Tamalyn, Bruchsal, Germany

becka_kate Posted Jun 8, 2007, 10:33 am	Hi My name's Tamalyn and I'm eager to find out more about the life of a Siberian Tiger. Can you help me? I'm a very courageous tiger who loves all kinds of adventures. I'm very outgoing and looking for thrills that would make my heart race. Anything you'd like to do with me is with possible. I won't say no! I think I have a wicked sense of humour and I love playing jokes on people, but promise not to play jokes at the expense of my hosts! I'm especially interested in travelling through Asia.
becka_kate Posted Jun 27, 2007, 8:30 am	Hi Tamalyn finally got on her way yesterday. She's been growling at me for days know because she's been sitting in the car waiting, with less patience everyday! for me to get to the post office before it shuts. We all hope to hear from her soon!
Pandamao Posted Jul 4, 2007, 10:07 pm	Finally the top of my travel box opened and so nice - there were already several toyvoyagers waiting to welcome me - the twin bear girls, Hinz & Kunz and Klaus. What a warm welcome! It seems two envelopes had arrived. And there was Candy Cotton - one of my own family from Australia. We hadn't met before because I became a toyvoager later and Candy Cotton had already left Australia. We gave each other a big hug.  It is so nice to meet family when going abroad for the first time. Blut then, I'm not easily scared. I'm a great adventurer.
Pandamao Posted Jul 8, 2007, 9:12 pm	Another parcel arrived today and we all were really curious who is going to climb out .... it was Elisabeth and her little travel companion! Welcome!
Pandamao Posted Jul 15, 2007, 9:44 pm	After long days of rain, rain, rain and rain I finally could go out and do a bit of sight-seeing in Munich. I saw the opera at Gärtnerplatz, Marienplatz, Hofbräuhaus (huge halles full of beer-drinking people) and the Viktualienmarkt (great for daily shopping of vegetables).
Pandamao Posted Jul 16, 2007, 9:26 pm	We all went swimming in the Starnberger See as it was very hot. We took the S-Bahn to Possenhofen. We saw Possenhofen Castle. In this castle Princess Elisabeth von Bayern, later Empress of Austria, spent her youth. These days the castle has been turned into private apartments.
Pandamao Posted Jul 19, 2007, 10:11 pm	A little parcel arrived - Galen is visiting!
Pandamao Posted Jul 19, 2007, 10:48 pm	I had a nice chat with my host today. It seems she has stayed in a yurt and we were exchanging travel tips. Looks like there are more places for staying in yurts than only Mongolia. My host has stayed in a yurt of an Uighur family in the North-Western part of China (Xinjiang province) a long time ago (imagine - in 1987 - that's history). She says the nights have not been fun ... being locked into a corner and not able to get out (if not climbing over 20 people) and due to the strange food having the intestines playing hell with you. Well, that's not the topic to expand on here. Otherwise she strongly recommends to see the Mongolian Republic during the National day. Then there are horse races, archery and wrestling contests. I've seen the photos, it's great. Inner Mongolia (that's a province in the PR China) is als nice but probably the Mongolian Republic is better. Oh, I really want to go there having heard all those stories and seen the nice photos.
Pandamao Posted Jul 26, 2007, 10:27 pm	On Monday our host took us on a business trip. As she could not get group travel rates (we were 10 including Pandamao) we had to squeeze hard into the suitcase. Luckily no broken seams or bones! Later in the evening we went for a walk in the city center. There is lots of water ..... also from above, it was raining all evening. But we still managed to see from far the Kungliga Slottet (Royal Castle), Gamla Stan (Old City) and walked to Skeppsholmen Island where a lot of museums are located. The strange creatures in the photo must belong to the Modern Art Museum! We walked for quite a while until it was getting dark. I tried to hire on that sailing boat and sail around the world, but they told me it's only for tourists and the viking days are gone. So I decided to hang on with my host a little longer if there's no adventure waiting.
Pandamao Posted Jul 26, 2007, 10:50 pm	When it was dark we took the T-Bane back to the hotel. The Kungsträdgarden station is extra-ordinary, just look at the painted ceiling. Finally we all went to bed after a long day.
Pandamao Posted Jul 27, 2007, 6:45 pm	Today the weather was much better so we all went out for a stroll in Gamla Stan (Old City). We saw the Royal Castle, walked through the small streets and enjoyed ourselves a lot.
Pandamao Posted Jul 27, 2007, 6:49 pm	I didn't know there would be dangerous creatures in the middle of Stockholm city - but there it was, a dangerous Swedish Viking Troll!!!!! I roared as loud as I could and fought a brave fight with the Troll to save the other toyvoyagers  Needless to say that I won the fight  Trolls, ha,  that's a piece of cake for me
Pandamao Posted Jul 27, 2007, 7:07 pm	Who says business trips are fun? After a long day in the office (we waited crammed into the trolley again) we took off to Warsaw. When we finally arrived in the hotel we immediately fell asleep.
Pandamao Posted Jul 29, 2007, 7:33 pm	Just before the flight back to Munich we had a few minutes to rush through Warsaw's old city center.
Pandamao Posted Aug 12, 2007, 7:34 pm	After long days of rain it finally was sunny again. So we went out to see Nymphenburg Castle, a summer residence with a large park. Today lots of people use it for a walk or jogging, and there are always a lot of tourists.
Pandamao Posted Aug 13, 2007, 7:50 pm	I also visited Amalienburg, a beautiful rococo building in the park of Nymphenburg castle.
