Wuppertal

A day in Wuppertal by Schwebebahn

A day in Wuppertal follows the Schwebebahn suspension railway west from Oberbarmen. Stop at Adlerbrücke for the Engels-Haus, pass the spot where the young elephant Tuffi fell into the river in 1950, see the Von der Heydt-Museum in Elberfeld, and spend the afternoon on the city's public stairways.

Morning. Start at Oberbarmen, the eastern terminus, and ride the Schwebebahn west. Get off at Adlerbrücke for the Engels-Haus, the family home where Friedrich Engels grew up, with displays on the textile industry and the social conditions that shaped his ideas. The Wuppertaler Brauhaus, in an old swimming hall, is nearby in central Barmen if you want an early beer.

Late morning. Back on the Schwebebahn, look down between Adlerbrücke and Alter Markt: this is where, in 1950, a young circus elephant named Tuffi famously crashed out of a carriage into the river and survived. Continue to Elberfeld for the Von der Heydt-Museum, whose collection ranges from Dutch masters to German Expressionists.

Afternoon. Climb the stairways into the Ölberg quarter, or walk to the Luisenviertel for coffee. Then take the Schwebebahn to the Zoo/Stadion stop; the zoo, founded in 1880, has an underwater penguin tunnel and spreads over a steep wooded slope.

Evening. Ride on to Vohwinkel to finish the line, then return for dinner in the Luisenviertel, or catch a performance of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch if it is in town.

Day two. Walk or cycle part of the Nordbahntrasse, then visit Tony Cragg's Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden above the valley.

The Schwebebahn has 20 stations on its 13.3 km line. For about 10.5 km it hangs over the Wupper, with the rail 12 to 14 m above normal water level, and for the last 2.7 km or so, through Vohwinkel, it runs above the street about 8 m up. Kaiser Wilhelm II inspected the line in 1900, a year before it opened.

Bergische Kaffeetafel, Döppekuchen and Wuppertal house beer

Wuppertal's food is plain Bergisches Land cooking. The ritual is the Bergische Kaffeetafel on Sunday afternoons, with waffles, hot cherries, rice pudding and coffee from a Dröppelminna pewter pot. Döppekuchen, grated potato baked with bacon and onions, is the cold-weather dish, and the Wuppertaler Brauhaus in Barmen brews its own beer.

Wuppertal is in the Bergisches Land, and its food traditions are those of a frugal hill country. The great ritual is the Bergische Kaffeetafel, a spread served on Sunday afternoons: fresh waffles with hot cherries and cream, sweet raisin bread, rice pudding with cinnamon and sugar, black bread with cheese and sausage, and coffee from a Dröppelminna, a pewter coffee pot with a little tap. Country inns on the slopes around the city still serve it.

The savoury side is plain and filling. Döppekuchen, grated potato baked slowly in a pot with bacon and onions until crisp, is the local favourite in cold weather, often with apple sauce.

For beer, the Wuppertaler Brauhaus in Barmen brews its own Wupper Hell and Wupper Dunkel, poured on site and also bottled for a few local shops. The brewery fills a converted 19th-century swimming bath, with tables where the pool used to be. Try the house fries and spare ribs or the pork knuckle, and expect live music on many nights.

The Luisenviertel in Elberfeld is the place for cafés, bars and casual dinners. In summer, the Lange Tafel sets up a long row of tables in the street where cafés and bars serve their food and drink side by side. Kurdish and Turkish restaurants in Elberfeld add good-value grills.

Waldfrieden sculpture park and the Nordbahntrasse rail trail

Two outdoor sights fill a second day in Wuppertal: Tony Cragg's Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden on the wooded slope above Barmen, and the Nordbahntrasse, a 22 km walking and cycling path along a closed railway on the city's northern side. Both are free of traffic, and both show the hills that the Schwebebahn ride leaves out.

The sculptor Tony Cragg bought the overgrown Waldfrieden estate in 2006, including the villa where the chemicals manufacturer Kurt Herberts lived from the late 1940s until his death in 1989. The park opened in September 2008 and covers about 14 hectares of woods and lawns. Around 40 sculptures stand outdoors, by Cragg and other artists, and three exhibition halls added in 2008, 2013 and 2017 hold changing shows; from 12 September 2026 to 3 January 2027 they show recent work by Cragg and a colour exhibition with Willi Baumeister and Oskar Schlemmer. The entrance is at Hirschstraße 12, and Café Podest serves drinks on site. The Cragg Foundation runs the park, and its permanent collection listed 59 sculptures in 2024. Check the park's website for hours and prices before you go, especially in winter.

The Nordbahntrasse follows two former lines, the Rheinische Strecke and a coal railway, both closed in 1991. It opened as a path on 19 December 2014 after works costing more than €30 million. Five tunnels add up to about 2 km, the longest up to 722 m, and viaducts and bridges account for another 1.5 km, so the gradient stays gentle even though the city below is steep. About 10 km through built-up areas are lit at night.

Two old stations on the route, Wichlinghausen and Loh, have been restored. At Loh about 1.6 km of track with points and signals remains, and a local group runs rail-trolley rides there. At its western end the path connects with the Korkenziehertrasse and the Niederbergbahn trail, and in the east with the Barmer Kohlenbahn, so cyclists can keep going well beyond the city.