Travelog for: King Tut

Hello, Abby!

Steph does apologize for the lack of updates. She had been very busy with her first year of college. However, we were FINALLY allowed out of her hometown and on a trip to the SEMO District Fair. SEMO is an acronym for South-East Missouri, by the way. 
Here we are in front of the main entrance banner.


Oh, and I must add another apology from Steph; some of the photographs did not turn out too great because she took her little ancient digital camera. We tend to be washed out in some photos.

Here's the entrance of the rides and games. We didn't really go over there, though, as that is actually not the main event of the SEMO Fair. They did seem to have some nice rides, though.  The inventions since my days are quite incredible.


We reached the main attraction, which was the animals.  There are many shows during the day time, however we did miss those.  We got to see a variety of animals the fair still had out, however.  I had never seen many of these, and neither had Steph.
We came across a petting zoo-like area first.  At the very entrance was a section full of goats.  If we spent $1, we received a small cup of feed to give to each type of animal. Very nice.
We had to read the sign on the goat pin and made very sure that we did not touch their horns. 



In the next cage over, we found some very beautiful deer.  Steph has never been this close to deer before, as they are very skittish, she says. I thought they were very lazy.



We also got to see a few animals that Steph said we would not get to see unless we went to a place called a 'zoo'. I would very much like to visit a zoo someday.  These animals included the Nilgai.



We also got to meet a real Camel, too!


There was also a Llama....

And an Alpaca! His hair looked VERY similar to the hair some of the boys at the fair had. 


We also saw a few giant live turtles...

And some sort of large Cavy (None of us could remember the first part of the name, though. Just the 'Cavy' at the end).


Before we left the petting zoo like area, we also got to see a few more goats.  I think the people around here must be very fond of goats. 

This goat seemed to like us a bit too much. 


We found quite a few cows out for the show.  I started to realize that this fair is mainly about farm animals.


We also got to see plenty of large horses.  These horses were far too big to ride, but were apparently bred to use in plowing.


The final stop on our animal tour was the Birds and Rabbits section.  We saw quite the hen and rooster.




And even a few turkeys as well!


We also got to see a unique looking kind called a Polish.  They looked as though someone had glued a bunch of feathers on top their heads.



We also got to see the first place winning Rabbit. How cool to meet one of the winners!


As we were leaving, we had to go through food stand after food stand.  I could not believe some of the things people eat today! They eat these things called Deep-Fried Twinkies and Deep-Fried Snickers.  I'm not sure what either is, but Steph said the deep fried versions are usually only available at fairs, unless if you make them in your homes. They sounded very odd to me.



We finished our night off at a little restaurant in Cape Girardeau called BG's Olde Tyme Deli. The food was rather delicious (we had to Chicken Club Platter) and the restaurant was decorated very nicely. On the menu, you can see a few old celebrities: Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, and Humphrey Bogart.


Well, Abby, I must be going to bed now.  That dinner was rather filling for a king and I am very tired.

King Tut

Today, Wieka and I decided to check up on Steph's toy voyagers with her.  When we got on the site, we noticed that she had a new message.


It was a message from Wieka's mentor that said Wieka must now be moving on to visit Czech Republic.  We decided to take one last photo together.  I will miss him and I wish him a successful travel.

This weekend Steph's parents were going on a trip to Memphis, Tennessee. It just so happened that they had room for just ONE extra person, and guess who got to attend?

Yes, it was I. 

I got my photo taken with three state signs along the way. One from Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi.


.

We all needed a little bit of a break from all the driving, so we pulled into a rest stop in Memphis. We found this little structure, which I thought was nice and wanted my photo taken with it. Mainly because of the pyramid on top. 


I also got to see the Mississippi River! The bridge connected Arkansas to Tennessee, if you were wondering. It was nice to have some time by the river.


We were about to leave when I noticed a pyramid in the distance! I got a little bit too excited, I believe. It looke different than the pyramids I remember, but it was a pyramid, nonetheless. I asked Steph's dad what this pyramid was built for and he told me that the Memphis Grizzlies is the basketball team for Memphis and that they used to play here until 2004, when they moved to a different arena.  It is called the Pyramid Arena. I was a little bummed at first over this, but then I quite enjoyed this. The fact that they used a pyramid.


