Crush, Hamburg, Germany

JaymeC Posted Mar 11, 2010, 11:08 pm	Whew! Took awhile to get this log set up, but I'm ready to be on the way to my first host! Apparently I'm going to Germany. I'll see you soon! Crush
Apperveilchen Posted Mar 19, 2010, 4:13 pm	Yay, I arrived in Germany! And just in time to go and pick up my host's pet bird from the pigeon clinic. I asked if she keeps pigeons, but she doesn't. However the German Federation of Homing Pigeons has its seat in Essen and also keeps a clinic that treats all kinds of birds and some reptiles. In the waiting room we were greeted by these homing pigeans looking out the windows of their boxes. On the way I looked out the window. This used to be a coal mining and steel work area, still is as much as any area in Germany atill does coal mining. In fact, we are only few streets away from Zollverein coal mining complex, a UNESCO world heritage site. Maybe I can visit it one day. Here are some typical houses of the centers of the former villages that now make up the city of Essen and some one family homes as they were built in the 60s. (Plus busses, the main way for many people to move around in this and the neighboring cities, there are also trams, a subway in the city center and of course regional as well as faster trains.) Garden communities for people who live in flats are often along the railway lines.
Apperveilchen Posted Mar 21, 2010, 4:06 pm	Here is the patient: Hugi had surgery but seems to be recovering nicely. At first she was a little shy, but eventually we could have a conversation.
Apperveilchen Posted Mar 21, 2010, 5:36 pm	This weekend there's the PYROFORUM 2010, a meeting of all kinds of professional pyrotechnicians and producers of fireworks. On the evening of the 2nd day the producers usually present their current products. Some in the form of a fireworks display, others fire the single products and name each. In the end we saw about 4 hours of fireworks. Here are some pictures with me. Sorry, for being so blurry on most: As you can see there was some wind, a little stronger at himes, so the formations didn't all look as planned. This is a huge kite with fireworks on the line. They were amazing esp. in the dark and the varying light from the other fireworks. There were also some other effects like these bright torches.
Apperveilchen Posted Mar 31, 2010, 4:27 pm	We brought away the old bottles and newspapers or kartons to be recycled. These containers can be found in many places throughout the city: For glass - please separate green brown and white glass One is only supposed to use it on weekdays between 7a.m. and 7p.m. because it can make a lot of noise when glass breaks but most people probably do these errands on weekends, esp Saturday, when going grocery shopping. for paper and for shoes and clothes. Don't let me fall in, please!
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 1, 2010, 9:10 am	Time to get out of the city a bit. This is the beginning of the Bergische Land. (mountainy land) In preparation for Easter, we went chasing after little white balls today. All this wood is for the big Easter fire next weekend. Sometimes they are quite hard to find, but I managed to find everyone. I am ready for the egg-hunt! It's very windy here, but when the sun comes out it gets nice and warm.
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 3, 2010, 12:16 pm	The bakeries are very busy these days de to Easter coming up. Here I am waiting for Vienna style layers for a torte. I think my hosts are planning on making Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (Black Forest (cherry) Cake) and Buttercremetorte (Buttercream Layer Cake). See what other ready-made goodies they have here:
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 3, 2010, 12:39 pm	I'm taking you on a little tour of the center of Essen, toward the area called Rüttenscheid today. This used to be a girls University preparatory school, then became a mixed prep school and has been somewhat in limbo in recent years after it was closed because there wasn't any need for so many different secondary schools in the center of Essen. Other schools like the Burggymnasium, the previous all-boys counterpart, now also a regular school, are using the building now. The former Deutsche Bahn (formerly the state train company) head quaters with a statue of Bismarck in fromt of it: Protestant church with a very nice portal: This building was completely renovated a few years ago, the only left the old facade standing and built a modern office building inside it. The newly reopened Folkwang Museum: It was enlarged and renovated after the original concept, using a lot of natural light. It was reopened this year in time for the European Capital of Culture year and is currently doing an exihibition of all the famous and not quite as famous artworks it has in its collection, many of which were banned during the NS regime. It finally has enough space to get a lot of stuff out of storage. There are also many world famous exhibts here, with art work from private collections and other museums, that are shown only on few museums around the world. Esp. since this is a long weekend, there are many visitors not only from this area, but also from the rest of Germany and neighboring countries like the Netherlands, France or Belgium. After getting lucky snatching a parking space in Rüttenscheid on market day, we passed this elementary school: And here's the market: Turkish or Libanese stands with bread, olives and spicy cheese are uite popular. Yum, all that bread! See the Easter bunny? On the way back we passed this great shop window:
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 3, 2010, 7:05 pm	Hmm, I got to atually eat the promised goodies today. Here's the Schwarzwälderkirschtorte an the Buttercremetorte:
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 4, 2010, 11:38 am	It's Egg-hunt time! I started out by getting a good look from above. I know I saw one here... There's another. I got a happy yellow one! What's in there? "Hello! Are you the Easter bunny?" A few chocolate and truffle eggs could be found inside. Happy Easter!
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 14, 2010, 3:32 pm	I went on a little trip with my host who has exams over several days here, so we are staying in a B&B.
