Posted May 1, 2010, 8:17 pm
My neighbourhood,want see other neighbourhood!
Actually I wanted to look at Germany's map,but I don't know where I am going !
My travel list
May 2010 to June 2011 with fam-united in Germany
June 2011 -June 2012 spending my time with my mommy in Finland/Estonia
June 2012-June 2013 with nuriayasmin in Heidelberg,Germany
June 2013-... with mommy
Posted May 21, 2010, 10:35 am
I arrived at the place, where I will live for a while. Pinky Bear hugged me, when she saw me. She is really nice. She told me, that she will show me on the map, where I am now and then she will crawl in her package to come to you. I think, she's really excited, just as much as I am.
We shared that candy bar and it was yummy. My host said thank you for the bar and postcard.
Hugs, Brinda
Posted May 24, 2010, 9:51 am
Do you see that house on the left side with the interesting front? It is called Sancta Maria.
The house with the long roof is the music school, where my host, her daughter and her son take singing lessons. Maybe I will join them next time
Here's a photo out of a window on the east side of the house. We can see the two towers of St. Peter church.
Posted May 25, 2010, 8:43 am
Posted May 26, 2010, 12:13 pm
This are houses of the neighbourhood.
These pictures are at the letter box at my hostess house.
Posted May 26, 2010, 2:03 pm
At first I met the fisher of men.
St. Peter is a beautiful baroque church.
This is a view into one of the few streets with old houses. Peter and Paul guide the street.
Next to the church entrance I read this about the church:
There are some nice houses along our way.
My hosts like to go in this restaurant, especially in the beer garden
These houses are next to the Saalbach. It flows from Maulbronn to Philippsburg, where it flows into the Rhine.
Do you see these two houses, which are on the photos above?
Posted May 26, 2010, 2:17 pm
Both of us had a knife.
In the late afternoon we went outside, because we wanted to drive to the Rhine and walk there. I found some more nice flowers, some horned or tufted pansy, in my host's garden, before we climbed into the car.
Posted May 26, 2010, 3:05 pm
The Rhine (German: Rhein) is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at about 1,232 km (766 mi). Philippsburg is located at the Middle Rhine.
Here the lead the cooling water from the Nuclear Towers into the Rhine, which is about 1°C warmer then.
On our way home we saw a stork's nest.
Posted May 26, 2010, 3:19 pm
Posted May 26, 2010, 3:22 pm
The houses on the right side also belong to Bruchsal, they belong to a industrial area.
Posted May 27, 2010, 11:42 am
Walking on I saw the old city hall on the left side, which soon will be a shopping center and there is the city church (Stadtkirche Unsere liebe Frau - Our holy lady).
The maypole is a tall wooden pole erected to celebrate May Day. It may be a semi-permanent feature, standing in position year-round until it has to be repainted or replaced, or it may be a shorter, temporary structure. It may be decorated with several long coloured ribbons suspended from the top, festooned with flowers, draped in greenery, hung with large circular wreaths, or adorned with other symbols or decorations, depending on local and regional variances.
I saw some nice clothes and perfume, but my host told me, that on Sundays and holidays like Whitsun Monday all shops are closed.
On our way back home we passed this aluminium decorated place in front of the Sparkasse (savings bank).
I read the time on the clock. It is 13.10, which means 1.10pm.
It's May the 25th.
and at this place we have 29°C, it's really hot.
There's another head, it is Friedrich, Großherzog von Baden - Grand Duke of Baden.
There's nobody on the street - or better pedestrian zone. It's just too hot.
Here 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.
There is a park next to the Keep and Centre.
Only a few footsteps left and we are back home again.
The sign on the house says: Former prince-bishop winery
1440 built
1689 destroyed by fire
1689 rebuilt as vicarage
since 1972 Caritas central
In the evening I enjoyed the sunset on the balcony.
Posted May 27, 2010, 12:53 pm
We were on our way to my host's parents in law to have lunch together.
In the afternoon I enjoyed to lick this ice lolly
It's still really hot, but you already see some clouds behind me.
Wait, I'm turning a bit and you will have a better view. Soon we will have thunder and lightning.
It's not as late as it looks like on this photo. Take a look at the next and you will still see a little bit of lighter sky. There's still thunder and lightning, but thank God, this time it isn't that bad.
We enjoy the time reading the New Moon book - again
, while we can't go on the computer.
Posted May 27, 2010, 12:55 pm
Posted May 28, 2010, 10:25 am
Posted May 28, 2010, 10:44 am
They went shopping in a house, that's called Ettlinger Tor. There are many different shops in this shopping center.
Then we just took a few more photos of the place called Friedrichsplatz next to the Ettlinger Tor center. Here you see the Museum of Natural Science.
Behind the fountain is the entrance to the parking garage Friedrichsplatz, but you can't see it really well.
On the left side you see a part of the state library. In front of us is the church St. Stephan.
I also took some photos on our way home: some houses, the castle of the brewery Höpfner, the tram.
Posted May 30, 2010, 5:54 pm
Exploring the yard I found some hens and a cock.
Finally I had some egg salad, carrot salad and cheese salad and a torch- of pork belly - sounds strange, but it tasted fine.
Posted May 31, 2010, 9:50 pm
200g flour
atishoo!
75g sugar
1egg
75g margarine
1 teaspoon baking powder
Then I had to knead the dough.
It had been such a hard work, that I needed a rest. I asked my host to switch the tv on, so I had been able to watch the Eurovision Song Contest.
