Travelog for: Crawfish

Hi everyone!

Here are pictures of my first trip to the ocean.  We have the ocean waves out this window and a creek out the other window, so the water noises were really nice and made me feel at home.  I do so like wateriness.



HolgiHH did a great job of telling the story of our stormy drive out here.

We also really liked just playing around in the big house.

I am going on my first trip!  To stay with AbbyB.  And to my first picnic!    I'm sorry to say goodbye to Mom and my TV friends, but now finally it's my turn ... 

(updating map because Crawfish arrived in Canada)

I'm back from Canada and so looking forward to finding a new host! 

On getting back from Canada, it was so nice to go back to the ocean right away!  We stayed in a rather breezy cabin at Steep Ravine.  But, no problem, we had a roaring fire and a warm sleeping bag.

Hi!
I am so happy to be traveling again!  So is Aslan!  We might get to see a Christmas Market ... and find out what that is. 

Crawfish

Hello Mommy,

As you can see I arrived in Berlin.


Somebody opened my envelope and whoooaaah I just saw 10 eyes starring at me!!!


I crawled out of the envelope and the other tvs welcomed me. Chrissy, Tapsi and Beate are going to leave next week, so I don't have so much time with them. But Greeny and Joe will stay with me.
My host says thank you for the gift and the card you included.


Yours,
Crawfish

Hello Mom,

today I got my own coffee mug which I can use during my stay in Germany. Oh I love it. It reminds me of my home.
My host is out of work for one week. She promised to show me a lot of things, also outside Berlin. And I'm going to meet some animals, maybe some of my relatives, too.



Hugs & kisses
Crawfish

Hello Mum,

today we had to say goodbye to Beate, Chrissy and Tapsi.



We went to Halle today. It is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale (literally Halle on the Saale river, and in some historic references simply Saale after the river) in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia. The current official name of the city is Halle (Saale). The University of Halle was founded here in 1694. The famous Baroque composer George Friderich Handel was born in Halle in 1685.

This is the Technical Hallors and Saline Museum. It was founded in the buildings of the former Royal Prussian Saline, Halle upon Saale in 1967. Hallors had been members of a brotherhood of salt producers .


Here you can see me in front of the main radio studio of MDR .


This is the "Marktkirche Unser Lieben Frauen" (Market Church of Our Dear Lady), also known as St. Mary's Church and Market Church. It was built between 1529 and 1554. Its four towers, together with the Red Tower of the city hall, make Halle the city of five towers. In German, its official name is shortened to Liebfrauenkirche and it is also referred to as Marienkirche and Marktkirche. It is the church where George Frideric Handel was baptized and received his first organ lessons, where Johann Sebastian Bach inspected the new organ, and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was an organist.



And have a look Mum, I went to a German Christmas market for the first time. And I'll see some others, too! It smelled sweet everywhere and I got the feeling of Christmas. They also sell a lot of handcraft stuff.




In the evening we met some lovely animals!
A turtle named Ines, a hamster without a name and 5 lovely budgies.




Now I'm really tired.

Love,
Crawfish

Hey Mommy,

today is not a good day. It is stormy and rainy outside! I don't like it. But I didn't stay inside. Greeny, Joe and I drove through small villages, forests and fields by car to Kemberg. It is a small town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The town lies on the north edge of the Dübener Heide Nature Park.







When we arrived in Kemberg it stopped raining for a short time, so I could take a picture outside the car. The town's most striking sight is the soaring Church of Our Lady ( "Unser Lieben Frauen" ) which can be seen far away over the Elbaue (natural polder). It is a hall church with a nave and two aisles dating from the 15th century (or so it is believed) with an 86-m-tall tower built in the 19th century.


Maybe there's no rain tomorrow!

Love,
Crawfish

Hello Mum,

today we went to Oranienbaum and visited the area around the castle. At the moment the castle is closed because of winter time and we couldn't go inside. But we saw the castle from outside and went to its gardens. The Gardens had its origin in the 17th century, when the marriage of Leopold's great-grandfather Prince John George II of Anhalt-Dessau to the Dutch princess Henriette Catharina, in 1659 brought a team of engineers and architects from the Low Countries to lay out the town, the palace and a Baroque garden in the former settlement of Nischwitz, which was renamed Oranienbaum in 1673. The Dutch influence remained prevalent in the Principality of Anhalt-Dessau for many decades.
Oranienbaum Palace was finished in 1683 as the summer residence of Henriette Catharina, where she retired after the death of her husband in 1693. From 1780 on Duke Leopold III had the palace and the park rebuilt in a Chinese style with several arch bridges, a tea house and a pagoda. In 1811, the orangery was built, with 175 m (574 ft) in length one of the largest in Europe, which still serves to protect a wide collection of citrus plants. It was too cold to go to the orangery!
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, inspected the restoration works on March 3, 2004.

This is the castle from the front (street view):


The castle from the backside (garden view):


The garden. I heard there are lots of palm trees in summer!


We walked to the Chinese pagoda...


Below the pagoda:


The beautiful Chinese pagoda:




It's so cold outside!!! Brrrrr...

