I was invited to speak on Monday 5 March at the International Graduate School of Neuroscience at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. I arrived at Düsseldorf airport Sunday afternoon 4 March and took the S1 train to Mülheim, where the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club operate one of their many cycle hire stations. I picked up a seven-speed cycle — perfectly adequate for the terrain — then continued to Bochum, where I used it to commute from my hotel in the city centre to the university campus south of the city. The Ruhr-Universität Bochum is Germany's first post-war campus. It was meant to connect higher education with industry, and this practical ethic shows in the cement-grey design! It's surrounded by some beautiful countryside, though, including farms and small villages along the Ruhr to the south.

The Ruhrgebeit's network of cycle tracks carries a quintessentially German name: the "Route of Industry and Culture". (Here is a closeup view.) Historically the backbone of this region has been its coal mining and heavy industries. (This is the reason that there are so few buildings here more than about 62 years old — all of it was levelled during the war.) In fact, as my hosts at the Ruhr-Universität told me, the university buildings had to be structurally reinforced against subsidence since so much of the underlying ground had been mined.

The attractions along the route consist of various bastions of German industry, and a ubiquitous sight is the steel towers that stand over mine shafts. From my hotel (the Park Inn, near the railway station) I take the east ring and then the north ring out of town, stopping at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, one of the largest museums of mining technology in the world, which sits atop a small (2.5 km) demonstration mine.

The north ring leads into the west ring, whence I turn right onto Alleestraße, heading past the Bochumer Verein on my right. I turn right onto Wattenscheiderstraße, which becomes Bochumerstraße. On Bochumerstraße, Graf-Adolf-Straße splits off to the left, and then the Hochstraße splits off to the left, leading to the market square in Wattenscheid. On the other side of the market, I turn right onto Lyrenstraße, then immediately left onto a cycleway. At a large mound of tailings near Ückendorf, I turn sharply left onto a cycleway that follows the route of the old Kray railway.

After crossing under a railway, I take another sharp left to stay with the main route, passing the "Zollverein café & biergarten" on my left and eventually arriving at Gelsenkirchener Straße and the Zollverein XII coal mining and coking complex just beyond.

Gelsenkirchener Straße becomes Essener Straße, and when the road ends at a `T' intersection I turn left down the hill into Essen, then right at the city centre onto a road that leads me out to Frohnhauser Straße. As far as I can see, Essen seems an unremarkable city; there isn't much to stop for.

Frohnhauser Straße continues out of the city, through Frohnhausen. At the top of a hill I turn left onto Frohnhauser Weg, staying just south of the railway. Immediately after passing under a motorway and passing Heinrich Lemberg Straße to my right, I turn right onto a short pedestrian/cycle way, straight along a short length of one-way (but "rad frei") road, then turn left onto Honigsberger Straße, which becomes Gracht, which merges with Essener Straße leading into Mülheim.

In Mülheim, Essener Straße becomes Dickswall, which leads onto the Schloßbrücke across the Ruhr — a bridge named for the ninth-century Norman castle at its west end.

From there, Duisburger Straße leads through the Duisburger Stadtwald and zoological park and becomes the Königstraße in Duisburg.

After Duisburg I backtrack to Mülheim to return the cycle. A new radstation is due to open in Duisburg, but unfortunately not till later this spring. (It would be lovely to have a radstation right at Düsseldorf airport!)

It's a short route, all in all, probably only about thirty miles, and in retrospect I think I could have inserted a longer loop south through Essen and along the Ruhr valley. Next time!