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 26, 2010, 9:01 pm	Don't worry, Mom, I am still here and doing well. It's just that my host seems to be sitting over some book or another or in front of a monitor all day long. Today I simply jumped into the shopping bag and got a picture in front of the local museum, tiny Fellenberg Castle, built as an industrial's mansion. Next I saw an old Romanic Church with a small monastery and it's tiny remaining orchard. I promise I'll update much more next month!
Apperveilchen Posted May 3, 2010, 10:45 pm	Here I am waiting at the train station. Can you see the little chapel on the hill behind me? This is me in a regional train. It was very slow travelling because this train stops at every tiny station there is, even though they seem to be in the middle of nowhere sometimes.
Apperveilchen Posted May 4, 2010, 3:31 pm	I visited an outlet "village" with some cute older houses. It's at the river Saar where some boats start for cruises around the Saar loop. There used to be lot of traffic on the river to transport coal, steel and iron. There's still some transport left, but most of the ships we saw were for sport or recreation.
Apperveilchen Posted May 4, 2010, 3:57 pm	The ride to Trier went through some very narrow roads alongsteep vineyards. These are some houses we passed in Trier. The city looked very nice but was also busy with rush hour, so I only took some pictures while we were stuck in traffic.
Apperveilchen Posted May 5, 2010, 12:54 pm	This is the main train station of Cologne. I was sitting in the InterCity train headed south and tried to take some pictures along the way. Here's Cologne Cathedral with its high towers.
Apperveilchen Posted May 5, 2010, 2:09 pm	The train tracks follow the river Rhine. Unfortunately it was mostly grey and rainy. There are many old castle ruins and castles that were reconstructed during the romantic period. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. We already passed the amazing undestroyed Marksburg and the "Feindliche Brüder", two castles, Sterrenberg and Liebenstein, facing each other and owned by two brothers who were constantly fighting with each other. Unfortunately we were too busy looking to get the camera into position in time. My host says this should be Maus (mouse) Castle A bit further up the river theres Katz Castle. Katz and be short for Katze (cat) but was actually short for the much longer name of thefamily of the founders. Nevertheless the smaller Maus Castle was renamed at some point with the animals in mind. (Coming up on the hill.) A long time ago, many ships wrecked here at the Loreley. The cause, according to the sailors, was a beautiful woman, combing her long, blonde hair on the rock and singing (the sound actually came from a small waerfall). I saw the many markers in the water, keeping the ships away from shallows, so I am a bit sceptical. apparently there's also a strong current here. This is Gutenfels Castle, built in 1220, a very symmetrical castle of Staufer architecture. It was originally called Cube Castle, but renamed to Guten(=good)fels(=rock) after it withstood several sieges. Below it is Pfalzgrafenstein, a custom tower built in the early 14th century by the emperor Ludwig of Bavaria to control the traffic on the Rhine from his side of the river. He angered the pope and the bishops of Cologne, Trier and Mainz, that controlled the surrounding land. Lastly here's the ruin of Ehrenfels Castle, built in 1210, destroyed by the French in the 17th century. We saw some more and many couldn't be seen from the train because they were above us on our side of the river, but I really would like to some of these from closer up.
Apperveilchen Posted May 17, 2010, 2:55 pm	We're packing up everything to move out of this "Bundesland". I quickly hid in one of the boxes so as not be be left behind. Byebye Saarland!
Apperveilchen Posted May 17, 2010, 3:09 pm	I wanted to see one of those old castles up close, so when I heard that one member of my host family was going to a medieval fair on one, I snuck into the bag. (Well, it was more like I got my host to say "pretty please" and make puppy eyes.) So we went to Blankenstein Castle in Hattingen. Unfortunately, when we arrived there people who were coming out of the castle were telling us that it wasn't very good. Here's me with the castle and with some deer.
Apperveilchen Posted May 22, 2010, 3:22 pm	These past few days we were all busy with chores around the house. The weather has turned sunny and I sandpapered a windowframe so it could be repainted. I also helped painting it and was forcefully reminded of Tom Sawyer who was also stuck with chores on such a great day. Unfortunately there was no one for me to hand over the task to. And no one with clean hands to take a picture. My host wants to try out some self-watering pots on one of her orchids that isn't so pretty right now, which is why this one was chosen as a guinea pig. Here's the set: Repotting with a wick at the bottom: and filling it up with water: We'll see how this works. The greatest thing was that Knopf and I found a bird's nest: Look how pretty it is, all polstered with feathers and covered with moss.
