For me the Rhein Ruhr represents many different things:
* A number of quite beautiful and fascinating small-medium cities: Like Köln, Düsseldorf, Bonn
* A number of very average and grim cities: Essen, Dortmund etc
* A number of fascinating and interesting small centers like Wüppertel (with it's ancient hanging monorail)
* A very impressive commuter/suburban rail system
* An area divided by Rustbelt industry (either in decline, dead, or in some cases wonderfully renovated)
But most of all, despite all the fascination and some beautiful parts, as an urban lover I find it one of the most depressing urban area's on earth. Why?
* Because of it's provincialism and poly-centric makeup.
Thinking about it, it's one of the largest urban area's in the world, and yet is possibly the least known in the Western World. Although it may sound nice to have a giant urban area with so many fascinating "downtowns", none of them for me are large or interesting enough to stand out on it's own. And I can't be the only one here. Few people outside of Europe has heard of the Rhein Ruhr, and just as few has heard of any of the individual cities, or if they have, know nothing about them - And this is an urban area of 10-12million people!
It's like a communal city, every part sharing a "little" of the urban experience, but none the whole. Whilst splitting the urban delights amongst so many separate downtowns, there is no great single heart or center. The Rhein Ruhr has the population of London or Paris (and when looking at the whole region, even more) yet there is nothing for me that London and Paris can offer - and again, I would suspect the same for many others - just ask someone outside of Europe, where will they prefer to visit. London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Venice, Rhein Ruhr?
Even smaller urban area's with one great center offers more. Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Sydney, Melbourne, Berlin... etc.
It's still a very interesting area, with, as I said, so many city centers. I just wish it had a large single heart. I wish one of the cities in the Rhein Ruhr grew to become it's main primary center. The others will still posper, but then, for me, it would become something more than the least known great urban area on earth. A city is like a human. It needs a head, a heart and a single central point. I think this is perfectly demonstrated by the Rhein Ruhr.
Two analogy's come to mind:
What would rather have this week. One night of great amazing breathtaking sex, with the woman of your dreams, or 5 average shags each night with a run of the mill looking woman (or man if you so choose)
or would you rather have an amazing meal in great resturant one night this week, or go to 5 average resturants over the next few days.
By the way, in a few weeks I should be up there in Köln and Düsseldorf, probably the two best cities in the Rhein Ruhr.