Hi Mummy,
today we made a trip to Wuppertal, which is the neighbour town of Remscheid, famous for the worldwide one and only Monorail Suspension Railway (Schwebebahn). Wuppertal is the largest city of the region "Bergisches Land" with about 355.000 inhabitants.
We met Katja's friend BlackCat here. BlackCat had tickets for a concert in the evening, it will take place in a stone pit. The main act is Razorlight, the German band Kilians will be performing first.
But it was only afternoon and so we took a walk around the city.
Here is a first photo taken from the bus station with a first view across the city centre.
When you enter the city centre the first thing to see is the Schwebebahn.
The trains are coming in and out every five minutes.
The suspension railway travels along a route about 13 kilometres long, about 12 metres above the surface of the river Wupper and approximately 8 m above the city streets. At one point the railway even crosses the A46 motorway. The entire trip takes about 30 minutes.
We walked into the city centre than. Here we are in front of one of the shopping malls.
We took a group photograph here, next to a funny fountain. I am sitting here with my new friends Pinkz, Mister_Right, Barney and the TVs which are travelling with BlackCat.
In the shopping mall they have an exhibition showing desert animals. Katja soon found her favourite. It is not a reptile but a furry one.
A sand rat. Katja loves rats, she is keeping pet rats herself.
The next photo is showing the city hall with a market place and a large fountain in front of it.
We walked along the pedestrian area than.
I saw this funny statue here. It's name is "A new day at work". I have never see you doing a handstand before going to work, Mummy. Katja says she would also be going to work with doing it every morning.
"Luisenviertel" is a pretty quarter with lots of bars and restaurants.
I met another penguin here. He was one of the participants of the "Pinguinale 2006", a celebration for the zoo of Wuppertal which was 125 years old than. All over the city centre they had beautifully painted large penguins. There was a large final showing all the penguins in the zoo. Here you can see more photos of the Pinguinale 2006.
We decided to walk along river Wupper for a while.
So here is the Schwebebahn again ...
This is one of the most modern stopping points.
We went inside the train station to have a look at the incoming trains.
The Schwebebahn is crossing the streets at some points.
We reached a quarter where the worldwide known chemical industry concern Bayer is situated. Pharmaceuticals are produced here.
We decided to take a ride with the Schwebebahn to get to the concert.
We were waiting for our train.
The concertgoers cannot get to the stone pit themselves, they will be taken there by shuttle bus.
