Posted Jun 3, 2007, 8:58 pm
Today I decided to go on that travels and I also got my ID number. You know, of course, that Galen brought me on that way and of course Aaron, Cassiopeia and Robby too.
The whole family was invited in a Greek restaurant today and Galen and I were allowed to go with them. We ate Zaziki and salade and some meat. Later at home we had some icecream from the Italian too.
Posted Jun 3, 2007, 9:03 pm
Posted Jun 14, 2007, 9:07 pm
Then we went shopping and Sabrina bought so many books, because she had some gift coupons.
On our way home I saw a rather high tower. It is the old tower of the former castle in Bruchsal. It is in the middle of the city, but unhappily it is the only rest of that castle, which still exists.
Posted Jun 14, 2007, 9:11 pm
But I was allowed to see the lovely botanic garden of Karlsuhe. That was the place, were the kids sat and draw their paintings.
Posted Jul 22, 2007, 10:10 am
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Posted Aug 2, 2007, 8:53 am
Ballet Cindy from Netherlands
C.K from Australia
Nuada from Rostock in Germany
Snape, the squirrel from Spain
Bongo and HolidayHarry from Oregon, USA
I'm really happy to be with this friends and very excited too, because C.K. knows Kalli, the koala, from Becka_kate and to meet him is one of my missions.
Posted Aug 2, 2007, 9:15 am
The house Sancta Maria is also very nice. Both, the church and St. Maria, are not far away from my home. The street you see here leads to our house and when you turn around it leads to St. Maria. When you come to the crossing and walk to the right, then you come to St. Peter and the graveyard.
When you go down this street our house is on the left side behind that tree. The next photo shows our (rent) house and garage and a part of our car.
Here I am in front of the private catholic grammar school St. Paulusheim, which was founded by patres of the Pallotti order.
Then we went to take some photos with views over Bruchsal
Later we said good bye to Ballet Cindy and HolidayHarry, who decided to travel to Farmington, USA.
Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:46 am
yes, I had a nice trip. In June and July I was on tour for three weeks.
Sabrina's aunt and uncle took me with them on holiday.
Oh, I have seen so many nice things.
But let us start from the beginning.
We departed at 06-10-2007. The sun was shining and I had an nice place in the car.
Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:48 am
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Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:53 am
At Flensburg, which was our first stop for a night, sun was shining. Our breakfast was very good.
Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:55 am
Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:57 am
I was so excited, because we drove over the Great Belt.There is a great bridge over the Belt. The bridge connects the Danish island Fünen with the Danish island Zealand.
Posted Aug 11, 2007, 10:58 am
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In the morning we took a visit to the Bosjö-Monastery. What a nice garden of roses. The monastery with its garden is situated at the shore of a lake.
Posted Aug 11, 2007, 11:23 am
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Posted Aug 16, 2007, 2:33 pm
For me it was so interesting to see kangaroos at the zoo. I always love to see something that has to do with Australia.
Of course I also liked to see the old castle of Heidelberg. It is sooo romantic and you have such a lovely view over the Neckar.
Posted Sep 23, 2007, 5:10 pm
Right now I'm playing with Sabrina and the other toyvoyagers, which are going with us on this trip.
We had a little break and Decker and I had been allowed to go with my hosts and their family to drink some coffee and eat a "snowball"
I had been allowed to sit next to the window and to take a look on the mobile phone, but it didn't ring.
Posted Sep 23, 2007, 5:12 pm
Do you see that white building in the far. This is the Walhalla.
This is a Hall of Fame and Honour, modelled after the Parthenon in Athens and located 10km west of Regensburg on the Donube River.
It was an idea of Crown Prince Ludwig I. of Bavaria in 1807. It was meant as a place for the commemoration of great figures and events in ethnic German history, at a time covering 1800 years, beginning with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9AD).
Some of the most recent additions were: Albert Einstein, Sister Gerhardinger, Konrad Adenauer, Johannes Brahms, Sophie Scholl.
Posted Sep 23, 2007, 5:26 pm
Unhappily our hosts meant, that they would sleep in the beds and we should sit and sleep on the windowsills
While Petra and Sabrina went swimming, we cuddled together, because it wasn't that warm so close to the window
Posted Sep 23, 2007, 5:43 pm
Ralf's sister and her husband, who took me with them on their trip to Sweden, wanted to be on a photo with me.
Hasi and I took a little nap on the stones in the park.
There were beautiful glasses with religious texts in German.
Ralf's mum wanted to hold me too.
In the park was a water wheel. I saw Tux, who wanted to jump into the water, but I didn't want my hat to get wet.
There was also a room in the shop, which was more a room for meditation than a room for shopping. I liked this room, because it was very silent here.
We also found this crib of glass in that room.
Later we had a rest with a big ice-coffee.
Posted Sep 23, 2007, 5:45 pm
Since 1939 the area around the Arbersee is nature reserve area. Each year 1/2 million of visitors come to see the lake.
Posted Sep 23, 2007, 5:47 pm
Posted Sep 23, 2007, 5:56 pm
At last we want to visit Regensburg.
Regensburg is located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. The old town of Regensburg is Unesco World Heritage.
The first settlements in Regensburg date to the Stone Age.
Posted Oct 8, 2007, 4:27 pm
We hope to see you again next year. Have a nice time, we are sure, you will enjoy it.
Posted Oct 10, 2007, 9:23 pm
). But the people in Germany don't really celebrate on that day.
My family decided to go shopping in the Alsace, which is in France.
Posted Oct 12, 2007, 12:32 pm
Here is a part of the palace garden called rosegarden.
I know, that my clothes maybe aren't the right clothes for being here, but it is my favourite. In the background you see the backside of the palace.
In the palace garden are many statues. Four of them show the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn and four other statues show the four elements: water, air, fire, earth.
Sabrina and her brothers loved to look in this pond, when they were little kids, because there are many ducks.
Here is the point, where people meet to start a guided tour through Bruchsal.
This building is called Belvedere and was a hunting lodge in former years. In summer months it is used as a place for open air theatre.
This fountain is next to the Belvedere. The park around the Belvedere is called "Stadtgarten".
Posted Oct 12, 2007, 12:42 pm
The Michaelskapelle (chapel) is on the Michaelsberg (hill), which belongs to Untergrombach.
Take a view of a part of the Kraichgau.
Posted Oct 12, 2007, 12:47 pm
Posted Oct 12, 2007, 2:12 pm
On our way to Lauterburg we had to drive close to the border again.
Posted Oct 12, 2007, 2:22 pm
Nearly we slipped out of the last photo, uuhh.
Posted Oct 12, 2007, 2:28 pm
on the way to Wissembourg
We wondered about this traffic signs. They deleted every word, that showed to the left side, but nothing to see, why they did this.
This is the only photo of me in Wissembourg, I'm really sad.
Posted Oct 12, 2007, 2:38 pm
So my family drove to this nice chapel and water. Petra just forgot, where this was, but maybe someone can help her to remember it again.
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Posted Oct 12, 2007, 2:42 pm
(I can't put this online without telling, that I'm so sorry for everything that happened during these years.)
Posted Oct 14, 2007, 2:14 pm
Posted Oct 14, 2007, 2:17 pm
This is the entrance of the soccer stadion of the team of Karlsruhe. My whole family is fan of that team. I'm so sorry, that Alfie Langer was in his package already, so we couldn't take a photo with him
Posted Oct 14, 2007, 5:18 pm
This is the first car built by Carl Benz.
I asked and begged so long, that Petra allowed me to climb on the car and sit there. It was a very exciting moment, especially for Petra
Then she took two more photos in Ladenburg. It is a very nice city with lovely buildings.
Posted Oct 25, 2007, 2:27 am
I arrived on Thursday 18/10/2007.
Its a lovely place near the ocean.
Cant wait to explore this town.
Posted Nov 13, 2007, 9:16 pm
I'm a toyvoyager, that wants to stay at home and only travel with members of the family, except of traveling to Australia.
Kari's travel plan
Caro.lien
Kira1997
Becka_kate
Yillup
Prowl_Worshipper
fasamapera
fam-united
JaymeC
crizle
BlackCat
wants to visit Neilius
Posted Dec 29, 2007, 12:22 pm
Posted Dec 29, 2007, 12:24 pm
Posted Dec 29, 2007, 12:25 pm
Let's take a look to the pictures we have made
Posted Dec 29, 2007, 12:29 pm
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It was very interesting to see the parlament and the Brandenburger Tor.
Posted Dec 29, 2007, 12:52 pm
The highlight today: BBQ
Posted Dec 29, 2007, 12:57 pm
Posted Jan 20, 2008, 11:05 pm
In her letter box outside her house
Posted Jan 23, 2008, 10:15 am
To make up for this very poor treatment, my host took me with her to Olympic Park to the Bon Jovi concert. Wow! Amazing! Even though we had to sit in the nose bleed seats it was well worth it!
Here is the Olympic Stadium (which since the Olympics has been renamed Telstra Stadium after it's major sponsor). This was where the Opening and Closing Ceremony and Athletic events were held during the Olympics. My host told me she went to the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympics and had to be like a mountain goat to climb up to her seat in the rain.
And, this is Acer Arena where the concert was being held. During the Olympics it was called the Superdome and this is where you would have gone if you wanted to see the gymnastics or basketball or other indoor sporting events.
Posted Jan 26, 2008, 8:44 am
The day is marked in most local areas with picnics, community barbeques, live entertainment and fireworks at night.
In Sydney itself there are many different events celebrating the day and today I got taken into the city to check some of them out.
The first thing we did was go for a ride on a vintage bus.
We caught the bus from outside the QVB shopping centre, which is next to the Sydney Town Hall. (That's the Town Hall in the pic)
The bus was fun to travel on, even if it did smell a bit dusty.
We didn't stay on it long though, as we only rode it down close to the Harbour.
This is the anchor from the HMAS Sirrus, which was the ship that led the First Fleet and carried the first Governor of New South Wales (ie Australia) out from England in 1788.
Posted Jan 26, 2008, 8:55 am
Maybe you've heard that Australia is a sports mad nation?
You'd better believe it! Look! Here's a huge outdoor TV screen that was set up so that everyone who wanted to could watch the Australian Open (which is currently being played in Melbourne) even while they are out enjoying the celebrations. Crazy huh?
Hmm, we seem to be experiencing technical difficulties with photos. Will continue this tomorrow! Bec
Posted Jan 27, 2008, 8:46 am
Posted Jan 27, 2008, 8:56 am
Posted Feb 1, 2008, 7:03 am
Can you see the tiny little spikes on top of the bridge? They’re people doing the bridge climb. You climb right up to the top of the bridge, then cross over the top (across the road way!) and come down the other side. According to Bec’s sister who did the climb a few years back, the view is amazing!
This is the south pylon of the Harbour Bridge. We saw people standing on the viewing platform on the top watching for the tall ships too. We had considered going up there too, but the humans had blistered feet and no inclination to climb the 200 or so stairs to the top (I think they had very little sense of adventure, but what’s a small koala to do?)
As you can see, lots of people were beginning to gather to wait for the ship race to finish.
The harbour was very, very busy today too, with lots of ferries, cruise ships and pleasure craft out and about enjoying the sunshine.
We waited for a long time. Here we’d been waiting for almost a half hour, but still could only just see the tall ships. That white “blob” is the P&O Ocean liner.
Finally, close to 4:00 the tall ships actually got close to the finish line. Can you see them? There were four ships in the race, but I don’t know which one was which!
Suddenly, there was a loud BOOM! One of the ships, we think it was the Young Endeavour, fired its cannon at one of the smaller ships just after it crossed it’s bow. How exciting! (If you look closely at the photo, you might be able to see the smoke!)
Everyone cheered and clapped as the ships crossed the finishing line almost an hour after the race had begun. I’m sorry to say, I don’t know which ship won the race.
Can you see the little boat right above my paw? It was competing in the “Best Dressed Boat” competition. It is covered in tinsel, flags and streamers and looked very beautiful. (There is a better photo of it here.)
After the race, we walked down a little further to Dawes Point so I could stand under the Harbour Bridge.
Another thing that had happened while we were watching the tall ships, was that the Army parachutists put on a display. They jumped out of a small plane in a puff of pink smoke,
Flew over our heads,
And landed in the water, right in front of the Sydney Opera House.
Posted Feb 1, 2008, 7:33 am
While looking into what we could do to celebrate Australia Day yesterday we stumbled across the details of a match between Bankstown (the local “county” side) versus Sri Lanka at Bankstown Oval, which is just around the corner practically from where I am staying.
So, with my new friend Kalli we packed a picnic lunch and went along to join the fun.
Cricket can sometimes be a very slow sport to watch. This was a one-day match. That means that each team gets one innings of 50 overs each in which to score as many runs as possible. One over is 6 balls bowled at the batsman. When the batsman gets a hit he runs to other end of the pitch and that makes 1 run. If he runs back to his starting point, that’s two runs and so on. There are two batsmen on the pitch at one time. (I hope this is not getting confusing! - there are much clearer explanations on YouTube if you type in \"This is Cricket\") You can get out if you are caught on the full, “bowled”, meaning the stumps, the three sticks behind the batsmen are hit, or “run-out”, which means that the ball beats you back to the stumps on a run. Getting an opposing batsman out is cause for great celebrating among the fielding team.
When we got to the match, Sri Lanka were batting and Bankstown were bowling & fielding.
The game just seemed to go on and on and on! But I started to get the jist of the game. Sri Lanka hit a lot of fours (when the ball gets to the boundary without being stopped by a fielder) and sixes (when the ball goes over the boundary on the full) so that was pretty exciting. Plus it was fun to listen to the crowd. There were a lot of Sri Lankan supporters at the match who had bought their drums and trumpets to help cheer on their side.
One thing to remember is that if you are out in the Australian sun in the middle of the day, it is important to protect your self from the sun so that you don’t get sun burnt!
This hat was a little slice of home – the R32 being a Volkswagen Golf!
During the lunch break I think all the sun and fresh air must have gotten to me (or maybe all the travel and excitement of the last few days caught up with me?) and I had a little nap.
After lunch, it was Sri Lanka’s turn to bowl and field. Like many other supporters I went down the fence line to get a better view of the game and maybe meet a world famous player. No luck though, his mind was firmly centred on the game.
The final score for the day was Sri Lanka 9/274 and Bankstown was all out for 207, so Sri Lanka won the match by 67runs. We had a great time!
Posted Feb 10, 2008, 5:31 am
Posted Feb 13, 2008, 6:46 am
Before leaving, Kari said "Hi!" to one of his 'relatives' Cassiopeia who is here to do a little bit of travelling with Bec & Kalli.
Posted Feb 14, 2008, 1:25 am
I was greeted as soon as I poked my cute furry head out of the satchel by a few fellow travellers. Gargouille, Victoria and Hippity were the first to say hello.
I'm sure I'm going have lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to going to the Zoo soon! Maybe I'll see some REAL Australian koalas there...
Posted Feb 14, 2008, 5:52 am
I posed for some pictures though...
Here I am with my friends gargouille and Hippity:
And relaxing on my own:
Posted Feb 15, 2008, 10:46 am
I also helped mix the cake with my friends Hippity and gargouille
When we were done I got to eat some - not quite as yummy as eucalyptus leaves, but still very nice!
Posted Feb 17, 2008, 6:15 am
A closer picture of our lizard friend is here.
Posted Feb 20, 2008, 11:18 pm
This is me and gargouille getting ready in the car...
And with hippity in front of the Zoo...
We saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge...
And the Opera House...
I acheived 2 of my life missions today as well!!!! I saw some REAL koalas...
AND I met some kangaroos...
I also saw some echidnas, frogs, snakes, spiders, wombats, dingoes, tasmanian devils and LOTS of other Australian native animals!
It was really exciting to be back with other animals like me! I felt right at home.
Posted Feb 26, 2008, 9:49 am
I had fun singing some songs at the library where they have a class for babies, and then I shared a cup of tea with gargouille.
We had people comment on me having my photo taken. I told them who I was and where I was from, so they might end up having a look at this site some time soon!
We've just had a huge storm tonight - Australia often has really hot days in summer followed by big electrical storms!
Posted Mar 11, 2008, 9:36 am
I've been reminiscing tonight - looking back on my travelog so far...
Kylie's also been putting me to work cleaning the house...
Washing:
Vacuuming:
And cleaning the bathroom:
Boy, there's a LOT to do around a house!
Posted Mar 15, 2008, 9:46 am
Kylie said she would miss having my furry face around the place. I've been sitting next to the computer when she checks her emails! I hope I have as much fun where I stop next!
Posted Mar 16, 2008, 11:17 am
Posted Apr 12, 2008, 8:33 am
Man, you don't believe it, if you don't see it. How many toyvoyagers are here??? I have to count them, one moment please:
1 Pebbles, 2 (Playmo)Bill, 3 Curly, 4 Tilda, 5 Davy, 6 Chokito, 7 Josh, 8 HolidayHarry, 9 Coco, 10 Chiara, 11 Schnuffi, 12 Rudolph, 13 Tortilla, 14 Mingus Moose, 15 Snegovik, 16 FoxForce, 17 AliG, 18 Amara Anthea, 19 Florence, 20 Ted and me. Woow, that's a much more than I expected, but of course some of these toyvoyagers are from my family: Coco, Chiara , Schnuffi, Rudolph and me and I forgot Hasi. Where is Hasi??? I have to take a look. Oh, I think, she is still sleeping. I feel very tired now and think, I will take a nap too. Bye!!!
gotham.city@bigpond.com
Posted Apr 12, 2008, 11:29 am
I'm glad to be going home, I can't wait to see my family!
Posted Apr 27, 2008, 9:31 pm
Petra woke up early and told us to get ready to for a walk. We were very curious and excited of course. First we bought some bread rolls for breakfast (only a few bakeries or open on Sundays) and then we brought Ralf to work (normally he doesn't work on Sundays).
And then we drove in the car for about 15 minutes. We sat in the rucksack and you can believe me, it wasn't the best way to travel.
After we walked a little bit, we found this sign:
It told us the rules, how we had to behave at this place.
Oh, you surely want to know, where we were. There is a small Japanese Garden not far away from Bruchsal in Münzesheim, which Petra was told, that it is really pretty. She never had been there before, but now she wanted to go there together with us.
So now look at the photos and enjoy!
I saw a part of the Berlin Wall:
This building was very interesting, especielly the ceiling, which was made of white and blue bottles.
Posted May 5, 2008, 6:47 pm
3500 - 2600 BC first signs of humans had been found on this place, the "Michelsberg culture".
This view shows a part of Bruchsal, which is at the border between Rhine Valley and Kraichgau.
The quarry pond belongs to Untergrombach, which you see on this photo. This is the best view to see the Palatine Mountains on the horizon, but today we had no luck.
You see another part of Untergrombach. You see, that it is also to the border of the Kraichgau.
This nice chapel is called Michaelskapelle and it is on top of the Michaelsberg. Petra told me, that there are many couples, that want to marry in this chapel.
Here you see so-called "Steinriegel" (field clearance cairn), made by people working on their fields a long long time ago. They threw the big stones from their fields to the border of the neighbour's field, so that in the middle all stones were accumulated. Many animals and flowers love this gaunt places and that's why a few weeks ago, people cleaned the Steinriegel from all the earth, that came between the stone during the many many years and from all the other plants, that love to grow in earth.
