Travelog for: Veggies

Hi!

Today we've been to Katja's boyfriends work to walk the dog there and feed him and the cats.


This is one of the cats, Arnie. He is Felix's (Katja's cat) brother


This is the dog, Rey. He's getting a bit old now and we couldn't take a long walk with him as it was too hot for him.


Dave works in a tool hire shop. Here are some of the tools/machines they've got for hire.

Then we went to stables near Dave's work where Katja's work mate Liisa is working during her spare time.




We even got to ride a horse!


Here's the face of the horse


Another horse here


And another here too


Here you can see a pony and a donkey that was really cute.


Here's a closer photo of the pony.

After meeting so many animals, we went for a walk down the coast and we saw this harbour while we were there

This afternoon I have started my journey towards Germany I'm sorry there weren't any updates for a while...

Hello.... 

I arrived in Germany at my new host Sissi. I had a great voyage and arrived well.

I also met [Ewan E. Ewok] who also arrived just today!


Sissi showed us the house and the garden.

Look- we were pushed on  a swing. That's a bit like flying 






They have many beautiful flowers in their garden but hardly any vegetables . Only some tomato but they're not seasoned yet.

This morning we made a walk through Aach to the Aachquelle (aka Aachtopf).

The Aachtopf is Germany's biggest natural spring. It is producing an average of 8,500 liters per second.

The name Aachtopf is compounded from Aach (meaning water in Old High German), the name of the river created by the spring. Topf can be translated as bowl and is commonly used for round, bowl-shaped springs. The Aach flows southward into Lake Constance, which empties into the Rhine.

Most of the water is derived from the Danube River and is obtained where the latter river disappears underground at the Donauversickerung (Danube Sink) near Immendingen and Fridingen. Strangely, the Danube flows eastwards into the Black Sea, whereas the Rhine flows northwards to the North Sea. Therefore the water of the Aach flows under the European continental divide. This is a relatively common feature of karst stream captures.

The Aachtopf is a favourite weekend destination and very romantic. It is not possible to see the cave because it is underwater and cave diving is extremely dangerous.

This should just give you some infos *hehe*

Anyway... Sissi, Ewan and I took Julian (Sissi's baby boy) into his buggy and went on.


This is a look into a small street through which we went.


This is a piece of the hydropower station. Because the river Aach flows through Aach they often use hydropower!


Here I am on a bridge (there are many bridges)


We are just making some rest at a fountain.


Oh we're nearly there !!!!!


Look, there it is



reading some info 


Anothere bridge.


Now we're reaaly shagged out 

Today a new guest arrived:

Karlheinz from France!

We were just helping Sissi with her Swedish homework when the postman rang ). Sissi is learning Swedish at a language course once a week.

Here's some vocabulary:

hello - hej
where are you from? - Varifrån kommer du?
what's your name? - Vad heter du?
where's the toilet? - Var är toaletten?
how much is the ticket? - Hur mycket kostar biljetten?
a ticket to ... please! - En biljett till ..., tack.
do you have a free room? - Finns det något ledigt ikväll?

Hi )

Today we made a trip to Insel Reichenau and Konstanz.

The Reichenau Island lies in Lake Constance, west of the city of Konstanz. It's connected to the mainland by a causeway that was completed in 1838.

The island was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000 because of its monastery, the Abbey of Reichenau.
The island is famous for its vegetable farms (yummie) and wineries.

Look - it's me in front of a statue of the intinerent Saint Pirmin. He's said to have fled Spain ahead of the Moorish invaders.




















In Konstanz was a flee market and Sissi bought some books and toys for her son ).  And wer ate "Bratwurst"!




We also met a little cow named Bella-Bo. We told her about our travels and she was so excited that she wanted to start travelling, too!!

A MEDIEVAL ADVENTURE!!!!

Today we made a small trip to a ruin nearby. It is called HOMBURG.

The Homburg is an early medieval ruin next to the village Stahringen, next to the western shore of Lake Constance.

It’s in 624 m hight above sealevel and longtime the people of Homburg lived there.
It was built in the 11th century.

It was robbed and burend down during the Swiss War in 1499 but rebuilt in 1502.

In 1642, during the 30-year-war it was again robbed and burned down and this time it was not rebuilt. The farms under the ruin took stones from it.

You have a fantastic look over Lake Cons´tance, the Hegau volcanoes and the Swiss Alps from the ruin.




The landscape is so nice here!!

It was a very difficult way up to the ruin, esp. as we had Sissi's baby Julian with us and the way was not so easy with a baby car...
So we made a rest and took a group photo 



Here is an info about the ruin. I tried to read it, but it was German...  . But Sissi translated it for me



OHHHHHHH, I feel like in medieval times!!!!


Isn't it a nice view? You can see Lake Constance and also a bit of the Swiss Alps!!



Medieval stones!!! How big the are! 


Yummie - Sissi gave us some sweets and Julian gave us a bit of his drink! It was soooo hot!!!


The mountains in the background are the Hegau volcanoes! Some extinct volcanoes with ruins on their top (year!! More medieval castle ruins!!!)

Hiya!

