The birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1770, now a museum

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Thursday, August 12: - - Today we left Aachen and began our drive toward Berlin. We took the autobahn from Aachen through Cologne and on to the east. Our first stop was the hanging train in Wuppertal. We missed a turn or something after we exited the autobahn, and got lost for about a half hour, but we finally found the train. We were in a different location than we had originally planned on, but it worked out okay. We had lunch at a local cafe and then went for a ride. We couldn't figure out how to work the ticket machine, so Bill asked a bus driver at the train station for directions. His bus was part of the same system so he just issued us two tickets. - - We had a nice ride on the train. It follows a river through several villages and into Wuppertal and is used by lots of people as their regular transportation. It's a rare type of train though, so lots of visitors ride it too. We got lots of good photos. - - We headed east on highway 7, but it was just town after town and lots of traffic, and lots of work for us trying to keep on the right road. We really couldn't enjoy the ride. In Germany there are lots of turns when a highway goes through a town, so you have to watch at every corner or you might miss one. Finally, after a couple of hours of the congestion, we got out into more open country. It was a lot more relaxing then. - - We stopped for dinner and then drove for another hour or so until we found a nice hotel in Gottingen. We relaxed and watched CNN and MTV... the only channels that were in English. Wuppertal’s suspension rail system A good view of the support structure for the train Two trains about to pass Let's take a ride. Here we wait on the platform.
Here comes our train! The next series of photos were all taken from the 'hanging train'. The train follows the Wupper River. You get good views of the streets below. The river makes a big bend and so does the train.
We got off after going through several stations and - then waited for a train to return to our starting point. We got a seat near the front so we could get a view through the driver's windows. The train follows the twists and turns of the river. Gliding over the city streets We pass businesses and apartment buildings.

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