Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Who Put the Fun in Funicular?


Here's a word that wasn't even in my vocabulary a few months ago.






A funicular is a cable railway which moves a tram
up & down a steep slope. 



Suddenly, in the last 6 months, we have been on a  Funicular in Budapest, Hungary to go up the castle hill;




In Ito, Japan, to go from the lobby up the hill to our room
 at the  Ryokan; (yes, this is what the elevator really looked like!)






And on Mount Koyosan, in Japan,  
'cause that's how you get from the train station 
up the mountain to town.






And in Spain, to get from the Monastery of Montserrat (see the article "Day Trip to Montserrat") up the mountain to the Abbey of St. Joan and the Holy Caves.









These nifty little stacked cars use
the simple weight and pulley system.   



 So (on the mountainside species) the car going up the hill is counterbalanced by the one coming down the hill ~ on the same track ~ and there is an intersecting point that captivates the attention until you’re sure that all the side switches are functioning correctly.   

They are lots of fun!

I’m actually not sure if we have these back in the US or not ?  

 Anybody know ?  

6 comments:

  1. What a great collection of photos! It will be fun to see how they do it in the other countries on your travel list! I enjoy your posts and photos so much and look forward to them!

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    1. Yes, now I'm interested to see what other countries use this type of transportation. In some of them you stand, and some of them have seating. Either way, it's way better than hiking up those steep hills & mountains, I can tell you that!

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  2. Cute article! Reminded me of the cute little one at Shadowbrook restaurant in Capitola!

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    1. So is seems that we do have these in the US. I looked it up, Shadowbrook calls it a Funicular. And there are some in Colorado and back east, too. Who knew?? That's one of the things I love best about travel ~ it expands your horizons, even when you get back home!

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  3. Very cool. I am going to look at the one in Niagara Falls Ontario Canada and see if the one we rode there is also one.

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    1. I checked, and yes, KS, there is a Funicular at Niagra Falls! I remember that name just caught my attention the first time I saw it, which was Castle HIll in Budapest, particularly because it was not in my vocabulary at the time!

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