Travelog for: Crush

It's summer, sunny and warm outside with many different sounds and smells but my host is working and says she doesn't have time to take me anywhere. Psssst, don't tell her, but I figured out that if the cats can come and go through the cat flap, so can I. And I am quite safe outside by myself. See, I'm camouflaged.


What's that?

It looks like a strawberry, but toyvoyager-sized. That means it's for me, right?! I bet it's been waiting for me.
It tastes good! And there're more.

I wonder what the red stuff up there is...

Looks like I have some climbing to do...


Finally!

They are big, they are red, and a birdie twittered to me that they are called "Himbeeren", whatever that is supposed to be. Sometimes I wish everybody just spoke one language, the constant switching si confusing me.

A bit higher up are even more. Apparently the darker they look, the sweeter they are. So I am only eating the dark ones for now, I can come back for the others tomorrow.



Now, to explore a bit more... I'll just more along up here to save myself the climb back up later... Help!

I think I slipped. Treacherous leaves!


Hmm, but I found some more of the Himbeeren, at least, they look the same but they have a definite smack of cassis. How is that possible?


The grass feels great under my shell, if only it didn't take that long to get to the other side of it...


Hmm, hidden snacks

and even more of them!

I can't decide where to start. Soon I won't fit inside my shell anymore, unless maybe it can expand... but then I'd be rolling around...

Or maybe not, all this climbing is exhausting.


The birdie twittered me something else:


"Johannisbeeren"!

We went shopping in very big store called METRO. Here you can see about a quater of the wine section:

And here we have half (plus of course the products on my side of the aisle) of my very favourite: the chocolate aisle.

There are also a candy and a cookie ailse of the same size, and of course all the other boring ones with other food, drinks, cleaning supplies, frozen and cooled food sections, meat house and fresh fish counter, kitchen and office supplies, electronics, clothes, products for bath and body and home. I'm glad I could hitch a ride on the oversized shopping cart.

Hello world! Sometimes the planes to Düsseldorf airport fly above our house. Today, I heard something that seemed different, louder somehow and I looked outside:

It seems there's a Zeppelin airport in Mülheim and one can book flights and fly over the Ruhr area. But it's supposed to sway a lot so nothing for people who get seasick!
Now we see the Zeppelin nearly daily at around the same time.

With over 30°C it is really warm for this area and it feels even warmer, because we have no wind, not even a little.

Anyway, here I am crossing the pedestrian bridge over the Autobahn called A40. Busses have extra lanes in the middle in this part of it, trams use them in other parts.

Someone found out and told my hosts that I sneak out into the garden during the day. So now I have to do chores. In the garden there are all those currants which Knopf and I had to pluck and make into little cakes.
We made a dough of yoghurt and maple syrup with some flour, eggs, a little salt and butter, and added the currants. It looked a little like big white caviar.

Crush put them in the oven while I adjusted the temperature

and voilà, here's the first load.

The sides aren't burned, it's just the juice that got so dark.

I wanted to enjoy another late afternoon outside, when the heat wasn't as bad anymore, but had to pass by the Cat. The Cat is pretty observant and likes to play with small things. She doesn't hurt them, but I didn't feel likeflying through the air today.

Crush also helped protect me. He knows the Cat well.

I made it through and was just wondering if she was going to follow me onto the lawn when I saw the best thing ever:

The Sprinkler!

Save from the Cat and getting to play with water, my home element, what a joy!

In the end I found a cozy place to dry off. For some reason I'm not allowed into the house when I'm wet. Really, they could do with some more water in their house.

I've seen some great sunsets here, even in the city. At the moment the weather is still warm, but it tends to rain for a bit in the late afternoon or evening. So I got to see this great sunset rainbow:




The intensity of the rain and the light changed a lot and I got to see it shift a little and get stronger or weaker.
I like that it is an actual bow:

This is where the light came from. I watched it vanish slowly.

Do you remember how I told you that Essen or the Ruhr area in general in European Capital of Culture 2010? And the pictures of the A40 Autobahn?
Well, the Ruhrgebiet consists of many different cities that kind of flow into one another and make up a "city" with over 5 Mio inhabitants. Through this area, the A40 connects the cities as a fast way to get from one point to another. If there isn't too much traffic at the time.
Today, 60 km of this Autobahn from Dortmund to Duisburg-Häfen hvae been completely closed to motorized traffic and instead one side is for bikes and inline skates and on the other side 20 000 tables built a long row and some groups have staged events like dancing, music, painting... It's called Still-Leben Ruhrschnellweg (still-life Ruhr(the river) Schnell(fast)weg(way/lane) which is an alternative name for the A40)

It was very crowded when one got close to an exit.

