Things to do in Dortmund

Dortmund grew on coal and steel. The pits and blast furnaces have closed, and some sites are now museums, parks and a lake. It is a football city before it is a tourist one.

What is in the centre

The centre is compact and the main sights are close together.

• Signal Iduna Park. Borussia Dortmund's ground holds over 80,000. The south terrace, the Yellow Wall, takes around 25,000 standing.
• German Football Museum. Opposite the main station, opened in 2015.
• Dortmunder U. The old brewery tower, topped by a lit U, now an arts centre.
• St Reinold's Church. A Gothic landmark of the old centre.
• Westenhellweg. The main shopping street.

The industrial side

Phoenix See is an artificial lake on the site of a steelworks. Zeche Zollern, a former colliery, has an Art Nouveau machine hall and is a museum of industrial work. Westfalenpark has the Florian tower.

Day trips

The private day trips from here are run by driver-guides in a car, with pickups from cities across western Germany. They run in Russian and German, not English.

• Amsterdam. Roughly 230 km away, a day of about twelve hours with no fixed route.
• Roermond. A Dutch town on the Maas, known for its designer outlet.
• Heide Park. A theme park in Lower Saxony, a full day out.

Practical

• Weather. Summers are mild, near 23C in July. January sits around 5C. It rains all year, so bring a waterproof.
• Matchdays. Home league games are hard to get tickets for, and the trains to the stadium are packed.
• Getting around. Dortmund is one of a chain of Ruhr cities. Regional trains reach Bochum in about fifteen minutes and Essen in about half an hour.
• Shops. Closed on Sundays, as across Germany.
• Tipping. Rounding up the bill is normal. Ten per cent is generous.