Safura from Azerbaijan
Wow, there are many people watching the Contest - and I'm alone
Oh, my host is calling. I have to help her searching for ingredients we need for the filling. I need: 500g curd, 2 eggs, 140g sugar, 1 sachet of vanilla pudding, 1/2 tub of sour cream, 1/2 cup of oil, 1 and 1/2 cup of milk, 1 small tin of mandarines - but we have to take ananas, because there is no mandarine tin to find in the house.
While my host stirred at first the curd, eggs and sugar and in another dish the vanilla powder, oil, sour cream and milk and gave both in one dish then, I had to hurry, because I wanted to be back and hear the Norwegian singer Didrik Solli-Tange - a cute guy
Oh, this must be Milan Stanković from Serbia. At first I wondered, if this is a boy or a girl.
My host is calling again. The dough must be put in the dish and the filling had to be done in it. The filling is rather fluent, but my host told me, that this is ok.
We gave it in the oven, 180°c for 50 minutes and when it was done, we still let it in the oven for a while, but without heat. In the meantime we both watched the Contest. Niamh Kavanagh sang for Ireland and she did very well, although she only had a few votes at the end.
Ok, here come the missing photos. My host deleted all the photos with my other toyvoyager friends. We sat there with mini German flags from now on and kept our fingers or something crossed for the German singer Lena and 'Satellite'. Maybe we will do a reproduction sometime this week, because they recorded the show.
In the evening I went for a walk to the graveyard and saw the house Sancta Maria from the backside. We had to hurry home, because it started to rain and when we arrived at the house it rained heavily. We even took photos at home showing so many paintings of different artists - gone, but not forever
Posted Jun 3, 2010, 9:49 am
The weather was terrible. There was a thunderstorm and we hardly could see anything on the road.
There must be a rainbow somewhere, because we could see the sun.
We are nearly there: Frankfurt airport
Posted Jun 3, 2010, 7:10 pm
Oh, here's the rainbow
We are waiting for the flight from Athens.
Posted Jun 3, 2010, 7:17 pm
Posted Jun 3, 2010, 7:20 pm
elderflowers
and lilies
Posted Jun 3, 2010, 8:27 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.
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. I will go there soon, I promise.
The houses belong to Büchenau, one of Bruchsal's suburbs.
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 6:41 pm
I will tell you, what's written on the sign: A memorial stone in the cementery is a reminder of the citizens of Bruchsal, who were victims of the Baden Revolution. It was erected on the initiative Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and dedicated on 1 November 1900. Here next to the church you can see the grave of Johann Baptist Bekk. He was Minister of the Interior in Baden during the years of the revolution and, after his death, found his final resting place in Bruchsal.
I've seen his grave the other day (22 May) and got a photo taken with it already.
There are many old crosses.
Here are graves of those people, who died in World War I.
On this monument you can read many names of those men, who died.
This is the Jewish graveyard with many old gravestones.
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.
Finally we had to go home again. You know, that not far from our house is a house called Sancta Maria. Today I had been in front of it and I can tell, it is a really interesting building.
Here's what's written on the sign:
The institute Sancta Maria was opened in 1908 and was an evolution of an earlier church-social institution. In 1981 it became a private school for social pedagogy. Since 1988 it has also run the first German Kindergarten Museum, which is located in the neighbouring building.
Posted Jun 10, 2010, 7:00 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, 7:42 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, 11:56 am
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, 8:24 pm
Posted Jun 19, 2010, 4:15 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 same place we took a photo of the church part.
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.
Just turning around we took the photo of this building.
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.
There are also the statues of the four seasons winter, spring, summer and autumn. This one shows autumn.
We have to hurry now, because we have to fetch our host's daughter from her choir. I hope, you enjoyed the photos.
Hugs, Brinda
Posted Jun 28, 2010, 7:48 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, 8:10 am
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 8, 2010, 9:32 pm
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 8, 2010, 9:50 pm
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 12, 2010, 9:09 pm
I think you wonder what I am doing in North Rhine-Westphalia?
I am invited on a holiday trip with olgamaus' sister Ina. She will take me to ... oh, I forgot where she will take me. Some country in Southern Europe ... it begins with a "P" and it has a coastline.
Here at olgamaus' home I was welcomed by Tochi, Rafael, Squirt and Gunter Dagli. camilla also arrived today. She came here from the USA.
Tomorrow I will meet olgamaus' sister.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Jul 13, 2010, 1:55 pm
we took a walk in the municipal in the afternoon. It is not far from my current home.
This monument is dedicated to the dead of several wars before World War I.
You can find a flower garden here, the largest part of the park is more like a forest.
I saw roses ...
... and lilies.
In the distance you can see the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal.
They have a nursery here in the park.
We had a heavy storm here in the morning. A lot of leafes were torn from the trees.
The observatory is situated in the municipal park.
On our way back home Katja showed us another small park in front of the police station. This pillar is showing the coat of arms of Remscheid.
When we were almost home Katja showed us some nice old houses.
Tomorrow I will meet Katja_'s sister.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Jul 19, 2010, 8:38 pm
I went with Katja's sister today. She told me that we will go to P....ortugal! We are booked on a flight to Faro on Sunday.
Love
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 10:36 am
I played in Ina's garden today.
Everything is packed for our trip to Portugal.
On Sunday we will take off! I am very excited, Tochi also.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 10:44 am
we are at Duesseldorf airport now, waiting for our flight.
This is our plane, I hope we will take off soon!
