Exploring Wuppertal

I’ve long been fascinated by Wuppertal’s monorail. In my mind, it has always existed in some kind of faraway place until the day when I actually tried to look it up, and it turned out to be pretty close to where I am based.

The city is located in the Ruhr Valley, which once was an industrial heartland of Germany. The urban area is very dense, polycentric, and most of the towns merge together, forming an urban continuum.

Wuppertal’s most intriguing feature is undoubtedly its monorail, built in 1901 and subsequently updated several times.  The newest carriages, introduced in 2016, boast a sleek rounded design that starkly contrasts with the pre-WWI ironwork.

Some of the stations have a very retro-futurist look.

Probably the coolest feature of it is that restaurant whose terrace is right underneath the monorail track. The excitement of seeing the trains pass right above your head, honestly felt like being in Disneyland...