Travelog for: Luke

This evening we were invited to join our hosts, when they visited the light show at the palace of Bruchsal. It was the first time, that this event happened there and they and we were really curious. There were many people out there and we enjoyed the lights. I'm sorry, but we only took this one photo, it just was too dark to take more. And there is one photo without me. I thought, that you maybe like to see the backside of the palace like this, too.

I'm sorry, but my host forgot, that I still haven't seen the palace. So I only started to join her at this place. Here is the prison. It is called cafe octagon - Cafe Achteck - in Bruchsal, because of the way it is built.

Do you see me and my hosts arm in the mirror?




Only a few meters from the prison is the hospital of Bruchsal. There is the old part with the nice tower and a big part of the newer hospital. We're still standing at the same parking place only moved a bit.





Then we drove to the Stadtgarten, because we wanted to see the Belverdere -  a former hunting lodge.




When you walk out of the Stadtgarten you see that small house on top of the stairs. We took a photo of the sign. The house was supposed to protect its owner from the rain, when he worked on his vineyard.



We walked down the stairs and have a few on the house from there.






Standing next to the little house you have a wonderful view over Bruchsal.











Then we walked back to the Stadtgarten again and took some more photos there. Here is the Ferdinand Keller fountain.




My host loves this lime tree and I do too.




The house behind the fountain is called Schönborn Gymnasium. This school is more than 250 years old.







The last picture today we took at the street, which leads along the St. Paulusheim, another grammar school. You have a nice view on St. Peter from there.

It's my host's birthday. We helped to prepare things for the guests, which came to have breakfast with us, but we toyvoyagers were allowed to eat first before the guests arrived.

For lunch we had some Italian kind of soup and this interesting bread rolls.

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.

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

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.

I start my travel to my new host in the USA today. I hope, it won't take a too long time and I will arrive safely.

See you, Luke

Hi mom!
I arrived in New York safely, it was a fairly quick ride. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been that great the past couple of days and the rest of the week is not looking any better. It's been raining and cold, which makes it difficult for me to go sight seeing. My host and I spent the whole day walking around the city in spite of consistent drizzle today.
First we ran some errands in the Fashion district, looking for leather and other supplies for a handbag she is making, and then she took me to Times Square since it was near by.





Times Square is usually packed with people, but it was relatively empty due to the bad weather. Everything is really big and flashy here. Look, even the police department has bright lights above the entrance.



I met a couple of police officers. They were shy about being in the photos, but they let me sit on their car. It was amazing!



We took a quick subway ride to Union Square...







...and took a walk down to St. Mark's Place to meet Inna, my host's friend.
We saw this beautiful church on our way, the Grace Episcopal Church. It was built in 1846 in the gothic style. I think it's great that New York has a lot of historic buildings as well as modern ones. There is history everywhere you look.







When we met Inna it started to rain really hard. We hid in an asian restaurant next to New York University and had some soup. After having lunch we went to Barnes and Noble to look at books. I helped my host, who collects children's books, pick out this book. It's about an elephant and three cats who devise a plan to stay up all night and play instead of going to bed like their parents want them to. The cats in the pictures looked really funny.



The weather should improve by Friday, so I should be able to see more things and there will be more stuff going on outside. It was oddly empty in the streets today. It was a nice quiet day to get used to such a big city, but now I'm excited to see more.

Miss you,
Luke

We had a very long day on Monday. There are a lot of pictures, so I will break them up over several posts.
The weather was gorgeous. It felt just like summer, so we spent a lot of time outside and enjoyed the sunshine. This was a good thing because the weather turned that night and there were thunderstorms and hail New York weather is very tricky.

First we took a walk to the Flatiron Building. It is one of the first skyscrapers ever built, but now it doesn't seem all that tall. It is very impressive though, it's so skinny, like a slice of cake.





The Flatiron Building is located in Madison Square.

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You can see the Empire State Building from here. My host said that we'll be able to take a closer looks at it later.