Apperveilchen Posted May 31, 2010, 12:33 pm	Today is Japan day in Düsseldorf, the city with the largest Japanese community in Germany. My host took me along because it was a great day and she wanted to kno how authentic some of the demonstartions were, now that she had a Japanese native with her. We had to wait in line in the car park for a car to leave so the next one could go in, even though the system outside had told us there were free spaces. It was several stories below earth and a bit scary, with it's low ceilings and so many cars. When we got out and arrived at a small harbor close to the film museum. The old own of Düsseldorf was very crowded but I saw some narrow old houses, one with a carrion. And the town hall where we could breathe for a change and stop without being run into. We got to a square directly at the Rhine where stages were set up, a camera constantly took in the scene and a Japanese children's choir was performing at that moment. It got more and more crowded along the food booths and we saw lot's of people dressed up as manga characters, or dressed in kimonos. It was too full of people for my taste, so we got a little reprieve from the people and from the sun in some side streets. There are a number of statues and buildings in this style in Düsseldorf. The WDR is the local tv station that was also present to interview people and to do a live show of the Japanese fireworks later that night. Saturday is the most common day for church weddings here. (Church weddings aren't legal in German, so everybody has to have a legal wedding before they can get married in church. Many people have the wedding sometime during the week and the cermony on Saturday so guests can attend but others wait months or years after the legal wedding before they have a ceremony in church or don't have one at all.) Here is one couple with their guests in front of a church in the old town of Düsseldorf trying to take pictures, but with these crowds it was hard. They probably got a number of pictures with weirdly dressed people walking through it. Back on the Rhine promenade we saw these kids with different rhythmn instruments. They made a racket and their sense of rhythmn didn't seem all that coordinated, yet. The promenade is very nice, though. These houses look over the Rhine. Here's the river with the TV tower and one of the bridges: There were clouds and sun again and clouds again... but a little wind was very welcome. It was humid. We saw some demonstartions of Kendo and Aikido. And spent some time squeezing through the crowd (you really had to watch out for your children or the got hurt) but finally gave up and went back home.
Apperveilchen Posted May 31, 2010, 10:37 pm	There's also the Eurovision Song Contest tonight. My host doesn't usually watch it, but she's been invited over to someone who will and took me along. Apparently a girl named Lena won a casting show to go to this contest and they want to see how well she does. There are singers or bands as representatives of 39 different countries. 25 of them get elected by a jury to go to the final. That is shown live on TV in all those countries and people get to call and vote for all but their own country's representative. Who ever get's the most calls in one countries gets 12 points from that country and so on. After the voting is finished each countries is acalled up and announced their points and the winner is the one with the most points. Some countries also always give the most points to their neightbors, esp. in Eastern Europe. But, in the end Lena won! She seemed very happy. i can't really judge, because we didn't seem all performances, one the latter half. It's a very long contest. Anyway, before watching TV I took some pictures: I found a bonsai, a white Junischnee. It looks like snow in Juni because as you can see the young leaves are white and the blossoms are also white. The people here have a collection of different alcohol botteles from some series. this isn't even half of it. I wouldn't want to drink it, but they sure look colorful. I asked my host why there's this bottle in the living room. She told me when people wan to get married it's tradition to have a bottle that visitors put their copper money (cents) into and when it's full the brie has it rolled and counted at the bank and pays her shoes for the wedding with that money in rolls. Most better shoe shops still accept all that little money for that if it's rolled.
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 4, 2010, 11:24 am	We're here at the summer fete of the university at Bochum. It's a huge somplex with more then 30 000 students and lot's of other faculty and stuff for the many research projects. It was hard to get any pictures at all with so many people, not all very well coordinated anymore, in the dark, but the ones we got turned out kind of unusual so here they are: The university is a complex of concrete buldings overlooking Lake Kemnade. Here's something like a forum. And this is the Audimax, the biggest auditorium, where the symphony orchestra also plays. At that moment, students are dancing inside. People were going to the higher levels (this one is already several floors above ground) to see the fireworks. We watched from the top of the parking garage: The collest thing were actually the "spiders" of smoke left by the burned out fireworks, you can see then a bit to the right of the light, but not as well as I could in reality.
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 4, 2010, 11:03 pm	Today is a holiday in this part of Germany: Fronleichnam (Corpus Christi). A precession moves from church to church through the city. My host-grandma says there were huge ones in her youth, starting in the city center and moving from there an the first people arrived at the eginning when the last ones started. Here's the church with banners where the procession will arrive and hold a small mass before moving to the next church. I saw them there carrying huge banners and with a band and guardsmen. In some parts of Germany, people, esp women wear typical dresses and headdresses for this occasion. These are along the way the procession will take: I took some back alleys instead... and visited the graveyard. There are many family plots on ths part.
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 5, 2010, 11:52 am	Here I am in Essen-Werden. This is the Folkwang School of Arts, a university but they also have courses for children and work together with a secondary school where one can study e.g. ballet as a class. This is the basilica St. Ludgerus. A monastery was founded here in the 8th/9th century and a church was built. This is the nursing home. The reddish building is the old townhall of Werden. This part of Essen wasn't a damaged by the war and the modernization and city development movement as the city center or Steele. We went down to the river Ruhr. One can walk along the river a long way and reach lake Baldeney. At this point there'S a big island in the middle of the rive and one can walk over and relax on the lawn, play ball or use the unusual playground. But we continued on on this side an reaches the old white mill. Would you like to live here? It's warm and I would quite like to go swimming here. this barrier was built in the 1930s, I was told that unemployed men were kind of "drafted" to do this without any big machinery. We came to an area that's newly designated as Ruhr-Atoll. There are different floats on the river where people can go by paddleboat and discover something about the theme: See the entrance to the "Eisberg"? Or the submarine, nursery... This is where one can rent the paddleboats: Of course there were also a lot of other boats on the river, some small motor boats, canus, or children in rowboats, training for some competition. It was hot and we had enough, so we returned the same way and got something cool to drink in Werden.
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 9, 2010, 7:15 pm	This is the art museum of Mühlheim an der Ruhr. It was formerly a post-office. Above the door it still says POSTAMT.
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 19, 2010, 12:14 pm	I had ice cream at one of the best places for ice cream in the city. On the weekends there are long lines half way around the bulding here.