Another word I learned is "Magerrasen" (neglected grassland), which is typical for the Michaelsberg. The town you see is Untergrombach.
The Michaelsberg is nature reserve area, I'm sure, you already realized this too. There are beautiful rare flowers and animals.
Posted May 30, 2008, 10:42 pm
on a table in our home for two weeks
and in front of the house. Do you see us???
and now???
We are sitting on the bench, a really lovely place.
Posted May 31, 2008, 3:05 pm
Posted May 31, 2008, 3:06 pm
We have to go there by a ferry, although the crossing takes only 3 to 4 minutes.
Fur is renowned for its deposits of diatomite, konwn in Danish as 'moler'. We want to go fossil hunting, but unhappily we have ho luck, because the woman at the museum shows us the wrong place. Anyway it is a nice small island.
We visited a small museum
and then we walked in a small park close to the museum.
It was warm and nice to sit on this big stone for a short time.
Uahhh! Petra! What's this??? Please take me away.
We found a place close to the Bishop's cap, where we had a great view over the landscape
Then we tried to find some fossils, but we only got covered with a lot of white dust.
At last we visited the graveyard, which was a wonderful pieceful place.
We realized, that it is common to hoist the Danish flag on graveyards and fly it on half-mast, if someone died and is carried to his grave.
We found many churches with ships hanging from the ceiling.
Would you think, that this is in Denmark?
Posted May 31, 2008, 3:08 pm
Posted May 31, 2008, 3:10 pm
I'm so so excited! Today my friends Chamki, Kuma, Bullet, Bokkie, HolidayHarry and I drive to Denmark. We have to help watching the traffic. There had been many many cars on the highway, which they call Autobahn in Germany.
Oh, now we are driving again. But do you see, what I saw? Again we stood between many cars. I think, we will never arrive in Denmark. What does Petra say? We will go to a youth hostel and stay in Germany for the night? Ok, lets see, I think, this is better than seeing this traffic jams. Bullet and I just turned our heads and played some games with Petra and her family.
Oh no!!!! Petra just called the youth hostel and they told us, that we can't come later than 10pm - but we know, we will be later than that. So what now!!! Petra and her family decided to drive the whole night until they arrive in Klitmoeller, where we will stay during our holiday. I'm sure, this will be a crazy night with 6 humans, many bags and two big boxes and of course many many toyvoyagers.
Posted Jun 2, 2008, 1:29 pm
Later Kuma wanted to take a bath. So we all sat around and thought about jumping in or not. Petra said, that it isn't nice to make such an event out of this and asked us to go playing outside again.
Crazy, crazy, crazy! Petra decided to hang Kuma up like laundry. Can you believe this?
Kuma shout out loud and when Petra came back and Kuma asked her, whether it is possible to dry somewhere else. So Petra put Kuma and us on the banister in front of the winter garden.
Because I didn't want to get all wet, I decided to only wash my face.
Later we went to the beach again. We just love it.
Posted Jun 2, 2008, 3:46 pm
Today we got up really early. Petra told us, that we would go somewhere really special. The weather was nice, so we would have everything we need for this trip.
We got the lunch packed and then jumped in our bag again. We got used to this now, so it wasn't such a problem sitting there during the drive.
There are also some bunkers from the second world war.
Finally we arrived at our destination and we saw: sand and water.
Grenen is the northmost tip of Jutland, north of the town of Skagen, thereby the northmost point of Denmark. Grenen was given its name for its shape like a tree-branch (Danish: gren). It's the point, where Skaggerak and Kattegat flow together.
You see me here at this place with waves from left and right, but the wind was so low, that there nearly were no waves.
Nevertheless we weren't allowed to go swimming.
I showed everyone a really fascinating effect - a rainbow ring around the sun. Petra read about it: This ring is called 22°-halo and is a ring of light with a radius of 22° around the sun.
Many people drive with the Sandormen
We bought some postcards to send them to our family and friends
Posted Jun 2, 2008, 5:41 pm
Posted Jun 5, 2008, 4:30 pm
The park is called Jesperhus Blomsterpark.
There was a very special rainwood indoor playground with Aztec monuments.
No, Petra!!! This isn't really a good idea to put me there!!! Please, please take me away
No, please not all together in this terrible mouth!!! Who knows, what happens!!!! Please, let me out!!!
Oh, God!!!!!! Is there nobody to help us getting out here again??? Don't you see, that I'm in great danger????
Phewww!!!! Sometimes it is very dangerous to stay with Petra and her family. Why don't they think of our feelings in this situations???
I loved these beautiful flowers.
Yes, this is much better. I had been so happy to have some time for myself to relax in the Chinese Garden, that belongs to the park.
It was really fascinating to see the beautiful Danish flag everywhere - not only in the park, but also next to many houses in Klitmoeller and other towns.
Do you know Hans Christian Andersen? He wrote many fairy tales and some of them also Petra told to her children, but some of them she only knew by name. In the Blomsterpark there were statues of these fairy tales coloured with flowers, although the flowers didn't bloom so much right now.
Here you see a photo with me and "The Princess and the pea".
The Princess on the Pea
A translation of Hans Christian Andersen's "Prindsessen paa Ærten" by Jean Hersholt.
Once there was a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess. Only a real one would do. So he traveled through all the world to find her, and everywhere things went wrong. There were Princesses aplenty, but how was he to know whether they were real Princesses? There was something not quite right about them all. So he came home again and was unhappy, because he did so want to have a real Princess.
One evening a terrible storm blew up. It lightened and thundered and rained. It was really frightful! In the midst of it all came a knocking at the town gate. The old King went to open it.
Who should be standing outside but a Princess, and what a sight she was in all that rain and wind. Water streamed from her hair down her clothes into her shoes, and ran out at the heels. Yet she claimed to be a real Princess.
"We'll soon find that out," the old Queen thought to herself. Without saying a word about it she went to the bedchamber, stripped back the bedclothes, and put just one pea in the bottom of the bed. Then she took twenty mattresses and piled them on the pea. Then she took twenty eiderdown feather beds and piled them on the mattresses. Up on top of all these the Princess was to spend the night.
In the morning they asked her, "Did you sleep well?"
" Oh!" said the Princess. "No. I scarcely slept at all. Heaven knows what's in that bed. I lay on something so hard that I'm black and blue all over. It was simply terrible."
They could see she was a real Princess and no question about it, now that she had felt one pea all the way through twenty mattresses and twenty more feather beds. Nobody but a Princess could be so delicate. So the Prince made haste to marry her, because he knew he had found a real Princess.
As for the pea, they put it in the museum. There it's still to be seen, unless somebody has taken it.
There, that's a true story.
And here we are sitting in front of a small version of Andersen's house.
We saw a small waterfall
We drove with a small boat
Posted Jun 5, 2008, 4:50 pm
We drove to Vestervig to see the large church and windmill there.
Vestervig is a settlement and parish in Denmark, located in Thisted municipality in Region Nordjylland. Vestervig has a population of 754 (2004), but a disproportionately large church which served as a cathedral until 1130. This cathedral is still the largest town church of Scandinavia.
Next to the church we found a place with many stones and first we wondered, what it really was. We saw these signs and tried to read it. We realized, that these were really old stones from the Iron Age. It was a village here from about 150 BC until early or mid 5th century AD:
Posted Jun 5, 2008, 5:13 pm
We only walked there a few minutes and then everybody realized, that we were so tired, that we only wanted to go home.
Posted Jun 5, 2008, 5:34 pm
Today we only go to Hanstholm in the afternoon, but first we just want to sit in the winter garden and relax.
Posted Jun 7, 2008, 8:30 pm
We drove by a very small train and Petra told us, that it was built for the soldiers, who had to go from bunker to bunker. They also carried munition in this train.
I had been really happy, when I saw this nice flowers after so many bad history.
This is the view to the Hanstholm harbor.
Posted Jun 7, 2008, 9:19 pm
Posted Jun 7, 2008, 9:36 pm
Here is Thisted harbour.
Then we drove to Thisted brewery to buy some beer glasses.
On our way home we saw these trees again, which only grow in this way.
Posted Jun 7, 2008, 10:29 pm
This signs explains where we were, so I asked Petra to write it again, so you can read it too:
Welcome to an experience in wonderful nature!
The main objectives of the Aage V.Jensen Charity Foundations are the conservation of nature and the protection of wildlife.
The Foundations support research and acquire and manage properties with a view to conservation of nature and protecting wildlife.
....Aage V.Jensen Charity Foundations has constructed observation towers and facilities from which the public can view even the most difficult to observe bird and mammal species.
These observation sites are constructed with natural materials, and the public is asked to treat these sites with care.
It's really a beautiful place, but Petra prefers to watch birds from outside instead of sitting behind windows. So she would have prefered to just watch them from the parking place. That's where she took these two photos:
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 10:01 am
It is a aquarium there, where you can see about 5 sorts of sharks, which you can find in the North Sea of course.
Sorry for the quality of the photos. I told the fishes and other animals to keep standing at a place while we were taking photos, but they didn't listen.
I learnt a lot about fishes
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 10:20 am
We also saw some cows
and lovely flowers
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 10:29 am
Oh, oh, oh. I think, I can't take more photos now. Petra and we all are sitting in the seat and hoping, that we arrive really soon. It takes about 2 hourse until we arrive at our destination, that's all I know. The waves aren't so terribly high, but I feel it in my stomage anyway.
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 1:41 pm
Kristiansand is a city and municipality and the capital of the county of Vest-Agder, Norway. The municipality is the 5th largest in Norway with a population of 78 919 as of January 1, 2008. The urban area, entirely located in them municipality, had a population of 64 930 on January 1, 2006 and is the 8th largest urban area in Norway.
Kristiansand was founded by King Christian IV in 1641, but the area has been settled at least since 400 AD.
The Kristiansand Domkirke is a late gothic cathedral from 1884.
This is a nice fountain next to the Domkirke
Inside the Domkirke everything was made of wood and looked really pretty.
Do you see Jesus on this photo? He looks brighter than everything and we had no chance to take a photo without this light, so maybe it is just the way they wanted it to be?
Then we looked for some postcards and other stuff.
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 2:18 pm
Baneheia is a popular recreational area to the north of Kristiansand city centre. It was laid out by General Wergeland and his troops in the 1870s. There are paths for ramblers, some of which are lit at night. You will find special trails for the disabled here. Marked paths take you through attractive wooded areas. There are swimming and fishing spots by the lake. There are good views from certain points. The area supports a variety of animal and plant life.
So now enough with this, just sit there and enjoy the photos. The water was more blue than you can see it here:
We stood on top of a big rock and Petra thought, that we all should take care for ourselves and don't walk too close to the edge. She said, that in Germany people already would have built a barrier so nothing could happen there, but we all enjoyed it just the way it was and is.
While we were waiting for the ship we had been able to watch, how it arrived at the harbour. The photo is zoomed so it is without me.
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 2:40 pm
But then Selina, Fabian and Petra had a great idea. We all helped to create a fairwell picture in front of the house and then we took photos with all of us.
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 9:37 pm
Posted Jun 8, 2008, 9:46 pm
Just let us sleep here and you can do some work, unpacking everything and washing, okay, Petra????
Posted Jul 26, 2008, 6:40 am
Petra made us some veggies, so we had something to nibble. She said, that this is much better than eating sweets.
The German team is really sad
But here comes a very happy Portugues team. They played a fantastic match.
A really sad face: Lehmann
The German "THANK YOU" to the organizers of the WorldCup 2008
Posted Jul 26, 2008, 11:47 am
For the filling we needed cream, nougat and hazelnut. I have to look, whether I will find the recipe. Petra's headmaster loves to play the saxophone, so she thought it would be a good idea to draw it on the cake.
When we were ready, we had to do some more handicrafts. This time we had to cut out some water lilies for the windows of the school doors.
Posted Jul 26, 2008, 3:05 pm
Here is the front of the album. Sorry, but we can't show the pages, because there are many photos with children.
Posted Aug 16, 2008, 2:22 pm
Petra calls them the falling star nights.
Posted Aug 16, 2008, 5:41 pm
Emmh, Petra. Don't you think, it would be much better to help us turn around? It is easier to watch tv, if you sit with your face to it, isn't it???
Okay, that's fine now. Thanks!
Posted Aug 16, 2008, 6:06 pm
Emmh, Petra told me, that these cakes aren't selfmade.
Later we sat on the oven and listened to everyone talking.
In the evening we enjoyed to sing some karaoke with my family.
Posted Aug 16, 2008, 6:18 pm
Posted Aug 17, 2008, 3:59 pm
Here we are:
At first I felt very scared, when I read this about the "Button in ear". I shouted out loud: Oh no! I don't want a button in my ear. Please call my mum, please!!!
But then Petra told us, that nothing would happen to us. We just would walk through this museum.
"Okay, I said. A museum. How exciting
"
But later I realized, that it is a really great museum, just like toyvoyagers' paradise. We visited the Steiff-Museum.
At first we listened to the story about Margarete Steiff's life. Then we had to help a girl and a toy to search for 3000 bears, which got lost on the way to the USA.
First we searched in the ocean.
Then we saw ice bears and penguins.
At last we found the bears in a big room:
Then we walked through another sort of exhibition, where the toys are behind glasses. Petra wasn't that happy about it, because the photos were worse than before and also then the photos weren't really great because of the dark light in the rooms.
At last Petra wrote something into the guest book and also mentioned, that we had been part of the family
Posted Aug 17, 2008, 8:14 pm
I think, Burrimul Memu looks rather nice, although Petra isn't that great in taking great photos.
Froggie is really funny with the hat.
Don't you think, that Galaxy Bear is a bit too tall?
No, Bokkie. This hat isn't made for you.
What do we think about Bruni Lila? I don't know.
Baby like the hat. She thinks, that it is a good hiding place.
Gina Giraffe looks like a clown. Maybe circus Barum will call soon, who knows.
Why does everyone say: Oh yes, Kari. Two hats, what a great idea! I really would love to own this hat instead of mine. At least today.
Oh, Nicki Bear recaptured her hat again
Posted Aug 17, 2008, 8:38 pm
Don't be too surprised, but you can't see me in the next photo....
.... because I'm here:
Posted Aug 25, 2008, 9:45 am
Then we went shopping in a big shopping center in Karlsruhe.
Petra told me, that she never had been in a shopping center like this.
Posted Aug 25, 2008, 10:26 am
Here we are on the road, still driving
There is a small railway driving up the hill. I'm sorry, but somehow Petra forgot to take a photo with me included.
Here we are standing in front of the tower and reading the sign:
This tower is the rest of a castle, which was built in 11th century by Earl of Hohenberg, enlarged in 12th century and destroyed by Konrad von Lichtenberg, bishop of Straßburg in 1279 A.D. The donjon was built between 1230 A.D. and 1250 A.D.
On the right you see the small hills and on the left the Rhine valley. If you drive through these towns, which you see here, you will arrive in Bruchsal.
In the far you see the Palatinate Mountains
View over Durlach and Karlsruhe
Posted Aug 25, 2008, 10:42 am
Then it got dark and we asked Petra, whether we were allowed to join her sleeping on the balcony again. We saw many falling stars that night - it's a pity, that we hadn't been able to take photos of them.
Posted Aug 25, 2008, 12:41 pm
Here you see a view from the balcony.
You can be sure, that I was a bit in fear to fall down. We were in the fifth floor and it was really high.
Posted Aug 25, 2008, 1:49 pm
Posted Aug 31, 2008, 9:55 pm
We had a lot of fun there, especially on the playground.
If you think, you don't see me here, you are right. I'm in Petra's rucksack.
These were the sticks we were climbing on
Here you see me at a station, which shows an event in Jesus life: The woman at Jakob’s well.
We also loved all these beautiful flowers.
Wow, this was a large chair!
Posted Sep 1, 2008, 4:51 pm
First I want to tell you a bit about Cologne:
Cologne is the fourth-largest city of Germany with about 1 Million inhabitants. It had been founded by Romans in the year 38BC and became the status of a Roman city in 50AD.
Cologne lies on the Rhine River. It is famous for the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom), which is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. The University of Cologne is one of Europe’s oldest universities. Cologne is also famous for the Cologne Carnival. Within Germany it is important as a media center, because many radio and television stations are based here.
I'm in front of the cathedral. Do you see the nice ornaments?
It isn't easy to take a photo of the whole cathedral, because everywhere you go, you run against walls.
Here you see a side of the Cologne Cathedral. We were surprised, that there was only a small scaffold, because they always have to repair parts of the Cathedral.
We still had some time left, before we met Ralf, Petra's husband again, who had to go to the garden exhibition, so we decided to walk down to the River Rhine and take some photos there. Here you see the railway bridge and a cruise vessel.
Just turning around on our heels we saw a part of Cologne's historic city.
We tried to find a place for a group photo and found this dry fountain, which just seemed to be the right place. Katja, Petra and Sabrina helped us to sit at the right place.
Then we walked back to the Cologne Cathedral to meet Ralf and go to have lunch together.
We walked to a typical Cologne restaurant, which also has a small brewery (Brauerei).
Of course it was a must to order "Köllsch" and a Malzbier, both typical beers of Cologne.
After lunch we walked back to the cathedral, because we had no chance to go inside in the morning. There still had been church service in it. Now it was open and we went into this big church with its beautiful windows. I'm sorry, but the photos aren't that great.
The cathedral is a World Heritage Site. It is one of the world's largest churches, the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. It has the scecond-tallest church spires and presents the largest facade of any church in the world. The construction began in 1248 and took until 1880 to complete. It is 144,5 metres long, 86,5 metres wide and its two towers are 157 metres tall.
Finally Katja and Petra were in need of a cup of coffee and the kids needed something to drink too. So we decided to walk to one of the nice cafes in Cologne and sit down there. We asked Katja and Petra for another group photos- - this time they should be on the photo too. After a short discussion they said "Yes".
On our way back to the cathedral we took another photo, this time with both towers.
The Cologne railway station is next to the cathedral. We went there to say "goodbye" to Katja, who got home by trail.
Then we walked back to the car and drove home too. We needed about 3 hours to arrive at Bruchsal again.
Posted Sep 1, 2008, 6:18 pm
We saw many interesting fishes and I learnt my first Danish word: klumpfisk. The Klumpfisk is called Mondfisch (moonfish) in German and Sunfish in English. I think, this is really interesting.
Here you should have seen me looking at a turbot, but Petra thought, that it is a good idea to don't turn the flash off.
Here you see me with the klumpfisk.
I also saw some seals. This one is swimming over my head.
I saw some jellyfishs too.
Posted Sep 1, 2008, 6:23 pm
Due to erosion several metres of sand get ablated each year, so the sand beach is changing its wideness and it steep coast arises from this.
The lighthouse is already covered partly and you only can see a very little part of the houses around the lighthouse, when you walk close to it.
Maybe you see the flying sand on this photo.
You see the sand dune growing in the inner land.
Posted Sep 4, 2008, 1:47 pm
First we drove to Rülzheim. There is a large ostrich farm Straußenfarm Mhou.
"Mhou"- is what the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe calls the ostrich. That's where the first ostriches of this farm came from.
Palatinate has an almost Mediterranean climate. The birds live on large green fields and outdoors all year long. The farming system is so successful, that the success rate is higher than that of most African farms. In the meantime farms from Scandinavia to Sicily and in South America work with the Mhou farm.
