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 Five Photos, Five Stories — Day Three

Thank you, Clare, at My Creative Cosmos for inviting me to join this photo challenge.

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 The funicular in downtown Quebec City, Canada

funnicularfu·nic·u·lar
fyo͞oˈnikyələr/
noun: funicular; plural noun: funiculars

—–A cable railroad, especially one on a mountainside, in which ascending and descending cars are counterbalanced.
—–A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.

Quebec City — We fell in love with this lovely old European-flavored town the minute we got off the cruise ship. It really was like being somewhere in Europe. There was just enough French spoken to give it that exotic feeling, and meals in the restaurants and hotels are eaten at the same leisurely pace they are in Europe.

One of the most fascinating things we saw was the funicular that took you up to the next street. It’s steeper than it looks and you can see for miles and miles from the glassed-in cars. It’s not a great picture, but if you look closely you can see the two cable cars, one near the bottom and one near the top. I’d say they probably hold 20 or so people. These funiculars come in all shapes and sizes. Here are a couple more examples.

Montesanto Funicular in Naples, Italy, in 2008.

Montesanto Funicular in Naples, Italy, in 2008.

 

Greatincline funicular

The Great Incline funicular of the Mount Lowe Railway (1893–1938). The arrow indicates the location of the car on the Macpherson Trestle. Grade: 62%.

There are funiculars throughout the world, even in the U.S. But that was a real oddity for us. If you ever have a chance to ride on one, I guarantee you’ll probably want to do that rather make the hike up whatever hill it’s on. In fact, there’s a funicular that runs up to the top of Mt. Vesuvius should you desire to look into the volcano!

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The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge rules require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo.  It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph – it’s entirely up to you. 

Then each day, nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge.

Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command.  Today, I’m inviting Plato of Plato’s Groove to join the challenge. 

(Actually, anyone can join in, so please do.)