Holidays in Dortmund

Located in the NordRhine Westfalen, Dortmund is a city with a population of 590,0000.  Dortmund is well known for it's beweries such as Brinkhoff's, Kronen, DAB, Union, and Thier, most of which are now defunct or merged into other breweries.  Although most of the Coal mines are now stationary (or being torn down), Dortmund was known as an industrial city. Steel Manufacturing and mining were also common. 

As other German cities, Dortmund dtes back to medievel times.  It was first mentioned around 885 as THRUTMANNI, and as Dortmunde in 1222.  In 1236 Kaiser Friedrich II renews the priveledges granted to the city in 1220 and declares it a legally independant.  During World War II, Dortmund was very heavily bombed, destroying over 60% or the metropolitan area and 93% of the city's center.

Although there's not much in terms of old architecture, Dortmund is still a nice city to visit.  The downtown shopping area is always busstling with people and as some other German cities' old downtown area, it is only discovered on foot.   The Alt-stadt (old city) is located within the ringed streets Nordwall, Ostwall, SudWall, and KonigWall.  These 4 streets are at the cities perimeter where the medievel walls once stood.

Dortmund is also known for the Westfallen park which features a zoo, Boitanical gardens, the  T.V. tower "Florian" which stands at 211.36metres tall, the westfallen Halle, a Concert Hall displaying the Emblem on the Union Brewery on it's roof, and the Westfallen Stadium, which is one of the stadiums in which the 2006 FIFA world cup foot ball games will be played.

Still within the Kreis "Dortmund" to the south you will find Hohensyburg, a ruined castle dating back to the 13th century, and now the site of a popular casino.