The youngest ostrich were about 2 or 3 days old
We were really close to the ostrich, although you don't really see it on this photo
This area, that you see here, is only a small part of the farm
In the shop you can buy really expensive bags (sorry for the black photo)
Petra loves this lamps made out of ostrich eggs.
Posted Sep 5, 2008, 8:54 am
I'm still smiling, although we had to search back and forth and we got really tired, but it was fun.
Posted Sep 27, 2008, 11:29 pm
Each year they celebrate a feast at their church. It is the feast of the patrons St.Damian and Hugo. Since many years it is tradition for the family club, in which Petra and her family are members, to bake and sell waffles. Each family brings batter for about 70 waffles.
This morning we helped her to get ready with everything, before she had to run to the parish hall, where they always sell the waffles in a tent. We asked, whether we could join her, but this time she had to say no
Posted Oct 12, 2008, 10:02 am
Posted Oct 12, 2008, 11:23 am
So we headed to Rülzheim and while Ralf bought the egg Petra took us out of the rucksack and showed us the ostriches. I can tell you, it is a really big farm with many many ostriches.
Posted Oct 12, 2008, 12:29 pm
Posted Oct 12, 2008, 1:35 pm
That's a really really big egg, don't you think so?
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 8:46 am
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 8:59 am
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 9:07 am
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 9:14 am
A bit later we bought our first streets. Petra wondered, why we all payed with the 10 000 DM - they all name it Euro now.
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 9:28 am
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 9:47 am
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 10:01 am
At first we helped to make a biscuit.
For lunch we had Käsespätzle (cheese spaetzle), because it was easy to cook.
Then I helped to cook the cherries for another cake.
Do you know, which one is my favourite cake? It is the carrot cake. In my back you see the one with the cherries.
Posted Nov 1, 2008, 10:41 am
Then first thing that I saw, when I came into the kitchen in the morning, was the Quiche lorraine, which Fabian baked yesterday night for his birthday dinner.
Then I helped to prepare the table for breakfast. Petra loves to eat honey. They have many different selfmade marmelade too. Of course they don't eat bread rolls every morning. Usually they eat bread, but always with marmelade, honey or nut
Now I helped to prepare the cakes for the afternoon. Here is the Cherry-Amaretto-Cake
and here the Mango-Coconut-Cake
Posted Nov 9, 2008, 12:30 pm
Posted Nov 13, 2008, 2:40 pm
This house shows the house of birth of Philipp Melanchton. It burned down in 1897 and was rebuilt.
The "Hundles Brunnen (doggie fountain) / Brettner Hundle" - a pug is the town's landmark.
Posted Nov 16, 2008, 2:11 pm
Posted Nov 16, 2008, 2:48 pm
Here you see the backside of the palace. The church tower belongs to that church, in which Petra and her family go on Sundays.
Here you have a great view over the palace garden with the colourful leaves now.
On the other side of the palace you can see the Damianstor (gate). There are art exhibitions every now and then.
Here you see the entrance of the palace. The left wing of the building is the church.
Here we are on the backside of the palace again. One the wall of one building, which belongs to the palace, you see a sundial.
Then we drove to the Belvedere, but it started to get darker now and so it wasn't too easy to take good photos.
The Belvedere was a former hunting lodge. Now the park around it is used as a school yard for a grammar school, which is next to the Belvedere. During summer there is an open air theatre.
Here you see the St. Peterskirche (church), which is only a few hundred meters from Petra's home. It is a nice baroque church, located next to the graveyard.
In Petra's garden I asked her to take a last photo with me and one of the last flowers (Aster).
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Dec 21, 2008, 4:58 am
How exciting, because I will be able to have a hot Christmas.
Because my host mum has been unwell, I have spent alot of time having fun with my fellow TV's, Hartz, Finja, Manner, Luv Leon and the soon to be TV's, Kanga (who has travelled the world) and Elston Echidna.
We have been very very well behaved.
This week we helped decorate the Christmas tree and that was fun.
I also sat in some beautiful New South Wales Christmas Bush which host dad had sent up to Queensland for our sick Mum.
Oh I do love that and so does she. Memories of her Grandma's house at Christmas with armfuls of it everywhere from her Uncle's bush property.
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Dec 27, 2008, 8:00 am
We had lots of cold food and icecream with our traditional plum pudding.
I shared my bonbon with Manner, such a cute little Austrian bear.
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Jan 13, 2009, 11:49 am
I spent a fun New Years Day in the sand with other Toy Voyager friends and the dogs Sam and Kayla.
Koala's don't swim, no, we just climb trees, but the smell of the sea made me happy.
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Jan 13, 2009, 11:56 am
A favourite walking place for our host Mum.
When we came home, I chatted to the other two Koala's who live here. Constable Ken and Sunny K.
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Jan 31, 2009, 3:08 am
I went to Crizles birthday, took a walk in the Australian bushland, and on Australia Day we had a party for Hartz before he went travelling again.
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Mar 20, 2009, 5:16 am
I like the big roots of the Moreton bay Fig tree and best of all,
I got to climb in a Eucalyptus Tree and because those are the only leaves I eat, I had a wonderful time.
Next day we went to Labrador Beach on the Gold Coast, about 1 hours drive from here.
We had prawns for lunch, not as good as eucalypts, but stll good.
Later I went to the movies and saw 'Australia" which was wekll done and directed. Nicole Kidman was in it and Hugh Jackman..
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Mar 20, 2009, 5:32 am
They are postcrossers who like TV's too, so it was a very good morning out.
After breakfast we walked in the park and visited the childrens animal sanctuary where I met a cranky goat.
crizle@westnet.com.au
Posted Mar 28, 2009, 9:27 pm
As you know, my host is ill so we have not been out and about much.
I went in a nice little car and caravan with my friend manner for a weekend away, such fun!
Last weekend we went to Toowoomba, up on the Darling Downs. Such a beautiful place, and we went to the Queeensland 150 year monument, the lookout at Picnic Pont and some nice walks.
I am now travelling to Germany and should be home with you soon.
Posted Apr 19, 2009, 12:54 pm
The whole city was filled with music: The Augustusplatz was full of people and instruments, 25 inner city stages, 25 fascinating evening concerts in 25 churches and as highlight the concluding service at the Leipzig Zentralstadion.
Ok, that's what will happen here. Right now I just arrived and I'm sitting on a chair waiting for what will happen at next.
We are waiting for a tram. Some crazy people painted the walls. I don't like these things.
Inside the tram we saw a poster of OhrenBlickmal
Then we walked into the inner city.
The Church of St. Nicholas (Nikolaikirche) was the starting point of peaceful Monday demonstrations for the reunification of Germany. The church was built from 1165 on, when Leipzig became town privilegs. The church was built in Romaneque style and in late Middle Ages reshaped as gothic hall church.
I found that bike at a place, where it isn't allowed to park it, but nevertheless I like this photo.
Over the way on the market place they had a competition in peeling asparagus.
We loved this poster next to the street.
Maybe you know Auerbach's Keller (cellar) from Faust, Goethe?
Faust and Mephisto in Auerbachs Keller.
Canalisation
The Naschmarkt is located in the center of Leipzig, at the back of the old town hall. In the middle of the place stands the baroque old bourse, which was built from merchants as meeting point in 17th century. In front of the baroque building you see a statue of young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who studied in Leipzig from 1765 to 1768.
During Middle Ages mostly fruit and vegetables were sold here, which were looked upon as unnecessary treat. Today the Naschmarkt changes each Christmas and Easter to an Middle Age market place.
In front of the Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as cantor.
On our way back to the hotel we saw many beer stalls.
We also visited the Porsche museum.
I was so excited, when they allowed me to sit in a Porsche Carrera.
Posted May 22, 2009, 9:51 am
As you can see, it has a ship theme.
We all looked over the menu, and decided on the steak meal, Jayme doesn't like sea food
Here I am at the table. The white dish behind me is the sauce dish, and then just beyond that you can see the grill they will cook our food on in front of us. Its very neat!
First they served some delicious navy bean soup
Then a nice salad
Next came the potatoes
And then the main dish. Steak and bean sprouts. Yum!
This is the woman who cooked our dinner, she did some neat tricks but unfortunately we couldn't get those on camera.
More updates soon!
Kari
Posted May 24, 2009, 10:39 am
Posted May 24, 2009, 10:43 am
Today Petra's family met members of their familyclub from church. They meet about 2 times a month and go somewhere together. Today they drove to Germersheim to visit the street museum. We saw old machines, which they needed to built streets, but also other machines like this old copy machine.
Posted May 24, 2009, 11:14 am
Posted May 24, 2009, 12:15 pm
Today we decided to go on a day trip to see a model railway. We drove to Merklingen (near Ulm), where they say, that they own Europes most beautiful model railway.
I also saw a real Ralf Schumacher Formel 3 race car.
Posted May 24, 2009, 6:29 pm
Posted May 26, 2009, 1:26 am
We went down the stairs then so that Jayme's children could ride on some toys, the train was lots of fun.
They also had lots of stores here in case you'd forgotten any souveniers to take home.
Finally we went outside to see some planes. It was very neat. We got to watch a few take off and Jayme's children had fun running around pretending to be airplanes.
On the way home we stopped by one of the playgrounds. We found another train!
Here is the playground, it was lots of fun.
I'm sorry it took so long to update, we've been helping Jayme a lot as she was sick, but we have another update coming soon and then hopefully we can get out (or stay in!) and do something fun!
Kari
Posted May 27, 2009, 6:17 am
Its been very, very rainy. And a bit hectic as Jayme's boys keep wanting to play! Today the weather cleared up for a few minutes, so we headed to the pool for awhile! Here I am next to the pool. See that slide in the background? Jayme's 2 year old went down it and came out head first, it was really funny.
Me and the other toys rested for awhile on the towel. Next to us is Jayme's husband being silly.
And here we are by the baby pools. They're small ones for the toddlers, very nice.
Hopefully we'll go do more fun stuff soon! The weather forcast says rainy, but we're all crossing our fingers it will be wrong
Kari
Posted May 28, 2009, 6:26 pm
The first photo shows a view to Obergrombach.
On top of the Michaelsberg there is a chapel called Michaelskapelle. Next to the chapel is a restaurant, where you have a nice view over the Rhine valley.
Petra loves to go on the Michaelsberg to show the Rhine valley to her guests and to show them the edge to the Kraichgau. Today she told us, that she wanted to go there, because she wanted to watch the sunset.
The houses you can imagine on the right side belong to Bruchsal. And you see a part of the quarry pond of Untergrombach too. On the horizon you can imagine two small small towers, which belong to the nuclear power reactor of Philippsburg.
Here you see Untergrombach down the hill.
Here we look in direction, where you come to Karlsruhe, which is in the Rhine valley too. You maybe can imagine the edge to the Kraichgau with its small hills.
I love this last view to the chapel in the evening sun.
Posted Jun 3, 2009, 10:59 am
We've had no end to bad luck here! First it was rainy, rainy, rainy. The sun came out and Jayme thought it was very lucky as she and her husband had a date scheduled that day to go ziplining, but then Jayme hurt her back while she was ziplining and has been trying to lay down and give it rest since. She's still hurting a bit, but can get up and move around much more easily now. Then the rain started again. Agh! Would we never escape the house? We did get out to go watch Night at the Museum 2, which was a very funny movie! Unfortunately pictures don't work well in a movie theatre
And then finally we woke up one day... and we could almost see the sun through the clouds! Jayme said it was as close to a sunny day as we were going to get, and the kids needed some exercise so out we went.
We ended up at Kurashiki Dam. Here you can see it from the top.
We went on down to get a closer look. The children liked playing in the water here, its only about knee deep on an adult so they can splash and play and its not very dangerous. They also like climbing up and down the little rock waterfall. Its a very popular place in the summer to cool down. Here we are sitting on some rocks in the water.
After awhile we retreated back to the shore. Usually Jayme says they'd sit here and have a picnic, but unfortunately the clouds came back.
We're all hoping the sun comes out to play for a longer time this weekend so we can do something fun!
More updates soon,
Kari
Posted Jun 4, 2009, 1:12 pm
Just a few minutes after our arrival, Petra stumbled over a roundwood and fell on her two hands. She was happy, that she had time to relax before she had to drive again - but she didn't expect, that she had broken her right thumb and torn a ligament there too.
I listened to different bird songs and tried to find out, which bird it was.
Posted Jun 11, 2009, 11:14 pm
Jayme was feeling a bit better so off to the pool we went... when she said pool I figured we were going back to the other one we'd gone to, but this one is apparently at a resort here on Okinawa. The resorts will allow you to come in and use their facilities for a day if you buy a day pass. I wondered how nice it could really be, but then when we arrived I was surprised! Of course our first stop was the locker room.
From there off we went to the outdoor pool. It was lots of fun watching the kids splash and have fun.
Then a surprise... there's another pool?! This one was inside, and had two water slides to boot! It was very shallow at the bottom of the slides, so mostly young kids went down. It was very funny to watch their faces when they hit the water.
We went back to the outside pool and took a small break.
At this point Jayme said the kids were getting hungry and it was sadly time to leave so we started making our way toward the exit. We did get to see the beach on the way, though we didn't stop there. Maybe next time?
We also got to see some neat Shisas near the exit. Shisa's are the guardians of Okinawa and you can find them on most homes and businesses. In fact, even Jayme's apartment has some. This one was very neat since it was playing an eisa drum.
More updates soon,
Kari
Posted Jun 17, 2009, 6:31 am
We were so excited! We woke up and finally there was some sun, so off we went to the playground near Jayme's house. All this rain has at least been good for the flowers, aren't they pretty?
We had lots of fun at the playground.
We were so worn out we got home and went to rest for awhile. We were going to go back out that afternoon, but oh no... this is what we woke up to.
Its really getting a bit ridiculous. All this rain! Jayme says she wishes we'd just have a typhoon or two and get the rain over with. We were all just sitting around wondering what to do when all of a sudden we heard some barking. We went to investigate and found this very loud little pup over on the DVD shelf near the X-Files dvds. Hm...
He was very insistent asking what the date was and how long he'd been gone and where the aliens were. Huh?! He said he'd gone to find the aliens at Roswell, NM and been abducted and wound up on some strange planet called eBay, tagless and lost. Then a few minutes ago he'd woken up and found himself here. Silly little pup, must be hallucinating. I asked him to come on home with me mommy, I thought maybe a real adventure would cure him of the need to make some up in his head.
Maybe we can have some fun around the house since there's not much to do out of it..
Kari
Posted Jun 17, 2009, 6:39 am
This rain just won't let up! Yesh. We decided to have some fun inside the house, since we couldn't really go out. We started calmly enough reading a book
But that wasn't really energetic enough, too much energy! We need to get out soon. So we decided to go for a drive.
After we ran over the 3rd little people we gave up on that though and decided another nice calm activity would be better. So we sat in and decided to try to do a puzzle. Geez these pieces are tiny.
No luck... so we went investigating to find another example of a puzzle and found this finished one waiting to be hung up
Much more interesting than the halfway completed one we tried. I'm glad I did at least get to move around a bit, because it was time for me and Spooky to get in the envelope and head home. I'll see you soon mommy!
Kari
Posted Jun 27, 2009, 1:04 pm
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:33 pm
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:35 pm
Here you see two views out of Petra's bedroom.
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:38 pm
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:42 pm
There is an exhibition of various alternating Unimog of six decades from the beginning until now, giving hints about technology, love stories between drivers and vehicles and lots of models.
We also took part in off-road driving on the Unimog Museum premises, climbing various hills and tackling other obstacles on the Unimog parcours. It was so so great!
I'm sorry, but there is only one photo with Spooky outside at the parcours.
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:43 pm
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:46 pm
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:47 pm
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 4:49 pm
Two zoomed photos without me:
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 5:35 pm
Building obliquely opposite of our hotel.
Entrance of our hotel
Having dinner at a pizzeria
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 5:48 pm
We had to drive with the bus too.
I helped to carry the instruments, but then I fell asleep on one, because it was such a hard work.
When I woke up again, I found myself walking upstairs into the stadium.
I had a good place to watch everything.
Ok, I'm a bit close to the camera, sorry. But it is the only photo with me and the big Duplo-house. Everyone had to write his address on a stone and send it to the organizators. After the service everyone was supposed to receive one stone back - it was supposed to be an exchange of addresses, but unhappily it didn't work too well.
I'm not sure, whether they realize, that I need sunglasses. The light is so bright, I hardly can see anything.
Oh, aren't they cute. My host offered his own glasses. Thank you so much.
I'm on my way home now and I'm really tired. Happily I found a nice place to take a nap. So goodbye for now.
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 6:29 pm
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 6:45 pm
and here is the rainbow.
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 6:47 pm
There are very old crossed from Middle Age, when people died from pestilence.
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 6:51 pm
Here you see a view to the jailhouse, built like a cross.
On our way home we drove through the Damianstor (Damian gate).
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 6:57 pm
This is a crazy town. Do you know, that Igel is hedgehog in English? I think, it is just funny.
Petra showed me this column, which is also Unesco World Cultural Heritage.
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 7:06 pm
Then she walked to the Stadtkirche and took a photo with me and the archeological excavation.
Posted Aug 9, 2009, 7:10 pm
Posted Sep 9, 2009, 10:20 am
Bruchsal is the largest city in the district of Karlsruhe and is known for being Europe's largest asparagus producer and one of the economic centers of the region of Karlsruhe
Bruchsal is located at the edge of the Upper Rhine River Plains and the Kraichgau along the Saalbach, which is a small tributary of the Rhine that joins it between Philippsburg and Oberhausen.
Ancient era and early Middle Ages
Excavations and artifacts that were discovered evidence a settlement existing on the Michelsberg (Untergrombach) as early as 4000 BC during the Neolithic. In the core of Bruchsal the oldest settlement discovered was dated back to 640 AD. It is located near the present Peterskirche, where I stay right now. The first mention of Bruchsal in official documents occurred in 976 when the King came to town. And during October of the year 980, Otto II and his Court stayed at the King's palace in Bruchsal for several days
1248 was the first time Bruchsal was referred to as a city and in 1278 St. Peters Church is mentioned for the first time. After extensive damage to both, the Palace and the Peterskirch were reconstructed in 1320. The Bergfried (an outlook and defensive tower bastion) was erected in 1358 and the city wall was completed in 1452. In 1460 the first coin was pressed in Bruchsal.
By April 24, 1711 Bruchsal had recovered sufficiently to play host to Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Habsburg Court in Vienna. Then in 1716 the Bishop of Speyer, Heinrich von Rollingen, moved his residence into the Bruchsal Palace. This move elevated the city's status to that of an official residence of the Diocese of Speyer. At the same time, Bruchsal became the seat of the "Vizedomamt", the most important office held by the Diocese on the West bank of the Rhine. In 1719 Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn became the new Bishop and after settling in he commissioned in (1722), among others, the new baroque château and the new Peters Church (from 1742). Both were built and, in part, designed by Balthasar Neumann. In the Bishop's honor, the Southern gate out of the château grounds is referred to as Damian's Gate to this day.
In the afternoon of March 1, 1945, Bruchsal was bombed. In addition to the 1,000 lives that perished that day, the entire inner city and the baroque château were destroyed. The baroque palace was rebuilt in the 70th.
