Travelog for: Batgirl

Hi

bad weather here, how's the weather at home?

Hi Mom,

here was Carnival and I had so much to watch and learn.
Carnival is here called "Fasnet". A lot of streets were decorated with old underwear or pieces of fabric.


Every town has its own traditional carnival rite. One is a parade of lots of carnival groups and music groups. It was very cold when we watched the parade from the sidewalk.

When a Narr (carnival figure) shouts out: "Narri!" the other people answer "Narro!"


Another rite is that the mayor is giving the key to the carnival organisation for the time of "Schmotziger Dunnstig" ("sticky" Thursday) to "Aschermittwoch" ("Ashes" Wednesday). While this time the carnival revelers got the powers about the town. This key symbolises the key to the town.


This is a music group. The wardrobe is often based on medival army uniforms.


Many groups are in the guise of witches or people of old sagas.











The wardrobe is called "Häs". Some "Häs" are made of hundreds of little fabrics.



Most wear wooden masks. While the parade is on, they are not allowed to show their face underneath the mask. Children often do not wear masks because these are very expensive as they are handmade. Some mothers don't wear masks too, for they won't frighten their babies.



Another music group of the special kind of music called "Guggenmusik"



Although most of them look evil, they are usually very kind to young children. They often give sweets to them. Like this friendly witch.


Some bears:





As we took so many pictures I will write another update with pictures of the parade.

Hi Mom,

her comes the second part of the carnival parade pictures.













Lots of clowns:




Some carry whips and every now and then they swing to crack the whip.







More music groups:









I remember these are "Epfelschittler" (apple down shakers)



Children on the parade were called "Narrensome" (Narren Samen / carnival revelers seeds). Here in Germany little children believe the babies were brought by a stork, when it has bitten the mother.




These costumes were made of lots of handkerchiefs.


Wolves:


Chicken:



Devils and critter creatures:








Some wear straps with bells:




These whitches have birch-brooms. They are playing lots of tricks to the audience.


This one fell when her (his?) broom broke







Goats:



Elks:


This one is unique. He symbolizes the oldest and biggest tree in Villingen-Schwenningen. The people called this tree "Hölzlekönig" (Wooden King). The tree was hit by a lightning twice so it's not large anymore.


These were called "Schantle" which means a guy who is greedy:




This female creature is called "Moosmulle" (Sorry no translation into english possible)


And this one is the "Hansele" (swabian for little Hans)

Hi

this weekend I went with the other TVs to brunch in a Café. Hostmom's Friend ate cake first, but we prefered a solid Brezel and bread rolls.


Then we took a break and made a walk around the Café. I found this nice Clown. Probably a leftover from carnival decoration?


Later we decided to eat a cake too. But there were so many different cakes really difficult to decide which one to eat. They all look so yummie.


I took a cheesecake with poppyseed. But it was a big piece so I shared it with rosemarie and bubele

Hi

on sunday I made a trip in the beautiful Black Forest with my new friends.









We made a break and sat down in the snow



When we left you could see our prints in the snow.


Lonely Black Forest farmhouses often have their own little chappels like this one on the right side.


Can you believe this picture is taken just  about 15 minutes later than the others?

First blue sky with some sunshine, then dark sky with heavy snow falling.

Hi folks at home,

since my hostmom was very ill, we didn't do sightseeing trips.
But when she told us about a reciepe she found at the internet, we decided to give a helping hand.

First wir cut sausages into pieces.

Then we put dry spaghetti throu the pieces which was really difficult because the spaghetti tend to break if pushed to hard.

When we had done all pieces, we boiled the spaghettisausages.


This is how they look like, after boiling:


With a little sauce topping they were very yummie.

Hi

this time we made a short trip to the lake "Bodensee".
Here we got a first glimpse of the lake beneath the town "Überlingen"



Überlingen is a town where you can find a lot of medieval traces. You just need to be open minded. On this picture for excample, although the houses look nice and new, they are pretty old.


The boats still are in winter pause.


The Bodensee has clear water, lots of men (some women too) go fishing there.



I found this poster which is telling the history of Überlingen. Wow, first mentioned in 770 a.c.

Hi

this weekend our host took us with her to a handicrafts workshop.





We specialized into cards making. Cards for Birthday, Mothersday or any occasion.

Hi and happy easter holidays!

Hostmum bought us a chocolate rabbit. And we shared it fair like brothers and sisters.


First we stripped it of the foil.


Then we made pieces. One piece for Brook



One piece for Mushu


And a piece for me.

Hi,

since my host has a bad hurting lumbar vertebra, she couldn't stand or walk for a while. Therefore we didn't do any sightseeing. Today a friend drove by our place and picked us up for a little tour in the spring. We came to a town called Tennenbronn.
I loved this church, which seems to be decorated for a wedding.



This inn is also in Tennenbronn

Hi

Today I met some dinosaur.
In Trossingen was the skelleton of a dinosaur found in 1909. The Auberlehaus Museum was founded in the 1970ies.





And a least but not last a church in Trossingen.

Hi

Finally spring is here! Hooray!


See all the fresh green everywhere:





And look those magnolia blossoms fit quite good to me, don't you think so?

Hi,

today our host said, she would like to show us her favourite place. So we were quite excited, what it would be.

The host said: "Look, there it is!"


I thought, oh well, nothing special. Some trees besides a field. What makes this place to special? But then we walked closer. And we found:
The "Elsenau" witch is a (Lourdesgrotte) pilgrimage chapel
like Lourdes. Our host isn't very religious, but this place seems to touch here deep inside.






I liked this calm and peaceful place. The waterfall, the roof made the leafes of the surrounding trees. It seems lots of people believe in the blessing of this place as there were lots of candles burning, and all the fresh flowers.

Hello,

we made a trip, but unluckily the batteries of the camera were down and we had none to replace them. So sorry no pictures from Pforzheim yet.

But yesterday we were lucky, we catched a good sunset. We went up the hill to the "Dreifaltigkeitsberg" (which means Trinity Hill), which is 985 meters above sealevel.
There is a monastery and church, first founded in the year 1415 as a little chappel. Later in the 17th century, the church was built and enlarged through the years.



A good view downhill on the city of "Spaichingen".



While the sun went down, we went for a walk through a field of flowers. Because there were already lots of shadow, you may not see clearly how beautiful all those flowers were. But believe me, they were.




As the sun went deeper to the horizon, we changed position again.




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What a calmfull evening!

ooops, I forgot a picture. And it's even an art-ish picture!

Sunset throu colourful glas.