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 10:58 am
we arrived in Portugal, in Sagres in Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal. I was sitting in a suprise bag
This is the view from our balcony.
It's a very nice place here
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 11:01 am
wonderful flowers are blooming, like this hibiscus.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 11:05 am
those delicious shortcrust cookies are called „Bolacha Hungara“, They are filled with strawberry cream and dipped into chocolate. Yummy!
I also liked the chocolate muffins, and I had a coke in a beer glass.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 11:10 am
today we visited Vilamoura. I saw this small fountain.
Ths is marina of Vilamoura, the largest marina in whole Europe. I saw lots of luxurious yachts here.
This is the promenade of the harbour.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 11:20 am
we visited the Fiesa sand sculptures festival.
FIESA is a mega exhibition of sand sculptures held since 2003 in Pêra, Algarve, that in each new edition is dedicated to a different theme. The festival is unique in the Iberian Peninsula and is considered the largest sand sculpture festival in the world, by the size of its sculptures and the area they occupy.
This years theme of inspiration is the LIVING WORLD, the fauna and flora of the five continents, since prehistory to the present day.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 11:32 am
we went to Cabo de Sao Vicente today, the southwesternmost point in Portugal.
According to legend, the name of this cape is linked to the story of a martyred fourth-century Iberian deacon St. Vincent whose body was brought ashore here. A shrine was erected over his grave.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 11:41 am
Later, when we drove to Carvoeiro, I saw this bench, ornated with Azulejo tiles.
Bye
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 2:06 pm
today I fulfilled one of my life missions - I went swimming in the Atlantic ocean
We went to Praia do Bordeira, a wonderful beach.
Ina took many photos when I went swimming. At first I was a little afraid but than I had a lot of fun!
The sea is coming closer ...
My bum is getting wet!
I'm going to topple over!
I'm already swimming!
It knocked my socks off!
My rescuer is ready to help me.
Phew! The first wave is gone.
I'm rescued!
I'll give it another try.
Now the fun really starts!
Finally back aground.
And ... once more!
Shortly before my dive ...
Glub ... glub ... glub ....
Ugh! I have sand between my teeth!
After my bath in the Atlantic ocean I had a washing and now I am drying on the balcony.
What an exciting adventure!
Love
Brinda
Posted Aug 22, 2010, 2:09 pm
my holidays in Portugal are over now. I'll climb into my envelope and travel back to Petra in Bruchsal.
I've spent a wonderful time here in the South of Europe.
Love
Brinda
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 7:25 am
For lunch we had some Italian kind of soup and this interesting bread rolls.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 7:46 am
King Ludwig's royal train.
The Saxonia was the first operational locomotive built in Germany in 1838.
Then we went to the old signal tower. We looked at some more locomotives, while it was raining even more heavily than before.
Posted Aug 31, 2010, 8:11 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, 8:28 am
Posted Sep 1, 2010, 9:07 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, 9:24 am
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 7:51 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.
another painting about Mühlhiasl.
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 10:01 am
The church St. Augustinus in Viechtach
At last we visited the Kristallmuseum - crystal museum in Viechtach.
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 6:42 pm
Weinfurtner has a really nice garden with glass decorations.
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 7:15 pm
Under the way there are stations to learn more about nature - here coats of different animals. I was so shocked, when I saw a coat of a bunny there too.
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 8:36 pm
Posted Sep 4, 2010, 9:16 pm
View to one of the Felsriegel - rock outcrops.
We also tried to climb a bit. So you see, who fell down a bit? I had a little accident, but she wasn't hurt, thank God.
I climbed up again and sat down next to my friends.
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, 7:17 pm
Here you see the swinging grass islands.
View to the Großer Arber and to the edge between swinging grass and water surface.
Posted Sep 5, 2010, 7:34 pm
Posted Sep 5, 2010, 8:12 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.
Posted Sep 5, 2010, 8:36 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, 6:53 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.
I know, that this photo seems a bit unreal, but I had been there and I can tell you, it was really uncomfortable in the wind.
Posted Sep 7, 2010, 6:59 am
At first we bought some beer at this brewery.
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, 3:58 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, 4:09 pm
Posted Sep 24, 2010, 4:40 pm
Posted Sep 24, 2010, 5:20 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, 5:40 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, 6:09 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 buildings and 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, 8:47 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, 8:11 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.
Posted Sep 25, 2010, 8:52 pm
Herpa also produces magazines for car & truck enthusiasts and model aircraft enthusiasts, known as Der Maßstab and WingsWorld respectively.
Posted Oct 3, 2010, 2:46 pm
Posted Oct 10, 2010, 10:58 am
At first we walked through the Bürgerpark - citizens park- , which was created at the end of the 1980s. It is home to three monuments, which are dedicated to Bruchsal's twin towns and to victims of the Second World War and the Nazi regime.
Here you see the medival keep of the old castle. It's the only building of this time in Bruchsal.
Then we walked to the "new" palace of Bruchsal.
Schloss Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful Baroque palaces in Germany and the only episcopal Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. The foundation stone was laid in 1722 by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Speyer, who made the palace the centre of his absolutist dominion. Read more here: Schloss Bruchsal.
Here you see the tower of the church St. Damian and Hugo, where my hosts usually go to service on Sundays.
The left building is the church, so you see the the tower is at another place. The church inside was also baroque, but the most part of the palace and so the church were destroyed during the Second World War. The rebuilt it in the 1970s, but not the church inside. It is modern style now - to disappointment to most visiters.
