Yvoir

Having gone to Germany to find a station starting with X and before heading to Netherlands to visit some stations starting with Z, we found ourselves in Belgium to visit a station starting with Y.

I think it’s safe to say that Yvoir wasn’t the most memorable station on this challenge.  It wasn’t even the highlight of the day.  Some of that’s probably down to us and the time of day we ended up visiting – in the evening.  And some of it down to the fact that Yvoir station is away from the main part of town.

We’d had an interesting day in Wuppertal and Aachen in Germany before making our way to Namur where we were staying overnight.  As the night was still young after we’d checked into the hotel we decided to make the short journey down to Yvoir rather than wait till the following day for our visit.

Rather strangely, I think, Yvoir wins the prize for having the longest platform I’ve been to on this challenge.  I’ve no idea why a station in such a small place has such a long platform though I’m sure there’s a reason.

Not much was happening.  A local bus arrived to collect a couple of passengers.  We walked over the road to have a look at the river trying to tease out some positives from this experience but it was indeed a challenge.  After an hour we cut our losses and headed back to Namur and took refuge in a handy Irish bar.

Getting there

The highlight of the day happened to be at the very beginning when we spent a few hours riding the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn (“Wuppertal Suspension Railway”). It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world. And a fascinating experience it was too. It even went through the heart of a Bayer plant nestled in the midst of a residential area. For much of the 8 mile length the railway runs above the river with the green steel support struts embedded in the embankments.

After leaving Wuppertal we headed for Aachen near Germany’s borders with Belgium and the Netherlands and had almost three hours exploring this attractive town, looking at the old churches and sitting in the sunshine.