Someone didn't think very clearly when they chose this very exposed place:

People were waiting in bulk at one side of the exit in the direction of Essen center but we managed to get on on the other side and just walked int hat direction anyway.
The Spanish Culture association has a table here with Irish music right next to it:


And this is supposed to be the world's biggest "Arschleder". (ass-leather, this is the proper term and I donT know of a translation, something coal miners used to slide down to the pits on, this area became what it is because of all the coal mines)

These people seem to really like Christmas:

And here a secondary school is cooking with solar energy.

On the other side there seems to be a bicycle-jam.

And here some nice ladies decorated with coal and seem to be looking for a roommate. They generously invited me to pose on their table and to apply for a place in their flat.

The Gänsereiter (goose riders) are a company of riders that can also be seen at the carnival in Freisenbruch. They wear blue shirts and red scarfs, and dark blue hats sometimes with goose feathers.

The tables are all marked like this and can be bought on the Hellweg stores for €49.99 (one table + 2 benches).

And here we are back on the bridge from which I took pictures last time:


The bus lane is in the middle. Down there people are challanged to do bench presses and kick boxing for small prizes.

And people can ride their bikes after all.

Time to go home.

For dessert I made strawberries, probably the last of the season, with strawberry limes.

For dinner we're having swordfish and tuna steaks in Creal marinade with ginger, garlic and lemon.

I am becoming a BBQmaster!

Today we visited some kittens from the animal shelter. Volunteers can host them in their homes until they find new homes of their own.

The little ones were a bit shy of my at first but quickly came to investigate.


But I had to be very careful. Their claws are sharp and in a way they seem even more frightening, than The Cat at home.

We spent most of the day in the car on a little road trip. Here are the pics:




We passed by some vineyards and sunflower fields, as well as corn and wheat fields. I also saw some castles but we couldn't get a recognizable picture.

One of my missions is to taste delicious food with every host. My host told me we could make something nice but I'd have to help. We, that is all the tvs that arrived last week: Drilo, Jelle and TravelingTuffy and I.

We looked through some books and magazines and decided on apricot tarts.
We got out the form and the ingredients.

We measured and added flour, sugar, eggs and butter for the dough.

Plus peeled a line for some more flavor.

We kneded the douhg (the Kitchen Aid did most of the work) and wrapped it to put in the fridge for half an hour.

We prepared the apricots by cutting them in half, taking out the stone and marinating them in orange liquor and powdered sugar. Actually one's supposed to take a special aprocit liquor, but we made do with what we had.

This too has to rest for half an hour.
Meanwhile we made the filling, preheated the oven and oiled the form.
Then we took out the dough and made the bottom.

We baked it for 15 min and then added the apricots

and the filling of eggs with powdered sugar.

We baked it for another 40 min and now have to wait for it to cool down before we can taste it.

I already showed you a couple of pictures from a castle near Hattingen. Today I visited the old town. There are about 150 old half-timbered houses, dating back to the 16th century.


Lot's of the Ruhr area used to look like this but was "modernized and improved" in the 1960s and '70s, something the inhabitants of Hattingen prevented in their town.

This house is called Bügeleisenhaus (flat iron house).


Some houses show that the Bergische Land with its slate is close by:



Some houses are hard to access.


Parts of the old city wall still surround the old town.





Here you can see an old lavatory that emptied onto the narrow alley:


The Kirchplatz (church square) is very well preserved in its original layout of houses that have a lower level that leads to the street:

and one higher up that leads to the church place, where they surround the church in an oval form, with narrow stairs leading from the street to the church place between the buildings.

We got these very fresh Garnelen (shrimps) and Rotzungen (lemon soles). We peeled the soles and put both on the gas grill in a pan with hot spiced oil.

We were too busy eating them while hot to take pictures. Along witht hem we had fresh bread and salad.

We visited the parrot park in Bochum today to get some new toys for the budgies. It's not a zoo but they have different kinds fo parrots and one can look around for free. They also host birds while their owners are on holidays or in the hospital and help people who are interested in or already keeping parrots.
There are some aras free in the middle of teh shop area. They seemed friendly, but when we wanted to get closer to say "hi", this one wanted to get a bit too friendly for my taste, so I stayed at a save distace after that.

I felt safer around these guys:

Who's there?

He wanted to chat.