Travelog for: Shesh

Hi Mom!

Today I went too my Mom's hometown Graz. We had a nice walk through the old town. Have a look at the nice houses and small squares with cafés. We went to a square called Glockenspielplatz. There is a carillon in a house and it plays three times a day. When it starts, small figurines in traditional Austrian clothes come out to dance!

After having eaten the breakfast we went on to the city hall, where people can get married! The city hall is located at the Main Square and there is a statue of Archduke Johann.

This was the first part of my coty tour, the other part will follow!

Hi Mom!

Here comes part II of my Graz-tour. From the Main Square we went on to the Franziskaner-Quarter, a quarter that has an Italian touch. The church you see is the Franziskaner-Church, next is the Franziskaner-Square, where you can find many small restaurants and cafes.
We walked over a bridge and look: There are a lot of locks on the bridge. The locks are called love-locks and couples put their locks there...I have no idea why 
While standing on the bridge we had a look at the Kunsthaus, the modern museum of contemporary art and photography. It looks a bit funny though... When you look at the other side of the river, you have a look up to the Castle Mountain.
We then went to the Kunsthaus and you can see me on a Kunsthaus model - now you really see what the building looks like 
Next we went on to Mariahilfer-Square and the church. We walked on over a small bridge called Mursteg and had a look down at the river Mur. There is an artificial island in the river. And there is also a cafe on the island!  When we crossed the bridge we had another look at the castle mountain and saw the clock tower! We walked along the river and had a look at the Mur-Island from another viewpoint.

I hope you liked the tour!

Servus!

Hi there Mom!

Best wishes from the vineyards in Southern Styria! We are right at the Slovenian border. At the end of the vineyard that you can see in the pictures is Slovenia  We stayed in Austria though and had lunch at a Buschenschank, which is kind of a restaurant in the vineyards. Here you get all kinds of local produce, ham, bacon, cheese, different spreads and homemade bread! It's delicious. Of course you also have a glass of wine (or maybe two) of the local winery
After lunch we had a little walk around the area. But I was so stuffed that I had to take a rest in a flowerpot

Servus!

Hi Mom!

Today I helped planting a small herb garden!
My host mom received this small herb-planting set as a present and I decided to help.
First we had to put the soil in the little pots. Then I had to open the small sachets that contained the herb seeds. You can see me spreading the parsley seeds on the soil!
After that we put another little soil on top of the seeds and watered it.
Now we have to wait for the first green sprouts...
You can see me waiting at the windowsill...so far I have not seen something growing out of the soil. My host mom told me that we would have to wait for a few days....that is a looooong time for a little bear...

Bye Mom, I have to keep watching the pots!

Hi Mom!

I am so excited! The little herbs we planted started to grow! 

Hi Mom!

Today we went to a park near my host mom's appartement. It is a huge park where people walk, take a run, relax on a bench...kids can play on three different playgrounds. There are also many different plants and trees and bushes...

There are also some lakes where you can watch ducks or feed them. What I really loved was the little tower called "Paulinenwarte". Unfortunately I could not go up there

I loved the park!

Servus!

Hi Mom!

Today we went to a wonderful open air concert. It was the dress rehearsal of the summernight concert of the Philharmonic Orchestra and they played in front of Schönbrunn castle. There were also ballet dancers.

Vienna really is the city of music 

Hi Mom!

Today we went to the zoo. It is located inside of the huge park of Schönbrunn Castle. It is a really old zoo and was awarded Europe's best zoo title twice.
We first visited the Tyrolean garden where you can see farm animals and a real Tyrolean farm house. Next we took the treetop-walk, where you walk on a wooden bridge in the treetops. You have a fantastic view over the city of Vienna from up there. We saw ants on an anthill, elks, and other animals. Then we went to the anteater feeding - that was so cool because one of the anteaters has a baby  After that we went to the elephant house and watched the training of the elephants. They have to lift their feet on command, also the trunk or move their ears. I would love to be able to move my bear-eras on command, too 
It was a beautiful and sunny day, so I really enjoyed walking around.
We moved on to some monkeys, visited the turtels and finally made our way to the Orang Utans. There is one orang utan lady called Nonja and she is quite famous. She even has her own facebook page. She used to paint. In the café located next to the orang utan area there is an exhibition of Nonja's paintings.
The last animals we visited were the giant pandas. They are sooo cool 
Unfortunately there was no brown bear...

