Dortmund

Introduction

With 600,000 inhabitants Dortmund is one of the larger cities in Germany. It is part of the larger Ruhr Area agglomeration and an important city within this area. Dortmund has a history of being a heavy industry city; to Germans the name evokes images of smoke stacks and hardened faces of steel workers and coal miners. This image especially comes alive in the songs of German Rock poet Herbert Grönemeyer and in the movie "Männer wie wir" (Men like us) by director Sherry Hormann. Dortmund is also famous for its football (soccer) team, Borussia Dortmund. With the decline of the steel industry in the Ruhr area the face of Dortmund has been gradually changing, shifting towards services and high technology.

Sights and Activities

• Westfälisches Industriemuseum - Zeche Zollern II / IV

Signal Iduna Park (Westfalenstadion)
Home of Borussia Dortmund, one of Europe's most famous football stadiums.
Discuss stadium tours and matchday experiences.

Dortmund U-Tower
Iconic landmark turned cultural center.
Detail exhibitions, events, and panoramic views.
A historic brewery now transformed into a museum.
Explore the brewing process and beer culture.
Westfalenpark

Dortmund's largest green space.
Highlight the park's attractions, such as the Florian Tower (Florianturm) and the Rombergpark botanical garden.

Events and Festivals

Highlights are the football games of Borussia Dortmund and the music and show stars coming on stage in the Westfalenhalle.

Weather

Like much of Western Europe, Dortmund has a mild maritime climate, with generally warm summers and moderatle winters. Temperatures range from 20-24 °C in summer (June to early September) and around zero or slightly more during the winter (December to early March). Snow is possible in winter but not very common. Rainfall tends to be lowest in spring (April/May).

Getting There

By Plane

Dortmund Airport (DTM) is a medium-sized airport about 10 kilometres from the centre of the city. Easyjet flies to Barcelona, Budapest, London, Krakow and Thessaloniki, while Air Berlin flies to Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Nuremberg, Mallorca and Tenerife.
Wizz Air flies to Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Gdansk, Katowice, Kiev, Lviv, Poznan, Sofia, Timisoara, Warsaw and Wroclaw and Germanwings flies to Istanbul, Munich, Palma de Mallorca, Salzburg and Split.

For much more flights, including intercontinental flights, you can also check the Düsseldorf International Airport.

By Train

Deutsche Bahn (DB) has trains to and from Dortmund. Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (main trainstation) is one of the bigger ones in Germany, with connections througout Germany and international connections as well.

By Car

Dortmund is on the A1, A2 and A45 autobahns (motorways). The B1 runs right through the city and is the link between the A40 to Essen and the A44 to Kassel.

By Bus

The bus station is right next to the train station. Several times per week is a direct Eurolines bus to Neum, BiH at the Adriatic Sea. There is also a direct salinea bus from/to Tuzla.

Getting Around

By Public Transport

Dortmund is part of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein Ruhr, a cooperation of the regional transportation companies, giving easy access to public transportation in the whole Ruhr District in S-Bahn, regional trains, subways and buses.

Dortmund's central station (Dortmund Hauptbahnhof) is the junction of the national railroad system with the city subway system and the regional train system. From here you can easily get transport into the center or any suburb via subway and bus or to the neighbour cities as Bochum, Essen, Düsseldorf, Münster, Köln (Cologne), Wuppertal and the rest of Northrhine-Westphalia and Germany by different regional or national trainlines.

By Foot

Exploring the City Center

Walking tour itinerary including major sights like the Old Town Hall (Altes Stadthaus) and the Museum of Art and Cultural History (Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte).
Dortmund Green Spaces

Suggested walks through Westfalenpark and Rombergpark.
Emphasize the natural beauty and tranquility within the city.

Eat

If you find yourself in a traditional pub drinking beer and you need some food to accompany your beverage it is the best idea to ask the innkeeper for a "Salzkuchen mit Mett" or a "Mettente".

The "Salzkuchen" is a bagel-like, caraway spiced roll with seasoned mincemeat and onions. The "Mettente", a smoked sausage, normally comes with spicy mustard.

Also you can eat some sausages in one of the typical "Bierhäuser" or in one of the big restaurants.

Drink

Dortmund is home of some world famous breweries and you would therefore miss something if you haven't tasted at least some of its "liquid gold".

Sleep

Learn

• Dortmund University

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet cafes (rates €1.50 to €5 per hour) are starting to become less common due to widespread offers of free wifi by shops, restaurants or cafes. Sometimes it requires minimum consumption but usually it's free within the premises. Phone shops will often offer internet access, too. In general hotels offer internet access. In several cities, projects exist to provide free "community" hotspots for wireless networking. Passenger lounges at some airports and central railway stations also provide internet access to their customers.

Several pre-paid SIMs allow Internet access for a monthly flat fee, for example those available at Tchibo coffee stores (o2 network, €10/month limited to 500 MB, €20/month for 5 GB) or Aldi (E-Plus network). A regular O2 sim card, which can be used for calls and text messages, is €15 and another €15 buys 1GB of data valid for 1 month. Vodafone offers a prepaid sim card for €25 which includes €22.5 of credit, out of which you can get 300 MB of data for 2 days for €15 and be left with €7.5 of credit.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The international call prefix in Germany is 00. To dial out of Germany, dial 00, followed by country code, area code, and the telephone number (for example 00 44 1234 567890). If you're using a mobile phone, simply add the plus sign "+" before the country code to call out of Germany (for example +44 1234 567890). The general emergency number is 112 and the additional number for less emergent issues for police is 110.

Mobile phone coverage on the four networks (T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and o2) is excellent across the whole country. UMTS (3G data and HSDPA) and EDGE is also available. UMTS is still somewhat limited to urban areas. All mobile providers use GSM technology on the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency ranges. If you stay for a longer period of time, consider buying a prepaid phone card from one of the mobile phone companies; you won't have trouble finding a T-Mobile (in a "T-Punkt"), Vodafone, E-Plus or O2 store in any major shopping area. In most supermarket chains (for example ALDI), there are prepaid SIM cards from their own virtual providers available. These are normally quite cheap to buy, but expensive for international calls (around €1–2/min), but incoming calls are always free and SMS cost around €0.09–0.19. They are available at: Aldi, Lidl, Penny, Netto, Tchibo, Rewe, toom. A registration via Internet or (expensive) phone call is necessary after buying to activate the SIM card.

The cheapest way to call abroad from Germany is to use the internet cafés run by immigrants. They sell special calling cards that give the best rate to certain countries as well as offer cheap international calls from phone booths. It is also the cheapest way to call landlines in Germany.

Post

Germany's postal system is very efficient, their logistics branch DHL is one of the best companies in this field world-wide, with domestic post or within a radius of 400 kilometres, send within a day. The website of Deutsche Post has an online calculator for postage fees as well as a post office finder. Stamps are available at post offices and sometimes at newsagents or shops selling postcards. Also stamp vending machines can be found at a lot of places around the cities. You can purchase every stamp you need from this machines. They are unique as they accept every coin from 1 cent to 2 euro but change is only given in stamps. It costs about €40 to send a small package to Australia and €1.70 to send an old-fashioned letter to any place in the world outside of Europe. Within Germany, sending postcards costs €0.45 and standard letters €0.55, within Europe it is €0.65 for a postcard, standard letters to places in Europe cost €0.75. Outside Europe, the prices for sending a postcard or standard letter are €1 and €1.70 respectively. Although you will find the old post offices (mainly in the city centre), most of the smaller neighbourhood post offices are part of a small tobacco shop or grocery store. For larger package, you might consider competitive private companies like UPS, DHL or TNT.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website