Bochum - Ruhr Universität

I have spent the last day or so in Bochum, in the region of Germany called the "Ruhrgebiet" or "Ruhrpott", the former industrial region in the west. This area is very densely populated--with huge cities Essen, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Duisburg are all within an hour of each other. Back in the day...during the nineteenth-century age of industrialization, this region was one of the main reasons for Germany's economic strength, because of mining and steel production. After the coal mining industry died down, the area became rather impoverished...


I was giving a talk at the university, which I guess has over 30,000 students, mostly from this region.  The university itself is pretty ugly...I had to think about how my mother likes to walk around college campuses...not much scenic walking here. It's like a concrete jungle--a product of 1960s, early 70s "modern" architecture. Unfortunate.  But the leaves were turning and out back behind the campus you had some nice views of the surrounding countryside.

Below is from the city itself, the Fußgängerzone, pedestrian shopping street.