Today I bicycled from Essen to Herne and then to Recklinghausen. From Essen to Herne it is a short distance, only 15 km. There is a former freight service from the mines in Essen to the harbors of the channel Rhein-Herne and to the rest railway connection.

The direct route from Essen to Herne was opened in 1874 and closed in 1993. I use this route in order to go to Herne directly. It is a flattish way but notcontinuous. That means that you must wait at main streets and watch the traffic. Germany is not The Netherlands where this state would build such route uninterruptible (the German administration does not think so).

In order to leave directly to Herne I always take the exit „Am Luftschacht“ and take the streets to Herne (Röhlinghausen and Holsterhausen). The quality of the cycle paths are in Herne good. On every big street you have a cycle path.

My first destination is Declathon that is located at the Horsthauser Street near exit of the motorway A43 (Münster-Wuppertal).

I like to buy at Declathon because the quality is very good. Yes, they are cheap but really good. I bought a 3/4 sporttights in December 2016 for 9,99 Euro and this clothing is in good order and I wear it regularly. The shop of Declathon in Herne is bigger than in Essen and in front of the shop there a big quantity of bike parking area.

Today I bought a red sport shirt for 9,99 Euro. The shirt was put into the pannier and I took the road to the city of Herne. At the church Kreuzeskirch where a very famous museum is located. The museum of archaeology is here and it is a very good museum.

The city centre of Herne is formed through the foreign persons who live here for 20 years or longer. That means that German shops are here exceptions. I left the pedestrian area and went a „ring road“ for bikes to the main station of Herne.

In Herne the main main station is Wanne-Eickel and this things reflects the problem. The city is called Herne, but the station with the adding main station is in Wanne-Eickel. Until 1975 Herne and Wanne-Eickel were autonomous. The Deutsche Bahn AG (German railway) wanted to rename Main station Wanne-Eickel into Wanne-Eickel but the majority of the population did not want it.

From Herne station I turned right to the quarter of Horsthausen, a typical quarter of the region that was formed through the mining.

At the main street I had to turn on my Offline street App in my tablet (Android 7) because in this area I never have been before. The Offline street app can show me the current location where I’m.

My hope was that at the lock Herne Horsthausen I could take a break. Personally I’m fascinated from locks because it is very impressive technology that helps big ship to transport safety from a height to another. The high point is the ship lift. But in Herne-Horsthausen I only could see the lock from a bridge and it was inviting to do a break there.

I left Herne in order to go to the quarter Suderwich in Recklinghausen. Suderwich which is located in the country belt of Recklinghausen, has 11.500 inhabitants. The new part of the quarter is located at the Henrichenburger Street but there is an old part. An old part with a place where you can sit and watch the old market place.

I ate something and unfortunately a bee flew and wanted to eat my roll, too that I bought in the city centre of Herne. I feared that the bee would sting me but as I left the place the bee was not there.

Over a country road I reached the city centre of Recklinghausen where I was being very often. Here is public observatory and in the past I was very often sometimes once in a week.

The pedestrian area has a lot of shop. The big store „Karstadt“ was closed in 2016. The building is now unused. I crossed the city centre in order to go by bike back to Essen.

My next stop was at the stadium of Hohenhorst. In the past the soccer club Viktoria Recklinghausen played here between 1933 and 1935. Now the stadium is using by a football team and the woman soccer team 1. FFC Recklinghausen.

Dark clouds were visible in the sky and I thought it would rain and a thunderstorm came but nothing. Rain is not the problem for me. My sport clothes dry in the warm weather, again but a thunderstorm is not good.

The burden pile Hohenward was visible. Here was copied a stone-age observatory by the observatory of Recklinghausen. This is located on the summit of the burden pile that this one I had not visited.

At the cemetery Wald (in German: Waldfriedhof) at the Ewaldstreet I did a break and watched my current location in my app. I was a little bit confused where Wanne-Eickel was. I made the acquaintance of a stinging-nettle but it was only a small area at the ankle where I had my pain for a short time. The identification plate of the bus stop „Wanne Waldfriedhof“ said me in which direction Wanne-Eickel was. It was the bus line SB 27 from Wanne-Eickel to Marl. „SB“ means fast bus that should stop not at every bus stop but generally it is only a commercial gimmick because this kind of bus line stops at every stop.

From this point it was easy to find the route „Erzbahntrasse“. I took the street to the south, to Wanne-Eickel and then I turned right into the Wilhelmstreet to the „Erzbahntrasse“. It is a former train route in order to transport coal from the harbour of Gelsenkirchen Grimberg to Bochum to the main train line. Now it is a cycle path. This distance is 15 km to Essen, not so far away.

With a buying in the EDEKA shop for goods I was at 4.45 pm at home, 5 hours later where I began my journey.