September 7, 2014
Day off: Visit to Der Volklinger Hutte
On the eighth day we rested. Sort of, we washed more clothes than the usual overnight socks, shorts and shirt. We had a minor task, to buy our rail ticket to Donaueschingen at the start of the Danube trail. We asked at the station enquiry desk about getting to the Danube with the bikes. This is where we discovered the Quer-Durchs-Land Karte. For €44, a person can go anywhere in Germany, after 9am and up to 3am the following day, on regional trains, on which no bike reservation is required. For €8 per person up to four people can accompany traveller 1. A bike ticket is €5. So for €62 we had our tickets sorted, with a print-out of the itinerary. There's a weekend version without the time restriction, the Schönes Wocheende. We also bought return tickets to Völkingen for the iron-works visit.
Including me, four generations of my family on the male side worked in the iron and steel industry. Our son is unlikely to follow. My home town in North Yorkshire still boasts one of Europe's largest blast furnaces, built in the early 1970s, on the site of the former works, where my father, served his apprenticeship and later worked as an electrician. My grandfather was workshop foreman. It closed in 2010 and reopened in 2013. Now, along with the nearby Basic Oxygen plant, it provides steel for the motor industry in Thailand.
I have a fascination with the Sturm und Drang of molten metal, so having discovered its existence, I had been determined to have a look at the Völklinger Hütte, the blast furnace complex, which ceased production in 1986, escaped demolition and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were there from midday until 6pm. The furnaces, of course, are no longer fiery, but an interactive section of the site attempts to give an impression of what took place, under the headings Earth, Wind and Fire. You are allowed to climb to the blast furnace [there are six] charging floor, on condition that you wear a hard hat [supplied]. It's a long way up and the view is extensive if not picturesque. At its peak, in the late 1960s, the complex employed 17,000 people.
When protective helmets were made compulsory for workers, some claimed they caused headaches and so produced doctors' notes to get out of wearing them. I suspect the ruse didn't work.
I took heaps of pictures of the complex. For anyone interested in rust belt chic, please click.
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