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 19, 2010, 12:25 pm	The weather is good and I played in the garden and had some nice summer pictures taken. (And then played some more on the computer  )
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 20, 2010, 9:26 am	We went to Düsseldorf again to go shoe shopping, of all the things! It was boring. I wanted to joing the crowds outside the shop that were drinking beer and watching one of the first games of this year's soccer world cup, but my host wouldn't let me go out alone. The only remotely interesting thing was this shop-front:
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 20, 2010, 4:06 pm	The city where I am staying is called "Essen", which happens to also be the German word for "food" and for "eating". This week there's the yearly \"Essen GeniesseN\" (geniessen = to enjoy) event in the city center with a "Gourmetmeile". 23 of the best restaurants, including Michelin star restaurants, have little kitchens and tables set up in the pedestrian zone and offer around different 5 delicacies each, most also one regional dish, usually special Currywurst (e.g. of lamb or duck) or something with blood sausage. Main dishes are about 8-10 Euro, snacks or desserts around 5 Euro. We didn't want to just get one of the big meals, so we tried smaller snacks: Here we had Italian: bruschetta, arancini and tiramisu. I was dissapointed by the tiramisu, it was nothing special at all and the other 2 weren't really warm or well-seasoned, either. I just couldn't pass on the Bailey's-chocolate cream with apricot- and raspberry sauce and rolled chocolate: Hmmmmm, that was great: good, fluffy cream, slightly tart apricots, sweet raspberries and chocolate, and we had good live music!
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 26, 2010, 1:01 pm	It's summer, sunny and warm outside with many different sounds and smells but my host is working and says she doesn't have time to take me anywhere. Psssst, don't tell her, but I figured out that if the cats can come and go through the cat flap, so can I. And I am quite safe outside by myself. See, I'm camouflaged. What's that? It looks like a strawberry, but toyvoyager-sized. That means it's for me, right?! I bet it's been waiting for me. It tastes good! And there're more. I wonder what the red stuff up there is... Looks like I have some climbing to do... Finally! They are big, they are red, and a birdie twittered to me that they are called "Himbeeren", whatever that is supposed to be. Sometimes I wish everybody just spoke one language, the constant switching si confusing me. A bit higher up are even more. Apparently the darker they look, the sweeter they are. So I am only eating the dark ones for now, I can come back for the others tomorrow. Now, to explore a bit more... I'll just more along up here to save myself the climb back up later... Help! I think I slipped. Treacherous leaves! Hmm, but I found some more of the Himbeeren, at least, they look the same but they have a definite smack of cassis. How is that possible? The grass feels great under my shell, if only it didn't take that long to get to the other side of it... Hmm, hidden snacks and even more of them! I can't decide where to start. Soon I won't fit inside my shell anymore, unless maybe it can expand... but then I'd be rolling around... Or maybe not, all this climbing is exhausting. The birdie twittered me something else: "Johannisbeeren"!
Apperveilchen Posted Jun 27, 2010, 1:03 pm	We went shopping in very big store called METRO. Here you can see about a quater of the wine section: And here we have half (plus of course the products on my side of the aisle) of my very favourite: the chocolate aisle. There are also a candy and a cookie ailse of the same size, and of course all the other boring ones with other food, drinks, cleaning supplies, frozen and cooled food sections, meat house and fresh fish counter, kitchen and office supplies, electronics, clothes, products for bath and body and home. I'm glad I could hitch a ride on the oversized shopping cart.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 2, 2010, 6:41 pm	Hello world! Sometimes the planes to Düsseldorf airport fly above our house. Today, I heard something that seemed different, louder somehow and I looked outside: It seems there's a Zeppelin airport in Mülheim and one can book flights and fly over the Ruhr area. But it's supposed to sway a lot so nothing for people who get seasick! Now we see the Zeppelin nearly daily at around the same time.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 3, 2010, 6:02 pm	With over 30°C it is really warm for this area and it feels even warmer, because we have no wind, not even a little. Anyway, here I am crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Autobahn called A40. Busses have extra lanes in the middle in this part of it, trams use them in other parts.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 9, 2010, 5:42 pm	Someone found out and told my hosts that I sneak out into the garden during the day. So now I have to do chores. In the garden there are all those currants which Knopf and I had to pluck and make into little cakes. We made a dough of yoghurt and maple syrup with some flour, eggs, a little salt and butter, and added the currants. It looked a little like big white caviar. Crush put them in the oven while I adjusted the temperature and voilà, here's the first load. The sides aren't burned, it's just the juice that got so dark.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 13, 2010, 7:16 pm	I wanted to enjoy another late afternoon outside, when the heat wasn't as bad anymore, but had to pass by the Cat. The Cat is pretty observant and likes to play with small things. She doesn't hurt them, but I didn't feel likeflying through the air today. Crush also helped protect me. He knows the Cat well. I made it through and was just wondering if she was going to follow me onto the lawn when I saw the best thing ever: The Sprinkler! Save from the Cat and getting to play with water, my home element, what a joy! In the end I found a cozy place to dry off. For some reason I'm not allowed into the house when I'm wet. Really, they could do with some more water in their house.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 15, 2010, 12:28 pm	I've seen some great sunsets here, even in the city. At the moment the weather is still warm, but it tends to rain for a bit in the late afternoon or evening. So I got to see this great sunset rainbow: The intensity of the rain and the light changed a lot and I got to see it shift a little and get stronger or weaker. I like that it is an actual bow: This is where the light came from. I watched it vanish slowly.