Travelog for: Chuckle

I was in a big mountain of stuffed toys at the Park Avenue Congregational Church Rummage Sale. It was crowded and I could hardly see anything. I think a Care Bear was sitting on my head.

Well, this hand reached in and pulled me out of the heap. What a relief to get a breath of fresh air!

It was McFloozy!

She has this idea that I'm going to travel around the world, smiling and laughing, with people who are smiling and laughing. She thought I was pretty handsome, and that people could take beautiful pictures with me in them. I think so too.

So, we went home together, and she is getting me ready for a local outing before I go on my world tour. She gave me a nice tag, so people can update my travelogue when I visit them.

Look out world. Here I come!

I just got weighed and measured. How humiliating! 

I felt like a criminal getting a mug shot taken.

Anyway, Dr. McFloozy now has my accurate statistics.

WOW!

McFloozy left me at home with Snowflake today, and we just had such a good time.

First, we got out the button making machine, and started making buttons for the Stand Against Racism demonstration that is taking place in Arlington on Saturday. Making buttons is so much fun! I put in the top, and pull the handle down, then put in the pin back, and pull the handle down again. Voila! A beautiful button.



I think the people at the rally will really enjoy those.

Then, Snowflake and I wandered around, and we discovered a whole pile of T-shirts. We tried them on. I think they were for the rally too. We both loved those because they were in our palette! I just look SO good in black and white!

Oh boy! I went to a political rally today. This was the
Stand Against Racism rally, sponsored by many organizations in Arlington, and also the YWCA.

I am a political activist.

First, I got to hold a sign. That was exciting.



Then, I discovered that they had balloons at the rally. The theme was orange and black. Which I loved. I look so good in orange.



When nobody was looking, I wandered over to this bike rack. And I discovered a Secret Message. It said "Practice Loving Kindness". Now that is a nice message. I hope I find that spirit all around the world when I go travelling.

I got to go wandering around town a little bit today with McFloozy. It was really hot, but we enjoyed the sunshine and had a little walk.

She let me push the button so we could cross the street.



Here is a joke. Why did the Chuckle cross the road?  Answer:  To get to the azaleas! Ha Ha Ha!



Yeah. I really do look good in purple too. I am just so handsome...

Oh happiness!

A package came today!! I am so excited to open it up.


When I opened it up, I was so happy. It is my new friend Cilly, who has come to visit from Germany!



I am going to take her on an outing here in Arlington, MA!

I showed Cilly a beautiful statue of a Menotomy Indian Hunter. I sat on his knee. Then, we walked around the center for a little bit.


We found some other statues, near a flag pole, and I sat and read with a colonial mother and child. I like to read. I can go anywhere in a book!



We are going to have so much fun together. We already went hiding in the azaleas!

Hi Mum,

I thought, I should tell you, that I arrived at my hosts place without problems. But my hosts had no time for me, because they just renovated the kitchen. I hope, that they will take me and Cilly to some adventures soon.

Bye, Chuckle

Today we drove to Münzesheim to visit the Japanese Garden, which belongs to the therapy centre against alcohol and other dependencies. All buildings and works of art are made by patients of the therapy center based on antique models. The garden is about 5.000 m² large, it is open for patients and visitors. You will see a roof made of blue bottles, put into the concrete with there bottom to the outside - it's an interesting room, fascinating. Wall and floor are covered with blue tiles. Just enjoy the photos.

Today we visited my families aunt and uncle in Mannheim. It is a beautiful city, but we haven't seen a lot of the sightseeings. We were at the garden of aunt and uncle and ate some cake and enjoyed the lovely flowers.












This is the river Neckar.

In the early evening we enjoyed the lights of the sunset.

Today we have lovely weather. So my host decided to show me some nice places in Bruchsal. Some other toyvoyager friends joined us.

At first we walked through the Bürgerpark - citizens park- , which was created at the end of the 1980s. It is home to three monuments, which are dedicated to Bruchsal's twin towns and to victims of the Second World War and the Nazi regime.






Here you see the medival keep of the old castle. It's the only building of this time in Bruchsal.




Then we walked to the "new" palace of Bruchsal.
Schloss Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful Baroque palaces in Germany and the only episcopal Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. The foundation stone was laid in 1722 by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Speyer, who made the palace the centre of his absolutist dominion. Read more here: Schloss Bruchsal.