Servus!

Hi Mom!

For my last days in Austria we went to Southern Styria again to visit some wine cellars. We took a tour and they told us all about winemaking!
That was fun. Of course we had one glass of wine or another  and yummi food!

Servus, Mom!

Hi Mom!

I am on my way to Germany now!

Servus Austria 

Hi Mummy,
I just want to let you know that I arrived at my new host's home. I am not the only TV here, I already met Bzzzzz and Lorca.



My host Katja and the other TVs are curious to taste the hot chocolate which I brought with me - thanks to marcie08

Today we are having terrible weather, it is raining cats and dogs outside, so we decided to do nothing.

Bye
Shesh

Hi Mummy,
as soon as I arrived here I am off again

Katja took me and the other TVs with her to her work place to take a walk in the city later. Her colleague invited me to accompany her on a day trip to .... I forget where she is going ... it is a European capital city ... Budapest? No. Amsterdam? No. Athens, Madrid, Zurich? No, no and again no.

We will be back on Sunday



Bye!
Shesh

Hi Mummy,

greetings from London!



Unfortunately my current host was too busy to take more photos. She had to take care for seven pupils, as we were on a class trip with the class of her son.

Nontheless we had a great day here. We visited some of the touristic sites and the Hardrock Café.

We were here for only ten hours, in the early evening we went back by ferry and bus via Calais.



Love
Shesh

Hi Mummy,
we moved to my host's new apartment last weekend. Still there is not everything fixed and finished, tools are still everywhere





Nontheless we took a walk in the late morning because the weather finally became better after two extremely rainy weeks. We went to the outskirts in the West of Remscheid.



It did not take long until we reached a forest.



Katja showed me rocks with engraved words.



Walking downhill we reached a creek which is flowing in the valley.



Here we found hogweed, a plant which originally came from Eastern countries, from the Caucasus mountains. Although it looks pretty people do not like it. Its sap causes phytophotodermatitis on human skin.



This part of the valley has a very special name



Can you see the markings for hiking trails on the tree? The encircled "R" stands for a hiking trail around the municipal area of Remscheid, about 63 km long.



At home a lot of work was waiting for us, so we went back home.



Bye
Shesh

Hi Mummy,
today we went to Wuppertal to visit the Botanical garden there. Unfortunately Wuppetal's main attraction, the "Schwebebahn", is closed due to repair works.



In the background you can see the "Justizzentrum" with local court and district court.





The Botanical garden is situated on a hilled called "Hardt", we had to climb umpteen stairs to get there.



The closer we came to the Botanical garden the more lovely were the dwellings, mostly beautiful mansions.







You can find the former country house of a textile manufacturers named Eller, which contained a villa (built 1820), orangery, residential and farm buildings, and the Elise Tower (built 1838) which provides the garden's focal point.



We saw different kinds of gardens, like this rockery...



... and different flowers.







Here you can see  Elise Tower once more.



I also had a look at the garden with medicinal herbs.



Here is one of the most famous medicinal herbs: Purple coneflower or Echinacea.



These are Angel's trumpets, originally from South America. Angel's trumpets are beautiful flowers, but extremely poisonous.









There is also a pond in the Botanical garden.



We rested in the shade of this Phoenix plant.



We also had a look at the greenhouses in the entrance area. We found bananas here.



There is an exhibition with butterfly sculptures.









Later we went to the city centre to pick up Katja's daughter from her work place in a restaurant. On our way there we saw this great fountain in front of the city hall.





We had a large ice cream and went home than.

Bye
Shesh