A day in Dortmund

We didn't have time to plan anything for this fall vacation and most of the time we had to work. Therefore we took 4 days off to play tourist at home.
On our first day we went to Dortmund, on the second ... well we were going to go to Essen and do some cultural stuff but because the "Spiele Messe" was on we went to that instead, on the third day we explored Bochum and on the fourth Duisburg. It was quite an interesting vacation. I hope that you find this useful if you are ever in the region.

Given that Dortmund has one of the top soccer clubs in Germany I planned a soccer themed day. Now we are not soccer fans and don't support any teams (go Liverpool!) but nonetheless our first stop was the highlight of our four days. I booked us a tour of the BVB soccer stadium. My girls were grumbling about it from the time I first mentioned it, but they came along because it was better than the alternative (stay at home alone all day). 

Now my advice to you, if you go to the stadium, is to get there well in advance. If you are taking public transport and there is an event things could get tight and it might take a while to catch a train. If you are driving it could take you forever to find a parking spot. Plus the place is extremely badly sign boarded. We know the area and it took us a good half an hour to find a place to park because there was an event and they had reserved all the parking lots. Only one was free but the people manning the lots didn't know which one it was! I was very stressed out because I thought we were going to miss our tour and I had planned an extra 45 minutes for parking and finding the entrance. 

Stadium entrance. The museum is to the left and the fan shop to the right.

We half ran to the entrance, which is at the fan shop, and then had missed the tour by about 5 minutes. We were so annoyed. You could not have started the tour in a worse frame of mind. Someone headed out with us so that we could catch up with our tour, which was really nice. We caught up with them inside the stadium and it looked extremely small although it holds 81,000 people. 

After that the tour took another 45 minutes and it was amazing.  The tour guide was fantastic and obviously a soccer fan. I'll not tell you about the tour because that would spoil it for you. 

The very tight walkway that the players have to walk down to get to the pitch

I imagine that if you were a soccer fan it would be even better. 

The team "bench"

After the tour we went to the fan store (and didn't buy anything) and the BVB museum (admission is included in the tour ticket). The museum is very small and I would not pay extra admission to see it. The trophies are very impressive and the display about the clubs history was informative.

Since it was rather cold we didn't have a picnic here. Although there were some really nice gardens which would be perfect for a picnic.

Our next stop was the German Soccer Museum, which is just opposite the main train station in Dortmund. I must say that we were rather disappointed. The entrance tickets were not cheap and the museum didn't deliver. 

Museum as seen from the Dortmund main train station

My favourite exhibits were the ones on how soccer developed in Germany and on women's soccer. It took about 10 minutes to see these! Given that internationally the women's team is more successful than the men's it is sad that they only had a very small exhibit. 

Fun graffiti of Angela Merkel at the top of the escalators

You could watch a lot of old games, see a lot of trophies and memorabilia, and a horrible "3D" movie about winning the world cup. 

If you don't know what this is then you probably should not visit!

If you like this kind of thing then this is the place for you. It just gave us a headache and we didn't learn anything about the game. At the top of the building there is a restaurant and at the bottom there is a cafeteria. The problem with the cafeteria is that you have to walk through the whole museum to get there. Basically the museum is  one way street. If you miss something you have to go to the end and re-enter!

A much better place to visit would be the ... museum, which is also close to the main train station. We didn't go there last week but we've been there before and really enjoyed the exhibits. In fact Dortmund has a wide range of museums of varying quality, but there is something to suit everyone's taste.

Our next stop was the "Dortmunder U". 

The Dortmunder U seen from behind

We see the building every time we go to Dortmund because it is close to our favourite Sri Lankan restaurant. And we've wondered what was in it for years. So we were really glad that we finally were going to see it. 

Foyer at the U

Massive blown up pig in the stair well

They were having a Pink Floyd exhibition there so we were really excited until we heard how much it cost at the door. Since none of us are/were Pink Floyd fans we decided to skip it. The rest of the exhibitions in this building were free. Mainly it is an art museum. There was lots of paintings and installations. 

Frankenstein's work room. Look very closely to see the body parts swimming in the box

You can visit the terrace at the top of the building to get some good views of Dortmund. They have a cafe up there too.

The "U" as seen from the roof top terrace

A birds eye view

Lighting in the roof top cafe

There was one floor that was inspired by the Pink Floyd exhibition and you could "play" with the exhibits. 

Came complete with a box of tape so you could add your own art

Our favourite room in the whole museum was an art room that we discovered. It had signs that said you could take anything and be creative. There were all kinds of art supplies and it was a good place to chill with the girls. We were not very creative so we just took printed cards and coloured them in. It was fun, but I'm sure you could do many other things with the stuff there. 

Skate park across from the "U"

Graffiti at the "U"

By the time we left it was dinner time so we headed over to our favourite joint "Sweet Chilli" for dinner. We stuffed ourselves silly with potato roti, string hoppers, dosai, masala tea, mango lassi's and cream soda. I highly recommend this place. They serve plenty of vegan options and although it's not the kind of food you will be served in Sri Lanka it is definitely delicious and not adjusted to the western taste. It's also not very expensive and the portions are huge. We generally order an appetizer or two and two main dishes with two extra plates and are all pleasantly stuffed at the end of the meal. Be careful, unlike many places in Germany when they say hot they mean HOT.

You can find all these places and more on a google map that I created. 

Here is a list of other sights in Dortmund that you might consider visiting (also on the above map).

• Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Dortmund (museum of art and culture history)
• The Zollern Colliery - Zeche Zollern - museum for state industry
• DASA Working World Exhibition 
• Binarium - German museum for digital culture
• The Dortmund zoo 
• Hohensyburg ruins