Here you see the tower of the church St. Damian and Hugo, where my hosts usually go to service on Sundays.




The left building is the church, so you see the the tower is at another place. The church inside was also baroque, but the most part of the palace and so the church were destroyed during the Second World War. The rebuilt it in the 1970s, but not the church inside. It is modern style now - to disappointment to most visiters.




The palace garden: Today, the palace garden continues to provide an atmospheric setting for open-air concerts and the Bruchsal Summer Festival of Music and Drama.

At first we went to the pond, where usually are many ducks. Today it was so crowdy, that we stayed away a bit just to take nicer photos.





Here is the rose garden. It was a bit difficult to take photos here, because of the sun





This is a chestnut avenue with really old trees. It was also such an old avenue on the other side of the park, but they say, that the trees were too old. So the planted new trees, which are still a lot smaller.



I collected some chestnuts for a nice photo. I hope you like it.




Here is a photo of the back side of the palace main building.




This is the front side of the palace main building. This building houses the the magnificent dome, Marble Hall and Prince's Hall. The staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann is considered to be an architectural tour-de-force and has been described as the "finest staircase in the world". There also is the German Museum of Musical Automata, which thanks to its acquisition of more than 100 valuable instruments from the Carlson collection of Königslutter, is now among the largest such collections in the world.




This map shows, that the area is really big. We added points to places, where we took photos.




I read a long long text about the palace, much too long for writing it here.




That's the left wing of the main building. There is the chamber music hall.




We walked to the Damian Gate now. Today, the local art society "Das Damianstor" stages various exhibitions of contemporary art in the sections of the building directly above the gate arch.




We took a look at the long Schönborn street, which leads through a part of the palace area.




We walked to the Amalienbrunnen, so called Schneckenbrunnen (snail fountain), which is in front of the county court. To be true, I didn't read the whole text here.



Here you see me with one snail.






Next to the fountain we took a look back to the main building and the wing with the chamber music hall.




Now we had to walk some stairs up and a street up to come to the Stadtgarten - city garden. It's the third large park besides the Bürgerpark and palace garden.




I saw a nice old house. I'm sorry, but the light was a bit difficult for taking photos.




I love this lime tree




This fountain is called Ferdinand Keller Brunnen. It was built in 1912 and is dedicated to the Bruchsal innkeeper Ferdinand Keller. The building behind it belongs to a grammar school.




The Belvedere is on the edge of the Stadtgarten. It was built by Leonhard Stahl in 1756 as a hunting lodge for Prince Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten. The location was chosen so that the lodge would command an unspoiled view of the palace, town and Rhine rift valley beyond. Today the Belvedere is used as a venue for concerts and theatre productions.






Next to the Stadtgarten is a place, from which we had a wonderful view over Bruchsal. Do you see the church with the two towers? It is a baroque church St. Peter, which is close to the place where I live right now. The white/orange building close to me is a part of the older people's house.






The place were we stood was next to that Wingerthäusle - vineyard house. We tried to take a photo of the sign with me, but it was too dark to read it. So we just took a photo with hand and camera, but nevertheless you will see the house as white dot above the stairs of the Andreasstaffel







Here you can read about the stairway, if you want to.




The Huttenstraße is one of those streets with really old buildings. Many many buildings were destroyed during Second World War, so you don't see many old buildings in Bruchsal.




Behind my back you see another part of the older people's house and the building with the little tower belongs to another grammar school, the Paulusheim.




After a long walk I'm nearly back home again. Here are some other older houses and the baroque church St. Peter.

I visited the school were my host teaches pupils of grade 3. She didn't want to take photos while the kids were there, so you only can see the chairs and tables and a pumpkin decoration for the window.



On the table you see the worksheets for a plan for the week.

Yesterday was my hosts son's 20th birthday and today we had a big cake for afternoon coffee. This cake is called "Schaffeltorte", which means something like washtub cake, because it has so many different colours like the colours of mixed laundry and white foam on the top.

Today we packed bags and sat in the car to drive to a place called St. Peter in the south part of the Black Forest. Partly we drove on the autobahn and partly on roads, which led us through towns.