Ruhr Area with its interconnected 53 cities once was the industrial power centre of Germany, which many impressive monuments like UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein, Landschaftspark Duisburg or Gasometer Oberhausen still bear witness of.

Today - also thanks to the title European Capital of Culture in 2010 - Ruhr Area has turned into a region rich in ideas, that constantly reinvents itself with a vast amount of creative hotspots. A metropolis that is also home to world-famous football rivals Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04.

The people still define themselves semi-ironically as strictly down-to-earth, enchanting you with their working class humour ("Elsewhere sucks too"). The region has a lot of exciting spots to discover. Surprisingly green, today you find lakes here where steel mills were standing 20 years ago (Phoenixsee, Dortmund) and landfill from coking plants form the Alps of the Ruhr. You have the gastronomic centres Rü in Essen and Bermuda Triangle in Bochum.

You have internationally acclaimed art festivals that bring to life impressive former industrial halls (Ruhrtriennale). If you see the Ruhr Area as a polycentric metropolis you'll experience a cultural density that can rival Berlin.