We were in Dortmund this weekend ; this was my first trip “stopping” in North Rhine-Westphalia actually.
I lack a lot about the history of the region but I was really surprised/shocked to realize how heavily the metal industry (easy to spot with the high furnaces) and the industry in general is still present everywhere you look. Factories, old depots, lots of train tracks leading nowhere… I’m sorry to say that, but with a grey weather it does not look so welcoming.
Anyway, since the weather was really crappy, we decided to pay a visit to an indoor exhibit called “Sternstunden, Wunder des Sonnensystems” a.k.a. “Star hour, wonders of the solar system”. The exhibit is setup in an old gas-tank, formerly used to store a large amount of gas used to feed the gigantic furnaces of the metal industry that settled around at the beginning of the 20th century.
On the picture below, on the wall, you can see part of a panorama picture of the region taken at the begining of the 20th century. About first third from the left you can see the tank in which we were standing… which seems kind of really small among the furnaces and chimneys… but is now almost the biggest building around.
As you can see on the very first picture (that I stole from the website of the exhibit), the tank is round, about 100m high, 20m across and made of heavy metal. The temperature inside was definitely not more than 10°C, so after making fun of the lady supposed to take up the coats at the “garderobe”, we kept walking the whole time. The exhibit is mostly composed of pictures about the wonders of our solar system. 80 pictures printed 3x2m, displaying stars, clouds, milky way, planets, canyons, rings etc. all taken by sattelites and robots flying our solar system.
All around the room, some sculptures of the different planets of our solar system were displayed… and in the middle:
That was really a good exhibit! We really had a good time, thanks A&J.