That's enough of history now. I'm not sure, whether you want to read everything, but I thought, Petra should write a bit about Bruchsal's history. She used wikipedia and you will find more history and information there.
Here you see the back side of the palace and also a part of the church tower.
Then we saw some interesting statues, when we walked in the palace garden.
There are statues, which show the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Here you see summer.
And here's the fire salamander and a burning house of the element fire, of course.
There are some of the most beautiful and oldest houses of Bruchsal in Franz-Bläsi-Straße.
On our way back through the palace garden we found this old and interesting tree. Here all toyvoyagers, which stay in Bruchsal right now, are sitting together on the tree. It was a nice resting place and we had a good view from there.
Posted Sep 18, 2009, 9:23 pm
From the roof of the car park we could see the famous Bosch-Parkhaus (Bosch-car park). It spans across the motorway A8.
The car park has space for 4200 vehicles on five stories. The logo is the second largest illuminated sign in the world and the biggest logo in the world after the unlit Hollywood Sign.
Then we went to the visitor terrace, where we could see some planes starting and landing.
We also took a look at the old planes and helicopter, which belong to an exhibition on the visitor platform.
Antonow An-2
Messerschmitt ME 108 Taifun
Dornier DO 27
Harvard AT-6G
Posted Sep 18, 2009, 10:50 pm
I saw the soccer stadium of Stuttgarter Kickers.
When we turned around, we realized, that the weather changed and it got rather dark. So we hurried to drive home again.
What's written on this sign????
Upps, I think, we already saw the tv tower (Fernsehturm) a few minutes ago?
When we drove through Stuttgart it got darker and darker.
On our way home we saw this bridge and an ICE.
Posted Sep 19, 2009, 9:26 am
- arrived at St.Lunaire. Of course we had to go to the beach at once. Im on holiday with Fabian and his girlfriend and her family.
Saint-Lunaire (Breton: Sant-Luner) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Bretagne in northwestern France.
This old fishing village is very popular for its old church, its beautiful beaches and the English-style houses on the Pointe du Décollé. In the summer, a lot of rich Parisians live there, and, with the near-by villages of Saint-Briac or Dinard, it's possible to meet a lot of French "stars" in the area.
Fantastic viewpoints on the Pointe du Décollé, hill of La Garde Guérin and the Pointe du Nick.wikipedia
Posted Sep 19, 2009, 4:34 pm
Then we had lunch at a restaurant, where the Krippena is located.
We saw the world largest wood carved Christmas crib and a Christmas tree.
A Mexican travel crib
This is the smallest crib - in a hazelnut.
There's also Noah's Ark.
Posted Sep 19, 2009, 4:37 pm
Posted Oct 7, 2009, 5:03 pm
I arrived at my next host today
! Everything here is packed already, so I just have one photo for you. But soon we will travel and I will make a lot photos for you!
BlackCat said she will keep care of me and S. doesn't have to have sorrows. We will be back soon (2 weeks is not so long) and with a lot of nice updates. If BlackCat finds time we will even update from our holidays
!
Greetings to S.! I miss you all!
Kari
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 5:31 am
!
Today we will fly far, far away. I am really excited and totally happy to be with my friends Penny and Schweinchen. BlackCat said, that we will have nice holidays on another continent. But first we will fly to Dubai where we have to change the airplanes and then we will fly to our real destination!
There are nice airplanes at the Düsseldorfer airport. We are watching them while they are getting ready to fly. Our airplane is not here until now...
Another airplane is getting ready.
And there are still more.
On the flight we watched in tv how far we are away.
That was really interesting.
BlackCats brother was sitting next to her. He was making fun with us all the time.
There the computer in the front seat of him is loading a game. He played Minigolf on the whole way to Dubai.
We watched a movie.
Do you know which one?
It is Ratatouille! Really funny movie.
What a fly...6 hours in the air...that was quite long. But when we arrived in Dubai the travel was not over, yeah.
Greetings,
Kari
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 9:02 am
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 9:41 am
Saint-Malo during the Middle Ages was a fortified island at the mouth of the Rance River, controlling not only the estuary but the open sea beyond. The promontory fort of Aleth, south of the modern centre in what is now the Saint-Servan district, commanded approaches to the Rance even before the Romans, but modern Saint-Malo traces its origins to a monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan early in the 6th century. Its name is derived from a man said to have been a follower of Brendan, Saint Malo.
the harbour
I liked it, how you were able to see the houses and the people in that sign.
Then we visited the Saint-Vincent cathedral.
The original church, built in the 9th century, was burnt down during the attack by the Franks. Rebuilt by the archbishop Jean de Châtillon in the 12th century it became a cathedral in 1146. Built over nearly seven centuries it was finished in 1987 when the spire in the shape of a granite arrow -inspired from a 19th century model- was fitted.
Opposite the castle on the Sillon beach, the national fort was built in 1689 by Vauban and Garangeau with granite from Chausey.
I love the coast.
Petra tried some special effect on this photo. I like it.
There is a swimming pool at the coast filled with sea water. It is covered at high tide.
Robert Surcoufwas a famous French corsair.
We are at the harbour again
Saint-Malo has one of the highest concentration of sea food restaurants in Europe. It is famous for its local oysters from the nearby village of Cancale.
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 10:16 am
Cancale lies along the coast to the east of Saint-Malo. It is a picturesque fishing village popular with visitors, many of whom are drawn by its reputation as the "oyster capital" of Brittany
Then we went to see the oysters farm.
This is the lighthouse of Cancale.
Then we had an apéritif
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 10:23 am
The name St Briac comes from the name of Saint Briac, an Irishman. Briac arrived from Ireland with Saint Tugdual in around 548.
I'm hungry, so I ordered a Galette 4 Saisons
But maybe I prefer Galette with shrimps now.
Or should I eat a Galette Super Bretonne?
Maybe I just ask, if I can have a piece of all three?!?!
I love this pine tree.
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 10:48 am
After swimming I relaxed in the sun.
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 11:29 am
There are beautiful houses. Do you find me?
At the Pointe du Décollé
At the beach we found this sandcastle.
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 11:36 am
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 11:39 am
Posted Oct 10, 2009, 11:51 am
The Bietigheim Horse Market begins on Friday before the first Monday of September and ends on following Tuesday. Beside the traditional (actual) horse market on Monday, ride- and jumping tournament (Friday until Sunday), the other riding demonstrations as well as the procession (Monday) with following premium of the most beautiful cars, there is also an entertainment park with marquees, a large shopkeeper market.
Later we had fun on the river rafting.
The Bietigheim Enz Valley Bridge is a well-known German railway bridge over the Enz vallay at Bietigheim-Bissingen and one of the landmarks of the city. It was built from 1851-1853 as part of the railway line Bietigheim Bruchsal under the direction of Karl Etzel.
On our way home we took a photo of the landscape.
Posted Oct 11, 2009, 12:45 am
!
Wow, I arrived in Dubai now
! We have 5 hours at the airport here, so we explored it a bit.
They have nature inside the airport here (but I guess it is plastic).
And a nice fountain is here as well.
There you can give some money for a foundation. We didn't put money in, as we had none.
That is the small car that the police is using at the airport. It is really fast and cute.
Just a view so that you can see how it looks.
We even found a German friend:
Cool, or?
Some autumn decoration
!
They even sold toys there:
And of course: Postcards! Really cheap ones (BlackCat bought 30 postcards for 3 Euros).
Then we were hungry and tried the food of Burger King at the airport.
Do you see the fries on my hat?
BlackCats brother was making that Joke.
So, and then we had to go into the next airplane to our final destination!
Love,
Kari
Posted Oct 11, 2009, 1:00 am
!
Here is my story from our flight to Shanghai.
As you can see it was light when we started at the Dubai airport to our last flight for that day to China.
We were all so excited. BlackCat was watching the map thing again on her board computer.
Not even in China...
Getting closer...
Finally above China.
When we looked out of the window we saw this wonderful sunset.
It was a really nice flight. We had a lot of fun
!
Love,
Kari
Posted Oct 11, 2009, 1:08 am
we always say Ni hao here
!
We walked around the town today, just for some fun. It was really cool to see some difference to Germany.
There is a church between some skyscrapers. Looks really funny, doesn't it?
Just some skyscrapers
!
Here we went into a park and made photos with the skyscrapers in the background and nature in front of us. Looks really cool, I think.
A sign in the park.
That is Lotus
!
The mascot of the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, called: HaiBao
Then we went to a Japanese restaurant (and that in China xD) but we weren't allowed to make photos there (the table was soooo full). After the long day we felt into bed like stones.
Love,
Kari
Posted Oct 11, 2009, 10:56 pm
today was a long and very nice day. We went out really early in the morning and decided to go to a temple. First we went to Yu Garden where you can see a lot nice small shops before you come to the temple (which entrance price is way too high, so we didn't went in).
But I have a lot photos for you of the area around the temple itself:
A lion is watching the temple.
A turtle dragon
!
Can you see? in the background there is one of the skyskrapers...it is so unreal to be in such an old place and see all the skyskrapers around you!
That is the oldest tea house in Shanghai. It looks really nice, or?
Do you know why this bridge is not straight? The Chinese believe that bad ghosts can't walk around corners, so they try to make it as difficult for them as possible.
When we were ready at Yu Garden we went around for shopping a bit. BlackCat bought so much stuff and I was just watching her. She didn't made photos inside the shops, as she wanted to look herself.
But then we went to Jing'an temple. There the entrance price was really cheap, so we went inside the temple area.
In the middle the little tower is a place where you throw money at. You try to hit one of the windows in the tower. If you hit it, the money will fall down in the middle again and you will have luck. If you don't hit it (like BlackCat did xD) it does mean you just don't have more luck then now. On the right side of it, you can see a place where the Chinese people put incense sticks to pray to their god that everything will be alright and that the death people feel well. It is like the candle in a German church, I guess (not sure).
There you can see where the money gets out when you throw it at the tower
!
Making a break
!
That is inside the temple.
Look at the decoration of the doors...wonderful, or?
The temple with a skyscraper behind it
!
BlackCats brother likes us
!
In the evening (it was just 7p.m. when we made this pic) we went to the river and made some photos of the skyline
! This is my pic with the skyline =)! Nice, or?
What a long day again. Tomorrow we will fly to Beijing for 4 days. We are not sure if we have internet there. But we will update as soon as possible.
Miss you all,
Kari
Posted Nov 3, 2009, 6:12 am
!
Today we arrived in our hotel in Peking. It is in an old chinese style and we were really surprised how beautiful it is.
I have some photos for you from it.
That's us on BlackCats bed. Wow, or?
Our view
!
The bed of BlackCats brother.
That was a fountain in our garden. It looks really nice, or?
I love the new hotel. So now we are in Beijing for 4 days and then we will go back to Shanghai. But you will see that
!
Love,
Kari
Posted Nov 3, 2009, 6:38 am
BlackCat told us, that the normal Great Wall is 8,851.8 km long. But not so much kilometres are still good for visiting. 513 km are still in a good condition.
BlackCat told us, that there is a chinese quote which says: A human is only a human when he climbed the Great Wall. So congratulation, BlackCats family are humans now
!
After that we went back to the bus and drove back to Beijing again, for another sight visit.
Posted Nov 3, 2009, 6:52 am
The Summer Palace or Yihe yuan is a palace in Beijing, China. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill. In the Summer Palace, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.
In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value." It is a popular tourist destination but also serves as a recreational park.
What a nice day.
Posted Nov 3, 2009, 7:03 am
Today we went to the Forbidden City.
Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m². The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
A card of the Forbidden city
I really loved the time at the Forbidden City.
Posted Nov 3, 2009, 7:14 am
It is a really nice Tower, or?
Posted Nov 3, 2009, 7:17 am
So today BlackCat went into a park with us. It was not a long walk, as she has a cold, but it was nice.
Parks are normal in China. The chinese People use it for relax, play, sleep and such stuff. Really funny thing.
Posted Nov 3, 2009, 7:37 am
Today we went to Venlo in the Netherlands for shopping. Halloween is nothing really special here in Germany, so BlackCat decided not to celebrate it and just enjoy a nice Saturday.
Can you see us? That is art...I don't know why a big ear is art, but okay.
We went on a small place where this nice fountain was:
Then we saw a shop which was decorated for Halloween.
It was making noises when you walked there.
And we found two small statues of guys which we looked at.
It was a nice day in Venlo
! Soon we will update from Essen again, I hope !
Posted Nov 14, 2009, 11:16 am
They started to built the chapel in 1903 and consecrated it in 1905. In year 1908 the seven stations were finished. The first four stations were destroyed by environmental impact and war and so they were recreated in 1957 and consecrated in 1958.
The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary which are a popular devotion and are frequently depicted in art.
It is a common devotion for Catholics to say daily a Hail Mary for each.
1. The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus. (Gospel of Luke 2:34)
2. The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. (Gospel of Matthew 2:13)
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days. (Luke 2:43)
4. The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross. (Luke 23:26)
5. The Crucifixion, where Mary stands at the foot of the cross. (Gospel of John 19:25)
Here is the field chapel, Feldkirchle.
6. The Descent from the Cross, where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms. (Matthew 27:57)
7. The Burial of Jesus. (John 19:40)
Posted Nov 22, 2009, 8:10 am
Landau or Landau in der Pfalz (pop. 41,821) is a city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the Palatinate wine region. Landau lies east of the Palatinate forest, Europe's largest contiguous forest, direct on the German Wine Route.
Landau was first mentioned as a settlement in 1106.
Landau's giant main square (Rathausplatz) is dominated by the city [img]null[/img]hall (Rathaus) and the market hall (Altes Kaufhaus).
With a brief interruption in the mid-15th Century, Landau had a sizable Jewish community from the Middle Ages until the Nazi Era, at one point the largest in the Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as one of its most prosperous (many Jews were wine merchants). This accounts for 'Landau' and 'Landauer' being fairly common Ashkenazi Jewish family names. A prayer room existed since the 16th century: the first actual synagogue was built in 1648, rebuilt in 1691 after a fire. The Great Synagogue (350 sq. m., 16 m. high) was dedicated in 1884: it was burned down during the Kristallnacht, and only its charred remains can now be seen.[1] The historic Frank-Loeb house is another relic of the Jewish presence in Landau: its proprietor in the late 19th Century was Zacharias Frank, great-grandfather of Anne Frank.
Posted Nov 30, 2009, 1:06 am
I just have one picture for you. But I really love it
!
Love,
Kari
Posted Nov 30, 2009, 1:10 am
!
Today we found a real mill in Oberhausen. BlackCat was laughing so hard when we stopped in front of it.
Look at that
! I really like it ! A Mill in North Rhine Westfalia in the middle of a city right next to the highway. How cool is that?
That was one of the tools that were used in a mill. Now the mill is a restaurant, so no more tools inside of it.
Love,
Kari
Posted Nov 30, 2009, 7:57 pm
today we went to the former coal mine Bonifacius. It is not really far from BlackCats home, but she is lazy, so she never visited it. But today BlackCats boyfriend said: Let us go there (okay, by car) and BlackCat said Yes. So we drove there.
At that place a Geocache was hide. BlackCat found it, when we were already back in the car
!
That is the tower of the former coal mine. It is really big.
In that house the people were paid when there was still a coal mine. I really like the look of it.
I hope this pics can make you smile for a moment. I miss you and I will come home soon.
Love,
Kari
Posted Jan 3, 2010, 2:14 pm
Posted Jan 3, 2010, 2:47 pm
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:24 am
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:25 am
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:27 am
We went to the church St. Peter to have a short rest from writing and of course to enjoy the snow. Here you see the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul.
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:30 am
The houses on the right side in the far belong to Bruchsal.
These houses belong to Untergrombach. Behind the dust in the far are the Palatinate Mountains.
This chapel is on top of the Michaelsberg. Many people like to marry there.
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:34 am
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:35 am
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Posted May 9, 2010, 7:39 am
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:40 am
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:44 am
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:45 am
In the afternoon we used the time to sit in the garden. When my host came outside too, she found us sitting on her chair
There are many flowers blooming in her garden.
While sitting there my host had a hot cup of tea and read in this book "City of Bones" - in German this time, but she told me, that she prefers the Twilight books
To make things complete we had a nice evening watching what? Yes, "New Moon" - great! Emmh, I'm in a Jacob family, if you know, what I mean. I'm not sure, who I prefer, maybe it is Embry?
Posted May 9, 2010, 7:51 am
Posted May 9, 2010, 10:54 am
At first we visited the angel museum. In a part of the museum the exhibition is changed every now and then. This time they showed drawings of places in the Heuchelberg / Stromberg area. The park includes the Stromberg hills and the Heuchelberg mountain ridge. It is characterized by a well wooded hilly landscape. Geologically, it belongs to the Keuper mountains. The north slopes are mostly forested, the south slopes are used by viticulture.(wikipedia)
The Baden coat of arms
Then we went to see the angels. This is painted from Marc Chagall.
There are also patrons in other cultures and religions.
The centre of Bretten consists of many old half-timbered houses around a lively marketplace.Bretten was first mentioned as "villa breteheim" in the "Lorsch codex" in 767. Since 1148 Bretten had the right to mint and issue coins. In 1254 Bretten received city rights. In 1492 Bretten was granted to hold four fairs by Pfalzgraf Philipp. Philipp Melanchthon was born in Bretten in 1497.(wikipedia)
Posted May 18, 2010, 2:12 pm
Posted May 18, 2010, 2:13 pm
So we are now:
1rst row: Robby, Jennifer, umechan, Pinky Bear, Kari
2nd row: me, Cilly, Scotty
Posted May 18, 2010, 2:14 pm
Posted May 18, 2010, 2:15 pm
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Posted May 18, 2010, 3:05 pm
St. Peter is a beautiful baroque church.
We sat down at this colourful place, but our host told us to hurry up, because the sun would go down soon.
There is a phone box and I tried to call you, but forgot your number
On the opposite side of the church entrance is this beautiful old street with the statues of Peter and Paul.
Next to the church entrance I read this about the church:
Behind the church is the large graveyard of Bruchsal. Here you see some very old gravestones.
These crosses belong to the oldest crosses on the graveyard.
You only can take a photo of the backside of the church, when you stand on the graveyard. We tried to not show too much of the newer graves.
Here you see graves of those, who died during the first world war.
There also is a Jewish graveyard.
Walking out of the graveyard we saw the backside of the house Sancta Maria.
and this is the front of it:
Again I found a board and read about Sancta Maria:
Posted May 18, 2010, 3:08 pm
So we read a book about Bruchsal, at least we looked at the photos and our host explained, what we saw.
Bruchsal occupies an excellent geogrphical position on the western side of a charming region of rolling hills between the Odenwald and the Black Forest, called the Kraichgau. Thanks to its convenient location the town of more than 40000 inhabitants on the Saalbach, historic yet modern, has developped into an industrial and trade centre. Bruchsal is also regarded as the Euopean 'capital of asparagus', being the main trade centre for this delicious vegetable.
Bruchsal was first named in 976 A.D., but they found pieces, which are much older than that.
This is an old photo of Bruchsal's palace after the bombing on March 1st, 1945.
This is the ground plan of the men's prison, completed in 1848, today a detention centre.
