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Quality of life

Leisure

“The difference between existing and living lies in the use of free-time.”

According to this American saying, the Metropole Ruhr is a great place to live. It is home to many large-scale events unique to the region such as the annual ‘ExtraSchicht’. This night of industrial culture is held at 40 different sites and offers 120 events of all kinds – dance, music and light shows. Every ‘ExtraSchicht’ is unique. Or the Cranger Kirmes which dates back five hundred years – this festival in Herne attracted 4.7 million visitors in 2008 and has developed to become one of Germany’s largest folk festivals.

: [+] Love Parade

Music - one beat, the Ruhrgebiet

New to the Metropole Ruhr is the Love Parade which was hosted by the region for the first time in 2007 in Essen. The show will bring visitors to the Metropole Ruhr each summer for five years. In 2008, it was held in Dortmund and in 2009 this lively ‘Highway to Love’ will move to Bochum. Music is a keyword in Bochum: the ‘Bochum Total’ has developed to become one of Europe’s largest music festivals since it first began in 1986. The music ranges from live jazz to hard rock and attracts some 900,000 visitors to Bochum city centre each year. The musical Starlight Express has enjoyed over 20 years of success in the region and has therefore outlived all other musicals in Germany. 11.5 million visitors have already seen the musical in Bochum.

Shopping, nightlife, relaxation

The dragon boat fun regatta at Duisburg inland port has made it into the Guinness Book of Records: this competition between 170 teams and 3,500 active participants has been Germany’s largest dragon boat regatta since 2000.

The Movie Park Germany in Bottrop attracts numerous visitors each year. In Duisburg, guests can try their luck at one of Germany’s most modern casinos and spend their winnings along the colourful restaurant mile of Duisburg’s inland harbour area. It is not only the locals who have been impressed by the renovation of this harbour area; many guests also flock here from near and far. Party-goers can enjoy a night out in the legendary Bermuda Triangle area of Bochum.

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Shopaholics are sure to love the inner cities of the Metropole Ruhr as well as CentrO, Europe’s largest leisure and shopping centre in Oberhausen. Essen also offers the Limbecker Platz, opened in 2008, which is Germany’s largest inner-city shopping centre.

Many unusual leisure activities have developed in the area from diving in flooded gas chambers, climbing the high walls of a blast furnace site and swimming and ice skating in the shadows of the coke ovens – these monuments of the region’s industrial past will also help to shape the distinct future identity of the Metropole Ruhr.

: [+] HalfPipe in the Duisburg Nord landscape park

: [+] Swimming pool coke oven Zollverein

Excursions - into greenery or cool blue

Many visitors to the region are surprised to discover that the Metropole Ruhr is green! Impressive landscapes can be found both between the cities and in the cities themselves in the form of spacious parks and green areas for nature. Locals and visitors alike can enjoy the extensive forests of the North, the Westphalia fertile Börde landscapes to the East, the mountain landscapes of the South and the extensive lower Rhine regions to the West. The Duisburg lakes, the Baldeneysee lake in Essen and the Harkortsee in Bochum are just three of the region’s ‘green-water cores’, attracting thousands of visitors on nice days. One example of a successful structural change in botany is the Duisburg-Nord landscape park. The site was once home to a blast furnace site but has now been transformed into an industrial park and as such is a real visitor magnet. The Metropole Ruhr also offers numerous forests, walkways and cycle paths. Some of the region’s cities are up to 50 percent green spaces. The region has therefore succeeded in creating an impressive fusion of ‘culture & nature’.