Pandamao Posted Aug 15, 2007, 9:37 pm	Time's up, a last update of my travel diary and here I go - Good Bye Munich - Hello Bruchsal!
fam-united Posted Aug 18, 2007, 3:06 pm	I arrived at Bruchsal this afternoon. I already met C.K. and a lot of other toyvoyagers. My hosts still aren't complete, because one of their son's is on a holiday trip until Wednesday. They told me, that they will try to go on some short trips with me and that they will take me to a three days trip to the Bavarian forest in end of August before I travel to the next host. I'm sure, I will have a nice time here. Now I will go and look around in the house.
fam-united Posted Sep 22, 2007, 3:20 pm	Finally we are on the trip to the Bavarian Forest. We will stay in a hotel for two nights and I hope to see as much as possible. Right now I'm playing with Sabrina and the other toyvoyagers, which are going with us on this trip.
fam-united Posted Sep 22, 2007, 3:46 pm	After a long long while we left the freeway to have lunch at 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.
fam-united Posted Sep 22, 2007, 3:48 pm	Wow, we were so tired and happy to see these beds in our room. We jumped out of the bag and on the beds. I'm sure you see me. 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.
fam-united Posted Sep 22, 2007, 4:09 pm	After a very tasty breakfast we started off to visit the "Weinfurtner Glasdorf". In the park was a water wheel. I really liked it. Then we went into the shop. I liked this place between all the white and black glasses. I would have loved to play hide and seek there. Although this is a part of the shop too, it was more a room for meditation.
fam-united Posted Sep 22, 2007, 4:16 pm	In the afternoon we visited the Great Arbersee (lake). This lake is one of three lakes in the Bavarian Forest. On the Czech site of this big forest is the Bohemian Forest with five more lakes. The Great Arber is the highest peak of the Bavarian-Bohemian-mountain rigde, with an elevation of 1456 metres, while we were on 935 metres. We unhappily couldn't see the Arber, because the weather was too foggy. Since 1939 the area around the Arbersee is nature reserve area. Each year 1/2 million of visitors come to see the lake.
fam-united Posted Sep 22, 2007, 4:17 pm	On the way back to the hotel, my hosts and other members of their family visited a house, while we had to stay in the car. We didn't know, why we weren't allowed to go with them, but when they came back, they carried "big" boxes and seemed to have a lot of fun. We had to realize, that they were in a distillary shop and tried some of the bottles, before they bought some. (of course they only sipped, because they didn't want to have problems with their heads - whatever they wanted to tell us by saying this).
fam-united Posted Sep 22, 2007, 4:23 pm	We all are a little sad, that it is time to say good-bye and drive home again. 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.
fam-united Posted Sep 30, 2007, 6:54 pm	Today we played soccer. It's not so easy to play "sit-soccer" (that's how my hosts call it). I played in front of Tux, who was our goalkeeper. At first everyone sat on the place, where he or she was supposed to be. You only had been allowed to move on the place by turning around, but without walking. Alfie Langer was the referee. He was the only one with a real soccer shirt. At once I tried to score, but Elisabeth did a good work and just jumped to the right place and caught the ball. But then her punt was bad and luckily Bongo got the ball. He tried to score, but Decker was just at the right place to defend in front of Tux too. At the end of the first half we still played 0:0, but of course we had some chances for the first goal. Start of the second half Somehow Glory fell. I know, that I didn't hit her or something. Small Fry nearly shot a goal after that, but Tux was such a good goalkeeper and caught the ball. Glory fell again, maybe she already was very tired, she is so tiny. Here I got the ball and tried to play to Glory. Small Fry got the ball to play, but had no chance to score. After a while Alfie Langer had to talk to Dottie Grace, who complained about something I didn't understand. 1:0 against my team!!! Thanks to Dottie Grace!! And then a silly thing happened, but this was a big luck for my side. Bongo and Small Fry tried to catch the ball with their bodies, but they had no luck. Elisabeth jumped to the right side of her goal, but the ball rolled into the goal on the left side. So at the end the result was 1:1 After the match we danced around the ball, because we were happy that nobody had lost in this match.
fam-united Posted Sep 30, 2007, 7:35 pm	Good bye, Tamalyn! You became very good friends and we will miss you.
fam-united Posted Oct 12, 2007, 11:16 am	Finally my host Petra showed me the palace and the Belvedere. She thought about doing the updates only for Dottie Grace or me, but I asked her to do it for both of us. Here you see a part of the rosegarden, which belongs to the palace. Here you see the backfront of the palace. It was destroyed during the second world war and rebuilt during the 70th. This is one of the statues in the palace garden. There are four statues showing the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. And four other statues show the four elements: water, fire, air and earth. Here is the beginning point for a guided tour through Bruchsal. This building is called "Belvedere". It was a former hunting lodge and now it is a place for open air theatre. In the park called " Stadtgarten" next to the Belvedere you find this fountain.
fam-united Posted Oct 12, 2007, 11:19 am	Untergrombach is one of the suburbs of Bruchsal. Here we are on the "Michaelsberg" (hill) and have a wonderful view over the Rhine valley. In the background you see the hills of the Palatinate. This chapel stands on the top of the Michaelsberg and it is called Michaelsbergkapelle (chapel). Dottie Grace and I wanted to be on the same photo, so we asked Petra to do this. On this photo you see a part of the Kraichgau hill country. Bruchsal lies at the border to the Kraichgau and Rhine Valley.
fam-united Posted Oct 12, 2007, 11:22 am	Here we are back in Bruchsal. The building you see here is the old slaughterhouse. Nowadays a part of it is a restaurant and a place for comedy shows. Ralf and Petra, my hosts, like to go there. Funny! Also you see on the photo, that Bruchsal has parts belonging to the Kraichgau. The first photo with the view to Bruchsal (in Untergrombach) showed a part that belongs to the Rhine valley.

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