The Damianstor (Damian's Gate) forms the remarkable northern entrance to the palace area and the town. The spendid palace of Damian Hugo of Schönborn - bishop, sovereign and cardinal of the state of Speyer - with its numerous surrounding baroque buildings, is fenced off by walls and ditches to produce the impression of a baroque quarter of its own.
Rebuilt from the ruins the magnificent baroque residence serves many purposes today. The portrait of Maria Theresa, empress of Austria, looks upon the shining and gleaming Marbe Hall from Cardinal Hutten. The crowning glory of the stairwell by Balthasar Neimann leads to the reconstructed halls and modern museums. In the south wing the parish of St. Damian and Hugo has its church with a modern interior.
At the front, on top and at the rear - baroque elements and shapes everywhere.
In the baroque garden you find lifesize allegories of the four seasons and the ancient elements of fire, water, air and earth adorn the main axis of the palace grounds. Stone-halberdiers guard the palace.
There is the town museum of Bruchsal, the Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments and valuable exhibits presented by the Badische Landesmuseum at the Corps de Logis.
The fountains are beautiful, this time colourful, because there was a special concert.
The 'Ehrenhof' on the right side with Balthasar Neumann's 'Torwache', unfinished - full of smmetry despite the missing obelisk.
The building with the little tower is the county court.
One event that we missed on Mother's day was the Summer's Day procession of the colourfully adorned children of Bruchsal. The snowman will be in for a fiery end after the hardships of the winter - sure, it didn't burn well enough this year, because it still is so cold.
On the right you see municipal architecture and the world of business in the heart of Bruchsal. The big house were you can read a few letters of the word Schneider is a closed shopping center.
I'm sure I will see the carnival procession in Bruchsal's centre next year - if everything goes well until then. So called 'Guggenmusiken' take care of the necessary background noise.
On the right you see a view from the former town hall, built in 1954, which soon will be a shopping center. St.Peter rises above the 'Große Brücke' (Great Bridge). Balthasar Neumann's creation is the town's sacral gem.
The choir and bell tower of the catholic church Unsere liebe Frau (Our lady) are gothic, the roof of the bell tower is baroque, the nave modern. From the bell towe you have a good view to the weekly market, which is in front of the former town hall two times a week.
On the left page you see the old medieval keep, dated in 1358, next to it the Community Centre, built in the end of the eighties. It houses two halls, foyers, conference rooms, a restaurant, shops, an underground car park, the 'Badische Landesbühne'- theater, the municipal library, the tourist information and the adult education centre.
I should try to get a photo of this, because it was taken only a few steps from our home. It is the view from Friedhofstraße towards the Holzmarkt, municipal theatre, keep and part of the new town hall.
Holzmarkt and Kübelmarkt are at the end of Kaiserstraße. During the Advent season fistive lights, the smell of 'Glühwein' and the scent of the pines are predominant. The Christmas market is held under the statues of St. Peter and Paul. The building behind the statues is a music school.
The Saalbach, here at Holzmarkt and Kübelmarkt, flows through Bruchsal from the east to the west. The banks are connected by several bridges and footbridges. The footbridge at the ''Große Brücke' is used frequently - also by us.
At the end of the pedestrian precinct the Seilersbahn leads to Huttenstraße. The limestone building of the Pallotines' private grammar-school St. Paulusheim, built in 1923, towers above the massive concrete walls of the senior citizen's centre at the Klosterberg. The white big houses belongs to the old people's house.
On the doorstep of St.Paulusheim: the remakable landscape surrounding Bruchsal. The fertile 'Löß' soil can be intensively cultivated. The Kraichgau offers pleasant views to nature lovers and walkers throughout the year.
The walker is rewarded by a magnificent panorama after a steep ascent to the top of Andreas-Staffel (Andrew's stairs). It leads uphill from Huttenstraße, next to the senior citizen's centre. In 1852, Victor v. Scheffel hat to take a detour to arrive at his favourite spot, since known as the 'Scheffelhöhe'. The keep, the Community Centre, the catholic church Our Lady and Lutheran Church are below. Karlsruhe and the Palatinate mountains are visible in the background. We surely will go there to take a look.
The baroque retreat of the Belvedere, today situated in the municipal park, has always been a favourite subject of painters. The delicately elded 'Chinese-style' towers with their wrought-iron work crown the traditional building from 1758. Today there is no more shooting at the former shooting range - except possibly during some summer evenings, when the Belvedere serves as a very fitting background for open-air plays staged by the amateur theatre 'Die Koralle'.
Bruchsal's famous former men prison outside the Damian's Gate originally accommodated revolutionaries from Baden in 1848. Today it is a modern detention centre and an important employer, supplier and manufacturer of a broad range of products.
The 'New Men's Prison' for the Grand Duchy of Baden was built as a fortress. It was a modern prison then because of its prison cells for solitary confinement. The four wing building, including a central building - locally known as 'Café Octagon - Caf´d Achteck' - was constructed between 1841 and 1848 by Heinrich Hübsch.
On the right you see the neo-baroque part of Bruchsal's hospital from 1905/06 by Fritz Hirsch. In the old days nu s with their caps with upturned wings took care of 70 patients at the Fürst-Stirum-Hospital. The beneficial work of the 'crested larks' is acknowledged by a statue from the artist Jürgen Goertz. The hospital training nurses and doctores occupies over 700 employees. It can take in 350 patients. The historic central building has been enlarged and modernized several times.
Nature is thriving and blossoming in and around Bruchsal. The 'white gold' - delicious asparagus grows in the sandy soil of the Rhine Valley.
THe central axis of the palace gardens becomes a straight avenue of several kilometres which used to connect the residence with the supplying farm of Altenbürg (Karlsdorf) and continue on to Graben through parks, forests and fields. Today the old axis is interrupted and crossed several times by railway tracks, roads and the highway.
Train tracks from the four points of the compass meet at the Bruchsal junction. The post-war train station in the west of the centre is a stop for Interregio - and regional trains and buses. The Stadtbahn has boosted the public transport service.
Once in the year the is a big flea market near the palace.
The right page shows the Saalbach and one of Bruchsal's schools, the Stirumschule. It was the primary school where also my hosts was from grade one to four.
During hot summer days many people enjoy the cool, refreshing waters of the outdoor pool, Sash.
The 'Justus-Knecht-Gymnasium' is the largest municipal grammar-school. It dates back over a hundred years. In 1953 it was named after the bishop Dr. Justus Knecht from Freiburg, who was born in Bruchsal. This was the grammar school, in which my host was from grade 5 to 13.
The building on the right side belongs to the way of the sorrows of our holy lady, near by the Feldkirchle.
You surely know this house with the nice front. Many women from Bruchsal and the surrounding region still remember their courses in housekeepiong and needle-work at the Sancta-Maria-Institute. Built in 1906/08 by Reverend Kunz, the house is owned by the Fransiscan nuns of Gengenbach. Today it is still led by nuns as a school of social education. Female nursery teachers are trained here in full-time courses.
Pleasant old buildings are rare since the fire storm of March 1st 1945 destrayed 80 per cent of the town. Omly the upper town remained. St. Peter's Church with its characteristic onion towers was the only one to survive World War II.
The sacral baroque gem of Bruchsal is St. Peter's Church. Cardinal Schönborn began the building in 1740, his successor, Cardinal Hutten completed it and had the interior finished. The architect was Balthasar Neumann from Würzburg. The church holds the remains of the last prince-bishops in a crypt. The black-and-White marble gravestones adorn the choir. High altar, side altars, pulpit, gallery and organ are masterpieces of the Rokoko - thought up to praise God and to edify people.
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Posted May 18, 2010, 3:47 pm
Bruchsal has five suburbs: Heidelsheim, Helmsheim, Obergrombach, Untergrombach and Büchenau.
This is Heidelsheim:
and Helmsheim:
Obergrombach:
Untergrombach, the biggest suburb:
and Büchenau:
Posted May 19, 2010, 8:42 pm
Posted May 20, 2010, 3:00 pm
Hugs, Kari
Posted May 27, 2010, 7:19 pm
Posted May 27, 2010, 7:32 pm
Sehenswert ist auch der Botanische Garten von Cap Roig (Jardí Botànic de Caixa Girona) in Calella de Palafrugell. Im Jahre 1927 kauften dort der Exil-Russe Oberst Nicolai Woevodsky und seine aus dem britischen Adel stammende Ehefrau Dorothy Webster Land, bauten sich ein neoromanisches Schloss als Residenz und legten in schöner Hanglage zum Meer einen mediterranen Landschaftspark an, der den Grundstock für den heutigen Botanischen Garten bildete. (wikipedia)
Posted May 27, 2010, 7:42 pm
Posted May 27, 2010, 7:56 pm
Considered the master-work of renowned Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), the project's vast scale and idiosyncratic design have made it one of Barcelona's (and Spain's) top tourist attractions for many years. The church is to be consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI on November 7, 2010, during his visit to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona.
There's a festival in front of the city hall.
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Here you can see me in front of the tholos of the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia.
Here you can see me in front of the temple of Apollo. Back then Pythia sat there on a tribach above a crevice, that contains gases with ethylene. Therefore the gases put Pythia in trance and so the oracels developed.
Here you see the theatre, which has accommodate 5000 visitors.
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 8:11 pm
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 8:13 pm
elderflowers
and lilies
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 8:25 pm
Founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, the surrounding town became the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht) whose decisions have the force of a law, and the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof), the highest court of appeals in matters of civil law and criminal law. It therefore considers itself the home of justice in Germany, a role taken over from Leipzig after 1933.
It is said[weasel words] to be model city for the cityscape of Washington D.C., due to similarities to the US capital city. Both cities have a center—in Karlsruhe the palace and in D.C. the Capitol Building—from which the streets lead away like sunrays.
Karlsruhe Palace (German: Karlsruher Schloss) was erected in 1715 by Margrave Karl Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, Durlach. The city of Karlsruhe has since grown around it.
We weren't allowed to take photos of the exhibition, but I can tell you, it was really interesting: Vom Minnesang zur Popakademie
But we took some photos of making music ourselves.
On this photo you can imagine the one street, that leads from the palace as center. There are many other streets built the same way around the palace as center.
Karl Friedrich, 1st Grand Duke of Baden (November 22, 1728 – June 10, 1811) was Margrave, elector and later Grand Duke of Baden (initially only margrave of Baden-Durlach) from 1731 until his death.
There's a big building site in the road, which we just saw from the far.
We're on our way back to the parking garage.
Now I want to show you some photos on our way home. We passed a church and a castle, where the brewery Höpfner is located.
Here we see the Michaelsberg with its nice chapel.
The houses belong to Büchenau, one of Bruchsal's suburbs.
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 8:42 pm
On this monument you can read many names of those men, who died.
We also visited the Jewish graveyard again.
This is the new building of the new apostolic parish next to the graveyard on the other side of the other entrance of the graveyard.
We walked out of Bruchsal now, so I had a chance to get a photo taken with the sign 'Bruchsal'. You see the letters Lkr. Karlsruhe on it, which means, that Bruchsal belongs to the administrative district Karlsruhe.
We walked to a nice playground, which belongs to Bruchsal again and had a lot of fun there.
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 8:42 pm
Finally it started to rain heavily and what do you think our host did? She let us sit outside on the balcony in the rain. At first we were really angry, but the we enjoyed it. It was like a fresh bath for us.
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 8:43 pm
We have a net taped at the window frames now, because we want to avoid having insects in the rooms.
Posted Jun 15, 2010, 12:26 pm
Here's what I saw
Forst is a town in the Rhine valley, is only 5km from Bruchsal and shares a border with Bruchsal. It was first named in 1161 A.D., but there were finds dating back to Stone and Bronze Age and also finds of Romans in this area.
Posted Jun 16, 2010, 8:21 pm
Posted Jun 19, 2010, 4:42 pm
The palace of Bruchsal was residence of the prince bishop of Speyer. It was built on request of prince bishop Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim from 1720 on in baroque stile. It was destoyed on 1rst March 1945, when about 80% of Bruchsal was destroyed and many people lost their lives. It was reconstructed in the years around 1970, but the church part was created in modern stile
There are several interesting museums in the palace: City Museum, Stone Age Museum and the
German Museum of Musical Automata
There are two long alleys with chestnut trees.
On the right side is the church part of the palace complex. You only see a small part of the shadow, but it looks like the opposite complex with the chamber music room.
I will read, what's written on the sign: This fountain was built in memory of Marchioness Amalie von Baden (1754 - 1832), spouse of margrave Karl Ludwig von Baden. She found her place in history as "mother-in-law of Europe", because she managed to marry five of her six daughters off to the most powerful prince's palaces of Europe. When she was widowedshe made Schloss Bruchsal one of her homes in the year 1806. She died there in 1832.
The fountain was planned by Prof. Dr. Fritz Hirsch (1871 - 1938) in 1912. He was in charge of the redecoration of the Schloss Bruchsal in the early days of the 20th century.
Here you see the plan of the palace area.
Here you see the county court and the fountain called Schneckenbrunnen (snails fountain).
Just turning around you see the main entrance of the palace.
At the one entrance of the church you can see photos of the destroyed palace and church.
This is the backside of the church and the church tower. The other buildings also belong to the palace area.
Here we are at the backside of the palace. There are three nice fountains.
Here's one of four guard statues with halberts.
There's a nice pond with many ducks
In the main way of the palace garden you find many statues. This one shows the element water. There are also the elements air, fire and earth.
We have to hurry now, because we have to fetch our host's daughter from her choir. I hope, you enjoyed the photos.
Posted Jun 28, 2010, 7:49 am
You need 1 kilogram flour.
one sachet dried or half fresh yeast.
25gr salt
25gr margarine or one cooked potatoe, shredded.
If you use dried yeast you add all ingredients together, so you add all the water at once: 600 ml water
Knead the dough.
Then we had to wait and wait and wait. After a while our host put the dough in the oven: preheat 220°C, water in a dish on the bottom of the oven. Oh yes, she did the dough in a dish and cut the middle of the bread and brushed salt water on the loaf, but we didn't see that. It was in the oven for about three quarters of an hour.
Posted Jun 28, 2010, 3:25 pm
There are some signs in the wood. This one says: Mind gate/bar (?) Free for forestry
Some ways in the forest have names. This one is called Heiden Richtweg.
On some trees there are signs.
Posted Jul 13, 2010, 10:30 am
The houses in the far on the right side belong to Bruchsal and the quarry pond to Untergrombach. When my host was a teenager, she loved to swim there.
You see, that the left side shows a flat landscape, this is the Rhine Valley. Bruchsal and Untergrombach are located at the edge of the Rhine Valley to Kraichgau hill country.
You also see, that the grass is very dry. By the way: This grass is called Magerrasen, nitrogen-poor sward/grassland or species rich sward.
If it wouldn't be so misty, you could see the Palatinate Mountains at the horizon.
The houses on the left side belong to Weingarten and those in the far on the left to Karlsruhe.
Here's the chapel again.
There are many vineyards in the Kraichgau.
Posted Jul 13, 2010, 10:37 am
Here's what you can read: This tower is the remain of the old castle, which was built in 11th century by the count von Hohenberg, extended in 12th century and 1279 destroyed by Konrad von Lichtenberg, bishop of Strasbourg. The keep was built between 1230 and 1250.
view over Durlach and Karlsruhe
Kraichgau hill country
Posted Jul 13, 2010, 10:38 am
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Here the clouds are blue and white - orange from the sunset.
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Posted Jul 21, 2010, 11:40 am
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We had luck, because it wasn't too hot weather.
sorry, this one is without me, because we had to zoom
Posted Jul 21, 2010, 12:19 pm
After we had a really tasty meal, we walked home again. We saw this interesting car in front of the church then and my host decided to take photos with me.
Posted Jul 21, 2010, 5:20 pm
The centre of Bretten consists of many old half-timbered houses around a lively marketplace.Bretten was first mentioned as "villa breteheim" in the "Lorsch codex" in 767. Since 1148 Bretten had the right to mint and issue coins. In 1254 Bretten received city rights. In 1492 Bretten was granted to hold four fairs by Pfalzgraf Philipp. Philipp Melanchthon was born in Bretten in 1497.(wikipedia)
the Melanchthon house
marketplace
a red half-timbered house with red car
Stiftskirche, evangelic church
Next to the church we saw this half timbered house with the flags of the states which participated at the world championship in South Africa.
Statue of Philipp Melanchthon
a fountain and some pink houses
some shops
Posted Aug 7, 2010, 10:16 am
Posted Aug 7, 2010, 11:48 am
Do you see me and my hosts arm in the mirror?
Only a few meters from the prison is the hospital of Bruchsal. There is the old part with the nice tower and a big part of the newer hospital. We're still standing at the same parking place only moved a bit.
Then we drove to the Stadtgarten, because we wanted to see the Belverdere - a former hunting lodge.
When you walk out of the Stadtgarten you see that small house on top of the stairs. We took a photo of the sign. The house was supposed to protect its owner from the rain, when he worked on his vineyard.
We walked down the stairs and have a few on the house from there.
Standing next to the little house you have a wonderful view over Bruchsal.
Then we walked back to the Stadtgarten again and took some more photos there. Here is the Ferdinand Keller fountain.
My host loves this lime tree and I do too.
The house behind the fountain is called Schönborn Gymnasium. This school is more than 250 years old.
The last picture today we took at the street, which leads along the St. Paulusheim, another grammar school. You have a nice view on St. Peter from there.
Posted Aug 8, 2010, 3:40 pm
On the way we passed the seven sorrows of Maria, the holy mother.
They started to built the chapel in 1903 and consecrated it in 1905. In year 1908 the seven stations were finished. The first four stations were destroyed by environmental impact and war and so they were recreated in 1957 and consecrated in 1958.
The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary which are a popular devotion and are frequently depicted in art.
It is a common devotion for Catholics to say daily a Hail Mary for each.
1. The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus. (Gospel of Luke 2:34)
2. The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. (Gospel of Matthew 2:13)
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days. (Luke 2:43)
We saw this apple tree next to the way.
This is a stone, which reminds of priest Josef Kunz, who built these stations. He wanted to be burried here, but it wasn't allowed.
Look back to the maize field.
4. The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross. (Luke 23:26)
This is the field chapel, Feldkirchle.
We had to walk a steep way to come to the chapel.
We didn't walk to the last two stations, because my hosts didn't feel really fine. On our way back we saw this walnut tree.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 7:26 am
For lunch we had some Italian kind of soup and this interesting bread rolls.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 7:48 am
King Ludwig's royal train.
The Saxonia was the first operational locomotive built in Germany in 1838.
The Beuth was the first locomotive designed and built in Germany in 1844. This design soon proved to be a sales hit and was produced a total of 71 times, virtually in series.
From 1855 Chaplin&Co specialised in the construction of steam engines with a vertical boiler. Initially this gave rise to steam cranes then in the 1860s small shunting locomotives such as the Gamle Ole were also built. The Gamle Ole is one of the oldest preserved steam locomotives and Denmark's oldest operational steam locomotive.
The Licaon is on of Austria's oldest preserved steam locomotives - from 1851. It remained in use as a shunting engine for the Bundesbahnen Österreichs until 1923 and was finally sold to the Stiegl brewery in Salzburg as a works engine where it remained in operation until 1937 - no fewer than 86 years.
