Today, we went to Wuppertal (on the train) to see and ride the Wuppertal Schwebebahn (sky train). A little bit of history on this train…

The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is a suspended monorail in Wuppertal, Germany. Its full name is the “Eugen Langen Monorail Suspension Railway” (Einschienige Hängebahn System Eugen Langen). Designed by Eugen Langen, who originally planned to build it in Berlin, it was built in 1900, opened in 1901 and is still in use today as a local transport system in the city. It is the oldest monorail system in the world.

The suspension railway travels along a route 13.3 kilometres long, about 12 metres (39 ft 4 in) above the surface of the river Wupper between Oberbarmen and Sonnborner Straße (10 km) and approximately 8m above the city streets, between Sonnborner Straße and Vohwinkel (3.3 km). At one point the railway crosses the A46 motorway. The entire trip takes about 30 minutes. The Schwebebahn has 25 million passenger annually (2008).

The fact I found interesting is that although there has only been six accidents in recorded history, the one that is clearly the most stupid is the one on July 21st, 1950…

The Althoff Circus orchestrated a publicity stunt by putting an elephant by the name of Tuffi on the train at the Alter Markt station. Tuffi became upset shortly into the ride, crashed through the left side of the car and fell into the river Wupper below. The elephant, two journalists, and one passenger received minor injuries. Both the operator and the circus director were fined after the incident. To this day, the wall of a building at the location of the event (in-between the stations Alter Markt and Adlerbrücke) shows a painting of a jumping elephant.

After travelling the train to the end, we took it back to the Wuppertal Zoo. The zoo is very comparable to the Calgary Zoo, really quite large, there was no way we could see it all in one day. I got some really good videos of elephants enjoying their bath.

After a long but great day, we headed back on the train for home where we enjoyed a great supper and after a red (half dry) wine from Dernau and a Kirsch (cherry) Liquour from Mayschoβ.

I am having problems with the Internet on my little computer so I have not been able to post pics. We will see tomorrow.

Selena