that and with the combination of the extended waiting time and the longer journey time I got to the airport only about 2 ½ hours before my flight.

As I only had hand luggage I quickly zipped through security and headed into the departures lounge to wait for my flight home.