Travelog for: umechan

Today the weather was really warm and sunny. In the early evening we decided to go on a walk to the graveyard, which is only a few meters from our home, next to the church St. Peter. I had been here the other day. The graveyard is really large, with many trees and it isn't easy to walk there, if you are handicapped, because many ways are very steep.














On this monument you can read many names of those men, who died.






We also visited the Jewish graveyard again.




This is the new building of the new apostolic parish next to the graveyard on the other side of the other entrance of the graveyard.




We walked out of Bruchsal now, so I had a chance to get a photo taken with the sign 'Bruchsal'. You see the letters Lkr. Karlsruhe on it, which means, that Bruchsal belongs to the administrative district Karlsruhe.








We walked to a nice playground, which belongs to Bruchsal again and had a lot of fun there.

There was thunder and lightning in the forecast and now we watch the clouds getting darker and darker.






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.

This night we had a bad thunderstorm, it even had been a warning in the radio. Thank God, it wasn't that bad in Bruchsal. We tried to take a photo and you see me looking out of the window watching the water flowing down the street. The second photo is without me, but therefor you see a lightning over the church.





We have a net taped at the window frames now, because we want to avoid having insects in the rooms.

My host took us for a little walk around the small animal park in Forst, while her daughter sang at her musical project choir. I especially loved to see the storks in the nest and flying. But there were some other animals too like kangaroos and ostrichs and more.









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.

This evening we had a barbeque. You see me with Kari, Precious, Mustang Monkey, MuMu and Brinda sitting next to the grill and with a Paulaner wheat beer.

Today we went to the Bruchsal palace. It is colder again, but still we have sun. The weather phenomenon we have right now is called Schafskälte (sheeps cold). It is a cold spell around 11th June (between 4th and 20th June) in Middle Europe, which affects especially Germany. The Schafskälte doesn't occur each year. Due to cold and moist air from north west the temperature drops to 5 to 10 °C. So far about the weather


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.

We're baking white bread today. It is a recipe, which my host's grandfather wrote down a long long time ago.




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.

Today we had been in Forst again for a little walk. I saw the storks again (sorry, we took the photo with view to the sun, so we did miss the most important part of the storks) and I saw a young baby donkey and a horse 









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.

It's such a beautiful weather today morning, that my host took us to see the Michaelsberg and Turmberg. The Michaelsberg is belongs to Untergrombach, which is one of the surburbs of Bruchsal. Here you see the nice chapel.




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.

Then we drove to Durlach, which is a city close to Karlsruhe. We drove to the Turmberg. We had a great view to the Rhine Valley, Black Forest and Kraichgau hill country.








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

In the evening we watched the football match Germany vs. Spain. It's so sad, that Germany lost

It is so hot here, that my host took some duvet cover to fix them behind those windows, which have no shutter.

In the evening we walked through the house and opened all the windows to get in a bit fresh air. We took some photos out of different windows then.

There are many thunderstorms all over Germany. It seems that one is coming here too. See the red dark clouds



Here the clouds are blue and white  - orange from the sunset.

Yesterday the thunderstorm didn't catch us, but today we watch another dark sky. I can hear the thunder already getting closer. So we decided to switch off the electricity and sit down and read a book.