The palace garden: Today, the palace garden continues to provide an atmospheric setting for open-air concerts and the Bruchsal Summer Festival of Music and Drama.
At first we went to the pond, where usually are many ducks. Today it was so crowdy, that we stayed away a bit just to take nicer photos.
Here is the rose garden. It was a bit difficult to take photos here, because of the sun
This is a chestnut avenue with really old trees. It was also such an old avenue on the other side of the park, but they say, that the trees were too old. So the planted new trees, which are still a lot smaller.
I collected some chestnuts for a nice photo. I hope you like it.
Here is a photo of the back side of the palace main building.
This is the front side of the palace main building. This building houses the the magnificent dome, Marble Hall and Prince's Hall. The staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann is considered to be an architectural tour-de-force and has been described as the "finest staircase in the world". There also is the German Museum of Musical Automata, which thanks to its acquisition of more than 100 valuable instruments from the Carlson collection of Königslutter, is now among the largest such collections in the world.
I read a long long text about the palace, much too long for writing it here.
That's the left wing of the main building. There is the chamber music hall.
We walked to the Damian Gate now. Today, the local art society "Das Damianstor" stages various exhibitions of contemporary art in the sections of the building directly above the gate arch.
We took a look at the long Schönborn street, which leads through a part of the palace area.
And then something happened. Petra and the others went on and I decided to jump out of the bag. I fell to the ground and there I stayed, shocked. Thank God, Petra and the others came back to me as soon as the realized, that they missed me. What a relief, when I was back in the bag again.
We walked to the Amalienbrunnen, so called Schneckenbrunnen (snail fountain), which is in front of the county court. To be true, I didn't read the whole text here.
Here you see me with one snail.
Next to the fountain we took a look back to the main building and the wing with the chamber music hall.
Now we had to walk some stairs up and a street up to come to the Stadtgarten - city garden. It's the third large park besides the Bürgerpark and palace garden.
I saw a nice old house. I'm sorry, but the light was a bit difficult for taking photos.
I love this lime tree
This fountain is called Ferdinand Keller Brunnen. It was built in 1912 and is dedicated to the Bruchsal innkeeper Ferdinand Keller. The building behind it belongs to a grammar school.
The Belvedere is on the edge of the Stadtgarten. It 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. Today the Belvedere is used as a venue for concerts and theatre productions.
Next to the Stadtgarten is a place, from which we had a wonderful view over Bruchsal. Do you see the church with the two towers? It is a baroque church St. Peter, which is close to the place where I live right now. The white/orange building close to me is a part of the older people's house.
The place were we stood was next to that Wingerthäusle - vineyard house. We tried to take a photo of the sign with me, but it was too dark to read it. So we just took a photo with hand and camera, but nevertheless you will see the house as white dot above the stairs of the Andreasstaffel
Here you can read about the stairway, if you want to.
The Huttenstraße is one of those streets with really old buildings. Many many buildings were destroyed during Second World War, so you don't see many old buildings in Bruchsal.
Behind my back you see another part of the older people's house and the building with the little tower belongs to another grammar school, the Paulusheim.
After a long walk I'm nearly back home again. Here are some other older houses and the baroque church St. Peter.
Posted Oct 17, 2010, 6:09 pm
Now we sit on a very comfortable armchair
Here we sit in front of the big mirror in our room
Me and Kari are cooking tea in our kitchenette
Now we inpect the bathroom
Our first view over Egmond from our balcony
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 1:27 pm
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, 2:09 pm
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 3:06 pm
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 3:08 pm
On the table you see the worksheets for a plan for the week.
Posted Nov 6, 2010, 4:26 pm
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 9:53 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, 10:50 am
Later we took another photo out of the window.
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 12:11 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.
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, 1:21 pm
Posted Nov 7, 2010, 4:06 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, 4:34 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, 1:45 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
Posted Nov 8, 2010, 5:34 pm
Posted Nov 8, 2010, 6:23 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.
Posted Nov 9, 2010, 6:26 pm
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, 7:23 am
After lunch we drove to the "huesli", the house where Dr. Brinkmann lived while working in the "Schwarzwaldklinik" a rather famous tv-serie. We only had been able to take photos from outside, because it was closed. The house is a small museum.
Then we drove home again through the "Höllental". "Hölle" is the German word for "hell". In the narrow, dark valley, travellers almost felt like moving underground.
Posted Dec 4, 2010, 10:09 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, 10:41 am
Posted Dec 4, 2010, 3:00 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, 7:48 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, 9:36 am
Take a look at all the books. There are 19 books for her 19 pupils.
Posted Dec 5, 2010, 9:48 am
Posted Dec 18, 2010, 10:33 am
Posted Dec 18, 2010, 2:57 pm
At first we took a photo of the kindergarden, which is next to the church St. Peter. It has some nice Christmas decorations.
We turned to see to the baroque church St. Peter. It is one of the few buildings of Bruchsal, which survived World WarII. It is closed, so we had no chance to go inside, but maybe we will go there during the Christmas Time. I know, that you already know it, but it is nice to take such beautiful winter photos of wellknown places too.
Next to the church St. Peter is the graveyard of Bruchsal. You have to walk up and down there, so it is rather difficult for older people to walk there.
Here you see the back side of the house Sancta Maria. You will see the front side later. The grey wall on the left side belongs to the new apostolic church. You maybe can imagine, how steep the ways of the graveyard are, when you see, that we look down on Sancta Maria right now and even this house is higher than the entrance we were at first.