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 18, 2010, 2:45 pm	Do you remember how I told you that Essen or the Ruhr area in general in European Capital of Culture 2010? And the pictures of the A40 Autobahn? Well, the Ruhrgebiet consists of many different cities that kind of flow into one another and make up a "city" with over 5 Mio inhabitants. Through this area, the A40 connects the cities as a fast way to get from one point to another. If there isn't too much traffic at the time. Today, 60 km of this Autobahn from Dortmund to Duisburg-Häfen hvae been completely closed to motorized traffic and instead one side is for bikes and inline skates and on the other side 20 000 tables built a long row and some groups have staged events like dancing, music, painting... It's called Still-Leben Ruhrschnellweg (still-life Ruhr(the river) Schnell(fast)weg(way/lane) which is an alternative name for the A40) It was very crowded when one got close to an exit. Someone didn't think very clearly when they chose this very exposed place: People were waiting in bulk at one side of the exit in the direction of Essen center but we managed to get on on the other side and just walked int hat direction anyway. The Spanish Culture association has a table here with Irish music right next to it: And this is supposed to be the world's biggest "Arschleder". (ass-leather, this is the proper term and I donT know of a translation, something coal miners used to slide down to the pits on, this area became what it is because of all the coal mines) These people seem to really like Christmas: And here a secondary school is cooking with solar energy. On the other side there seems to be a bicycle-jam. And here some nice ladies decorated with coal and seem to be looking for a roommate. They generously invited me to pose on their table and to apply for a place in their flat. The Gänsereiter (goose riders) are a company of riders that can also be seen at the carnival in Freisenbruch. They wear blue shirts and red scarfs, and dark blue hats sometimes with goose feathers. The tables are all marked like this and can be bought on the Hellweg stores for €49.99 (one table + 2 benches). And here we are back on the bridge from which I took pictures last time: The bus lane is in the middle. Down there people are challanged to do bench presses and kick boxing for small prizes. And people can ride their bikes after all. Time to go home.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 19, 2010, 11:28 am	For dessert I made strawberries, probably the last of the season, with strawberry limes. For dinner we're having swordfish and tuna steaks in Creal marinade with ginger, garlic and lemon. I am becoming a BBQmaster!
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 22, 2010, 9:33 am	Today we visited some kittens from the animal shelter. Volunteers can host them in their homes until they find new homes of their own. The little ones were a bit shy of my at first but quickly came to investigate. But I had to be very careful. Their claws are sharp and in a way they seem even more frightening, than The Cat at home.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 23, 2010, 9:35 am	We spent most of the day in the car on a little road trip. Here are the pics: We passed by some vineyards and sunflower fields, as well as corn and wheat fields. I also saw some castles but we couldn't get a recognizable picture.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 31, 2010, 7:58 pm	One of my missions is to taste delicious food with every host. My host told me we could make something nice but I'd have to help. We, that is all the tvs that arrived last week: Drilo, Jelle and TravelingTuffy and I. We looked through some books and magazines and decided on apricot tarts. We got out the form and the ingredients. We measured and added flour, sugar, eggs and butter for the dough. Plus peeled a line for some more flavor. We kneded the douhg (the Kitchen Aid did most of the work) and wrapped it to put in the fridge for half an hour. We prepared the apricots by cutting them in half, taking out the stone and marinating them in orange liquor and powdered sugar. Actually one's supposed to take a special aprocit liquor, but we made do with what we had. This too has to rest for half an hour. Meanwhile we made the filling, preheated the oven and oiled the form. Then we took out the dough and made the bottom. We baked it for 15 min and then added the apricots and the filling of eggs with powdered sugar. We baked it for another 40 min and now have to wait for it to cool down before we can taste it.
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 9, 2010, 11:37 pm	I already showed you a couple of pictures from a castle near Hattingen. Today I visited the old town. There are about 150 old half-timbered houses, dating back to the 16th century. Lot's of the Ruhr area used to look like this but was "modernized and improved" in the 1960s and '70s, something the inhabitants of Hattingen prevented in their town. This house is called Bügeleisenhaus (flat iron house). Some houses show that the Bergische Land with its slate is close by: Some houses are hard to access. Parts of the old city wall still surround the old town. Here you can see an old lavatory that emptied onto the narrow alley: The Kirchplatz (church square) is very well preserved in its original layout of houses that have a lower level that leads to the street: and one higher up that leads to the church place, where they surround the church in an oval form, with narrow stairs leading from the street to the church place between the buildings.
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 24, 2010, 10:03 pm	We visited the parrot park in Bochum today to get some new toys for the budgies. It's not a zoo but they have different kinds fo parrots and one can look around for free. They also host birds while their owners are on holidays or in the hospital and help people who are interested in or already keeping parrots. There are some aras free in the middle of teh shop area. They seemed friendly, but when we wanted to get closer to say "hi", this one wanted to get a bit too friendly for my taste, so I stayed at a save distace after that. I felt safer around these guys: Who's there? He wanted to chat.
