Cycle routes with an art break

A dancing electricity pylon, a swinging spiral bridge or a canal pipe in which you can spend the night: Anyone travelling along the Emscher Art Trail will be amazed. There are a total of 22 works of art along the approximately 100-kilometre route, which runs along the Emscher between its source in Holzwickede near Dortmund and its mouth into the Rhine near Dinslaken. Most of the route follows the well-signposted Emscher-Weg cycle path and there are even guided cycle tours in the summer months, with art guides taking you to around five works of art along the Emscher Art Trail.

Contemporary artist Tim Berresheim introduces cyclists to his home region of the Lower Rhine: An augmented reality app creates virtual sculptures - some of which are also accessible - at various stations along a 90-kilometre cycle route in the Heinsberger Land region that are significant to him.

The approximately 300-kilometre cycle route leads from Kleve through Krefeld, Mönchengladbach, Duisburg and Düsseldorf to Leverkusen. Here you will find the stations of Joseph Beuys' life and work: his birthplace, the first studio, the art academy and museums that made his art known early on, but also open-air art, for example a two-and-a-half metre high Beuys granite head by Beuys student Anatol Herzfeld, which was erected in memory of the teacher on the Rhine dyke in Meerbusch, or a large Beuys mural at the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach.

Anyone travelling around Münster will come across art everywhere in the city. The large open-air exhibition "Skulptur Projekte" alone, which attracts an international audience every ten years, has provided over 40 sculptures in public spaces since its premiere in 1977. A wide variety of works can be seen on and around Lake Aa, including the "Giant Pool Balls" by Claes Oldenburg and a pier by Jorge Pardo that leads out onto the water. Five cycle routes lead to a total of 57 sculptures in various corners of the city.

Sculptures can be found in public spaces in many other small and large cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as in the countryside: the "NRW Sculpture" project has collected them and combined them into routes: Eleven tour tips for cycling excursions with art enjoyment can be found there alone, including the "Salztangente", which takes up geological and historical themes between Gronau and Bocholt, and the "Skulpturen in Herford" tour, which leads past the Marta Museum, for example, which is a real work of art from the outside alone.

"Landscape in the river", "Floating stones" or "Pixel tube" - these are just some of the artworks that can be discovered along the Seseke cycle path in the district of Unna. They all deal with the changing nature and landscape along the river. Beyond the town of Kamen, you can experience the history of mining - with the Monopol colliery and the Grillo pit.