1957: The steam locomotive class 10 was one of the last newly-designed types of steam locomotive in Germany after the Second World War. The original intention was to purchase them as a replacement for the locomotives of the 01 series that by then were already 20 to 30 years old.
Then we went to the old signal tower. We looked at some more locomotives, while it was raining even more heavily than before.
The locomotive Marc Seguin was built in 1829 by the French industrial pioneer of the same name. The Marc Seguin was a very progressive parallel development to the vehicles Stephenson was producing in England.
Sweden: The Novelty 1829
Sans Pareil 1829:
Rocket 1829:
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 8:14 am
The Walhalla was conceived in 1807 by Crown Prince Ludwig, who built it upon ascending the throne of Bavaria as King Ludwig I. Construction took place between 1830 and 1842, under the supervision of architect Leo von Klenze.
The Walhalla displays some 65 plaques and 130 busts of persons, covering 2,000 years of history — the earliest person honored is Arminius, victor at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 CE). (wikipedia)
We took a photo of the Walhalla from the far too, wanted to get the whole building on it. We tried to get a closer view, but haven't been really successful.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 8:32 am
Posted Sep 1, 2010, 9:11 am
At first we read about the Bärwurz.
and took a look at some other plants, which they use for Schnaps and Likör.
The parish church Maria Himmelfahrt is the centre of the defence buildings with exterior circular wall, moat and interior ring. The church was mentioned in a pope certificate in 1179, extented in 1737/38. Inside it is baroque with a high altar from 1771 and pulpit from 1730.
Bad Kötzting is a nice city with many beautiful houses.
Posted Sep 1, 2010, 9:25 am
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 8:02 am
about the "Mühlhiasl"
about Saint Francis and more.
It is a really fascinating place and we can all recommend to go there, when you visit the Bavarian Forest and are close to Viechtach.
This trunk on the ball shows the lies that weigh on the world, they make the world fall apart.
You can see those wayside crosses very often, when you drive through the Bavarian Forest.
This one is only painted with pencil.
Here he tells the story of Mühlhiasl.
That's a nice girl on that door.
another painting about Mühlhiasl.
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 10:08 am
The church St. Augustinus in Viechtach
At last we visited the Kristallmuseum - crystal museum in Viechtach.
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 6:48 pm
Weinfurtner has a really nice garden with glass decorations.
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 7:19 pm
Under the way there are stations to learn more about nature - here coats of different animals.
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View to one of the Felsriegel - rock outcrops.
Sitting on one of the rock outcrops enjoying the view
We also tried to climb a bit. So you see, who fell down a bit? Brinda had a little accident, but she wasn't hurt, thank God.
She climbed up again and sat down next to us.
Then we all climbed down again and went on the way, which you see here, to go to the next rock outcrop.
Here we had been able to see the Kleine Arbersee - little Arber lake.
In the early afternoon we drove down again, because we wanted to walk around the Große Arbersee - big Arber lake.
Posted Sep 5, 2010, 7:27 pm
Here you see the swinging grass islands.
View to the Großer Arber and to the edge between swinging grass and water surface.
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Posted Sep 5, 2010, 8:19 pm
Here you should see a bird - I've seen it
This is a compound for wolves. I've seen some young wolves under the tree, where you see the arrow.
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Posted Sep 5, 2010, 8:51 pm
At first the path wasn't that high. The path starts with the height of 8m, and ascends up to 25m. The real highlight of the path is the tree tower with a total height of 44m. Within the tree tower you will find three trees, so you can experience the whole life of tree, from the root to the top!
From the top of the tower you have an absolut fantastic panoramic view over the beautiful landscape of the Bavarian Forest, over the moutains and the wounderful dales.
Posted Sep 6, 2010, 7:11 am
Furth im Wald is a town in the District of Cham, in Bavaria, Germany, near the Czech border. It is situated in the Bavarian Forest, 16 km northeast of Cham, and 17 km southwest of Domažlice.
Posted Sep 7, 2010, 7:07 am
Then we drove to the Zwiesel glass shop and took a look at the big glass pyramid.
We took all these photos from inside the car, because it was raining so heavily.
Posted Sep 24, 2010, 4:00 pm
Neurandsberg is a suburb of Rattenberg just like Engelsdorf. The ruin of the castle is very small, there is only a bit left. The area is used as a place for special nature plants. You can't go inside, because everything is full of plants.
The church is late baroque, built from 1698 to 1700.
Posted Sep 24, 2010, 4:10 pm
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Posted Sep 24, 2010, 5:25 pm
Here you see the cathedral of Passau, where we will go at next.
The white building on top of the left hill is Veste Oberhaus, which you will see later again.
Posted Sep 24, 2010, 5:45 pm
Over time, the Passau Cathedral has acquired the largest organ outside of the United States. It is also the largest cathedral organ in the world. The organ currently has 17,774 pipes and 233 registers, all of which can be played with the five-manual general console in the gallery. wikipedia
Posted Sep 24, 2010, 6:12 pm
Veste Oberhaus
The building is located on the mountain crest (St.Georgsberg) between the Danube and the Ilz rivers and dominates the city of Passau.
If you see well, you maybe can see the three rivers Ilz (only a small part, but the darkest and cleanest river of them), then the Danube and at last the Inn, which is the broadest river and brown.
Here you only see the Inn, but the Danube is behind the trees in front of us.
On the other side you see a white building. This is the pilgrimage church Mariahilf, where we were at first.
Posted Sep 24, 2010, 8:49 pm
It is located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers.
The first settlements in Regensburg date to the Stone Age. The Celtic name Radasbona was the oldest name given to a settlement near the present city. Around AD 90 the Romans built a small "cohort-fort" in what would now be the suburbs.
The Regensburg Cathedral (German: Kathedrale St. Peter or Regensburger Dom), dedicated to St Peter, is the most important church and landmark of the city Regensburg, Germany. It is the seat of the Catholic diocese of Regensburg. The church is the prime example of Gothic architecture in southern Germany. It is also the home of the Regensburger Domspatzen ("cathedral sparrows"), a choir rich in tradition. wikipedia
It was so dark in the cathedral, that we only could take a photo without me.
Posted Sep 25, 2010, 8:37 pm
We're not completely sure, but we think, that the white next to the light yellow house is the house where Oskar Schindler lived for about five years.
We took a photo of the sign there. Oskar Schindler helped to save about 1200 Jews during Nazi time. He lived in Regensburg from November 1945 to May 1950, at first in this house and later he moved to another place.
Wealthy patrician families competed against each other to see who would be able to build the highest tower of the city. In 1260, the Goldener Turm (golden tower) was built on Wahlenstraße. In the Baumburger Turm (tower) is the Dampfnudel bakery.
In the centre of the Old City, on the way from the Kohlenmarkt to the Haidplatz, the Rathausplatz stretches between the narrow streets. In this central market the people of Regensburg erected the building complex of today’s “Old Rathaus” from the 13th century on. In the course of the centuries it has been added to and altered again and again.
Then we walked on to another narrow street.
The Stone Bridge spans the Danube with 16 arches and connects the Regensburg Old Town with Stadtamhof - which is also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Salt Warehouse, built from 1616 to 1620, stands in the immediate vicinity of the Stone Bridge and still bears witness today to the active salt trade. The city of Regensburg spent three years giving it an extensive restoration. The rooms with their majestic oak boards and pillars are today a popular location for the most varied events.
Then we walked back to the cathedral again. I saw many beautiful houses and I could even see spots of the sky.
At last we had a good cappuccino and an Italian icecream, yummy.
Posted Sep 25, 2010, 8:58 pm
Herpa also produces magazines for car & truck enthusiasts and model aircraft enthusiasts, known as Der Maßstab and WingsWorld respectively.
Posted Oct 3, 2010, 2:58 pm
Posted Oct 9, 2010, 3:13 pm
As you can see, the cloister is located in a valley. We had an amazing view across the countryside.
I feel very young compared with the dome of the Katholikon. The cloister was built around 1000 AD.
To be honest I had a little vertigo.
I'm not only very young, but also very small compared with the mountains and the large valleys in Greece.
In this picture you see it even better that we're both together only a little spot in front of the valley.
I also hear the tower's bell ring. Together with the view Hosios Lukas was really wonderful, but the day dwindled, so we had to go further to Olympia. I was very nervous.
Posted Oct 9, 2010, 5:11 pm
The temple, which included the statue of Zeus, was destroyed by an earthquake. In 2004 a 10,55 m high column was reconstructed. I'm very proud to see such an important place.
After visiting the temples and other ruines we went to the old stadium. My brother and some friends wanted to run, because they wanted to see, who the olympic champion is. Therefore they ran 192,28 m. They ran twice and the second time my brother won. I kept my fingers crossed for him and it worked, but he was really exhausted.
We also saw the place, where the Olympic torch is lighted every four years. All this facts slayed me, but it was great.
Posted Oct 10, 2010, 11:11 am
Posted Oct 23, 2010, 8:52 pm
Then I had the honor to be next to the Lion Gate. It was great.
The countryside there was also beautiful and fortunately we had a very good outlook.
We also visited Tiryns. This castle was an important centre of the cretan- mycenaean civilization, too (If you want to know more about Tiryns and Mycenae, look at Wikipedia
)
Posted Oct 23, 2010, 9:25 pm
After visiting Corinth we travelled over the Isthmus of Corinth in direction of Athens. We stopped at the Isthmus and saw a big cruiser cross it. The tour to Athens was really hard but all the more we were happy to be in Athens at the evening. We were all shocked of this very big city which of course is the capital of Greece because there was very much traffic and we all had heard from the disturbances in Athens that went the circuit in whole Europe. Fortunately we arrived in our hotel and stayed there the evening to bear the new impressions.
This picture shows how dark and scarry it was in Athen at this evening.
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 1:32 pm
This is the old fire house.
This is the river Neckar.
And here you see the famous water tower of Mannheim. It was built between 1886 and 1889. It is 60 mtr. high and has a diameter of 19 mtr.
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 2:55 pm
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 3:10 pm
On the table you see the worksheets for a plan for the week.
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 3:13 pm
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 4:34 pm
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 10:00 am
Sankt Peter is a town in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. There is a beautiful cloister church, which we wanted to see at first.
Then we walked through the town and found this funny fountain.
Back at the flat again we enjoyed the wonderful view out of our bedroom.
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 10:56 am
Later we took another photo out of the window.
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 12:26 pm
The Feldberg offers one of the most extensive panoramas of Germany - especially in winter at weather situations of inversion. In the west, on the other side of the Upper Rhine Graben you can see the entire Vosges Mountains from the Ballon d'Alsace up to Mont Donon and Mont Sainte-Odile. Beyond that you can also look up to the southern Palatinate Forest occasionally. In the north one can see the Hornisgrinde; in the north-east there's the entire range of the Swabian Alb including the Lemberg mountain, up to the left there's the Hegau volcano region.
In the south one can see the Alps from Alpspitze and Zugspitze in the east up to the Allgäu Alps, Verwall Alps, Silvretta, Säntis, Glarus Alps, Urner Alps, Bernese Alps and Mont Blanc in the west. Besides there are the Jura Mountains on the right next to the Alps.
There is a deep valley in north-eastern direction which contains the Feldsee, a lake of glacial origin at about 1,000 m altitude.
This is the Bismarck-Denkmal, an old monument in honour of the famous 19th century chancellor of the German Empire.
At the top of the mountain (where the weather has been measured since 1915) is a weather observatory that has been in operation since 1937 and carried on by the German meteorological service (WMO code number: 10908). Next to the observatory there is a weather radar.
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 1:37 pm
We drove through a town and bought some honey at this place. I'm not sure, where exactly it was, so show the photo here.
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 4:14 pm
It was a bit difficult to take a photo with me, because there was a gate and my host's arm wasn't long enough to get me and the background focussed.
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 5:01 pm
If we remember well, this field is called Lehrerfeld, what means teacher fields. If it has something to do with our host's work?
We read the signs and saw, that St.Peter was about 1,2 km away in both directions. All together we walked a bit more than that, we think about 3 km - not really a lot.
Posted Nov 8, 2010, 3:56 pm
THey are located on the High Rhine between the municipalities of Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Laufen-Uhwiesen, near the town of Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland, between the cantons of Schaffhausen and Zürich. They are 150 m (450 ft) wide and 23 m (75 ft) high. In the winter months, the average water flow is 250 m³/s, while in the summer, the average water flow is 700 m³/s. Now just enjoy the photos
Do you know, that Swiss chocolate tastes soooo good? We bought some
Posted Nov 8, 2010, 5:40 pm
Posted Nov 8, 2010, 6:25 pm
Donaueschingen was first mentioned as "Donaueschingen" in 889[citation needed]. In 1283, Rudolph von Habsburg granted the countship of Baar and Donaueschingen to Heinrich von Fürstenberg. The right to brew beer was also connected with this grant. This is the source of the Royal Fürstenberg Brewery.
Though the Princes of Fürstenberg were nominally mediatised and dispossed as absolute ruler of the principality, they still own huge property in their former lands, including their palace with the surrounding parks and gardens. The Schlosspark (palace gardens) which used to be public and the only park accessible to the citizens of the town since 1806 recently became off-limits again. The Princes of Fürstenberg were also the owners of the only extant manuscript of the Nibelungenlied until they sold it in 2001. The ancestral brewery has been sold as well.
Next to the brewery we found this beautiful half-timbered house.
Here you see the catholic church St. Johann again. It is a baroque church, built between 1724 and 1747. The two towers are considered as landmark of the town.
The altar was built in 1751.
You maybe remember the photo that we took next to the Donauquelle looking up at the church? Now we look down at the Donauquelle, palace and palace garden.
more photos soon
Posted Dec 4, 2010, 6:12 am
Back in St. Peter we had some tea and cake again, before we went on another walk. This time only my host and her son went with us. We walked to the pilgrimage church Maria Lindenberg, which is about 3km from St. Peter, if you walk.
It was about 4pm when we went away and we came back at 6.15pm. It was really dark then and we were very hungry and thirsty then.
Here's a photo back to St. Peter, this time from the other side of the town.
This sign says, that here is the home of genetically unmodified Black Forest milk.
We walked the way of the cross on our way to the pilgrimage church. You see, that it is already getting darker under the trees.
We arrived at the church when there was a service called vespers. So we didn't want to go inside. I was a bit sad about it.
The church is built on a ridge of hills (720 meters). Unique is the eucharistic adoration since 1955. From January to December men pray day and night without interruption in front of the holy of holies for piece and regeneration of church through Holy Spirit. Since 1497 it is a place for pilgrimage.
Posted Dec 4, 2010, 10:08 am
There are many more toyvoyagers here, who all want to help us baking the cookies. You can't imagine, how loud it can be with so many tvs around
Oh, what's that sound. It is so loud outside, that we can hear it over our babbling.
It's big ready-mix truck in nice colours.
Posted Dec 4, 2010, 10:43 am
Posted Dec 4, 2010, 3:02 pm
Today the puppies cut and glued a wonderful star together.
They invited all the other toyvoyagers at our place to join them and see the star grow.
Chuckle shows you, how the finished star looks like. He is as proud as if he would have created it all alone.
Posted Dec 5, 2010, 7:51 am
We lighted the first candle and sat down in the middle of the table - our host was very delighted
This is a few out of the kitchen window. You see the snow? It's a pity, that our host still isn't well enough to go outside with us.
Our star also found a place at this kitchen window.
Posted Dec 5, 2010, 9:38 am
Take a look at all the books. There are 19 books for her 19 pupils.
Posted Dec 5, 2010, 9:49 am
Posted Dec 18, 2010, 10:36 am
Posted Dec 18, 2010, 1:20 pm
Somehow my host forgot to take pictures of me on the walk. But when we came back, we found some more trails in the snow next to the trail we've seen at first. Who might this have been?
It was so cold, that we didn't want to stay outside any longer, but our host said, that she first has to clean the way in front of the house again. We asked Chuckle to open the door.
He was a bit too small, so he asked Bluto and Scotty to help him, but they still weren't tall enough.
Hypno-Dog came to help them now. He climbed on their heads and Chuckle on his, but you see, they still didn't reach the lock.
Hypno-Dog called for Travelling Tuffy, who then climbed over their heads and sat down on Hypno-Dog's head and Chuckle sat on his head then. It was really heavy already.
Because they still were too small to reach the lock, Domino asked them, if he could help. Of course they let him climb over their heads and Chuckle sat on his head then. You see, that they still had no luck.
Chuckle called for Schnuffi to help them.
And then I came and also Mustang Monkey asked, if he should help Bluto and Scotty to carry all these other toyvoyagers on our heads.
We were really close to the lock now, but then it happened....! Oh God! I hope, nobody got hurt.
Thank God! Nothing bad happened to us toyvoyagers. Now we knew a bit better how to do it. So we were a bit faster in building the toyvoyager tower.
You see we had a different order now and we were building more a pyramid than a tower.
We didn't feel anything of the cold weather now. We really sweat already.
And yes, with Brinda's help Chuckle reached the lock finally.
He turned the key and then....
What we didn't think of was, that we all will fall down - except Chuckle, Scotty and Bluto. But we all were happy, that we had been successful. Maybe we can go on walks without our host every now and then from now on.
P.S. My host read this and she told me to tell you, that she will keep her key at a safe place from now on. You might feel better to know this, but we all still will try - oh, no eehmmm, I think, we won't try it again
Posted Dec 26, 2010, 2:16 pm
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 4:56 pm
Here you see Moony cutting the vanilla bean.
Paul Penguin adds the almonds.
Landroval tries to stir the dough. Wow, this mixer is heavy.
Even little Brinda helps. She gets the dough out of the mixing bowl.
Schnuffi writes the name of the cookie on the aluminium foil: Husarenkrapferl.
For the second cookies we need some almonds again. Hypno-Dog adds them to the dough.
Kari adds the flour
and Traveling Tuffy the sugar.
Domino likes the cocos flakes, they are just as white as he is. We need the flakes for cocos macaroones with marzipan.
Chuckle helps to stir the dough this time.
To put the dough on the baking plate we need someone really strong: Hypno-Dog!
Tuffy is waiting impatiently.
Brinda tries to show them, that she's also really strong.
After the dough for our Husarenkrapferl was in the fridge for about two hours, Paul puts them on the baking plate and does the last step before we put it in the oven.
While the Husarenkrapferl are baking, our host forms the Vanillekipferl.
Some Vanillekipferl are already baken, while some more are waiting for an empty oven.
That's how the finished Vanillekipferl look like.
We all try to help getting the cocosnut macaroones finished. We want to dip them in the melted chocolate.
Don't they look nice?
It's better to not show, how we looked like after the work was done.
Our host prepared another dough for Spitzbuben cookies. We are allowed to help cutting them out. For some of us it is hard work, but for others just as easy as climbing a tree.
Umechan and Paul are really strong. They can roll the dough with the marmor rolling pin.
Then we are able to cut the cookies out again.
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 5:12 pm
You can also see the Acropolis of Athens. It was a perfect weather, so we had a blue sky and sunshine all day long but also 35° C. There were so many people wanted to see the Parthenon. I've thought I'd never seen so many people like now. My human brother wanted to do some modern art at the next picture. Hope you like it!