Once we got to our hotel in Memphis and settled in, it was time to go back out into this city! One of the very first things I got to see was the Orpheum Theatre here in Tennessee! This theatre is said to be haunted by a little girl named "Mary", who died in an automobile crash near here.  They say they often find her sitting in C-5 and causing much mischief. They've even found blood in that seat. How eerie.


In front of the Orpheum, there are many stars with celebrity names inside of them.  I took photos with a few names I thought you would recognize, all though they are unknown to me.




Later on, we came across this big statue of Elvis playing! Naturally, I had to get my photo taken with a fellow "King". 


As the night went on, we found ourselves on Beale Street, one of the best known streets in Memphis. It is mentioned in many blues songs, from my understanding. There were many things to do on this street and you could see people of all ages floating around here. They shut the street off from automobiles so that people can enjoy it all. 
However, if you didn't feel like walking, you could take a carriage ride for a fee. When the night came and the lights lit up, it almost looked like something out of a fairy tale. Steph's mom said it looked much like the carriage from Cinderella.


We also found a Hard Rock Cafe. Apparently, it's not a trip unless you go to a Hard Rock Cafe for some shopping. I've heard that there are many of these around the world.


Here we are on Beale Street at night. The photograph really did not do it justice. It was all so 'alive'. I loved every moment of this environment...minus the drunks.  If you look in the middle of the photo, you can see a boy doing a flip. He, along with the other two standing near him, would do flips down the street for many feet in exchange for 'tips'.


We ended our night with an Elvis Presley impersonator. He was pretty decent, but not as good as the real person.


So, Abby, I hope you did enjoy all the things in this update. I know I had a lot of fun taking these photos and just being out in Memphis. We're headed back tomorrow and I may be attending my first concert soon! So very excited about this!

King Tut

Today, I was supposed to be attending my first concert. However, Steph found out that the venue was not going to be allowing any photographing devices inside for this concert, so I was unable to attend. That was fine with me, however, because I decided to do a little bit of learning.  I found her Humanities book and began to look through it just to see if I could find anything interesting.

And I found quite a few things out about the artwork and lives of Egyptians! You probably know a lot of these things, but I would still like to share with you.

On this page, I learned that my funerary mask is from around 1380 B.C.E. It is gold inlaid with enamel and semiprecious stones and is around 21 inches (54 centimeters) tall.


Our religious faith influenced much of our greatest artwork. We were polytheistic (meaning we believed in many gods). Some gods were often portrayed as animals and had local powers while some were involved in mythical stories that were significant to the entire nation. I got to reread the myth of Isis and Osiris in this book and I somewhat enjoyed this.  Here is the basic summery of the myth from the book:

Quote:

The myth of Isis and Osiris, for example, reenacts the political struggle between lower and upper Egypt. The god Seth (representing upper Egypt) murders and dismembers his brother Osiris. But Osiris's wife Isis gathers his scattered limbs and resurrects him in the underworld. Henceforth, Osiris rules the realm of life after death. Seth, meanwhile, is defeated by the falcon-god Horus, in whose name Egypt's pharaohs ruled the realm of living.

I also learned about the Pyramids of Mycerinus, Chefren, and Cheops at Giza. They were built around 2525-2460 B.C.E. They were made of limestone blocks and the largest pyramid covered thirteen acres at its base and took more than two million stone blocks!
There was also a photo of the statue Mycerinus (or Menkaure) and Queen Khamerernebty. This was created in Giza around 2515 B.C.E. This statue stood in the causeway of Mycerninus's pyramid. They are modelled similarly to the Greek statutes from the Greek classical era.  They are rigid, have no expression, and have one foot forward. This signified their importance.


There wasn't very much on Egypt, which made me a little upset to be honest. I would have loved to have learned more about my past culture to freshen my memories a little bit.

Well, Abby, all this learning can make a little king tired. I will update again very soon!

King Tut

Hello Abby!

This weekend, it was the birthday of Steph's friend so we all decided to take a trip for her birthday and we ended up in Chicago.  The trip had a very rocky start, however.  Due to another friend, we were not allowed to leave on time Friday evening and missed our train to Chicago by a mere two minutes. Everyone in the group finally agreed to drive, which would only be another four hours from where we had already come from.  We got into the city VERY early this morning after getting lost due to the one way streets. However, a bad beginning was not going to ruin my day.