Love,
Crawfish

Hey Mommy,

today I visited the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm again. But today I went to Wörlitz. The central Wörlitzer Park lies adjacent to the small town of Wörlitz at an anabranch of the Elbe river. It was laid out between 1769 and 1773 as one of the first English gardens on the continent. According to the ideals of Duke Leopold III the park would also serve as an educational institution in architecture, gardening and agriculture, therefore large parts were open to the public from the beginning. Most buildings were designed by Erdmannsdorff, while the gardens were laid out by Johann Friedrich Eyserbeck. The gardens are protected from floods of the Elbe river in the north by a dam which is also a belt-walk offering numerous views along the park's sight lines.
Wörlitz Palace finished in 1773, residence of Duke Leopold and his wife Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt, was the first Neoclassical building in present-day Germany. The palace and its interior with valuable cabinets from the studio of Abraham and David Roentgen as well as a large collection of Wedgwood porcelain were publicly accessible. Louise had her private home in the adjacent Graues Haus (Grey House). At the eastern rim of the palace's garden stands the Wörlitz Synagogue built in 1790 as a rotunda modelled after the ancient "Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. The Neo-Gothic St Peter's Church in the west with its 66 m (217 ft) tall steeple was finished in 1809.
The philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the aesthetic of Johann Joachim Winckelmann underlie the design of the park. Wörlitz Lake featured an island atop which was a model of Mount Vesuvius. The duke would stage fireworks that seemed to issue from an erupting volcano to entertain his guests. At the foot of the mountain on the island was a building intended to suggest William Hamilton's home at Pompeii.
Few years ago my host worked as a tour guide in the castle and the park.

Here you can see the castle from the front, the side and the back.




This is just a small part of the big Wörlitz lake.


At the end of the lake you can see Mount Vesuvius and Villa Hamilton.


This is the synagogue.


This is St Peter's Church. We could see the tower 10 minutes before we arrived to that village! And on the left side you can see the grey house.


I also saw some more animals.


And it is still cold outside! Have a look! There's ice on the water!!!


Yours,
Crawfish

Hey Mum,

today we went to Dessau for some shopping. Dessau is situated on a floodplain where the Mulde flows into the Elbe. This causes yearly floods. The town is surrounded by numerous parks and palaces that ranks Dessau as one of the greenest towns in Germany.
We didn't have so much time. First we bought all Christmas presents. Later we had time to see the town hall. And we have been on stage at the Christmas market! Now we're famous! 





One of my life missions is to pose for a picture in front of the flag of the country I visit. I couldn't find a German flag yet, but I found one of my home country! I'm a little bit proud! 


Love,
Crawfish

Hello Mommy!

I'm still excited! My travelog of today will be really loooooong! I think I took too many pictures!

I met so many animals today! Some of them spoke my language!
Today I went to the SeaLife in Berlin. There were lots of different fishes & co from all over the world, like rays, seahorses, jellyfishes, sharks, carps etc.



First I learnt something about pirates and knops.



I met some starfishes first. Later I could also touch them!



All these fishes live in German rivers.










I was a little bit afraid of the big moray!






Have a look at this BIG crab! Terrifying!


Terrifying too!




Can you see the fishes on the ground?


A lovely ray. It looked like he is dancing in the water.



I felt like being somewhere in the big ocean!








Have a look at these colorful jellyfishes... Okay there were some colorful lights, but it looks so beautiful. I hope you can see me. It was a little bit dark inside the room.







Have a look Mom! That guy started to talk to me! 
He was a little bit confused, because I was outside the water. He invited me to join his basin, but I didn't have time to stay. Mommy, could we invite him to visit us at home some day?


I also found Nemo!!! Can you see him?






Maybe it hurts if you touch the sea urchin...


Not as big as the other moray, but still terrifying.


Beautiful fishes!


After visiting all these beautiful fishes, we went to the AquaDom. It is a 25 metre tall cylindrical acrylic glass aquarium with built-in transparent elevator. It is now the main attraction of the Berlin Sea Life Centre. The Aquadom is the largest acrylic cylinder in the world, with a diameter of about 11 metres, built on a 9 metres tall concrete foundation. Filled with 1,000,000 litres of seawater, it contains over 1,500 fish of 50 species. The feeding of the fish and the cleaning of the fish tank is performed daily by 3-4 full-time divers. They need 8kg fish food.
The windows you can see outside the water belong to a hotel where the elevator is inside.











First I was confused about the huge fish behind me... But then I noticed it could be a diver. I'm not sure!


The last fishes I met today were some koi carps. They were really big and I think also very expensive!


I went to the souvenir store of SeaLife and bought a tiny friend for myself. I'll call him "Crawfish-baby" Or maybe you have a better idea for a name. I'm not sure if my new friend is a girl or a boy.


Mom, I hope you are not confused of so many pictures.
I'm so tired now. I think I'll go to bed!

Love,
Crawfish

Hey Mum,

today I had a closer look what a German Christmas Market is.
They offered roasted nuts and almonds, gingerbread, candied apples, fruits covered by chocolate, lots of Christmas stuff... And there was also a big wheel and some carousels.

This Christmas tree is a "traffic tree" at Breitscheidplatz. It is made of waste, found in the streets of Berlin.


Christmas tree @ Sony Center / Potsdamer Square


Christmas decorations to buy







Candies



Clothes to buy


The big wheel


There are also small stages where they have shows and little concerts.


I also saw the Coca-Cola Santa



Yours,
Crawfish