There is a nice garden, which belongs to Sancta Maria. Do you see the little church tower on the left? It is the tower of the city church. There is another small small piece of the tower of the church St. Damian and Hugo, when you look well peer at the branches. This church belongs to the palace of Bruchsal.
This is the front side of Sancta Maria. It houses a catholic school for social education and more. There still live some Franciscan nuns.
We only had to walk down this street from Sancta Maria to our current home. You see the working place - nobody is working right now because of the cold weather.
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 18, 2010, 4:47 pm
We walked across the graveyard again and then out of Bruchsal into fields. Maybe you see the little yellow sign on the left side of the snowy road. That's the place-name sign of Bruchsal or it's end.
On the side of the road we found this cross. It is there for someone, who died in the 17th/ 18th century or something.
Then we walked through a [url=Sunken lane]hollow way[/url]. It is Hohlweg in German. It was so beautiful with all the snow on the trees and road.
Then we walked on a fieldway and had a nice view back to Bruchsal.
On our way we found another trail. If it was a deer?
I'm sure, that someone wonders, who left this imprints here.
Posted Dec 19, 2010, 8:12 am
This shows the first Christmas Market of Bruchsal. It always starts on the weekend of first of Advent and ends two or three days before Holy Eve. It is a really really small market but with a merry-go-round and with nice decorated houses. My hosts live only a few meters up the street - I'm looking to the street.
The front of the palace is beautiful in the snow at night.
Here you see the houses - tents- of the second Christmas market at the palace and the colourful stars on the palace backside wall.
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 4:47 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 I help. I get 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.
I try to show them, that I'm 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, 5:29 pm
Posted Jan 1, 2011, 5:57 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, 6:00 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, 5:39 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, 5:48 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, 10:37 am
Posted Jan 15, 2011, 10:53 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, 10:23 am
At first umechan climbed into the house.
Then Kari 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, 4:39 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 20, 2011, 3:00 pm
Posted Feb 26, 2011, 4:46 pm
Posted Feb 26, 2011, 5:10 pm
We helped to cut apples and onions, which we added to the meat.
Posted Feb 26, 2011, 5:29 pm
Again we celebrated the birthday. This time we helped to bake a lemonade cake.
Posted Feb 26, 2011, 6:12 pm
After being almost completely destroyed in the final days of World War II, the main tract was painstakingly reconstructed according to the original design and work was completed in 1975, including the magnificent dome, Marble Hall and Prince's Hall.
With the rebuilding of the palace, the Town Museum (Prehistory, Ancient History, Mineralogy and Numismatics) was established with new exhibits in the southern upper storey of the palace. As well as displays chronicling the ancient and early history of the town, the exhibition features the mineral collection, coins and medals from Bruchsal and archaeological finds from the Neolithic to the medieval periods. (see bruchsal-erleben.de)
Here you see photos of the exhibition of Stone Age.
This is a lower jaw of a mammoth.
This is a photo of a painting of my host's cousin. He painted the burning synagoge of Bruchsal. It makes me feel really sad, thinking of all the people, who lost their lifes.
Here you see a small version of the jailhouse. I think, it is an interesting building.
Here's the prince hall with the big crystal chandeliers.
Here we are in the dome hall.
Now we are in the marble hall. Everywhere you see something golden.
The staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann is considered to be an architectural tour-de-force and has been described as the "finest staircase in the world.
Posted Feb 27, 2011, 1:38 pm
We even saw a little piece of the moon.
Posted Feb 27, 2011, 2:18 pm
At first we decided to try one of these two cream-vanilla-confection.
After we only were allowed to watch, we told our host, that the next one we would try alone. We wanted to make confections with cornflakes and orange flavor and white chocolate.
Our host's daughter finished the cream-vanilla-confection and we were watching again.
At next we tried something like wrong Raffaelo. We never will try it again - the right Raffaelo taste much better.
Here we made coconut confection with Amarettini. They tasted much better.
This were the nougat confection. They tasted fine, but maybe we will try another recipe next time.
We helped to fill them into the patisserie forms.
And that's the result after we decorated the confections.
Then we tried another recipe with strawberries, but we didn't like the result too.
We loved to eat the philadelphia cheese confections, though.
My host said, that she would try some chili-butter-confections and I can tell you, they really were hot.
Here you see us with coconut-Amarettini-confections, nougat confections, cream-vanilla-confections and philadelphia-confections. We loved them all.
Posted Feb 27, 2011, 2:19 pm
Posted Feb 27, 2011, 2:32 pm
View to houses, which belong to Bruchsal.
View to houses of Untergrombach and the Rhine valley.
View in direction of Karlsruhe. The hills belong to the Kraichgau hill country. Bruchsal is right between the Rhine valley and Kraichgau hill country.
Posted Mar 4, 2011, 8:52 pm
Posted Mar 6, 2011, 7:36 pm
Posted Mar 7, 2011, 10:37 am
Then we have to prepare the table for the guests. We want to eat the selfmade muffins, but our host didn't allow us to bite into a single one
Posted Mar 13, 2011, 5:20 pm
We decided to take a "Krusti" and Cilly cut it in two halves.
Now we had to decide, which marmelade - jam- we wanted to have on the bread roll halves or if we would like honey from Australia or hazelnut cream. The most jam is selfmade by our host's husband.
We chose Australian honey.
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 5:57 pm
We drove through Unteröwisheim.
