Fun Fun Fun Funicular Away

Funicular station with (two of the three) Flame Towers looming behind
("Looming" is a foreshadowing because the day also included a visit to the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum.)

What you doing on your bed on your back?

You should be tourist-ing.

I was feeling all jetlaggy, laying in bed (on my back) and then it me:  I should be tourist-ing. More importantly, I should be out doing the things that brought me to Baku. Not the Maiden Tower, although it's impressive especially given its age: built halfway up in the fifth century A.D. or so and completed to its full height in the 12th Century A.D., which is very very tall for its era.

Not this attractive building:

Much newer than the Maiden Tower by uncountable centuries.  This is the Art Gallery Hotel, I believe.

And not this building:

But we're getting closer.

The Swan Fountain is even closer:

Mini-Venice is even closer.

But we're not going to take a gondola to get where we're going.

The Carpet Museum is a destination, but not the first stop of the day:

This is where we are headed first:

Well, not the Behram-ı Gür Monument. But what's behind it:

The funicular!

Ain't no fun like FUNicular fun.

Baku has only one funicular. The entire nation of Azerbaijan has one funicular. And this is it.

The funicular to Highland Park and the Flame Towers.

The ride to the top was quick. Not especially long and high. Not really steep. Is it the best funicular I've ever ridden? Not the right question. It's the funicular available to ride today and that, my friends, is more than good enough.

Pop out of the station, look to the right, and there's a Flame Tower and a mosque.

That is the Alley of Martyrs Mosque. It's Friday, so the call to prayer was audible. This is being Azerbaijan, I suspected that the "martyrs" referenced in the mosque name were Azerbaijanis killed fighting the Armenians at some point in that multi-century conflict. So I googled it. Google AI said I was mostly right. The martyrs were fighting the Armenians. But they were Ottoman soldiers who died fighting the Russian Bolshevik and Armenian soldiers in the Battle of Baku in 1918.

The view from the top of the funicular route is impressive.

The most prominent building in that picture -- and you'll be able to figure it out when I tell you the building's name -- is the Crescent Hotel.

And here's a typical tourist touristing in the tourist quarter of Baku:

I asked the young lady taking my picture for me to use the "beauty filter" -- like all the cool kids do nowadays -- to reduce the size of my gut. I think it worked.

More Flame Towers juxtaposed with the funicular station:

Let's take a stroll through Highland Park and enjoy the magnificent views:

Do you prefer your view of the Crescent with or without?

With trees?

Or without trees?

It was about then I noticed window-washers on the curved side of one of the Flame Towers:

So many viewpoints:

So many buildings in the harbor.

The body of water is, of course, the Caspian Sea.

Which isn't really, technically a "sea." It's the world's largest lake. What's second, you ask? My tour guide Azay from yesterday googled this so I didn't have to. It's Lake Superior.

This is "Eye of Baku".

It's another one of those giant ferris wheels that're in all the cities everywhere. Baku is not bucking the trend, It's riding it like me on a funicular.

So what is that building, you may ask, that from way up here, looks like a flower opening up?

It's just a shopping mall. Deniz Mall. It's funny -- curious way not ha-ha way -- the shopping mall concept is dead in the USA but thriving in the rest of the world. Baku, apparently, being no exception.

Zooming in on the Eye of Baku:

And as I wander back to the Flame Towers:

It's getting close to time to descend. The timing being dictated by the fact that this particular funicular goes on lunch break everyday between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Actually, it's probably the funicular workers who take the lunch break, although the funicular itself is on break, too.

Time for one last selfie up top:

And back at the funicular station with the minutes to spare before the final pre-lunch descent.

Miss it and you have to down ten million stairs. It's probably actually fewer than that. But the knees will think it was ten million.

And back in the lowlands. And like the statue in the middle of the fountain, I'm looking at the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum. It's the day's next destination.