This morning, we got up early, ate a very filling breakfast, and started our day with a walk through the city.  Chicago is well known for the tall buildings that make up their skyline.
One of the first buildings that we came across was the St. Peter's Church in the Loop located on 110 W. Madison St. The church was originally located on Clark St, but once it became too bad to repair, the brothers of Franciscan order bought the LaSalle Theatre and used the site to build this very church in 1953. The church was designed by Chicago Architects Vitzthum and Burns. The one thing that really caught our eye was the sculpture of the crucifixion called Christ of the Loop by Latvian sculptor Arvid Strauss in 1953. It is three-stories tall, weighs twenty-six tons, and is sculpted out of Georgia pink marble. It was very eye catching and looks amazing, no matter if someone is religious or not.


Here is a view down the street of a few buildings.  The city is very clean and you do not see much graffiti in the downtown.  We all felt completely safe while here.


We next came across the Chicago Temple Building, which is home to the First United Methodist Church of Chicago.  The building is a combination of a church and of offices and has twenty-nine floors. Floors five through twenty-one are completely offices.  It was designed by Holabird and Roche and constructed in 1922-1923.  At the time it was completed, it was the tallest building in Chicago and the second tallest in the world.


Here is the James R. Thompson Center, which is located at 100 W. Randolph Street.  It was designed by Murphy & Jahn and constructed in 1979 - 1985.  It has many restaurants, shops, and houses many of the state government agencies.  We were going to go inside, but it is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. 


We visited the Chicago Architecture Foundation building and as we wandered into the atrium in the Santa Fe Building, we found this model city of Chicago. I found this VERY impressive and enjoyable. With a city this size, I could definitely rule it!

I climbed on top of the Lake Point Tower as King Kong does in those old movies.  I was now the ruler of Chicago!
But, I had to get down so we could continue our journey. And I heard a rumor that Oprah lives in this building. Oh, I do hope that I did not squish the poor lady. 


Our next stop was Millennium Park. There is so much to do and see in this park.  It was truly incredible! The first thing we got to see was The Crown Fountain. It has two 50-foot glass block towers that stand on each end of a reflective pool. Faces appear on the glass towers and apparently they are supposed to represent the citizens of Chicago. They also shoot appear to shoot water out of their mouths, but I missed it.


The next stop at Millennium Park was "Cloud Gate". It is sometimes referred to "The Bean" by tourists because of it's shape. It was inspired by liquid mercury and created by Anish Kapoor. It is twelve feet tall and weighs around 110-tons. That's a LOT bigger than me!


Jay Pritzker Pavilion is also located here. It is a VERY unique building and would be a great place to attend a concert.


After checking out the Pavilion, we continued on our walk and ended up in Grant Park, which is home to the Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain. This fountain represents Lake Michigan, which can be seen from the fountain, and the seahorses presents the four states that border the lake. Steph told me that this fountain was also in the title sequence of the old 90's sitcom Married... With Children.


We continued our walk and found a wonderful surprise: the finish line to the Chicago Marathon! Apparently is it happening tomorrow! I hope we get to see some it!


Another surprise came to us when we visited the Magnificent Mile on our way to the John Hancock Observatory.We found a sculpture entitled "God Bless America", which is based off the VERY famous painting "American Gothic". The sculptor did an excellent job with this one! They looked as if they had just popped out of the painting!


Yes, we did get to go into the John Hancock Observatory. Steph accidently deleted the photo of me outside the building so I do not have any shots of myself outside the building, but I have plenty of myself from the inside looking out.  We were all the way up on the 94th floor, so we could see VERY far! We went up just as the sun was setting, so it was a very pretty time.
Here I am looking out at Lake Michigan.



This is a view of the skyline. The big black building is the Willis Tower (Steph said it was once called The Sears Tower). You can go up to the 103rd floor in that building!


That is definitely a VERY long way down!



Here's a few more city shots for you to enjoy!



Well, Abby, we left the Observatory once the sun had finally set.  We were all so tired that we all just went back to the hotel and lounged around.  I'm sorry that this update is so long, but I wanted to fit it all in. We have a few more things planned for tomorrow that I am EXTREMELY excited about. I cannot WAIT!