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 6:18 pm
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 6:20 pm
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 6:35 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, 6:58 pm
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 7:12 pm
Posted Mar 19, 2011, 7:15 pm
Posted Apr 1, 2011, 1:53 pm
This is a toy train, which was on its way to its new owner - by train. It had an accident then and so it never reached his destination but now is a part of the museum.
Posted Apr 1, 2011, 7:36 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.
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, 6:35 am
Posted Apr 2, 2011, 7:03 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 Apr 17, 2011, 7:30 pm
Posted Apr 25, 2011, 7:54 am
There is a sundial at one building.
The chestnut alley is getting green again.
Posted Apr 25, 2011, 8:18 am
today I learn how to bake a sponge cake. At first my host took five eggs. Bubo thought, that these are his eggs for breading and at first he was really confused, nearly shocked, but then she told him, that these are eggs of chicken. He thought, that's okay somehow.
Jack the cat tried to chase him away.
Then the two dogs - Travelling Tuffy and Henry the Adventure Hound - came to help Bubo and barked at Jack.
They were really successful
After that Petra told us to sit at our place and not play with meal.
After stirring the eggs Chuckle weighed the sugar: 350g - for each egg 50g. We also added a bit Vanilla sugar. And then stirred it again until it was very fluffy.
At last had to add 250g flour and baking powder. Cilly helped to gently fold it under the dough.
Then the doorbell rang and a new toyvoyager arrived just in time, when the cake was in the oven: Miffy for the Netherlands.
Posted Apr 25, 2011, 10:12 am
We had a nice view from the edge of the Kraichgau to the Rhine valley.
We also walked through nice loess hollow-ways.
Posted Apr 25, 2011, 10:30 am
Then we had to cut the cake in two layers and fill it with the rhubarb cream.
We only decorated it with a bit powder sugar on the top layer.
Posted Apr 26, 2011, 9:43 am
Posted Apr 26, 2011, 6:39 pm
At first we need 1kg white flour, dried yeast, 600g water, 25gr margarine (if you don't have a cooked potato - and we had no) and 25gr salt. We had to leave the yeast dough alone for a longer while until it looked like this.
Then we rubbed the dish with margarine and powdered it with flour.
Posted Apr 27, 2011, 8:45 am
At first we had to read the recipe. It is the one in the middle, although they used gooseberries there.
Then we started to prepare the dough.
We had to cook the rhubarb.
The pot seems to be a bit small
Another pot for custard.
Then we had to fill the baking dish with the short pastry.
In the afternoon at our host's parents home we were allowed to eat a piece of our cake. It didn't look that well this time, because the whipped egg whites was just too flat.
They also had another cake, but it wasn't selfmade.
In the evening we ate some coloured Easter eggs.
Posted May 1, 2011, 2:05 pm
On our way home we saw this cross.
Next to the new apostolic church we looked down on Bruchsal.
After only a few footsteps more we saw the backside of the building called Sancta Maria.
Posted May 1, 2011, 3:21 pm
We saw so many people on the road, who tried to see the lucky couple.
We saw many people in interesting uniforms.
This couple was interesting too. The boy-tvs took a look at David Beckham and the girl-tvs on his wife with her funny hat.
Oh, who is coming here? We're excited.
It's William and his brother Harry. They really look good - that's what the girl-tvs say
The queen and her husband and prince Charles and his wife are coming too.
Oh, exciting, exciting. Here's the bride. Who sees her dress first?
How cute! These little girls and boys and the bride's sister on the way to the church.
The bride arrived at the church finally. We want to see the dress!
Oh, how beautiful!
William and Harry
The church is really big and the way very long. They even put trees in the church.
It is 12pm plus some minutes and finally Williama and Kate are together in front of the priest.
Here they say their marriage promise.
He gives her the ring. We learnt, that in Great Britain it isn't unusual, that only the bride wears a ring as sign of her marriage.
They sind "Jerusalem".
Then they played a fanfare especially composed for the wedding.
Here they all sing "God safe the queen".
Then they all walk out of the church. Take a look at the train.
What a joy, when they walk out of the church door.
The weather is fine, that's why the climb in an open carriage.
That's the queen and her husband in a closed carriage. It was scary, when they climbed in it.
Finally William and Kate arrive at the palace,
while others are still on the way.
It was fascinating to see how disciplined those thousands of people walking behind the police until they finally arrived at the palace too.
Finally the royal family shows up on the balcony.
We are waiting for the kiss and then there were two kissed, but we missed the second.
At last the royal air force flew over the Buckingham palace.
Posted May 1, 2011, 5:01 pm
We took this photo next to the house. What a nice view!
These cows belong to the farm.
Somehow they forgot to take a photo with me at this place, so umechan will show it for me.
Here's the Black Forest House. The typical Black Forest farmhouse - also referred to as a Black Forest house – has been built in this form for hundreds of years. You will find it mainly in the central and southern Black Forest. Here you can read more about those houses.
The left and middle house you can see belong to the farm were we were today.
All buildings except the one on the top belong to the farm. Maybe you see, that there are some clouds - a little thunder came, but it avoided the house so we were able to sit outside and drink coffee and eat cakes.
Before we drove home, we played a while at the water. But then some more clouds came and we had to hurry, because this time the thunderstorm reached our place too. We were lucky to sit in the car, before it started.
Posted May 2, 2011, 1:39 pm
There is a medieval tower, the Katzenturm, next to their house. You can read more about Heidelsheim here.
Posted May 9, 2011, 8:51 pm
I'm back in Münzesheim again. My host says, she loves this park and I love it too.
Do you remember this place? I watched some ducks with their kids here.