Then we approached the Acropolis. You can scale the mountain only on one site, so there are many people at the same place. My brothers teacher told us prior some facts about the Acropolis and the Parthenon because he knew that there will be no time and place to tell us these facts at the suitable places. From the top of the mountain you had a great overview over the city in every cardinal direction but you also had a great overview over the smog which lays all over Athens.
So it was a great trip to the Acropolis and I'm very proud to see the next important place of Greece and the European history.
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 5:32 pm
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 5:36 pm
My brother also took many fotos of the fantastic countryside. You had a great overview at the sea and the mainland. So he took a foto with me, too.
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 5:45 pm
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 6:03 pm
We help to finish the Little Spitzbuben.
the Bethmännchen
Then we roll the dough for the Terrassen cookies
and cut them out in three different sizes.
These cookies should be Nougatkipferl, but we do Nougat rolls.
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 6:10 pm
and cover them with powder sugar.
At next we prepare the dough for Zigeunerschnitten, our host's favorite cookies.
While we all worked, Moony jumps around like crazy. It is no surprise, that he falls into the powder sugar. What a laughter!
Paul and Landroval try to pick a walnut. It is also fun to watch them.
Posted Jan 2, 2011, 2:37 pm
After listening to a little film and reading some facts we went back to the hotel because we all were a bit tired. Additionaly our flight back to Germany was tomorrow.
At the evening we wanted to do something together and a human friend made a proposal to go to the Mount Lycabettus which is the highest hill in Athens. So we walked through the city while passing the government building. You could see there remains of the conflicts between the police and demonstrators. It was scary.
We went by rack railway up to the hill. It was a great weather and we could see the sea, the Acropolis, to the north, east, west and the south. It was a fantastic panorama. You can see the Acropolis behind me and at the horizon the sea.
In the next picture you see me with the Panathinaiko Stadium. The first Olympic Games of the modern era took place there. There were also some games of the Games in 2004.
After a while we went home to the hotel and slept and dreamed from Germany.
Posted Jan 2, 2011, 2:45 pm
Later in Germany I was glad to be at home again.:-)
Posted Jan 2, 2011, 5:42 pm
After we baked the Zigeunerschnitten, we have to decorate them and cut them in smaller pieces.
Then we cut out the Buttergebäck. We use many different small forms.
Then we decorate them with colourful sugar pieces and bake them in the oven.
What a mess! We have to clean up, before we can do more baking.
That's much better now
Look, who is back at home!!! What a Christmas surprise! Aaron, the donkey, came back after staying in Singapore for about two years. He told us, that he won't travel again. He is just too large to take him with in a bag, although he is rather small, when he is folded in a package. He had to tell so much about his life, too much to repeat it here. For us he is just a sign, that it is possible to come back home after years.
Aaron joined us in watching how to bake cookies.
It looks a bit messy again. This will be Walnuss-Aprikosen-Taschen (something like walnut-apricots- bags)
Posted Jan 2, 2011, 5:50 pm
After baking and cooling down we cover the Walnuss-Aprikosen-Taschen with powder sugar.
Springerle are some of our host's favorite cookies. Many people say, that you have to bake them weeks before Christmas so they get soft enough for take a bite without breaking a tooth. Our hosts usually bakes them the day before Holy Eve or on Holy Eve and she never has problems with them being too hard.
While Petra is still baking and baking and preparing dinner, we sit behind the kitchen window and watch the weather change. At first we had rain, but now it starts to snow.
It is midday now and we are still sitting at the same place.
Still watching
and watching
It can be boring to sit here and not be allowed to get up
We watch and watch and watch the snow falling down. You may see, that it starts to get white outside.
Finally it is dark and we still watch the snow falling.
Posted Jan 15, 2011, 10:40 am
Posted Jan 15, 2011, 10:55 am
After singing and reading the Christmas story - I never thought, that this really would take more than half an hour time to get finished with this - everyone was allowed to open the presents. I'm also sorry, that we don't have photos of us, but we all were too busy.
Then we sat down, played a game and ate some of our selfmade cookies. Our host told us, that she tries to put some recipes on facebook.
Posted Feb 5, 2011, 10:22 am
At first umechan climbed into the house.
Then Brinda and I joined umechan.
Also Landroval and Paul Penguin came to sit in the small house, while Chuckle sat on its roof. He tried to climb, but got some cold fingers and had to be really careful to not be frozen to the chain.
Suddenly the dogs came and chased us away. They laughed so much, that Domino and Hypno-Dog lay in the house holding their tummies, while Schnuffi and Tuffy watched from the roof.
But maybe you know the saying: He laughs best that laughs last?
Posted Feb 19, 2011, 4:36 pm
Today evening we have Raclette for dinner. We really liked it. My host got to bed after dinner, because her daughter was ill. So we enjoyed a game called "Mitternachtsparty" - midnightparty - without her.
Posted Feb 26, 2011, 4:49 pm
Posted Feb 26, 2011, 5:14 pm
We helped to cut apples and onions, which we added to the meat.
Posted Feb 26, 2011, 5:33 pm
Again we celebrated the birthday. This time we helped to bake a lemonade cake.
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 5:54 pm
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 6:38 pm
Maybe you know the "Nibelungenlied", if not here's a copy of an wikipedia article:
In the Middle High German Nibelungenlied, Sîfrit (Siegfried) is a prince of Xanten who is later revealed to have a heroic background including killing a dragon and winning lands and an immense fortune from a pair of brothers. From bathing in the dragon's blood, he is invulnerable except for a spot on his back where a leaf adhered to his skin. Determined to marry Kriemhild, the sister of King Gunther of the Burgundians, he assists Gunther in wooing Brünhild, queen of Iceland, using his cloak of invisibility to enable Gunther to beat the phenomenally strong queen at javelin throwing, boulder tossing, and the long jump. He also single-handedly conquers Nibelungenland to provide troops in case Brünhild tries to kill Gunther and his kin. Finally married to Kriemhild, he then wrestles Brünhild into submission, again invisible, so that Gunther can consummate his marriage. He gives Kriemhilt Brünhild's ring and belt. After some years, the two queens quarrel over precedence and Kriemhild shows Brünhild the ring and belt and calls her Siegfried's concubine. Siegfried and Gunther make peace but Gunther's courtier Hagen von Tronje plots to kill Siegfried and Gunther and his brothers go along with the plan. Hagen has Kriemhild place a cross on the spot on Siegfried's back where he is vulnerable, and spears him when he is drinking from a stream on a hunting trip, thus fulfilling a prophecy that whomever Kriemhild marries will die violently. He throws Siegfried's treasure into the Rhine so that Kriemhild cannot raise an army. The second half of the epic concerns her revenge.
Read more at wikipedia
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 6:54 pm
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 7:16 pm
Posted Apr 1, 2011, 1:59 pm
Posted Apr 1, 2011, 8:44 pm
But at first we had a look at some beautiful halftimbered houses of Plochingen.
Here you see Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who was an Austrian artist. No photo with me
In 1985 two architects of Plochingen planned to build a residential and business house as circular building with inner yard.
There are 62 flats, 16 commercial units. The area is about 1,5 hectare. 1992 the city got in contact with Friedensreich Hundertwasser and he actually liked to create the facade of the inner yard. He liked that the viewer of the inner yard would only have Hundertwasser around him and the sky above - an own Hundertwasser-world. (I found this on this website: http://www.plochingen.de/servlet/PB/menu/1211981_l1/index.html )
My host's husband took a photo of us and Petra
Posted Apr 2, 2011, 6:46 am
Posted Apr 2, 2011, 7:32 am
(I'm sorry, that I'm not on this photo, but it was a bit difficult to take a photo of this building with us while driving by, but I wanted to show you this interesting building)
Because my hosts already had been at the Märklin museum several times, they decided to go to the Porsche Museum, an automotive museum in the Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart. You surely know Porsche, don't you? To read more about the museum, please go to wikipedia or to the Porsche museum website. Petra said, that she just doesn't know enough about cars to tell you each name of the cars we took photos of, nevertheless we all like these cars
Okay, there are some really really old Porsche cars.
This Porsche was created for an Arabian prince with his emblem instead of the Porsche emblem on the wheel and even with golden exhaust pipe.
And here's a special Australian Porsche for the 50th anniversary of Porsche. I'm not sure, if you can read more on this photo, but I hope, you can.
Posted May 20, 2011, 10:54 pm
my host says I can look out of the window..... and also that it will be much warmer there as its soooo cold in england.
Posted May 20, 2011, 11:01 pm
Posted Jul 31, 2011, 7:49 pm
Posted Aug 20, 2011, 8:50 pm
They then put the ducks in several large bags and on the blow of the whistle all the ducks are thrown into the river.... you can then shout for you little duckie.
They race along the river, some getting stuck in the weeds and the overgrowth.
The first one over the line is picked up and declared a winner!!! There are other prizes.
This year there was 3000 ducks so raised £3000 for charity.
There are other stalls selling cakes, plants, tombola stalls etc ... a great day was had by all.
Posted Aug 20, 2011, 9:31 pm
Posted Aug 20, 2011, 9:53 pm
They showed us how to round up sheep, how to crack a whip and how to make tea in a bivvy. It was a nice unrushed day, the koala played up a bit but he was very cuddly. But they say apparantly they can be very aggressive but the one I met was very nice to me, he must have thought he knew me. But he was brought up in captivity so thats really why.
Posted Aug 21, 2011, 7:35 pm
As we walked back down the lane, the donkeys seemed very friendly with Kari..
Posted Sep 1, 2011, 10:28 pm
He is currently packing for a trip to Italy in the morning.
More news in a few days
Posted Jun 23, 2012, 5:52 pm
We drove to a landscape called Vogelsberg. This was the only place, where we had been able to stop next to the road to take a photo.
Posted Jun 23, 2012, 6:37 pm
Posted Aug 6, 2012, 8:36 pm
Aschaffenburg. It is a city in northwest Bavaria and belonged to the Archbishopric of Mainz for more than 800 year. The town is located on both sides of the River Main. The second river is the small Aschaff which flows in the western part of the town into the River Main.
Schloss Johannisburg is a castle in Aschaffenburg that was erected between 1605 and 1614 by Georg Ridinger. Until 1803, it was the second residence of the prince bishop of Mainz. It is constructed of red sandstone, the typical building material of the area around Aschaffenburg.
Schloss Johannisburg is one of the most important buildings of the Renaissance period in Germany. At the end of the 18th century, the interior was restructured in the style of classicism.
(Sorry, I had a strange camera, but I wanted to add all photos)
Posted Aug 6, 2012, 9:37 pm
Worth seeing are the Mildenburg (the local castle), which you can see in the far
the Hotel Zum Riesen (one of Germany’s oldest inns, if not the oldest) - you can see the "Zum Riesen" on the right side,
the historical Old Town
the historical marketplace
the river Main
and surely you can find many more interesting places here, but it got late, so we had to drive home again.
The bridge and the tower were built in 1898. The bridge was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1950.
I met many swans on the river Main.
Posted Sep 4, 2012, 6:00 pm
We were in the fifth floor, rather high in my opion.
My host's aunt has some nice flowers on her balcony.
Posted Sep 4, 2012, 6:11 pm
In the evening we watched a football match of the EM, UEFA European Football Championship.
Posted Sep 4, 2012, 6:54 pm
Posted Sep 4, 2012, 6:59 pm
Posted Sep 5, 2012, 12:44 pm
We passed EnBW, which is a publicly traded electric utilities company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Posted Sep 5, 2012, 1:26 pm
Today she had to bake six quiche lorraine, all of them the size of three usually round cakes, and we had been happy to help her. Her husband celebrates a late 50th birthday party.
One sort of quiche was with cheese, ham and eggs, the other sort was with cheese, salmon, onion and eggs.
At first we had to read the recipe.
Then Cassiopeia weighed 600gr flour.
Fiona added 300gr butter.
Cassiopeia helped TV-TV to get some salt on a spoon. THey needed one and a half teaspoon.
SunnyHH had a lot of fun climbing on Mr.Zwie-Muellers head while he tried to get water on a spoon. He had to add 15 tablespoons of water to the dough.
Then she had to stir the dough. My host said, that she hadn't been really a help doing it. Who knows why?
Scotty made the dough on aluminium foil, because it had to rest in the fridge for two hours.
Later I had to open 9 eggs for the stuffing.
You see SunnyHH had some fun again, while someone mixed the eggs. In the measuring cup we have 3/4 l cream and 3 grains of salt.
Someone also added 375gr cheese and 600gr cutted ham.
I can tell you, it tasted really good. And for the salmon quiche we just replaced ham with salmon - some said, it was even better.
Posted Sep 7, 2012, 6:08 pm
Posted Sep 7, 2012, 6:13 pm
Posted Oct 7, 2012, 6:47 pm
We were driving in the Elbe tunnel. Sorry, it is a "bit" blurry.
We've seen the Kiel Canal, but it was difficult to take a photo with it.
Posted Oct 7, 2012, 7:13 pm
We were rather thirsty and happy, that we had some Coke to drink. We had to share it with the humans, though.
We went on a small sightseeing tour:
St. Nikolai-Church with the market place is the biggest church of Flensburg. It is a gothis hall church. They started to built this church in 1390 so it is rather old.
The Holy Ghost Church is the main church building of the Danish church. It is also a gothic hall church, built in 1386.
These sailing ships are for tourist tours.
Posted Oct 20, 2012, 7:40 pm
We had to pay for driving over the bridges.
Posted Oct 20, 2012, 8:44 pm
There was also an exhibition of old and new furniture.
Posted Oct 20, 2012, 9:28 pm
We've seen many anthills there.
This is our private little pier, where is also our private little boat. I hope to go out with the boat soon.
Smaland seems to be a land of heather. I love it.
While sitting here we watched some acrobatic flying, which they did for a wedding, that took place on the other side of the lake.
We chatted a while, but then we felt really cold and decided to go back to the house.
Posted Oct 20, 2012, 10:02 pm
Hässleby kyrka was built between 1857 and 1859. First there was a wooden church before the was an ancient stone church. This could have been the church, which Michel's (Emil)'s sister had seen from the top of the flagpole. In the book she said, that she could see the church of Mariannelund.
Posted Oct 21, 2012, 11:40 am
I would have liked to buy these books, but my host told me, that they are written in Swedish and that I don't understand Swedish.
Did you know, that Emil was called Michel in Germany, because there was a book of Erich Kästner called Emil and the Detectives and they didn't want to mix up with the names?
Posted Oct 21, 2012, 1:35 pm
With an extent of 13 to 14.75 meters in breast hight the Kvilleken is known as the oldest and biggest tree of Sweden and one of the oldest and biggest, if not the oldest and biggest oak of Europe.
The trunk is half dead. These parts are fixed with ropes to the rest of the trunk. The area around the tree is fenced.
The Kvilleken was first mentioned in year 1772 by Magnus Gabriel Craelius in his book Försök till ett landskaps beskrivning.
(wikipedia, translated by me)
Posted Oct 21, 2012, 2:31 pm
Vimmerby is currently a tourist attraction due to historical links with Swedish author Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). When Astrid Lindgren wrote her books about the country boy Emil in Lönneberga she used much information from her own upbringing in the rural areas of Vimmerby.
Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson was born here, at the farm at Näs in Vimmerby more than 100 years ago. Her father was tenant farmer at the rectory.
This is where Astrid climbed in the "lemonade tree", played with her siblings, jumped in the hay and listened to stories in Kristin´s kitchen.
Her childhood home is still intact. The house is open for guided tours all year round.
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In contrast to what was believed a century ago, there is no evidence of a special pre-Christian significance of the site. The pagan cultic center of Värend may have been located at Hov, a village nearby.
Växjö got its city charter in 1342.
Växjö Cathedral (Swedish: Växjö domkyrka) in the centre of Växjö, Sweden, is the seat of the bishop of the Diocese of Växjö in the Church of Sweden. Saint Sigfrid allegedly lived and died in Växjö, and was buried in the cathedral at his death.
At an outside wall of the cathedral we found this runestone.
Then we drove to the Glasriket, what means Kingdom of Crystal, museum. Their history can be traced back to the 18th century at least. The glassworks have become part of the culture of Sweden. The sad thing for us was, that we had to wait in the car, while our hosts or family and the small tvs were allowed to go inside.
Posted Nov 13, 2012, 10:26 am
At first we visited the Nässjö railway museum(Nässjö Järnvägsmuseum), which has the focus on regional and national history of rail traffic.
Nässjö was for a long time only a rural village with agriculture as the dominant occupation. The turning point was the construction of the Swedish railway system. The southern main line railway, finished in 1864, passed through Nässjö. Later, other railways were inaugurated, whereby Nässjö, due to its geographical location in the country, became an important junction.
Nässjö is the only city in Sweden, where still six differnet railroad lines meet.
Posted Nov 13, 2012, 2:37 pm
In the museum, living match history is told. Encounter the people and machines that built up the match industy and developed it into a global operation.
Johan Edvard Lundström was born in 1815 in the town of Jönköping, Sweden. Johan Edvard is most of all recognized to have improved the safety match and made it possible to commercially exploit it.
I will show you parts of the old way to produce match sticks. It was really hard work, which had harmful effects for health.
Here we were in front of the museum. It had been raining again.
We crossed this place and found a radio museum. We thougth, it would be a good idea to go inside and it was really interesting to see all the old radios, grammophones and more.
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In 1986, Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died in a bus accident close to Ljungby. There is a memorial stone by the Gyllene Rasten parking.
We walked over a bridge, which leads over the river Lagan. Read, what we've read on two signs:
We visited the Museum of Legends and had a lot of fun. It is very interesting and you shouldn't miss to go there, if you ever come to Ljunby.
By the way: Some places are just too dangerous for someone like me, you will see.
Posted Nov 15, 2012, 9:41 am
Posted Nov 15, 2012, 6:41 pm
Kalmar is a city in Småland in the south-east of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010.
From the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, Kalmar was one of Sweden's most important cities. Between 1602 and 1913 it was the episcopal see of Kalmar Diocese, with a bishop, and the Kalmar Cathedral from 1702 is still a fine example of classicistic architecture. It became a fortified city, with the still mighty Kalmar Castle as the center. After the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, Kalmar's importance diminished, until the industry sector was initiated in the 19th century.
Geographically Kalmar is the main route to the island of Öland thanks to the Öland Bridge.
Later we visited Krustenstiernska Garden and had a picknick there. The first thing, that you see of the garden, is a high wooden wall and closed doors. But at 11am the doors were opened and everyone is allowed to come in. There are many tables and chairs and you just can sit down and eat things, that you brought with you.
After this rest we had a little sightseeing tour in Kalmar. We've seen the lighthouse and the cathedral inside and outside.
Interesting for us to see was, that in Sweden it is common to have a special corner for children, where they can sit and play. Two plushy guys invited us to sit on their table and told us a lot about their life in the cathedral.
Then we walked back to the parking place and had this wonderful view to the castle.
Posted Nov 16, 2012, 6:20 pm
At first we stopped at this place, but still aren't really knowing, what it is, because we don't understand Swedish.
Then we arrived at Borgholm castle. We were there for nearly three hours and walked back and forth and took many photos.
Because Solliden was still closed, we drove to the city then and enjoyed walking through the streets.
Solliden Palace is the summer residence of the Swedish Royal Family. Queen Viktoria let it build from 1903 to 1906. King Carl XVI. Gustaf inherited it as a four year old. The palace itself is closed, but during summer you can visit the palace garden, if the royal family isn't there.