King Tut

Today, we were all woken up by noises outside of our seventh floor hotel room.  We were very curious to see what was going on and we couldn't believe our eyes! Part of the marathon was being ran RIGHT in front of our hotel. Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain a shot for you that included me, Abby, because Steph's battery in her camera was being charged for the events coming up today. We had to use Steph's ancient digital camera, which really did nothing but make blurry figures on the street.  Sorry about that.

After we ate our meal while watching the marathon, we headed down to the River Walk to catch our Architectural boat ride at 11:30 AM. It was VERY cold today and was only in the 30's-40's the entire day.  I came prepared and bundled myself up for the day.
Here is the captain speaking to all of us before the boat ride began.  He seemed like a very nice gentleman.


The building in the center of this photo is 35 East Wacker (many buildings here do not have names and just go by the address) and it was once the tallest building in the US outside of New York. It was also featured in a few scenes of Batman Begins.


This was just a very old apartment building that I thought looked kind of interesting. I was too cold that I could not remember the name of the building and neither could Steph.


This is just a view down the river. You see the building with the two tall white antennas? That is the John Hancock Observatory that we went into last night!


I also got to see the backside of the Civic Opera House! It is the second largest opera auditorium in the United States. Too bad I wasn't able to see the front; I hear it is very beautiful.


Towering high above us was the Willis Tower (Steph said it used to be called the Sears Tower for ages). We are thinking about going up there tonight. It takes you all the way up to the 103rd floor!


There's Lake Shore Tower! That is the tower I climbed up on in the model! Man, it is a LOT bigger than what it was there!


The boat tour ended with a beautiful skyline! I was so glad the sun came out for a little while, even if it was still VERY cold!


Once the boat ride was over, we went down to Navy Pier. It is a pier on Lake Michigan that has shopping, rides, and entertainment. It is definitely a place you should stop at if you ever visit here, Abby!


Here I am with the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier. It is one of the highlights of the whole pier! We didn't get a chance to ride it, but it was still nice to see.


At Navy Pier, the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows is also a must see. It is, apparently, the first museum dedicated to the windows. There were quite a few stained glass windows inside and I was so excited to see them all!





As we left the pier to catch a cab, we noticed this hot air balloon that appears to be used to promote Navy Pier.


After we took an AMAZING cab ride (the cab driver told us all about Chicago and pointed out things that we had yet to see), we arrived at our final destination: The Willis Tower.


The wait to go up into the tower was incredibly long. We had to wait around forty minutes to get to the elevators! As we waited, there were MANY diagrams on the walls showing up many interesting facts about the floor we were going to be looking out of.  In this photo, the circle shows just how far you can see on a clear day from the 103rd floor.


The elevator was VERY fast and only took us 60 seconds to reach the 103rd floor.  The view was very much the same as it was in the John Hancock, only a few floors higher.


The tall black building in the distance is the Hancock Observatory.


One of the newest and main attractions in the Willis Tower is "The Ledge". There are four glass boxes that you can stand out on and look down at the city. It is entirely made of glass and is very safe, but very scary. Steph was going to set me on the bottom glass and take my photo, but with all the people coming onto the box, she did not see it as a good idea. I did get a picture, though.  This was an even LONGER way down than yesterday.


Well, Abby, we have just left The Willis Tower and are heading back to Missouri! I hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I did!

King Tut

Hello Abby,

We arrived back at Steph's home around 2 A.M. and were terribly exhausted from the trip.  We were so tired that we failed to notice Cutie waiting for us.  He understood this and in the morning, he surprised me with some sweets he had brought over from Germany!

I will not be able to spend much time with Cutie, though. I am leaving for Germany and I am very excited to see what that country has to offer me!

Well, I must prepare for my journey East!

King Tut

Hello Abby,

I am now with the United States Postal Service. They are being very helpful with my journey to Germany, but I do hope they hurry.  I am not very comfortable when I do not have a lot of space to move, as I'm sure you know.

I will let you know how I am the moment I get to Germany.

Until then,
King Tut

Hello Mum!

Today I arrived in Germany. We didn't have many time to say hello, because the others planned a trip to Bad Oldesloe – a small town near to Sülfeld. RikeH went to school there – many years ago...

I will get my nice welcome, when Dicker Kumpel is back - he was away for the week-end and is the host here - next to RikeH.

But now the most important sentence :

!!!HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MUM !!! 