Posted May 13, 2011, 6:18 pm
today we drove to Bad Neuenahr to celebrate a 60th birthday. For us it was more interesting, that we celebrated at an ostrich farm. I've seen so many ostrichs there - big, old, small, young.
We didn't walk through the farm, but drove with a little sort of train. The engine didn't work well at first, so we had to climb out of the waggons and go a few steps, but then everything was fine again. It took us about 2 1/2 hours for a way you normally need 1 1/2 hour. We were really tired, when we climbed into our car to drive home again - another 2 1/2 hours drive. Nevertheless it was a great day.
Bye, Brinda
We zoomed, so you can see the ostrichs better.
Face to face - okay, you don't see me, but we looked in each others eyes.
Posted May 14, 2011, 4:02 pm
I want to send you these flowers via internet.
We are at my host's parents home to have lunch together. We will eat asparagus, Schnitzel in breadcrumbs, potatoes, mayonnaise and sauce hollandaise. Yummy, yummy!
Did I tell you, that Bruchsal and surroundings are famous for asparagus?
We've seen some blackbird babies, but it was just impossible to take photos of us with them, so here is just a photo of them.
At home again Petra's husband bought some icecream - yummy again.
Posted May 14, 2011, 6:17 pm
there's such a beautiful weather today, that we toyvoyagers asked our host to take us with her and her daughter, while her daughter delivered a magazine called Konradsblatt.
This was the last stop, before we drove home again.
Posted May 20, 2011, 3:47 pm
today I watched the Eurovision Song Contest. I thought I like the Estonian Song
.
Here's Lena from Germany singing "Taken by a stranger". All my hosts like this song and we too.
IHere is the group from Iceland,
these men are from Ireland
and the one from Sweden - cute, isn't he?
Countdown for voting
Estonia
Greece
Russia
France
Italy - we liked them too
Switzerland - much too less points for her
United Kingdom
Moldavia - crazy hats
Germany
Romania
Austria
Azerbaijan - it belongs to the European radio community or something - not sure about the right word for it. They won the Contest this year.
Estonia
Iceland
Serbia - it reminded our host of the seventies
Georgia
The tv hosts Judith Rakers and Stefan Raab
Between the songs they showed little movies of people of the song contest countries, who live in Germany. On this photo they are all together.
The motto of the show was "Feel your heart beat"
Anke Engelke also was host of the show.
She did a good job - the other two also did really well.
Stefan Raab at his best - making music
12 points goes
to Malta - we had such a fun hearing, that most people say goes to, even if there are more than one point - and you can't give one point.
It is so late now and we are so tired, that we will fall in our bed now - we only have one bed for the toyvoyagers here, although there are so many at this home.
Posted May 21, 2011, 7:34 pm
Posted May 27, 2011, 4:29 pm
today many other tvs arrived at Petra's home. They came from another town in Germany and we all were very happy to welcome them at our place. Their first wish was to take a bath, so we all ran to the bathroom.
Here you see our new guests from left to right:
Louis the rat, Nippy, Percy, Bree and Polki
I also took a bath - it was so much fun. I thought, it might be a good idea to be clean, when I travel home again.
Nippy thought, that it would be enough to clean one ear
But then she fell head over into the bath.
Polki loved to swim in the water. Do you see me? Nippy thought, that it would be a good idea to sit in front of me
We asked Petra, if she never needs a towel after having a bath and she ran to wrap us in the towel quickly.
Because it was warm and sunny, we asked our host, if she could bring us to the balcony. We lied down on a table in the sun - more or less.
Posted May 29, 2011, 11:27 am
today nothing really interesting happened, but this evening Petra's son called me to take a look out of the window and get some photos taken there. I'm sorry, but we had to zoom some views, so you can see more of the sky. We thought, we would get some rain, but nothing happened. It is still much too dry.
Posted May 29, 2011, 12:09 pm
this is my last update of Germany. I will be back at your place soon. I'm happy to meet you again.
Bye, Brinda
Posted Jul 7, 2011, 2:06 pm
Posted Sep 13, 2011, 4:12 pm
"Jaanipäev"(John's Night,Midsummer) is today here,we do some BBQ,we didn't celebrate it as big as some people do,but anyway something we did.It's 2nd biggest holidays after Christmas in Estonia.
Usually Estonians celebrate "Jaaniõhtu" on the eve of the Summer Solstice (June 23) with bonfires. On the islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, old fishing boats may be burnt in the large pyres set ablaze. On Jaaniõhtu, Estonians all around the country will gather with their families, or at larger events to celebrate this important day with singing and dancing, as Estonians have done for centuries. The celebrations that accompany Jaaniõhtu carry on usually through the night
We were not awake all night and we got even some rain,as it is "common " in that evening(night).
2 weeks ago we got rabbit and today he was first time outside and I was looking,together with other TVs what he is doing.
Yey I found my friend,we both are rabbits : D
Posted Oct 4, 2011, 9:34 am
Today we celebrated Mari's birthday,well she is now 20 years old : D There were only 2 guests,what a big party,but we toyvoyagers joined and it looked like real party then
I was with HolgiHH,Mumu,Albus and Bombus
Happy birthday for Mommy! And in Estonian we say it : Palju õnne sünnipäevaks !
Posted Nov 3, 2011, 8:43 am
We also decided to do some sightseeing,has Bombus hasn't seen Rakvere's tourist attractions and I decided to join,because I wanted to see them too : D
Posted Nov 3, 2011, 8:55 am
try to find me and Bombus
aha here we are!
