On Saturday mornings I watch a program on PBS called Tracks Ahead. It’s all about trains: old tains, new trains, model trains, garden trains, people who paint trains, everything. Today they had a segment on a real train and I decided that the next time I got to Europe I’ve got to go to Wuppertal, in Germany, to see the monorail.

This monorail is beautiful. It’s one of the first hanging monorails, built over 100 years ago. It was originally designed to serve two small towns (that grew into one large town) along the Wupper River. As such, it travels right above the river with steel supports on each side of the river. I imagine it would feel like your were flying right along the river. Wuppertal is right between Köln and Gelsenkirchen, just east of Düsseldorf and west of Kassel—why don’t I just show you the map? So, who’s up for a trip? We can catch an FC Schalke 04 match while we’re there!