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 25, 2010, 2:49 pm	We enjoyed the view on the way back. Former police headquaters The Starlight Express musical theatre On the Autobahn Fields between the cities of the Ruhrgebiet A mailbox A newsstand with soccer magazines
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 26, 2010, 9:18 am	We got these very fresh Garnelen (shrimps) and Rotzungen (lemon soles). We peeled the soles and put both on the gas grill in a pan with hot spiced oil. We were too busy eating them while hot to take pictures. Along witht hem we had fresh bread and salad.
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 26, 2010, 1:23 pm	The budgies completely destroyed their old toy, so we as toyvoyagers were tasked with getting creative and making new ones for them. Here's the pack we bought yesterday: This is what we got to work with: The budgies love leather and aren't allowed any fibers. Do you like it?
Apperveilchen Posted Sep 18, 2010, 2:15 pm	We went to the famer's market in Rüttenscheid again. There are farmer's markets in many parts of the city, but we like the one in Rüttenscheid best because it had the largets choice of fresh vegetables, fruit and cheese. We had to park quite some way away because many people think the same.
Apperveilchen Posted Oct 4, 2010, 10:26 pm	We're still here and because TravelingTuffy likes to try out the candy of the world, out host unpacked some. Of course we other tvs were there at once and had to try some, too. We started out with some swiss chocolate with 70% cacao, our host's current favourite. Jelle's favourite, too. Personally, I prefered the sweeter kind. Here's a Butterkeks (butter cookie): They come as regulars, whole wheat, with or without choclate cover and sometimes, as in this case, with a yoghurt cream. Yummy! Swiss chocolate also come in variations, of course. Napolitains are small pieces, individually wrapped and often come in packs of different kinds: Zartbitter/dark chocolate, Haselnuss/hazlenut, Milchschokolade/milk chocolate, and giandor(or a variation - a kind of chocolate/nut cream) Here's Brause. It bubbles and prickles on the tongue. Ahoi is a favourite kind of that sweet here and these little bears come in coke, strawberry, banana or peach flavour. There's also powder to dissolve in water, big chunks or other small forms with different flavours. Maoam is another favourite brand. It's chewy candy in all kinds of forms now, regular or extra sour flavours (which should be "sauer" in German, but for some reason it says "sour" on the wrapper). No list of favourite brands of candy would be complete without Haribo. Here we have their licorice mix, called Matador, but licorice is Lakritz in German. There's salt licorice or other kinds in there. Here's the favourite licorice snail: Lakritzschnecke. It can be eaten like this or be unwound, or even separated into halfs before eating. I'm stuffed! I think I ate 10x my weight in candy today.
Apperveilchen Posted Oct 28, 2010, 7:26 pm	We visited Cologne and this is me in front of Cologne cathedral. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site. The towers are 157 m high. Many visitors try to count the steps when going up but usually mess it up at some point. Officially there are 533 but when walking up one might thin they've missed a few (thousand). There's space intended for 4000 people inside. You can find more information via the link. It's a constant contruction site, never really without a visible scaffolding or something smilar. Nevertheless it was quite impressive and it's in the heart of the city at the banks of the Rhine. We walked around and looked a some shops.
Apperveilchen Posted Nov 8, 2010, 9:11 am	Our real reason to visit Cologne was the exhibit of Tutanchamun's tomb. Jelle, Philbert, Knopf and I had a good time. It's kind of a modern multimedia installation to simulate the discovery of the tomb and give an idea of the historical context, both of Tutanchamun's death and of the discovery of his tomb by Howard Carter. They only showed replicas of the original finds but added some photos and copies of drawings etc. from the original dig. After a general introduction, there were some short films and audio information before being led by the audio guide (pretending to be Carter) into the simulation of the tomb as it was originally found. Here's my view into the entrance chamber as he must have found it when looking through the first hole in the walled up entrance. Here's a model of the grave. Above it was the grave on Ramses V. Carter already dug there 5 years before he actually found the tomb and had to stop so as not to make the other tomb, a main tourist attraction, inaccessible. He also stopped when he found some od worker' huts because he didn't think anything would be  found under them. He only went back to them in the last dig he could finance, when he had already tried all other parts of the Valley of the Kings. You see the depression were the worker' huts were, the steps leading down, which were finally discovered during the last dig, the first walle dup entrace, the corridor leading to the 2nd walled up entrance, the entrance chamber, an additional side chamber behond that, and a wall with the burial chamber behind it and an entrance to the treasure chamber beyond that. Here's one of the walls of the burial chamber. The murals depict the pharaos ascencion as a god and the next pharao as a priest (with leopard skin). The famous mask was much in demand, so we couln't get a really good picture or one with me in it. This is a copy of Carter's original drawings to document how the amulets and pectorals were distributed on the corpse: There were many stylized but very detailed statues of gods and of the pharao in various poses, for example hunting. the different parts of furniture were explained and the small scarcophagus that held his mumified daughters who dies as infants. In the end there was some more information about the scandal involving rowdy toursists that cost Carter his career in Egypt, as well as how he was seen by most archeologists of the time, claiming he wasn't a real scientist. He was originally hired to document the archeologists' work by making detailed drawing, ome of which were shwon. No matter their claim, I was fascinated by the pain-staking detail and the indexing apparent in his work at this site. Dissembling the whole grave took a long time because everything was conserved on site before transport and it must have been hard to carefully extract some items, seeing how they were stacked in the tomb.
