Trip to Wuppertal

Bismillahirrohmaanirrohiim..

On Wednesday we went to Wuppertal. We finally fulfilled our promise to Danesh 🙂

Wuppertal is located in and around river Wupper at North Rhine-Westphalia, a neighbor of Lower Saxony. This city is famous for its steep slopes, aspirin from pharmaceutical factory Bayer and its Schewebebahn. The last was our promise to our son, riding Schwebebahn.

We took regional train from Hannover. Instead of buying Quer-Durch-Land (QDL) ticket, we bought Niedersachsensticket and NRW ticket. I found out that QDL didn’t cover transportation in a city. I mean, it can only be used for the regional train that connects cities, not for bus or tram within the city. With extra ticket for Schwebebahn, we would pay 3€ more than if we bought the 2 Ländertickets. It was 3.25 hours journey from Hannover Bahnhof Nordstadt to Wuppertal Hbf. We should change 2 times in Minden and Dortmund. But since our train to Minden was coming in the same time with the departure time of the train to Dortmund, we were late. Then, we rode a train to Bielefeld and waited the next train to Wuppertal.

When we arrived in the first Wuppertal station, Wuppertal-Oberbarmen, we could see the hanging train. It was cool.. My husband kept reminding that we were there because of the Schwebebahn, so, no matter what happened we should ride it first then explore the city 😀

Anyway, we arrived around 2 pm at Wuppertal main station. As usual, I always seeked for Tourist Information Center. The office is located not in the same building. You should go out the main station and then turn left walking along the river. The building is in your right side. There are boards to direct you (including how many minutes to reach it) to this office. I was happy because the officer was really nice and helpful. I said that I had only 3-4 hours to stroll the city and interested on what I could find in the city besides the hanging train. He gave me two useful things, the walking map inclusive the explaination of the point of interest and information of Schwebebahn.

As what Ayah said, the train was top priority! So we rode it from the station Ohligsmühle to Oberbarmen (end station) then from Oberbarmen to Vohwinkel (the other end station) and finally from Vohwinkel back to Hauptbahnhof. During our first leg, Danesh fell asleep. He enjoyed the light swing from the train. The swing, particularly when the train stop at the station, was a bit problem for me because I felt ill suddenly. But Mom, Ayah and D were totally okay. Overall there are 20 stops from Vohwinkel to Oberbarmen and the duration is around 30 minutes. I suggested you went to the end station to see how the train turn around.

The hanging train is actually not for tourist attraction. It is simply a mass transportation for the Wuppertal people. The construction was built above the river that is laid (I think) in the middle of the city and there is only one track. I think the contour of the city influenced the decision of this kind transportation. It was also fascinating to know that it was opened for public from 1901

Another story to tell is about an elephant. It was told that there was elephant named Tuffi that fell from the train to the Wupper river. The accident happened near the station Adlerbrücke. They took him for some reason but then somehow the poor Tuffi got panic and jumped out. He was alive and had no scratch 🙂

It was already around 4.30 pm when we finished the riding. Little mister woke up already and we started the walking. Travelling during winter is not my favorite because of the dark comes faster. We didn’t have much time to explore the city as we were also in hurry to catch the train back to Hannover. If only we did the walking tour, we would spend 90 minutes. The city is not small and I found lots familiar stores in the city center. Ah yaa.. I also saw big factory of Bayer during the riding with the Schwebebahn.