There was a pop up market set up in the square. Vendors were selling handmade items, jewelry, food and other fun things.



One vendor was selling tea and spices. I've never seen something like this before. They were so bright and fragrant!





After taking a look around the market, we walked down Broadway to Union Square. We saw this bench carved out of a tree trunk outside of ABC Home and Carpet, a furniture and home goods store. The bench was so unusual I decided to try it out. It was pretty comfortable (the price-tag on it was over $1000, yikes).



Union Square was so different from what I saw last time. The sunny day really populated it.



There was a Farmer's Market set up. There were fresh vegetables, meats, flowers and even home made jam and honey for sale. Farmers from upstate come to the city to sell their produce.



There were also vendors selling art, people hanging out and even playing chess.







There is a statue honoring Mohandas Gandhi in the square. People always place fresh flowers around him and make him leis. He is usually behind a short fence, but today the gate was open and I was able to come close to him. There was a stone path behind him, it lead to a small section of the park that is usually closed to visitors.







After this we took the train to Down Town, the financial district. I will write about it later.
Love, Luke

After taking a walk down Broadway, we took the subway downtown to the Financial District.
First we went to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. There are several big tunnels under the park for traffic. There is a good view of the statue from the park.



The camera lens played an optical illusion in the photos. My host has a basic point and shoot camera that makes things appear a lot further than they actually are, a telephoto lens would have been helpful. We took a photo of the statue separately to show it to you, but even with the biggest zoom, it looks a lot smaller than the way I was able to see it.



I also saw a water taxi. It's so funny, it's painted to look just like the yellow cabs I saw on the streets.



The waterfront is wonderful. The big boat behind me is the ferry to Staten Island. It's free because there isn't any other way of getting there directly from Manhattan. So while the ferry is mostly taken by commuters, it provides a great view of Manhattan and is sometimes used by tourists (my host said that she sometimes takes it just for fun). I asked if we could go for a ride sometime, we'll see if we can find the time.



This is the boat that goes to Liberty Island and you can see New Jersey in the background.



It was really nice out and we felt a bit tired from walking around so much, so we sat down on a bench and read a book for a while.



Some of the last flowers of this year. Simple, but very bright and attractive.



This street musician saw us taking pictures and asked me to join him on the bench. I was so surprised by his gesture. He let me wear his cap, played jazz for me and posed for the pictures making sure we got a nice shot. He was very good, I enjoyed his music. It was a lot of fun and I really appreciated it 





This is the fountain inside the park and Castle Clinton in the background. It's a fort built in 1808 that has had many purposes in its lifetime (fort, beer garden, exhibition hall, theater, first immigration station, and aquarium), but is a monument now.



This is The Sphere, a sculpture by Fritz Koenig. It used to stand at the World Trade Center plaza between the two towers. It was damaged during the 9/11 attacks, but remained structurally sound. It was relocated to Battery Park without any repairs six months after being recovered from the debris. It has been dedicated as a memorial to 9/11 victims with an eternal flame.



After the park we took a walk through the Financial District. There was a street fair going on. Vendors were selling a lot of food, cheap jewelry and accessories and other goods. The food smelled fantastic and the smoke from various grills filled the entire street.



We tried taking pictures with the Wall Street Bull, but it was absolutely swarmed by tourists. This is the best we could do given the situation.



We walked over to ground zero. There is some construction going on and it's very loud. Not much has been built over the years. The clean up took a very long time and then all the arguing over exactly what should be built took even longer.





This is St. Paul's Chapel, it's churchyard faces ground zero.



After this we took a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. That was an adventure of its own. I will write about it later.
Love Luke

This is was our last stop of the day. I told you that it was a very long one!

My host and I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan all the way to Brooklyn! The bridge was completed in 1883 and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the US. At the time such a massive suspension bridge was a real novelty and people were afraid of using it; 21 elephants were paraded across the bridge to prove it's safety and stability.