This is the playhouse, in which once a gardener lived with his whole family.
This is the Italian Garden.
We enjoyed sitting on this bench and imagined Crown Princess Viktoria comes to meet us.
Then we drove to the coast on the east side. We've seen the big cross and the remains of a chapel.
These are the remains of St. Brita's Chapel, the largest chapel in Öland. Although associated with St. Bridget (Brigitta) the chapel was the Celtic St. Brigida to begin with. The chapel was 27 metres long and 12 metres wide and it was probably built on account of the growning numbers of visitors attracted by the market here at Sikavarp.
It was getting so cold and windy, that we hurried back into the car. Of course one sign we weren't allowed to miss while being in Sweden. See this one:
Posted Nov 16, 2012, 9:16 pm
Gränna is known for its red and white polkagris (literally "polka pig" in Swedish) stick candy, also known as peppermint rock.
The balloonist Salomon August Andrée, who died in an attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon, was born in Gränna. The Grenna Museum hosts an exhibition of the expedition together with a comprehensive collection of related objects and photos.
A model of the castle of Visingsö
Gränna is located at the edge of the lake Vättern, which we have to cross to come to the island called Visingsö.
Posted Nov 17, 2012, 11:05 am
Visingsö lies 30 km north of the city Jönköping and 6 km west of Gränna from which two car ferries connects the island. The island is 14 km long and 3 km wide, with a total area of 24 km².
According to legend, a giant named Vist created Visingsö by throwing a lump of soil into the lake so that his wife could use it to step over the lake.
I took photos of the signs next to the castle, so it is easier to imagine, how it looked like and to get to know something about the history of the castle. I'm sorry, but I'm not included in these three photos. The second link is only in German, sorry.
On a little walk we found this tower of a stave church next to a graveyard. Because we only had a little time on the island, we had to hurry to get back on the ferry then.
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Posted Nov 17, 2012, 1:55 pm
On our way to Frederikssund we had to drive through Copenhagen or København (Danish pronunciation: [kʰøb̥m̩ˈhɑʊ̯ˀn], which is the capital of Denmark and its most populous city, with an urban population of 1,213,822 (as of 1 January 2012) and a metropolitan population of 1,947,944 (as of 1 October 2012). We had a short stop at the railway station. Wow, this is a big city, really crowded and we all were happy, when we had been out of the city again. Nevertheless it seemed, that there are some nice places, which would be worth to see one day.
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Jægerspris is a town and a former municipality (Danish, kommune) in Region Hovedstaden. It lies in the northern part of the island of Zealand (Sjælland) in eastern Denmark. A significant portion of the north end of Jægerspris is covered by forest. There are also stretches of sand and dunes along the municipality's western side.
The town of Jægerspris has a population of 4,065 (1 January 2011) and lies 6 km. northwest of Frederikssund. The town was established ca. 1870 around Jægerspris Castle, which is surrounded by kilometres of hiking and biking trails in the Jægerspris forest.
Posted Nov 23, 2012, 9:17 pm
Oh, don't wonder about the little dirt on the pillow. It is no dirt, it is a piece of chocolate. One piece of chocolate for all of us. I'm sure, you can imagine, how it feels if you only receive chocolate as big as a flea, because we had to share it with our host, too.
Posted Nov 28, 2012, 3:45 pm
Karlsruhe is the third largest city of Baden-Württemberg, near the Franco-German border.
Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city-states. The town surrounding the Palace became the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht) whose decisions have the force of a law in many cases, and the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof), the highest court of appeals in matters of civil law and criminal law. It therefore considers itself the home of justice in Germany, a role taken over from Leipzig after 1945.
Washington's city planner, had been given the plans of Karlsruhe (among numerous other European cities) as an inspiration.
At first we visited the the Bothnical Garden.
The Karlsruhe Palace (Schloss) is an interesting piece of architecture; the adjacent Schlossgarten includes the Botanical Garden with a palm, cactus and orchid house, and walking paths through the woods to the north.
Posted Nov 28, 2012, 7:06 pm
The Turmberg can be reached by the Turmbergbahn, a funicular railway. The original railway used water to weight the rail cars, but now it is run on electric.
wikipedia
This is written on the sign:
This tower is the remain of the ancient castle, which was built by Count von Hohenberg during the 1100s, extended during the 1200s and destroyed by Konrad von Lichtenberg, bishop of Strasbourg in 1279 A.D.
This tower was built between 1230 A.D. and 1250 A.D.
If the weather is nice you have a view to the Black Forest
to Karlsruhe and theRhine Valley, the Palatinate Mountains and Alsace
to the Kraichgau (Bruchsal is located at the edge of Rhine Valley to Kraichgau)
Durlach
Posted Dec 2, 2012, 7:35 pm
Posted Jan 13, 2013, 10:10 pm
Here we are close to Geisslingen.
We've seen the Cathedral of Ulm in the far.
On our way home it was getting darker and darker, so there are only a few photos, which are a bit better. Nevertheless it is what we've seen, when we drove and drove and drove.
Here's the blurry photo with the big wheel in Stuttgart. Stuttgart is the main city of Baden-Württemberg.
And here is the small bridge.
Posted Jan 14, 2013, 5:22 pm
We walked a while and then came through this small village with these beautiful half-timbered houses.
We've also visited a shop, but we haven't bought anything.
Posted Jan 14, 2013, 5:41 pm
Here I stay in front of the Mercedes Benz Arena, but the concert was in a hall called Schleyerhalle.
So let's see, where we will sit - or dance?
Posted Jan 14, 2013, 6:23 pm
We had a nice, but most of the time foggy view to the Ulm Minster - cathedral.
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. Ulm was founded around 850, is rich in history and traditions as a former Free Imperial City (German: freie Reichsstadt). Today, it is an economic centre due to its varied industries, and it is the seat of a university (University of Ulm, founded in 1967).
Posted Jan 14, 2013, 6:26 pm
Inside the church it is rather dark, so it was really difficult to take nice photos - they are just terribly dark.
Posted Jan 16, 2013, 7:50 am
sorry, it is blurry
We walked through Herrenkellergasse. At the corner to Rabengasse we found these nice old houses and had a nice view to the steeple of the Minster.
Internationally, Ulm is primarily known for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world (161.53 m (529.95 ft) high and 768 steps)., the Gothic minster (Ulm Minster, German: Ulmer Münster) built 1377-1891.
The Rathaus (Town Hall) was built in 1370, featuring some brilliantly-coloured murals dating from the mid-16th century. On the gable is an astronomical clock dating from 1520. Restored after serious damage in 1944.
The old Fischerviertel (fishermen's quarter) on the River Blau, with half-timbered houses, cobblestone streets, and picturesque footbridges is fascinating. An interesting sight here is the Schiefes Haus(crooked house), a 16th-century house today used as a hotel.
According to legend, construction of the spire of the Ulm Munster was halted while only halfway completed when a wagon carrying a large wooden beam - loaded sideways - arrived at the narrow city gate. After contemplating how best to proceed, the mayor of Ulm gave the order to tear down part of the city wall, but before the order was carried our, a sparrow-like bird was observed maneuvering a long twig into its nest - lengthwise! Following the lead of the sparrow, the beam was turned, the wagon passed through the narrow gate, work was resumed, the cathedral was completed, and the legend of the Ulmer Spätze was born.
At last we walked down to the river Danube and enjoyed the sunset.
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What a big surprise for us! There were so many new toyvoyagers guests in the package: Michel, nosyblue, Bobi, Hippy and Queenie and Robbi. So the house got crowded
We told them to walk out of the package, so we could introduce each other and exchange adventures. We had a nice chat.
Posted Jan 31, 2013, 3:03 pm
After the rainy season, the plant dries up, dropping leaves and curling branches into a tight ball, and "hibernates". Within the ball, the fruits remain attached and closed, protecting the seeds and preventing them from being dispersed prematurely. The seeds are very hardy and can remain dormant for years. Wetted again in a later rainy season, the ball uncurls and the plant wakes up from its dormant state, which causes the capsular fruits open (dehisce) to disperse the seeds.
Then we finished some other cookies called Staenglein. They are very yummy.
On Holy Eve we had the family's traditional dinner: chicken fricassee in pasty with lamb's lettuce.
Later we sat around the plate with cookies and sang Christmas carols under the Christmas tree.
sorry, it was so dark, so the photos aren't that good and somehow the flashlight didn't work.
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It was created in 1968 after the union of Ehrenstein and Klingenstein and some more municipalities joined.
It is home to one or more prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps UNESCO World Heritage Site.
View to Löwenfelsen in Ehrenstein
The river Blau really shimmers blue sometimes. The name comes from the celtic name Blava. The blue colour comes from light scattering due to the high chalky spring water. River Blau is a left tributary to the Danube.
It was so so cold, that we hurried home again after these two photos.
Posted Mar 29, 2013, 5:43 pm
Back in Blaustein we walked through the Szeklertor, which is a present of the partner city Cernat in Romania. The Székelys derive their name from a Hungarian expression meaning "frontier guards" and were regarded as the finest warriors of medieval Transylvania, but it isn't completely proven.
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At first we had to find a place - we are quite a few
Of course we aren't all traveling. Some of us are here as active toyvoyagers, but many of us are guests, who decided to stay here as long as the owners don't find time to get in contact with our host. And of course some of us live here, but we all have one thing in common - we are toyvoyagers.
At next we had to get the eggs. We need six eggs for the cake.
It was Sausi Karl's job to beat the eggs.
Then one of us - don't know who - added 50g sugar for each egg, so it was 300 g sugar. It's quite a lot, we know.
Madam Miff added one packet of vanilla sugar to the dough.
Of course we had to beat the dough again, but we couldn't handle the camera while beating the dough.
Matcha and Ted added 300g flour and one packet of baking powder.
Then we had to stir the dough again until it was fluffy.
Melek helped
and Nathalie
Then Matcha prepared the dish for the dough. We baked without bottom on a foil.
Nathalie was still busy stiring the dough.
And the she filled it in the dish.
Then we all were sitting there and waiting for the cake to get baken in the oven. Man it was boring at first. But we didn't expect, that half an hour can be such a short time, when so many tvs are together.
After this break we had to prepare the rhubarb, because we wanted to fill the cake with rhubarb cream.
Little Dragon helped to skin it.
And Matcha helped to cut it in pieces.
Billy helped Matcha to stay on the pot during cutting the rhubarb pieces.
Then we had to prepare some ingrediences for the cream. We needed two packets of vanilly pudding powder, one egg white and one yolk. We had to stir the egg white.
Before adding the stirred egg white, we had to add the pudding powder. We had added a little bit of water to it and shook it until it was smooth. Then we added the pudding powder to the cooked rhubarb. We also added the yolk.
Then Louis the Rat added the stirred egg white and gently folded it in.
Finally we cut the cake in two layers and filled the cream on the first and then on the second layer and put the last layer on top of it.
Posted Aug 24, 2013, 4:17 pm
Have you ever had "salad to go"? It really looked funny.
We had to wait about 2 hours until the concert started. It had to be after sunset - and still it was really hot.
Posted Aug 24, 2013, 4:56 pm
This is Sanct Martin in front of the church St. Martin.
We went to a bridge from where we could "see" the Ulm Minster.
Then we walked back to our Blaustein home again.
Posted Aug 25, 2013, 12:43 pm
Internationally, Ulm is primarily known for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world, the Gothic minster (Ulm Minster, German: Ulmer Münster) and as the birthplace of Albert Einstein.
The Minster is a Lutheran church. Although sometimes referred to as Ulm Cathedral because of its great size, the church is not a cathedral as it has never been the seat of a bishop.
It is the tallest church in the world, and the 4th tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a steeple measuring 161.5 metres (530 ft) and containing 768 steps. From the top level at 143 m (469 ft) there is a panoramic view of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg and Neu-Ulm in Bavaria and, in clear weather, a vista of the Alps from Säntis to the Zugspitze. The final stairwell to the top (known as the third Gallery) is a tall, spiraling staircase that has barely enough room for one person.
We had a wonderful view around, but the weather was not as nice as we would have liked it. It even started to drop. (wikipedia)
Here you see the river Danube. The houses in my back belong to the so called Fischerviertel (fishermen's quarter), where we will go later. The houses on the other side of the river belong to the Bavarian city Neu-Ulm.
Posted Aug 25, 2013, 2:42 pm
I love the halbtimbered houses.
I'm sorry, but there was only a bit of battery left in my host's camera, so we had to safe it for the next place and couldn't take a photo inside the abbey.
Posted Aug 25, 2013, 2:51 pm
Numerous legends and folk tales refer to the Blautopf. Its characteristic colour was explained by the account that every day someone would pour a vat of ink into the Blautopf. Another myth stated that every time someone tried to measure the Blautopf's depth with a leaden sounding line, a water nix stole the sounding line. Therefore, it was not possible to determine the depth of the Blautopf.
The entry to the Blauhöhle lies at a depth of about 18 metres (approximately 60 ft). Therefore, access is restricted to experienced and well-trained divers. The size of the Blautopf depends greatly on the level of rainfall, though it never entirely dries out. The Blautopf is the second largest spring in Germany, after the Aachtopf.
he water's blue color is the result of chemical properties of limestone densely distributed in the water.
We only could take one "bunch" photo due to the battery problem and because it started to rain.
Near the Blautopf is a hammermill fed by the water of the spring.
Posted Aug 25, 2013, 4:55 pm
Helfenstein Castle represents the remnants of the fortified castle (burg) Helfenstein of the counts of Helfenstein. During the peak of their power the Helfenstein family ruled Heidenheim, Blaubeuren, Wiesensteig and Sigmaringen.
We really enjoyed the view over Geislingen and the hills.
View from the castle to Ödenturm.
Here am I in front of the Ödenturm.
From here we had a nice view to Helfenstein castle.
Posted Mar 16, 2014, 6:04 pm
Posted Mar 16, 2014, 6:27 pm
Calw is located in the northern Black Forest and is approximately 18 kilometers south of Pforzheim and 33 kilometers west of Stuttgart. It was first mentioned in records in 1075.
There are many nice halftimbered houses as you can see in our photos.
We saw parts of the original fortifications constructed before 1500 - it was really a small part of it.
This is a part of the market place. Some of the photos we already showed above.
Then we visited the museum. Hermann Hesse (German: [ˈhɛɐ̯man ˈhɛsə]; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Posted Mar 16, 2014, 6:51 pm
Posted Mar 16, 2014, 7:52 pm
Herrenberg is a town in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, about 30 km south of Stuttgart and 20 km from Tübingen.
Herrenberg is situated on the western edge of the Schönbuch forest and is a central town within the Gäu region. It was founded in the 13th century. In 1278, Herrenberg was first documentated, although Pfalzgraf Rudolf von Tübingen already wrote in 1228 "castrum nostrum herrenberc" into a certificate. From 1276, the church building was started, which at the time, had two towers.
The symbol of the town, the traditional church "Stiftskirche", with its Glockenmuseum (bell museum) in the tower, as well as the "Herrenberger Rathaus" (town hall) and the historical ruins of the castle "Schlossberg", are an attrictive destination for tourists of all over the world. There are guided tours (some in English) as well through the historical buildings of the town. Large sections of the old city wall are still standing (or have been rebuilt) and numerous timber-framed houses fill the "Old Town" surrounding the "Marktplatz" (market place)
view to "Stiftskirche"
I'm standing on the stairs, which lead to the church.
Here we're standing in front of the church looking down on the town.
The half timbered houses of Herrenberg are even more beautiful than those in Calw. I loved them and would have liked to stay for a longer time.
Then we walked back to the hotel, because we attended a Musical Krimi Dinner there.
Posted Mar 16, 2014, 8:43 pm
The Mercedes-Benz Museum is an automobile museum in Stuttgart, Germany. It covers the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand and the brands associated with it. Stuttgart is home to the Mercedes-Benz brand and the international headquarters of Daimler AG.
I've seen something of which my host told me, that it really was a car.
With this bus I would have been able to invite a lot of guests and carry them around.
We took a look out of the window. It was raining heavily.
Team touring coach 1974
After hours in this museum we really were tired and drove home again. It was a great weekend.
Greetings,
Kari and friends
Posted Mar 30, 2014, 8:47 am
Later we enjoyed the view down on Bruchsal.
Posted Mar 30, 2014, 8:58 am
chicken fricassee, pie-crust and corn salad.
Later we celebrated the birth of Jesus, our Christkind.
Posted Apr 19, 2014, 6:23 pm
We enjoyed the view to the church St. Peter.
Posted Apr 19, 2014, 6:36 pm
After dinner on the second evening the star singers receive a bag full of sweets. You can see the bags here.
Oh, I forgot: There are also bags for donation to the children's home and market, where poor people can buy things they need.
Posted Apr 19, 2014, 7:11 pm
Usually the Christmas tree is in the living room from23rd or 24th December until 6th January (including) or latest until Maria Lichtmess, which is celebrated on 2nd February. Many people put the tree up sooner now, but that isn't really a German tradition.
Posted Apr 19, 2014, 7:24 pm
Today isn't only Epiphany, but also my host's husband birthday. So we had guests in the evening, who enjoyed a tasty potatoe soup.
Posted Apr 19, 2014, 7:37 pm
So we only took this one photo of the church in Stettfeld, Baden-Württemberg.
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Posted Apr 21, 2014, 2:14 pm
We were still on the right side of the river, but you already can see the towers of the Speyer cathedral.
Posted Apr 21, 2014, 9:13 pm
Speyer is dominated by the Speyer Cathedral, a number of churches and the Altpörtel (old gate). In the cathedral, beneath the high altar, are the tombs of eight Holy Roman emperors and German kings.
Posted May 11, 2014, 1:08 pm
It was a bit sad, that my host had a sore throat and so she didn't want to go on long walks through the town.
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Posted May 17, 2014, 2:34 pm
The Belvedere on the edge of the "Stadtgarten" was built by Leonhard Stahl in 1756 as a hunting lodge for Prince Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten. The location was chosen so that the lodge would command an unspoiled view of the palace, town and Rhine rift valley beyond.
Especially worthy of note are the two towers, each of which has a viewing platform topped with a Chinese-style baldachin – an example of the fashion for chinoiserie prevalent at that time. Today, the Belvedere is used as a venue for concerts and theatre productions.
In the background you see a grammar school, which is in the building of the former reservoir.
Posted May 31, 2014, 7:07 am
Then we walked into the front garden of the baroque palace and took a photo standing in front of the back entrance of the church. You can see the county court, the prison tower and the Damianstor.
Just enjoy the photos around the palace. We think it is one of the most beautiful baroque palaces at least in Germany.
<there are four statues, which show the four elements: water, fire, earth and air. This statue is water.
Close to the palace garden you still can find some of Bruchsal's oldest houses.
This street is close to the citizen park. There are also some beautiful old houses here. About 80% of Bruchsal was destroyed during World War II and so was the biggest part of the palace too. The palace was rebuilt during the 70th. So we really were happy to see, that there are still some of the old houses.
Next to the tower of the ancient castle they built the citizen centre and park.
Posted May 31, 2014, 7:44 am
Later that day we had a really good view over the Palatinate Mountains.
We also took some group photos there.
We had to walk along narrow and steep paths.
Posted May 31, 2014, 8:48 am
