Travelog for: Günther

Hello Mommy,

we did a sightseeing tour through the neighbor village. The city is called Gräfenhainichen and it had its first documentary mention in 1254. The first printing shop was set up in 1874. As of 1890, brown coal was being mined in Gräfenhainichen, first underground, and then in strip mines.

As it is a city they also have lots of horses all around the city. Can you see the white one behind me?


We found one of the 3 wind mills of the city. This one is from the 19th century and worked until 1963.


This is the only little pond in the city. It's called Vorstadtteich (in English "suburban pond" ). There are lots of ducks.


This is the ruin of the old castle. It was built in the 12th/13th century on the ruin of an older castle. It was destroyed in 1637 during the Thirty Years' War by the Swedes. No one ever rebuilt it. We couldn't go inside, it's only open when the open air theater is used for festivals.


This is the town hall. It was built between 1695-1699.


There are 2 towers in Gräfenhainichen. This is the upper city tower. It was reconstructed in 1448 with some other fortifications. It was also used as a jail for a while. There's also a lower city tower, but we couldn't take a picture.


Next to the upper city tower we found a long piece of the old city wall.


This is the highest building of the city - the Protestant church "Sankt Marien". It was also destroyed by the Swedes in 1637, but it was rebuilt from 1658 to 1666. The tower was built in 1867/68. The church got its origins in the Romanesque and Gothic.


The water tower was built in 1927. The bubble design was the idea of a classmate of my host!


One of the sons of the city is Paul Gerhardt. We visited the Paul-Gerhardt-House which was built from 1907 to 1909. It serves as a places of public assembly for the Protestants.


Another son of the city is Johann Gottfried Galle. He was the first person to view the planet Neptune in 1846! This is the Galle monument which was built in 1977 for all his work.


The last famous person of the city is Hugo Winckler, but we couldn't find anything about him.

Your Günther

Hello Mommy,

today little Sunny left. We all cuddled her.


Then she crawled into her envelope. Her next stop is Finland.


Günther

Hey Mommy,

time for a road trip! 










We went to the Mosigkau castle. The castle is one of the few Rococo palaces in Central Germany, resembling Sanssouci at Potsdam, which had been designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff. It was built between 1752 and 1757 for Anna Wilhelmine of Anhalt-Dessau, the daughter of Prince Leopold I. The ensemble includes an orangery and an art collection of Flemish Baroque painting, stemming from Duke John George's II union with the House of Orange-Nassau, that features works by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.
Around the castle we found a lovely garden and some sheep. Isn't it a lovely place?!









Castle 1 of 5 of the UNESCO Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm finished. √

Günther

Hello Mommy,

today we went to another castle.
John George (1748-1811), a younger brother of Duke Leopold III, had the Georgium Castle erected from 1780 by Erdmannsdorff. Located in a riparian woodland in the north of Dessau, the palace features an English garden with several monuments. Today the Georgium hosts the Anhalt collection of art, including works by Albrecht Dürer - especially an old master print of his Melencolia I - and Lucas Cranach the Elder.



Castle 2 of 5 of the UNESCO Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm finished. √

Günther

Hey Mommy,

today we went to another castle. It's the Wörlitz Palace and it was finished in 1773. This palace was the residence of Duke Leopold and his wife Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt. It 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.



Castle 3 of 5 of the UNESCO Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm finished. √

Your Günther

Today the doorbell rung. We opened and it was Alex' brother Cheeks. He returned from Switzerland!


We all cuddled him. Later he told us about his adventures.


Günther

Hey Mommy,

once again on tour...
We visited the Oranienbaum Palace which was finished in 1683 as the summer residence of Henriette Catharina, where she retired after the death of her husband in 1693. The rich furnishing includes leather wallpapers and a dining room equipped with Delft tiles. From 1780 on Duke Leopold III had the palace and the park rebuilt in a Chinese style, according to the theories of Sir William Chambers, 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. Oranienbaum Palace together with the park and the geometrical settlement conception forms one of the few original Dutch Baroque town layouts in Germany. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, has been there in 2004 and 2012!


