Having a few hours still to kill due to the centre being closed I decided that I would head over to highland park and the viewpoint. As the walk over to the centre had been both cold and uninteresting, and the funicular up to the viewpoint is directly behind the carpet museum I walked to yesterday, it was time for a Bolt. The taxis here are incredibly cheap, the trip that would have been close on a 90 minute walk was less than £2!

The funicular closes from 13:00 to 14:00 and, of course, it was closed. So what is a man to do but take the stairs? This proved to be my most stupid idea of the trip, in fact probably the most stupid idea of many trips. Up you go, flight after flight, until eventually you meet the funicular track and you can see ahead of you just a couple more flights



Heart pounding, brow sweating, calves aching you leap up the final few steps ready to celebrate your success. As you crest the final few you see this



Oh well, what’s a handful more flights after surviving so many. Up you go, one step after the other until solid flat ground appears and you’ve made it! NOT! Off to the left you espy this final trial



Definitely my most stupid idea, perhaps ever.

I had to Google it out of sick idle curiosity and it is 667 steps, or equivalent to a 30+ storey office building. I will not tell you my heart rate by the top otherwise you’d be calling a doctor, or a coroner, or, even worse, a personal trainer

Was it worth it? Meh








I wanted to ride the funicular once at least and so jumped on board. Tickets cost 1 Manat, or less that 50p for the 3-4 minute ride



There was a large queue waiting for the trip up, sensible people one and all!



And this chap stood in a pool of water with a ridiculously over-engineered back scratcher