Apperveilchen Posted Nov 12, 2010, 9:09 am	This Sunday there was a German-Dutch "Tuchmarkt" (cloth market) in werden. It was very busy and nearly impossible wo find parking in the whole town and even a long way out the roads leading to it. The actual market wasn't that big but there were other small attraction and food booths and it was generally very busy. She was basking in all the attention she was getting. These calves were very cute, along with some black und white spotted lambs, little chicks and fluffy rabbits. Here are some of the older houses:
Apperveilchen Posted Dec 28, 2010, 10:04 pm	Some photos from our long walk along the river Ruhr: Hello there! This is one of our hosts footsteps. I get carried, no way am I digging around in this. Unless it's to play, of course. Some geese stay here all year round, but some also come from further up north to spend the winter months here. I wonder if this is what they expected when they booked their camping spot in the South at the beach. The sun is there, somewhere... There are several ol factories along the way. I'm not good a reading prints but this looks like a bird to me. Whatever was ist doing? Pretty reflections in the water. Some men made holes into the ice and were fishing. And now everything with some pop-art color:
Apperveilchen Posted Jan 25, 2011, 5:24 pm	It's St. Nikolaus day today. On the evening before, children but their boots, or special plates outside their doors and in the morning, they see what St. Nikolaus hs brought them. Traditionally it's nuts and oranges and chocolate. Some small presents are also common. Our host's grandma told us of a time, when oranges were a real luxury and very few people could afford them, or had the connections to get any. They weren't sold at the supermarket. (There weren't any supermarkets...) More common were apples and cookies. Schools, Kindergarten hospitals and some big companies have special festivities, were either a person dressed like what we know as Santa Claus, or as the actual St. Nikolaus, a bishop,  comes with his servant, Knecht Ruprecht, who deals out punishment to children who were bad, while the good ones get the presents. It can be quite scary for the little ones.
Apperveilchen Posted Feb 16, 2011, 7:59 pm	Hi there! Sorry for the pictures, we had to rely on the cell phone because my host's camera broke. This is the so called "Stadttor" (city gate) of Düsseldorf: On this nice and sunny day, we rested along the Rhine to catch a few rays and tried to get the tv tower in a picture with us. No success. And the media harbor, but the light came fromt he wrong direction: Anyway, it'S really ncie here this afternoon. A lot of people are out on their bicycles or on foot and watch the ships go by. There are the strangest things on them, whole houses or ship loads of new big trucks. We found this old loading crane here: These are the funny buildings of the media harbor: And I got the tower after all:
Apperveilchen Posted Feb 20, 2011, 3:01 pm	We went to Schellenberg forest, a many beech forest in the city of Essen. Lots of people were walkign ther dogs or going for a walk or a ride on their bikes here. It was quite cold. Luckily there are lots of hills in this area. We climbed on to get warm. The rangers are very active here. But they also leave a lot of the cut off branches or older dying trees around for different animals and other parts of the natural eco-system. See these great mushrooms? Here's a restaurant in an old house. This is a very expensive neighborhood. This is Schellenberg Castle. Unfortunately we aren't in the picture because we could not stop to take pictures and couldn't be held because someone insisted on gathering all sorts of branches and we and our host's left arm, were sqeezed in under hazle, beech, chestnut and, most importantly, magnolia.
Apperveilchen Posted Mar 6, 2011, 4:48 pm	Today we had wonderful weather and decided to go to the old Zollverein coal mining complex. First construction of mine shaft 1 and 2 began in the middle of the 19th century. It's a huge complex within the city of Essen and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was once called the most beautiful and modern coal mine in the world. The best-known shaft 12 was built in 1930 and around that time the mine expanded exponentially. Shaft XII and the accompanying buildings were meant to be functional and beautiful and the cubistic architecture of the time.  All the processing of the coal centered around this mine shaft. It was a prestige object of mechanical processing as well as architecture and drew international visitors. The 55m high double tower if Schacht XII is also called the "Eiffeltower of the Ruhrarea". The pit below it is over 1000m deep. Here's a model of the complex: At one time, over 5000 people worked here. The coking plant was built in 1057 to 1061. It has 6 very distinctive chimneys, all in a row, that can be seen from far away. Now there's a solar plant that also powers this ferris wheel: Coal mining on Zollverein was stopped in 1986 after only 55 years. Some of the ehavy machinery couls be moved on rails: It was first meant to be dismantled but was eventually turned into an exposition and design center over 10 years. Since last year, the Ruhrmuseum, a museum of archeology and industrial culture is housed here but there are still places for offices, the red dot (design) expo and all kinds of exhibitions as well as nature walks and bicycle routes. Nature is clearly regaining control over the area and biologists have studied the developing eco system where special kinds of frogs live in the brackwater and alpine birds nist in the towers and chimneys. The SANAA building in the distance: the theme is "from the international style of the 1920s to japanese lightness", whatever that might mean.
Apperveilchen Posted Mar 10, 2011, 9:38 pm	Most of the snow melted and now we only have a little bit left. But it's still enough to play and to decorate the landscape.
Apperveilchen Posted Mar 10, 2011, 9:50 pm	Here I am in front of the Old Synagogue, it became a museum in 1960.
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 24, 2011, 6:29 pm	This is the former "Ständehaus" in Düsseldorf, meaning it was the state parliamentfrom about 1880 until 1988. Now it's the K21, the modern art museum of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The internal architecture has been changed to make room for big exhibits that through the big glass roof it gets a lot of natural light.
