Hi Mummy,
today we visted the neighbour city Wuppertal. After finishing work at 1:00 a.m. Katja's daughter met us and we went to Wuppertal by bus.
After having lunch we took a short walk through the city centre.
This is the market place in front of the city hall...
and one of the nearby shopping streets.
Our host suggested to visit "Hardt", a large landscape park in Wuppertal-Elberfeld. The botanical garden also would be situated there. That sounds great 
On our way to Hardt Katja showed us a funny bridge. A funny bridge?
Yes, have a look - a Lego-Bridge!
This bridge is a concrete beam bridge which crosses over the Schwesterstraße. This bridge belongs to a former railway track was repainted as this Lego-Bridge in 2011. It even won a prize!
From here it was a short walk to Hardt, along a large allotment area.
Soon we reached the parkway. Those greenhouses belong to the Botanical garden. You can already see the greenhouses and Elise Tower, which was built in 1838 as the garden's focal point.
We strolled around the fantastic park, enjoying the sunshine.
In the Botanical garden you can find all kinds of plants, both trees and flowers, bushes and different kinds of grass, also herbs.
This is a bog garden with carnivorous plants.
Here you can see the former country house of a textile manufacturers named Eller, which contained a villa (built 1820), orangery, residential and farm buildings,
When this large tree came into sight Kirin was jumping for you It is an araucaia from Chile, Kirin's home country.
Here is a close shot from the araucaia's branches. It looks like something living 
We found this insect hotel, built as a miniature of Elise tower.
We also visited the greenhouses. Katja told us that today it was the first time that the temperature outside was even higher than inside the greenhouses. I found a banana plant.
Something you would have liked, Mummy
We left the park than to walk back to the city centre. We walked along river Wupper where Katja showed us the district court and of course the famous Schwebebahn (suspension railway). Unfortunaltely it is out of order currently due to repair works.
The Schwebebahn was established in 1901. The tracks are 8 m above the streets and 12 m above the Wupper River. There are 20 stations along the track which is about 13 km long, crossing some streets and even the A1 motorway.
The stations are built in different styles, this one is a modern one. Ther are also some stations which were kept or restored in their original historical style.
We went to Luisenviertel than, an old quarter, well known for lots of bars and restaurants, boutiques and small stores with jeweily, toys, home decoration and much more.
Did I already mention that it was incredibly hot today? After strolling through the city for more than 5 hours we enjoyed a large beer and small dinner in Luisenviertel.
We collected my photos taken with flowers for you
Love
Freya
