Guess this photo - May 2017

[PatrickLondon]

Correct! Your go...

 

[jonathan]

Ok; I've been a bit mean here, and erased identification marks...

 

[PatrickLondon]

Hmm. Not quite vintage but old-style tram - in style and colour, it looks like the ones in the Amsterdam tram museum line, but the architecture looks more eastern European to me.

 

[Colo]

With all the cigarette butts in the gutter, I am thinking eastern Europe also.

 

[jonathan]

I know what you mean about the architecture (and I hadn't examined the gutters before!) - but, at least in terms of present-day nationality, it's not what you'd think of as Eastern Europe.

 

[Colo]

Question jonathan... Would one pay with a Euro to ride this tram?

 

[jonathan]

Yes!

 

[PatrickLondon]

They do use that blue in Munich....

 

[jonathan]

I'd always imagined Munich's streets would be cleaner (not yet been, though).

 

[Colo]

yeah I was going to guess somewhere on the other side of the wall in Berlin. Jonathan have you been to Berlin?
Do they have blue trams?

 

[PatrickLondon]

Berlin's yellow.

 

[Colo]

Never Been - New Fun Fact to store away - Trams in Berlin are yellow. I love trivia

 

[jonathan]

And the Berlin ones are all pretty modern and glossy, from what I remember. No, not Germany (even if you would have heard plenty of German being spoken there a century or so ago...)

 

[Ian Sutton]

Going mostly on the latest clue, could it be Bolzano in Sud-Tirol / Alto Adige?

 

[jonathan]

Oh, but I think you'd hear a fair bit of German spoken in Süd-Tirol/Alto Adige today as well. My city features quite a bit of bilingual signage, but the second language isn't German.

 

[Pauline]

The clues so far.

but, at least in terms of present-day nationality, it's not what you'd think of as Eastern Europe

Would one pay with a Euro to ride this tram?

you would have heard plenty of German being spoken there a century or so ago...)

My city features quite a bit of bilingual signage, but the second language isn't German

A country on the Euro, where they do not speak German today but did 100 years ago, which is bilingual (but German is not one of the languages). Not Eastern Europe.

Belgium? German is not an official language, they are on the Euro. Belgium languages are Flemish and French. (Steve's helping me.)

 

[Andrew]

German actually is an official language of Belgium, according to Wikipedia.

My guess here is Trieste.

 

[jonathan]

All very logical, Pauline - but I was talking about the city, not the country as a whole! And Andrew is spot on: Trieste. A lovely city: this was our second visit. The Südtirol/Alto Adige region, up towards the Brenner Pass, is still distinctly bilingual, and in terms of both architecture and cuisine, feels much more Austrian Tyrolese than Italian.

But here in Trieste, you're very close to the border with Slovenia, and you'll see plenty of signs in Slovene as well as Italian; the spoken language is almost universally Italian. The architecture, though, harks back to Trieste's heyday as the maritime capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and there are lots of grand cafés, and restaurants, which would look equally at home in Vienna.

That tram (actually a sort of tram/funicular hybrid) takes you up a winding & steep route to Opicina: good walking up there, and fabulous views down to the city and its busy commercial harbour.

Over to you, Andrew!

 

[Pauline]

German actually is an official language of Belgium, according to Wikipedia.

So much for Steve helping me!

 

[Colo]

German is an official language - Yet apparently spoken by few.
I new it was a multi-language country, but... I was truly surprised when I looked this up at the number of languages spoken. Languages of Belgium

Yellow Trams in Berlin and now the many languages of Belgium! Learning a bunch on this thread.