Now I will tell you from our trip. There was a nice island..



...and a beautiful river.



I made some horseback-riding.



Here is another part of the river – with troubled water.



We had to wait for a receipt at the doctor’s. But it was not boring – you know, Toyvoyagers can talk and talk and talk....



The last think we saw, before we drove home was the town hall.



Greetings

King Tut

Hi Mum!

The weather was awful this week-end, so we decided to play billiards. First Dicker Kumpel and the billiards-hippo showed us, how to play. It looks easy, but it is very difficult.



So we asked a lot of questions.



Dicker Kumpel began.



Then it was my turn. First I watched, where the balls were.



I tried it out – it was fun!



After playing for a while we explored the room. It seems, that a horse lived and worked here years ago.





At the end I tried to call you – but we didn’t know your number.



Love
King Tut

Hi Mum!

Today we will have a party – it is RikeH’s birthday. First we looked at her gifts. Then we sang a wonderful song for her.





These flowers are so beautiful!



When we helped RikeH to prepare everything for the evening we heard the bell. Who can this be? Dicker Kumpel opened the door. Another Bunny!!! He was so happy and gave her a warm welcome. She is called Co Co Rabbit and is from the UK.



He introduced her to us – and we talked a lot.



Then we decorated the table – this is the way TVs would eat…



And this is the way, humans like to do it. They don’t sit on the table – this is strange.



We had fun behind the happy birthday sign.





The last thing this morning was to prepare the dessert. It looks yummy, doesn’t it? But it was very cold in this place.



In the afternoon RikeHs Mum Hummel invited all of us to have a delicious cake. It looks great – and tasted great!



In the evening we had a great party and ate a lot. But first we had some Champagne.



We went to the table and ate so much. I didn’t know, what to eat first.



Here are the desserts – now we were allowed to eat it.



Some more snacks...



First we looked into the camera for the photo....



...but after it – we ate everything!!!



Well Mum, it was funny – I hope to be on a birthday party soon.

Yours
King Tut

Hello Mum,

it was really early today, when RikeH came and invited us to come with her.

We get up and took a train. It was very dark outside.




So I decided to take another nap.



RikeH worked a lot – then we had the lunch break and walked around the Alster -a nice lake in the centre of Hamburg. There are small boats on it, they are beautiful.



There were some geese.



Two photos with all of us.





We found a funny monument with angels.



Another boat on the Alster.



Here I am on the other side of the lake.



This is the townhall – it is beautiful.



RikeH had to work in the afternoon – after the work we drove back to Sülfeld and had a stop in the train station.



Look – it is decorated for Christmas – Christmas seems to be wonderful.



Back in the train I looked out of the window – it is dark again. Working seems to be hard. I prefer to be a ToyVoyager.



Love
King Tut

Hello Mum,

today Lucan arrived in Germany. We gave him a warm welcome.



Because the weather was nice – no rain today – we made a walk around Sülfeld.
First we stopped at a big tractor.





Look, there is a beautiful big tree.



We went over a bridge and had nice views to both sides of it.





We found the last summer-flowers!



Later we wanted to do some sports. We saw a soccer field and played it. I was the goalkeeper. Can you see me?





At the end we all played in the goal.



On our way home we saw another interesting building with a beautiful sign on it.



It was a very nice walk!

Greetings
King Tut

Hello Mum,

we will explore something new today. It is called WORK – it must be fun, because RikeH went to this place very often. We started to Hamburg early in the morning.



Then RikeH showed us the place, where she works. There were some friendly toys. I think the one with the red hairs looked really funny.



Look I worked a lot and was a big help !



We had delicious lunch...



and then something nice to drink.  I loved the flowers on the table.



In the evening we went home – using the Tube.



We had a last stop at the fuel station and discussed to buy a new car for us.



I want to have a Ferrari, Mum.  And Christmas is coming...



Working seems to be not so much fun, I don't understand, why people are doing it.

Love
King Tut

Hello Mum,

we will make a nice trip this week-end. RikeH told us, that we will go to a sporting event, but we don't know which one.

We drove to a nice place called Bad Laer – and this is the hotel, where we stayed in.



This is the church next to it.



In the evening we drank a delicious cocktail. I am so curious where we will go to tomorrow.



Yours
King Tut