We are going to travel back Finland tomorrow and hopefully we will go looking around there also more ! I will miss you home!
Posted Nov 21, 2011, 8:54 am
We decided to walk down the "hill" to see the lake and we were all excited what else are we going to see there.. on the way decided to take a picture sitting on spruce
If you did not know mom,then Finland is called " land of thousands lakes " we could see the lake called " Gallträsk".
Everything looks really grey,because colourful leaves are past and yeah it is the worst time of the year and also was cloudy and it made it even more.But we had fun though
we decided to take friendsphoto with Bombus,because on the back was nice background : )
Me,Mumu and Bombus thought if we could take the boat and go sailing with it.Mum didn't agree because we did not know whose boat it was.
After walking around the lake we all returned home,because it was quite tiring,but the same good excerise for all of us
Posted Dec 20, 2011, 10:14 am
Here I look out of the window
Posted Dec 20, 2011, 7:17 pm
Posted Dec 20, 2011, 7:18 pm
me with Bombus and Mumu
We'll are looking forward for Christmas!
Posted May 14, 2012, 6:39 pm
and we tried to help with snow shovelling
but then started snowing again and that's what happened to us..
That's how looks like winter in Finland!
Posted May 15, 2012, 9:16 am
body almost ready..now we need head!
From where we can find a carrot for a nose .. hmm ?
stick is good as well!
and now we found nice rake and our snowman is ready
Then we did all together snowangels.
Let's look for a spring,mommy!
Posted May 15, 2012, 9:48 am
then we found a huge stone
Posted Jun 14, 2012, 6:38 pm
It's Helsinki Cathedral
and then we walked to Market Square as we wished to see sea and noticed some boats there.
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Jun 27, 2012, 11:29 pm
I've safely arrived in Heidelberg. Unfortunately the chocolate I had brought as a gift didn't make it, it was problably too warm in the envelope. However, my host and her daughter nevertheless found it exciting to see chocolate from Estonia.
Love,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Jul 2, 2012, 12:11 pm
I'm so happy, I received a gift. Nuriayasmin gave me a ToyVoyager t-shirt. It actually looks more like a dress on me but very smart, doesn't it?
And today I'd also like to introduce the two cats to you who are living here.
Sammy is quite a big male cat. He's curious and friendy.
Shelley sleeps most of the time, she's very old and tiny and can't walk well anymore.
Bye 'til next time
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Jul 21, 2012, 7:54 pm
Today I took a walk in the south of Heidelberg where I saw some horses and a huge maize field.
Love,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Jul 22, 2012, 5:52 pm
Today I had a look around the city centre where I saw a lot of old buildings and walked through narrow streets. I saw the castle from a distance and crossed the Old Bridge.
Bye,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Aug 1, 2012, 3:41 pm
Hugs,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Aug 6, 2012, 8:19 pm
Yetta Bear and I accompanied nuriayasmin on a short walk in the forest this afternoon but the reason was a sad one. Nuriayasmin's cat Shelley died this morning and we buried her.
So this is the place where she found her last rest:
It was actually quite interesting to be so deep in the forest.
Look here, I met a slug:
After a while we were back on the trail:
There's the bus stop on the right, we took the bus back home from there.
Sad greetings,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Aug 7, 2012, 9:43 pm
Today a new TV arrived. It's Zed Dog from Wales.
Hope to have a great time with him.
Love,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Aug 8, 2012, 11:28 pm
Today I saw a bit of Cologne which is Germany's 4th biggest city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. We didn't have much time but took a walk along the river Rhine and visited the Cathedral which was a very impressive building and is situated directly next to the central station.
Bye, Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Apr 25, 2013, 8:30 pm
It's been a long time since I last wrote something here. However, I'm fine. The winter lasted for quite a long time but now the weather has become warm and sunny and today I welcomed a new TV called Shesh. In May we're going to Czech Republic together.
Bye,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted May 3, 2013, 5:59 pm
Today Slowly-Slowly arrived. He's a cute turtle from the Netherlands and anxious to go the Czech Republic with us.
Shesh
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted May 9, 2013, 9:28 pm
Greetings from the north of the Czech Republic. We arrived her after a 10-hours journey by train and bus and are a bit exhausted now. 'We're staying at a cozy hotel with just 6 rooms and we TV's have a bed of our own. The look out of the window is also very nice.
Bye, Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted May 12, 2013, 8:39 am
Today we visited Hrad Valdštejn, an old castle which was once in the possession of Wallenstein, the famous supreme commander of the Habsburg monarchy's army during the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century. Nowadays it's maintained by the city of Turnov and accessible for tourists in the summer months. It's situated about 4 km outside Turnov in the forests. On our way to it we also passed the former Jewish cemetery which is currently being relocated because a new motorway has been built and we saw some art in the forest.
Bye,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted May 18, 2013, 2:06 am
Today I visited Hruba Skala castle which nowdays is a hotel and a restaurant and took a long walk through the nature reserve of Hruboskalsko. Just like yesterday it started to rain again in the early afternoon but we nevertheless had a great time.
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted May 18, 2013, 2:10 am
Today we went to the city of Liberec by train and did some shopping. On the photos you can see me in front of the town hall and in front of the theatre.
Bye,
Brinda
nuriayasmin70@gmail.com
Posted Jun 13, 2013, 1:37 pm
I'm on the way home! Nuriayasmin has taken me to the post-office this afternoon and I hope the journey won't take to long. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon.
Brinda.