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 24, 2011, 6:37 pm	Happy Easter, everybody! You see me and my easter presents: some heard boiled, colored eggs, chocolate easter bunnies and a fir cone from the Black Forest, made of candy. Oh, and everything in the new home-made breadbasket!
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 24, 2011, 6:45 pm	We were invited to a birthday celebration and got some home-made black forest gateau, among other good things (like cappucino-spice cake):
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 24, 2011, 6:51 pm	We went to a Dutch fabric market today. Unfortunately it started to rain soon after we arrived. It was good for buying things because it got less crowded, but we couldn't get any good pictures. We saw some nice and cheap fabrics, though.
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 24, 2011, 6:55 pm
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 24, 2011, 7:10 pm	I am spending Easter in the Black Forest. We started out early this morning and got into some holiday traffic, but most was concentrating on the roads north, looks like a lot of people are aiming for the sea. We enjoyed the very nice weather with a long walk after our arrival. In the spa gardens we met a lot of (older) people and their dogs. The dogs seemed to have a lot of fun in the water. I did, too, but whereever we went it was steep. Something unavoidable in the mountains, I was told when I complained. At least my host agreed to carry me the rest of the way.
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 24, 2011, 7:15 pm	In the evening we set out again to visit the old town of Gernsbach, the town where we stayed.
Apperveilchen Posted Apr 25, 2011, 10:40 am	This is me on the market place of Rastatt. The weekly farmer's market is pretty busy. Peoply buy most of their vegetables, fruit and flowers here, as well as spices, bread and Easter specialties. I also found this house at the market place: Below I am at Rastatt Palace. It's being renovates at the moment, so the view isn't as impressive as it normally is.
Apperveilchen Posted May 8, 2011, 4:02 pm	Baden-Baden has been a spa town since the Roman times. There are some old ruins, and there's also a rather well-known race-track for horse racing, but we didn't visit any of those. We saw the more modern parts of the town. It became popular as a spa town again in the late 18th century. Here I am in the spa gardens: This is the hall where one can get the spa water. It's called Trinkhalle (drinking hall). This is the theatre: The town was busy on this nice Saturday before Easter:
Apperveilchen Posted May 8, 2011, 4:08 pm	We got a little cool down on a house boat as it was a warm and sunny day.
Apperveilchen Posted May 8, 2011, 4:16 pm	Two panoramic roads lead diagonally through the Black forest: the high road and a valley road. We took the high road to Freudenstadt.
Apperveilchen Posted May 8, 2011, 4:30 pm	Freudenstadt is a small town featuring the largest market place in Germany, surrounded by arcaded houses. Originally there was meant to be a palace in the square in the middle of the town, but the regent's reign ended before those plans were realized. Here we tried to post for a group picture and I was supposed to brave the creature's mouth: I really didn't want to at first. What if it had opened up further and swallowed me whole? Eventually we took a really quick picture and when along again.
Apperveilchen Posted May 18, 2011, 7:26 pm	I helped to make a quick dinner today. We took veal cutlet, washed and dried it, covered one side with mustard, salami/peperoni and cheese, folded them over and fixed them in place with toothpicks. Peeled and cut up potatoes we mixed with a bit of olive oil salt and pepper and put into the oven. The meat came on the grill (a pan also works). And we mixed up a salad. Voila, dinner.
Apperveilchen Posted May 18, 2011, 7:35 pm	Our host had to go on a short business trip to Berlin and took us along. Postdamer Platz: (with Lego store) Berlin Wall Alexander Platz memorial: Brandenburger Tor Reichstag cathedral: Altes (old) Museum on museum island
Apperveilchen Posted May 18, 2011, 7:36 pm	The older entrance to the zoological gardens: We visited the Pergamon museum on museum island in Berlin. It shows mainly works from what's calles "Vorderasien" here, there's no real translation, it's some of the middle Eastern countries and Caucasus. Here's part of teh Pergamon altar. I tried to sneak out while the other, bigger tvs had their pictures taken with the "rescued gods of Tell Halaf". A nice security person found me after my host had looked through the whole exhibition twice. I was then grounded to a special compartment of the bag and only got out to see the Ishtar Gate, a beautiful "small" gate that used to be followed by a big gate and a processional street.
Apperveilchen Posted May 22, 2011, 8:43 am	From Berlin we actually went to Hamburg, a big port in the north of Germany. But we had "Schietwetter" (bad weather), except for some pockets of sun on the first afternoon and evening. We visited the fish market on Sunday morning and got very wet but eventually were able to take out the camera and take some photos. The Rickmer Rickmers, now a museum ship about trade in the 16th/17th century. The fireship used to be a lighthouse out on the water, now it's a cafe/bar in the harbor and you can even stay overnight in soem of the cabins. St. Michaelis church, or Michel for short, and the view down from the viewing platform: It was quite windy and cold up there. But in the background you can see the Speicherstadt which we visited in the evening. It's the long row of uniform brick buildings along the water. The townhall and shopping arcades nearby: The swans have to be caught and transported to winter quaters when it gets real cold. The Binnenalster (inland water part of one of the two big rivers alog which the city was built: Elbe and Alster) Speicherstadt in the evening light:

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