Black gold – experiencing the path of coal

Here is the video: https://youtu.be/-olVB9MxvkQ

Our first tour with the new e-bikes and with it the opportunity for me to finally be on two wheels again. The best start would probably be at the Zollern colliery; for convenience, we started on the Rheinschen Donkey in front of our front door. We only had a few sections with traffic and it was nice to see how many cycle paths we didn't know about here. Our 500 Wh was still 60% charged after the tour.

Once again a great tour with Uwe through the green lung of the Ruhr area 😉

Today, the route wasn't the destination, but the Zollern Colliery. We replicated this with our Black Gold cycling tour. We started at the TU Dortmund University. The second part of the route on the "Rheinischer Esel" (Rhineland Esel) was a nice ride. There were more ups and downs than previously expected, but not as many as Komoot suggests. 🙈 The LWL Museum Zeche Zollern is well worth a visit along the way!

This round is based on the tour of radrevierruhr "Experience the coal path" planned. We started in Langendreher and drove in the opposite direction. Arrival and departure to Langendreher with the S 1 from Steele Ost worked without any problems. The routing via the junction system works to some extent. Overall, a nice and very varied round. With a return trip to Steele Ost station, it was 53 km.

In Witten, we followed the "Rheinischen Esel", a approx. 12–13 km long cycle and hiking path on a former railway line, which connects Dortmund-Löttringhausen with Bochum-Langendreer. From Langendreer, we went via Somborn to Lütgendortmund. We came to the Wasserschloss Dellwig, which was unknown to us until then. The lively music of a Dutch brass band could be heard from afar and forced us to stop. 😉 Many visitors enjoyed the spring festival on the grounds of the Wasserschloss. After a tour through the very interesting local history museum, we decided on pea soup for refreshment, which tasted even better with musical accompaniment. Between the districts of Marten and Kirchlinde, we cycled on the Emscherparkradweg further to Huckarde. Beautiful residential areas alternated with small forests. Past Dorstfeld and Barop, we arrived in Kuckel and Persebeck. The Emscherparkradweg was partly closed due to construction work, and we had to detour around sections. We had the same problem before Witten when we wanted to get back onto the "Rheinischen Esel". But construction work has to happen, it just often takes a very long time. 🤷‍♀️

As soon as the sun shows up again, the fair-weather athletes crawl out of their holes again. 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨. The route took us across Dortmund and Witten, unfortunately partly through the city center and full streets. This may be due to a construction site, but the route was sometimes a bit confusing and didn't seem well thought out. But it also offered some beautiful hidden places that you could explore almost undisturbed by bike for two. All in all, a wonderful start into the now hopefully finally arriving summer. 😊

Today I drove my fourth district route, it is called in the long version "Black Gold - Discovering the Way of Coal" and took me back to historical places in the district and over beautiful, shady railway lines. I have adapted the route to my needs and determined the Dortmund main station as the destination and end point of my round, this enabled me to travel by train without having to change trains. Info: https://www.ruhr-tourismus.de/de/radrevierruhr/unsere-revierrouten/revierroute-schwarzes-gold.html