Castle 4 of 5 of the UNESCO Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm finished. √

Günther

Hello Mommy,

today when we went to our tour we found a crocodile in the forest! We were a little bit afraid, but as we noticed it was a nice guy!


That lovely guy lives near the ruin of a house which is called Swedish house.



And there's nothing else! Just lots of grass and some trees.


After a while we found the Luisium castle. It was a gift from Duke Leopold III to his wife Louise and it was built from 1774 in a plain Neoclassical style as a country home according to plans by Erdmannsdorff with adjacent gardens, pastures and a stud farm. Leopold died at the castle on August 9, 1817 from the consequences of a riding accident. It's the smallest of all castles we saw!


To the area around the house belongs a so called snake house.


And this castle has an orangery!


Castle 5 of 5 of the UNESCO Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm finished. √

Yours
Günther

Halloween is calling... 

We found a pumpkin, took a knife and a spoon and started to make a really spooky face. But what the hell is Alex doing with this stick? 


When it was dark we put a candle into the pumpkin. Ouh spooky!


Then we turned the pumpkin and saw what Alex did with the stick. Really cool!


Günther

We are going on a big journey tomorrow!!!

So we did what we had to do! Packing everything important into our car.
We need something to eat and drink and plates, of course. I said we should take some of the pirate gold with us. Maybe we have to pay something. GustavHH is sure we need the canvas chair, if the sun will shine. We also need our skateboards and our driving lesson cars to cruise around.


Everything has to fit into the car!


We fixed the canvas chair and some boards on the car, there was no other free space. And fixed one of the little cruisers behind the car. As there are only 5 guys allowed in the car Rudy has to sit on the cruiser behind the car!


Holidays we are coming!


Günther

Hey Mommy,

I arrived in Cologne, the fourth-largest city of Germany! It is located on both sides of the Rhine River.
First I went to the Cologne Cathedral (officially High Cathedral of St. Peter). It is a Roman Catholic church and the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. It is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people a day.
Construction of Cologne Cathedral commenced in 1248 and was halted in 1473, leaving it unfinished. The work restarted in the 19th century and was completed in 1880. It is 144.5 metres (474 ft) long, 86.5 m (284 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157 m (515 ft) tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires and largest facade of any church in the world.



This is the City Hall and it is Germany's oldest city hall with a documented history spanning some 900 years.


The ancient cigarette factory houses now the bureau of vital statistics of Cologne.


I found these lovely houses in the historic center of the city. Aren't they cute?!
Behind these houses you can see the Great Saint Martin Church. It is a Romanesque Catholic church and its foundations (circa 960 AD) rest on remnants of a Roman chapel.


The Rhine is a river that flows from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea coast in the Netherlands and is the twelfth longest river in Europe, at about 1,233 km (766 mi). It's huge!


This is the chocolate museum. But it's Monday so it is closed.


Günther

Hey Mommy,

I made it to another country!
I'm now in Amsterdam, the largest city and capital of the Netherlands.

First we visited the Amsterdam Centraal, the central train station of the city. It is also one of the main railway hubs of the Netherlands and is used by 250,000 passengers a day! It first opened in 1889 and was designed by Pierre Cuypers and A. L. van Gendt.


This building is a big shopping center. It's located on the opposite of the palace. As the palace isn't really beautiful, we decided to take a picture of this house!


I really like the design of all these houses! And they are all very old.


Günther

MOMMY!!!

I saw a beautiful corsair in Amsterdam!
Sad there was too much water between us two.
Maybe we can go there together one day to board that ship?!



Your little pirate Günther

Hello Mommy,

before going back to Germany we did a stop over next to the North Sea.
We enjoyed the sunset at the beach. It was really windy, look at the waves!




Günther

Hello Mommy,

we are back to Cologne!
Today we had a look over the city from a really high building.
Can you see the big famous Cathedral? And the bridge over the river Rhine.  It's the famous one with all these love locks.


Look, there is the famous Lanxess arena.


Later we went to the Rhine. The water is really cold!


Tomorrow we are going back home.

Your little Günther