Public transportation in Essen in Late March

Public transportation is excellent in that region. A mixture of streetcars, underground light rail, and regional railways will take you anywhere in the "Ruhr" region (= the cluster of cities around Essen) and to nearby Düsseldorf, which is also worth a visit (more museums than I can list here, and good shopping).
I have only been to the area for work, but I have heard very good things about the German Mining Museum in Bochum, next to Essen. It might not sound very exciting, but it is apparently one of the best of its kind.

Hi balso,

Thanks for your reply. Good to know about the transportation. I will have to look on the local sites more for this area to see where would be the most convenient hotel with regard to public transportation. Hoping to have an Achilles Tendon problem all worked out by then, but not looking for a marathon, either. I haven’t found any detailed references in RS Germany for the Essen/Ruhr area specifically, but I'm sure it has worthwhile nooks just like anyplace else. Were you referring to the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex when you mention the mining museum in Bochum? It seems to have a museum also.

I can see visiting a mining museum. I like to know a little bit about what forces shaped a place, and the people that live there, even though I still get a bit of teasing about an enthusiastic visit to a potato museum on Prince Edward Island in Canada! Even a small art gallery in the absence of a spectacular art museum would be great. Shopping is good, especially art or crafts. Heck, even a mall can be interesting for a short time in another country! And grocery stores, even. Finding “American Sauce”, and pastel TP was entertaining in Austria a long while back.

No, I was referring to the Deutsches Bergbau Museum, which includes an underground tour.
This said, Zollverein in Gelsenkirchen looks equally interesting...

and the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal is a hoot. A poet, Else Lasker-Schüler, has compared travelling on the monorail to an airy flight on the back of a “steely dragon”.

Further afield, a day trip to Köln (Cologne) is very easy to do. It is 1 hour away by hourly (or better) regional train, and the station in Köln (Köln Hbf) is extremely central - across the street from the amazing cathedral and the Ludwig Museum, and 300-400 metres from the picturesque bits of the old town (Fischmarkt, Buttermarkt and surrounding streets).

One hour in the other direction from Essen, you have Münster - looks very pretty, but I have never been.

You can find everything you need to know about public transport in and around Essen here
https://www.vrr.de/en/homepage/
VRR means Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (Integrated Transport System Rhein-Ruhr).
The good thing about integrated transport systems in Germany is that you need only one ticket for all means of transport (except ICE and IC trains).

Hi! Here are a few tips for Essen:

Museums - https://www.red-dot-design-museum.de/essen, https://www.museum-folkwang.de/de/mobile-version-new.html
Historic home (I think tours are only in German) - https://www.villahuegel.de/
Lake/river tour - https://baldeneysee.com/
Foodie walking tour - https://www.eat-the-world.com/stadtfuehrung/essen/
A nice park if the weather's nice - https://www.grugapark.de/aktuell_1/Startseite_Grugapark.de.html
A historic village that is part of Essen - https://www.visitessen.de/essentourismus_tourismusinformation/sehenswuerdigkeiten_1/sehenswuerdigkeit_178817.de.jsp
A bit of bling downtown - https://domschatz-essen.de/

The tourist information is across from the main train station -- they'll have information on all of this... Hope this gives you some ideas! The day trips that the others have mentioned are good suggestions as well.

Thanks for clarifying about the other mining museum, balso, I think my husband has a day in between his work days in Essen, and might like to go there, too. This area seems to be scarce in the guidebooks in general! Also, I appreciate the information on an easy day trip to Köln, and things near that station. Thanks, demag and Nigel for the information about the trains (ALWAYS appreciate those nuts and bolts tips!) and the monorail (who needs Disney?). Thanks, Courtney, for all of the interesting suggestions and links!

Oh I forgot to say...if you do have an entire day free, Venlo is also about an hour away by train, if you are interested in making a trip over the border: https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/destinations/provinces/limburg/venlo-10.htm

Just to clarify about the Schwebebahn. It isn't a monorail - not like the one at Disneyland. The train does not ride ON anything. It swings freely (hence the name) from a rail it hangs down from. It is like flying above the river.

Yes, outside of Japan I believe that there is nothing like Wuppertal's Schwebebahn!
I don't want to overhype it either, it is kind of a specialist interest, but since you mentioned liking trains...

more on The Flying Train, also the colorized version & 1902 vs 2015.

Thanks for the clarification on the Schwebebahn, all. It does seem rather amazing, and something my husband would truly enjoy, also. Thanks for the suggestion on the Netherlands, Courtney, it could be a possibility.

The Schwebebahn is great, especially considering its history. It's probably the safest means of transportation ever. As far as I am aware, in more than 100 years of existence there have only been two serious accidents. The only fatal one ever was a couple of years ago when workers had forgotten some kind of tool up on the rail and a train subsequently falling into the river. The other one was when they stuffed a baby elephant into the train, which was basically just plain stupidity.

I’m imagining the weather will likely be sub optimal.

There's no way to predict, but you could have fine sunny spring weather in late March. Just don't expect warm temperatures yet. You might be lucky and have full spring bloom everywhere. If you want to enjoy that, take a nice walk through the Grugapark for instance.

Thanks for the encouragement, Anna. I did read about the elephant, and the other accident. The one with the elephant paints quite a picture in my head! The other- well, since it’s still in operation, I guess maybe they have better training for the workers now. I will hope for nicer weather. I might bring a pair of slip over boots- that will make that the weather is not bad, right?!