North Rhine-Westphalia State Attractions Nordrhein-Westfalen

Immediately south of the Teutoburg Forest can be found the Eggegebirge, a 35km/22mile long range of hills bounded on the south by the Diemel valley. In the Senne, an extensive area of heath and sand to the west, is Bad Lippspringe, while to the east of the hills are Bad Driburg and Willebadessen.

The route suggested here starts and finishes at Hagen.Leave Hagen on B 7, which leads east into the Lenne valley. After passing Hohenlimburg, which has a fine Schloss, and Letmathe itreaches a junction where a road goes off to the Dechenhöhle, a stalactitic cave discovered in 1888 (Cave Museum).The main road continues through the beautiful Lenne valley to the picturesquely situated town of Altena, with the ancestral castle of the Counts von der Mark (12th century; youth hostel; regional museum). Then on to Balve, with the Balver Höhle (cave). To the east lies the beautiful artificial lake formed by the Sorpe dam.The old town of Arnsberg (remains of town walls; Sauerland Museum, Fire Service Museum) is magnificently situated on a ridge of hills encircled by the Ruhr; above the town is a ruined castle. A few kilometers north is the Möhne Dam.Meschede lies at the junction of the Henne with the Ruhr. 1.5km/1mi before the town is the moated castle of Laer (17th century). A parish church of 1663 contains remains of a Carolingian crypt. To the north of the town can be seen a Germanic fortified settlement.The old Hanseatic town of Brilon, now a winter sports resort, has a 14th century Town Hall with a Baroque facade, a parish church of the 13th-14th century and a municipal museum (dinosaur remains, collection of stoves).The route now runs southwest by way of Olsberg.Winterberg, situated on a plateau commanding extensive views, has developed into the most popular winter sports resort in Sauerland. Southwest of the town stands the Kahler Asten (841m/2,759ft; outlook tower), on which are the sources of the Lenne and the Ruhr.Schmallenberg has a Late Romanesque church (13th century) and a number of handsome half-timbered buildings. Some 3.5km/2mi east is the former Benedictine monastery of Grafschaft (conventual buildings 1727-49).At the head of the Volme valley is Meinerzhagen, with a small Romanesque church (14th century). Some 2.5km/1.5mi southeast is the moated castle of Badinhagen (17th century).The return to Hagen is by way of Kierspe and Lüdenscheid.

The principal place in the Wittgensteiner Land is the spa of Bad Berleburg (Kneipp cure). Once the seat of the Princes of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, it has an imposing Renaissance palace (16th and 18th C.). The Schlossmuseum has a collection of material of local interest, old arms and armor and uniforms. In Goetheplatz the Wittgensteiner Heimathaus is a regional museum.In the Arfeld district to the southeast is a Blacksmithing Museum, in the northern district of Girkhausen an old turner's workshop, in Riemland (southwest) a slate mine open to the public.

In the Hasten district of Remscheid, at Cleffstrasse 2-6, can be found a handsome patrician house of 1779 containing two museums. The Heimatmuseum has a collection of furniture and furnishings, mainly Baroque, Empire and Biedermeier, and a Pewter Cabinet. The German Tool Museum illustrates the development of tools from the Stone Age to the present day, with old workshops, iron-smelting equipment, etc., and maintains a number of old ironworks on an "industrial trail" in the Gelpe valley.

The Röntgen Museum at Schwelmer Strasse 41, in the Lennep district of Remscheid, displays apparatus that belonged to the discoverer of X-rays, W. C. Röntgen, a native of Remscheid, as well as modern X-ray apparatus, and illustrates applications of X-rays in archaeology, materials technology, etc.