So, it happened!
My long-standing dream of riding this means of transportation came true. For the very first time, I enjoyed a funicular ride in Graz, about a month ago. 😍
I was reminded about it yesterday, when we had a rehearsal with the students of the music school, and one little girl played the piece called Funiculì, Funiculà, by Luigi Denza. She played it in a simplified version, for piano, but if you want to hear the original version and sing along, you can open this where José Carreras, a famous Spanish tenor, sings it. I really can't choose which interpretation I like more, his one of Luciano Pavarotti's... Well, both are great.
As the funicular ride was great too!! Too quick in my opinion haha, I wanted it to last for more time, and in that moment I thought I would go back to the top of the hill and do the funicular ride once again. 😆 In the end, I didn't as we were quite tired from the morning activity, which was the cleaning challenge and later in the afternoon we had a guided tour through the city centre. We decided to go to our accommodation and have a short siesta before getting back to the whole afternoon/evening activities.
As you could see in the post where the topic was the cleaning of the Schlossberg hill, the views were so pretty! I still have a few shots, as I was amazed and took several photos from different spots.
The city of Graz can be nicely appreciated from here, from a distance - from the top of the hill, although the guided tour in the afternoon made us learn from close about its history, traditions and architecture.
The Schlossberg hill is not missing its history either. Already in the 10th century, there was a fortification here. Later, another fortification that was built in the 16th century was demolished in a war at the beginning of the 19th century, but luckily, the tower clock survived!
The whole area is so nice and clean, of course it is, as some very dedicated Hivers thoroughly cleaned every corner of the path leading to the top of the hill, as well as the whole park on the hill.
As it was a Saturday, the number of tourists strolling around was high. We added to that number of people, with our Hive bags, Reach Extenders, garbage bags, and from time to time, taking photos too. 😁
It was really nice and interesting for us, and after the announcement of the winner of the cleaning activity and our lunch, we were supposed to go down the hill. You could go on foot, by elevator or funicular!! I immediately knew that was what I wanted.
I was already hyped here. 😂
But now the real one! We entered the carriage that was already waiting with people inside, and the ride started a few moments after that. I think we were the last ones who hopped on that ride. If I am not mistaken, it goes on every 15 minutes or so.
The man in the blue shirt was as excited about this ride as me haha. He was also taking photos and videos. 😁
Here you can see that the other carriage was ascending and that soon we will meet it.
The moment it passed by us. I think I was like a little child, finding joy in such small things like seeing the meeting of two funiculars... Silly, right? 😆
And the ride finished... sniff, sniff... too quickly.
So nice red carriage, taking us down from the hill. :)
The slope was this steep. 👇
And here is a short video from the ride. I hope it will upload as 3Shorts
as I have no idea what I have done there while uploading it. 😅
▶️
▶️