There is a great view of Manhattan from here. I was a little scared, but my host held on to me for dear life, so I felt secure.







This is the view of the Manhattan Bridge.





The pedestrian pathway is in the center with traffic on a lower level on either side of it.





The pedestrian part of the bridge is made out of wooden slats. That's it, just wood between you and water on a very tall bridge. My silly host wore heels on this day. In her defense, they weren't very high and she didn't think that we'd be going on the bridge that day, but still. Her shoes got stuck between the slats on several occasions, that was a bit scary. Look, you can see the water between the wooden planks in this photo, that's what we were walking on.



This is one of my favorite photos.



This is Brooklyn as seen from the bridge, faraway and closer.





The bridge goes to Down Town Brooklyn, which is one of the reasons it was so important. It connected the then city of Brooklyn with NYC for the first time (before that you'd have to travel by boat) and lead to their eventual unification. This is the park, supreme court and a courthouse in Brooklyn close to the bridge.







after this we took the subway (you can see the entrance behind my left cheek in the last photo) home. This was a very exciting day for me.
We recently went on another adventure, so I will be writing about it when I sort the photos out
Love, Luke

Hi Mom!
Yesterday was Halloween and we got to dress up and eat candy! I spent the day with my new friends. It was so much fun. I wore a mask, see if you can find me in the photos below 

Hi,
I'm having a lot of fun in NY. I recently had a fun adventure, I'd like to share with you.

First I went to the Artist's Gate area of Central Park. It's a beautiful and tranquil area and it looks especially lovely during fall when all the leaves are changing color.











This is me on the stone bridge you can see in the first photos. There is an ice-skating rink behind me, it's a small amusement park during the summer.



When you look on the other side of the bridge, you can see the famous Plaza Hotel.





After the park I went to FAO Shwarz. It's right across the street from the park. I had my photo taken on the second floor balcony that overlooks a big part of the store.





After the park I took a walk down 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Square. The walk was very nice because there are a lot of boutiques in this part of town and it's great for some window shopping, especially now that some stores have put up holiday decorations.

This is me next to St. Patrick's Cathedral. (I made a collage)





This is Rockefeller Square. Soon the Christmas tree will be up here, I hear it's huge, can't wait to see it!











Thanksgiving is coming soon, I'm very curious about this US tradition. My host is having a special dinner and delicious pie for dessert 
Bye for now,
Luke

Hello!
I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to write in a while. I had a wonderful time today. I was going to go out last week, but there was a huge snow storm and we got snowed in. The subway train next to my host's house didn't run for four days. The snow is still on the ground, but it's melting and the roads are very icy. We did have a nice time celebrating Christmas and the New Year at home, I'll show you photos of the Christmas tree I helped decorate later. Oh, there are two other TVs joining me here now, Paddington Bear and Bumba, they are really nice.

We went to the Guggenheim museum today. Cameras aren't allowed inside, but my friends and I got see the show with a tour guide. We went for a walk at Central Park after the tour. This is a view of the museum from the park.



We walked over to the Belvedere Castle next to Turtle Pond. It's one of my host's favorite places and I can see why, the view is amazing. The pond usually has very large turtles living in it, but it is completely frozen right now.











The area behind the castle is modeled to look like a forest. There are hills, narrow paths and stones. The paths were really icy and we had to be extra careful when walking around.



This is the Bethesda Fountain (with the Angel of Waters sculpture on top of it) and Terrace. You can go boat-riding on the lake in the background during spring and summer months.



After the park we walked over to Rockefeller Square to see the Christmas tree. It's Huge  I can't believe that it's a real tree. the star on top is Swarovski crystal.



I'll write more soon. Love, Luke.

Today we arrived at BlackCats house. She already told us that we won't see much the next days (at least not from the outside), as she is having birthday on Saturday and still has a huge To Do list. But that's okay, let's see how we can help her then.