However, that sleeper service wouldn't start until this year, and looked expensive; while dithering about whether and where to stop overnight en route by day trains, somehow F*ceb**k kept serving up adverts for (you'd be surprised how many) companies offering train-based guided trips.
One that caught the eye was to the Harz in the dead centre of Germany (but once divided between East and West), where there's a network of steam trains, one going up to the Brocken mountain, famous in literature for witches and the like. The itinerary had us stopping for a night in Wuppertal, not the most scenic of the Ruhr's industrial towns, but among transport enthusiasts, Wuppertal is famous for its "Schwebebahn" (floating railway) - suspended from a monorail high above the river and streets below.
Once on board, it's as prosaic as any surface tram ride, bar a little tilting, and it's not as though there's much to see, but it's a useful way of whisking people along without taking up road-space:
I hope you found time to say a prayer in loving memory of Tuffi the elephant while thundering over the Wupper.
ReplyDeleteBesides : "Über die Wupper gehen" is / was a slang term for to die, like croak ("abkratzen").
I simply had to follow up on that story! Apparently Tuffi survived her escape from the suspended monorail... Jx
DeleteThanks for that extra piece of vocabulary - I'll try to find an occasion to use it! As for the elephant, the story had been mentioned in a TV travel programme that first introduced me to the Schwebebahn. We didn't have a local guide for this trip, just the travel company's own group leader, who didn't mention it. I was a bit fuzzy on the details, so I didn't either. I don't think the transport enthusiasts in the group would have been particularly interested.
DeleteWhat a fascinating mode of public transport! Jx
ReplyDeleteMore or less related may be the bridge of Rochefort-Martrou. I just found it, and had no idea that something like this existed !
ReplyDeletewiki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochefort-Martrou_Transporter_Bridge
There's a big transporter bridge in Middlesbrough, though its future may be in doubt. I've never visited, only seen it on TV - Middlesbrough is even less likely a tourist destination than Wuppertal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tees_Transporter_Bridge
DeleteThere's one in Newport, South Wales, where I grew up, too! It was an endless source of fascination when I was a kid... Jx
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