Today we decided to stay in Wuppertal and have a good look around. We walked into town and through the shopping area into the town square where there is a huge fountain and large important buildings. Gerard pulls out his new camera for the first time and instructs me to go and stand in front of this massive fountain. He takes a couple of shots and then goes to review the photos only to find he hasn’t put in an SD Card and there are no photos! The SD Card is back in the motel room.
We get approached by a young man with a pen and note pad who tells us he is with the local paper and would we mind if he took some photos of us and did a story on why we are in Wuppertal. Stefan, his mate, with a huge camera around his neck joins in as we are telling him we are from Australia and a bit about ourselves and he is taking numerous notes for his story. Stefan takes some lovely photos of us and they agree to email them to us. So problem solved and I didn’t have to lend my camera with the SD card in it to Gerard.
We leave the town square to wander off and try to recognise some of Wuppertal from our last trip but nothing looks familiar at all so we head for the monorail station and decide to go for a ride the length of the monorail and maybe stop at the zoo for a couple of hours. Apparently the gardens are beautiful. Once on the monorail we travel about 4 stations out of the city and things start to look familiar, so apparently last time when we thought we were in the middle of the city we were out in the suburbs. We found the street we had shopped along and the Mall where Gerard bought his jumper and the station where we had boarded the monorail. A few stations further along and we reach the end of the line and have to disembark the train and walk to the other side of the station to go back. There are probably about 20 stations along the monorail. We start heading back through the city to the Zoo station which is about three stops from the other end. The monorail is the oldest in the world and the train hangs from an overhead rail not sitting on a track, so it sways a little and get a nice little motion happening when it stops at the station.
We arrived at the Zoo station and walked up the hill to the zoo, only to find out that you can’t pay with your card and we don’t have enough cash. So we ask directions to the closest ATM only to be told we have to go back one station and there is one there. So we walk back down the hill and get back on the monorail, go back one station and get off. There is a kiosk next to the station so we ask the lady where the ATM is. She tells us to walk down the road and turn left. We walk down the road, walking, walking, just keep walking, there are not left turns for ages and then when there is, there is no sign of an ATM. Just keep walking and about 5 km later we finally find a town that looks reasonable and Gerard spots a lass heading into a bank ATM room and nicks through the door with her. I decided to wait outside just in case he gets stuck in there – then at least one of us can go for help! He managed to come out with cash
By this stage we are tired and hungry and it is lunch time. There is always a silver lining to every cloud and we find a lovely little Italian Restaurant in a park and have a beautiful Bruschetta each and some San Pellegrino. In our walk we had managed to pass three monorail stations and there is one just near us so we head back to the Zoo. We walk back up the hill and enter the Zoo. We have already done our 10,000 steps and we explore the zoo walking up and down hills and seeing all the animals. It is a lovely spot and apparently the best landscaped gardens in Germany. Instead of hiring strollers at the Zoo, parents hire small wooden wagons on wheels and tow their children around in those. Some of the smaller children even lie down on the blanket and have a sleep. We take some photos of the animals and head off back to the monorail. Not once did our tickets on the monorail get checked.
Coming back to town we head to the shopping centre for some groceries for dinner and a cuppa. By now we have done 20,000 steps for the day and we have aches in places we didn’t think we had places, so at the supermarket we buy some muscle relaxing bath salts and head back to the Hotel. The bath works wonders for our sore bits, but it is not a good idea when your glasses fog up to reach out, thinking the toilet lid is down and put your glasses on the lid. If the lid is up, your glasses end up in the toilet. Yes, I did it, much to Murphy’s amusement! Fortunately they fell up and only the arms of my glasses got wet.
An early night, much snoring and a good sleep. Woke up refreshed and ready for another day, perhaps not so much walking, though. We catch the plane to Amsterdam today and meet up with Lee and Michael this evening.
