Travelog for: Belka

Hi Mummy,
today I had to say good-bye to Katja, to dear Tochi and all my friends.





After sending a letter with some souvenirs to you I climbed into my envelope. When you are reading this, I am already traveling to my next host, to fam-united.

Love
Belka

Hi Mum,

I arrived at my next host's place. It is rather hot here and I still haven't seen anything. I will try to get some photos taken today.

Hugs, Belka

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.

Take a look at the black roof. If you look well you can see some hail on it.

Today our hosts invited us to a open air theatre in Ötigheim. They love to go there each year. This year they watched the play. Ronja Räubertochter
We had luck, because it wasn't too hot weather.



sorry, this one is without me, because we had to zoom

When we were back at home, we decided to go to have dinner outside at a so called beer garden. The restaurant isn't far from our home, so we only had to walk a few minutes. We passed by at the baroque church St. Peter, which was beautiful in the evening sun. I will tell you more about this church soon. My host walked home and fetched her camera to take some photos with us.




After we had a really tasty meal, we walked home again. We saw this interesting car in front of the church then and my host decided to take photos with me.

Today we visited Bretten. Like Bruchsal this town is in the state of Baden-Württemberg and located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route. There live about 28,ooo people.

The centre of Bretten consists of many old half-timbered houses around a lively marketplace.Bretten was first mentioned as "villa breteheim" in the "Lorsch codex" in 767. Since 1148 Bretten had the right to mint and issue coins. In 1254 Bretten received city rights. In 1492 Bretten was granted to hold four fairs by Pfalzgraf Philipp. Philipp Melanchthon was born in Bretten in 1497.(wikipedia)


the Melanchthon house




marketplace






a red half-timbered house with red car




Stiftskirche, evangelic church




Next to the church we saw this half timbered house with the flags of the states which participated at the world championship in South Africa.




Statue of Philipp Melanchthon




a fountain and some pink houses




some shops

This evening we were invited to join our hosts, when they visited the light show at the palace of Bruchsal. It was the first time, that this event happened there and they and we were really curious. There were many people out there and we enjoyed the lights. I'm sorry, but we only took this one photo, it just was too dark to take more. And there is one photo without me. I thought, that you maybe like to see the backside of the palace like this, too.

Today we went on a sightseeing tour through Bruchsal. The weather still isn't too nice, but at least there is a bit sun every now and then.


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


We started at the backside of the palace.





When we turned around the next corner, we saw this sundial.





Now we see the front of the palace. My hosts go to service at this church every Sunday morning. It's about one hour, that they are there to pray and sing.





We're still standing at the same place, but just turned around to see the Damian Gate.






You see, that the palace area is really big.




Here we are in front of the county court. There is the Amalienbrunnen, fountain, with its funny snails - the so called snail fountain

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 a map of the whole palace area. We marked the places of things we took photos of.




Here's the main entrance. The sun didn't shine, so the photo isn't that brilliant.




We're now standing next to the church entrance and take a look back to places we took photos a few minutes ago.




We went into the church and saw photos of the palace and church after they were destroyed on 1rst March 1945. About 80% of buildings in Bruchsal were destroyed that day.




The church wasn't rebuilt like it was before. We saw photos of the church when it was baroque inside.








Don't ask, which station of the way of the cross this shows. This way of the cross is a bit weird, even my hosts have to think about it until they know, what it means.




Now we are on our way back to the palace garden and will take more photos there. Turning around we see the church and church tower again.





There are many chestnut trees. This is an old big one.




My host told me, that she visited this pond really often, when her kids were much younger.




In the main way of the palace garden you find many statues. This one shows the element fire






and here is water.






There are also the elements air and earth.


Here is a photo of the rose garden, but we didn't take a photo of the playground, because too many kids played there and we didn't want to take photos of them.




After we've seen the four elements we're now at the statues of the four seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter.




We'll have a closer look at two of them. Here's autum



and here summer- not sure, why we took the photo without head.




Here's the chestnut alley with old big trees. There is also an alley on the opposite site with younger trees.




Maybe you remember, that we saw a small small part of the roof of the prison tower, when we were standing next to the church entrance. Here is the prison. It is called cafe octagon - Cafe Achteck - in Bruchsal, because of the way it is built.

Do you see me and my hosts arm in the mirror?




Only a few meters from the prison is the hospital of Bruchsal. There is the old part with the nice tower and a big part of the newer hospital. We're still standing at the same parking place only moved a bit.




Then we drove to the Stadtgarten, because we wanted to see the Belverdere -  a former hunting lodge.




When you walk out of the Stadtgarten you see that small house on top of the stairs. We took a photo of the sign. The house was supposed to protect its owner from the rain, when he worked on his vineyard.



We walked down the stairs and have a few on the house from there.






Standing next to the little house you have a wonderful view over Bruchsal.











Then we walked back to the Stadtgarten again and took some more photos there. Here is the Ferdinand Keller fountain.




My host loves this lime tree and I do too.




The house behind the fountain is called Schönborn Gymnasium. This school is more than 250 years old.






The last picture today we took at the street, which leads along the St. Paulusheim, another grammar school. You have a nice view on St. Peter from there.