Today it's raining again (like the past days, too - I thought it's summer but I think Germans have no summer . Sissi told me they have, but I cannot believe...  )

ANNNNNYWAY

Actually we wanted to got to Black Forrest cause Ewan really wanted to see it. He will leave us on Monday and we fear that cause of this bad weather it's not possible to see Black Forrest  .

Sissi wanted to brighten us up and decided to make a sweet meal today. She told us it smells also great as dessert. And it was really delicious!!! Of course we helped her!


Look, we need:
- 3 eegs
- 80g sugar
- 80g butter
- 80g semolina
- 500g lowfat quark
- 3 apples
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- sugar and cinnamon (mixed)

Hehe, here I am with the apples: 


Okay, let's start!
First we took the mixer and the white of the eggs and made whipped egg whites.


Then we took the yellow of the eggs, butter and sugar and mixed it. We put the semolina and the baking powder to that mix and then the quark. All was mixed then. Afterwards the whipped egg whites was creamed under it. I helped 


It looked like this then:


The next step was that we pealed the apples
and cut them into pieces:


Now, we put it into a casserole dish
and put the dish into the oven ( 180 degrees Celsius). We had to wait for one hour!!! Then the hotdish was ready! We put mixed sugar and cinnamon on and could eat it!!



You must really try it! It's delicious!!

This evening we helped Sissi to write some postcrossing postcards!!!

Hallooooo!!!

Today we went to SCHWARZWALD!!!!

The Black Forest (German: Schwarzwald) is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 meters (4,898 ft). The region is almost rectangular with a length of 200 km (120 mi) and breadth of 60 km (37 mi). Hence it has an area of approximately 12,000 km² (4,600 sq mi).

We went visititing Sissi's aunt and uncle in Villingen.

We had delicious cake and coffe:


Sissi also showed us the beautiful garden and the gardening-house:




In the morning Sissi's uncle has picked gooesberries and Sissi took some with her for her mummy who wants to make jam out of it!


For Ewan it was a special day because seeing the Schwarzwald is one of his life missions! So we drove into the woods:


and walked around:












It was a great day!!!

GOODBYE TO EWAN!

*cry* we had to say goodbye to Ewan E. Ewok who's now on his way to Australia (it will be a loooong flight) to his now host!

We hugged him goodbye a lot and wished him all the best. Maybe we will meet him again one day!

He got some sweets to for his flight and took 2 postcards with him!



Ewan, it was sooo nice with you! Take care!!!

It took some while for posting but here come's the report from our trip to the  FREILICHTMUSEUM in NEUHAUSEN OB ECK!

So the Freilichtmuseum is an open air museum and looks like an old village. There are several histrical buildings. They were not standing here originally but rebuilt from the original material. So they built it down on their original place and built it up again in Neuhausen ob Eck. The original places were all in in the south-western part of Baden-Wuerttemberg (so in the Schwarzwald (Black Forrest)).

All buildings are also with the original furniture and it really looks like a hundred year ago.

Here we are at the parking:


In front of some of the houses in the museum village:




We made a great walk through the village. There was a lot of green around 


There was also a mill:


Here's an overview map of the museum village:


And we met donkeys...


... and goats!


In former times the smiths worked here:

We visited ENGEN, a town next to the place Sissi's living!

Engen is attractively situated in the middle of the volcanic landscape "Hegau" with its unique cone-shaped mountains.

Between Lake Constance, the Black Forest and Switzerland the romantic inner town centre of Engen with its southern atmosphere invites visitors to stroll around.

Engen has about 10.000 inhabitants.

Engen has a long and vivid history. 14.000 years ago already people used to live in this area. Important findings at the nearby Peters' Rock and Gnirs Cave are sufficient proof . These caves were resting places for roaming reindeer hunters and their families. Dating from this era the "Venus of Engen", a small abstract statue of a woman made of a carbon substance.

About 1.500 - 1.300 years ago the Alamans founded a settlement in the "Altdorf" (old village), opposite the town on the other side of the railway line. The historic centre of Engen was mentioned in an official document for the first time in the 11th century.

In the late Middle Ages the settlement developed into a considerably sized town. Some noble families´ houses were built on the Market Square, the town church was erected as a romanesque basilica, and a convent was established where the Engen Museum and Gallery is to be found today. The plague raged through Engen in the 17th century and two fires (1845 and 1911) destroyed large parts of the town centre .

Nowadays the complete historic centre of Engen is under monument protection. Beginning in the mid-1970s it has been completely restored, so that Engen glows in its historical beauty. For its exemplary redevelopment Engen has received several awards.

The historical centre is one of the best preserved medieval towns in the southern Germany.

It not only gleams in its medieval idyllic appearance, but the careful redevelopment of the old quarters also meant revival for the town.

The complete historical centre of the town has been placed under monument protection since 1977.

That's me sitting on a wall from where you have a nice overview over the town.


There are also several fountains in Engen. This one is on the market place:


and this one shows you some traditional carnival figures:


This monument is for all soldiers who died in the two world wars:


A look into one of the old lanes




Another view over the town:


GROUP PHOTO *smile* 

We said goodbye to karlheinz today. He's going back to his owner and then goes on to China. How exciting!