Travelog for: Jack the Cat

Hi everybody! 
Here's a picture of me when I meow.  I don't want to scare anyone with my red cheeks and deep roar. 
I don't know why Mommy has a bowl of rocks, but it's a good place for me to hide ... well, until I meow and turn red!! 
See you soon, future hosts and other TVs!
~Jack
P.S.  I'm so happy to meet Bally.

I like this restaurant.  Don't know why.   

We're waiting for MLKJr. day to be over to start our travels!  Learning patience ...   

hey everyone!
i had such a good time in lodi today with zoe, fiona yenien and bally.
junior bear is going to be a stay-with-mom toyvoyager, so he needed a lot of help choosing pictures for his travelog.  i think he is a very adventuresome polar bear.  and he's a lot older,too, i think.
this week we all bought a present for zoe.  her birthday is in february, but she won't be home then, so we're putting her present in the travelope with her.  she's a little afraid of kitties.  not me.  i'm small.  but other kitties, yes, so i chose something with a feline theme to make her braver and to remind her of her grey and white feline american pal.  i hope she likes it.
i also said bye to fiona because i'll be on my way to germany when she gets back from skiing.  i wonder what snow is like? hmm ... cold paws  ...
well, gotta go pack!
love,
jack

as soon as i got home, it was time to pack for Germany.  i gave Zoe her birthday gift from us (she doesn't know it's a chocolate kitty that looks just like me) and i got into my travelope with a postcard and 4 delicious snacks to munch on.  i know there are many toyvoyagers where i'm going and i'm so excited to make lots of new friends!  i'll miss my mom and my american idol kitties, Niblet, Koko, Obiwan and Anakin, and Bally and Zoe and Fiona Yenien.  but keep tuning in!  who knows what's next??
~Jack

Hi Mum,

I arrived at my host's home safely. Now I'm looking forward to meeting all these other toyvoyagers here, but my host told me, that it will take some time until the half year reports are written
I hope, that we will go somewhere on Sunday. She said, that there will be a meeting of their family club of their church.

Bye, Jack

Today was a meeting of our hosts' family club. They said, they would take four of us with them, so our host counted out, who was allowed to join them. At first I was sad, because I thought, I never would win. But then I was happy to not stay at home, but go with them to the palace. We were there to see the exhibition of cribs and also visited other rooms in the palace. I can tell you, it really was interesting.










After being almost completely destroyed in the final days of World War II, the main tract was painstakingly reconstructed according to the original design and work was completed in 1975, including the magnificent dome, Marble Hall and Prince's Hall.
With the rebuilding of the palace, the Town Museum (Prehistory, Ancient History, Mineralogy and Numismatics) was established with new exhibits in the southern upper storey of the palace. As well as displays chronicling the ancient and early history of the town, the exhibition features the mineral collection, coins and medals from Bruchsal and archaeological finds from the Neolithic to the medieval periods. (see bruchsal-erleben.de)

Here you see photos of the exhibition of Stone Age.


This is a lower jaw of a mammoth.




This is a photo of a painting of my host's cousin. He painted the burning synagoge of Bruchsal. It makes me feel really sad, thinking of all the people, who lost their lifes.




Here you see a small version of the jailhouse. I think, it is an interesting building.




Here's the prince hall with the big crystal chandeliers.






Here we are in the dome hall.






Now we are in the marble hall. Everywhere you see something golden.




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.




To tell the truth: I already knew, that I would be allowed to join them, because I'm new here

On our way home from Gochsheim, where we visited some friends of our host family, we saw this evening sky and asked our hosts to stop here and take some photos.




We even saw a little piece of the moon.

Our host told us, that soon there will be a birthday party for her daughter, who was 13 years end of December. She said, that in December never is enough time to celebrate with friends, so her daughter invited them to come to her in two weeks. Today we learn how to do chocolates, because the girls want to make chocolates then. At first we had to sort out the ones we wanted to make.




At first we decided to try one of these two cream-vanilla-confection.






After we only were allowed to watch, we told our host, that the next one we would try alone. We wanted to make confections with cornflakes and orange flavor and white chocolate.










Our host's daughter finished the cream-vanilla-confection and we were watching again.






At next we tried something like wrong Raffaelo. We never will try it again - the right Raffaelo taste much better.






Here we made coconut confection with Amarettini. They tasted much better.








This were the nougat confection. They tasted fine, but maybe we will try another recipe next time.




We helped to fill them into the patisserie forms.







And that's the result after we decorated the confections.




Then we tried another recipe with strawberries, but we didn't like the result too.










We loved to eat the philadelphia cheese confections, though.








My host said, that she would try some chili-butter-confections and I can tell you, they really were hot.





Here you see us with coconut-Amarettini-confections, nougat confections, cream-vanilla-confections and philadelphia-confections. We loved them all.

Today we finished the Sweet kiss, which is a recipe of a tv serie, that comes in tv each afternoon. My host's daughter loves to watch it every now and then and we loved to eat the sweet kiss.

For lunch we drove to the Michaelsberg, which belongs to Untergrombach. Untergrombach is a suburb of Bruchsal. There is a nice restaurant and we were there with my host's parents in law. After lunch we went to see the chapel and landscape of the Rhine valley.




View to houses, which belong to Bruchsal.




View to houses of Untergrombach and the Rhine valley.




View in direction of Karlsruhe. The hills belong to the Kraichgau hill country. Bruchsal is right between the Rhine valley and Kraichgau hill country.

We live at a rather loud place since months, but it seems, that this will be the last really really loud works before they get finished everything.

Today we drove to Münzesheim to bring my host's daughter to someone and while she stayed there 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.

It was rather cold and already gettin dark outside, so the photos aren't that brilliant, but try to enjoy the photos.

Today our host's daughter has a belated birthday party with her friends. So we have to prepare everything before the guests come. At first we have to put all the ingredience for the chocolates on the working plate in the kitchen and also the recipes for the chocolates.




Then we have to prepare the table for the guests. We want to eat the selfmade muffins, but our host didn't allow us to bite into a single one

It's breakfast time on a Saturday in Bruchsal. Most Saturdays my hosts buy bread rolls from their favorite bakery in Bruchsal. You can see them here. It is hard for us to choose the one we love too. Our host said, that we have to share one bread roll, because it would be enough for us to eat - we are so small, she said.






We decided to take a "Krusti" and Cilly cut it in two halves.






Now we had to decide, which marmelade - jam-  we wanted to have on the bread roll halves or if we would like honey from Australia or hazelnut cream. The most jam is selfmade by our host's husband.




We chose Australian honey.