Travelog for: SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,

we celebrated Theodore's birhday today.

We had fruit in rum (Rumtopf) in the evening.

Of course we had a lot of fun!











I'm sure we'll have a bad headache tomorrow 

Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
today I went with Katja's colleague, Elke, to Leverkusen. Elke is playing at skittles there. The skittling ladies met on the christmas market before.

Elke's husband is collecting us from the office where Katja and Elke are working. He was waiting in the car in front of the office building.



Elke prepared a surprise for her friends. Each of them received a little bag filled with froebel stars (Froebelsterne in German). These are paper stars, folded in a very special way. Elke has made all those paper stars by herself.

On the christmas market we drank a hot spiced wine (Gluehwein in German).

The first Gluehwein tasted really good.



The second one tasted even better!



The third one had a staggering effect.



The other ladies also brought small presents. The table also had a pretty christmas decoration.



The ladies now played at skittles. A price was awarded to the best of them, an advent calendar.

Skittles is an European target sport, a variety of bowling. Your have nine pins, balls in different sizes and different weight and also different rules.







Then more presents were exchanged.









I tasted a christmas beer, but let us play at skittles first.





There is a warning notice on the machine: ball is coming!





The party could begin than. I was drinking a water in between ... there are more presents!



I was very hungry.  Refreshment was needed. It came as a cutlets in paprika sauce (Zigeunerschnitzel in German) with french fries/potatoe chips.



I was starched then for another beer.



Uuups, it seemed as this last beer may have been one too much. Santa Claus became blurred.



Prevention was necessary - the water tap was cooling my thick head.



I hope that Katja won't be angry with me tomorrow.

Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
we tasted our pomelo today. It was a lot of work to remove the peel. A pomelo seems to consist of peel only.



It tasts really good, not as sour as a grapefruit.

Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
when Katja returned from work today she brought a plastic bag with her with something clanking inside.



By the way, did you see that little blackboard on the working space?



She bought beer! That's a good idea. But .... first I have to clean the blackboard.





Then I wrote



I hope that Katja will think that she wrote it.

She brought honey beer from the christmas market. I did not ever taste honey beer, Katja also didn't.



She asked me to open a bottle.



I hope she will allow me to  taste this honey beer.

Bye
SaruMaru

Cheers!



SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
we baked christmas cookies today! We made farmer's little hats (Bauernhuetchen).



You need
250 g flour
125 g sugar
150 g butter
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon sour cream

for the filling:
2 egg-white
80 g sugar
125 g ground almonds

coarse sugar for dredging



First we had to knead the ingredients to a smooth dough and put it into the fridge for an hour.



For the filling we had to stirr the egg-whites, add sugar and ground almonds.





We than took the dough out of the fridge and rolled it onto the working space. Now we had to cut out round cookies.



Katja helped us to put some of the filling onto our dough circles and to put them into the right shape.





We put the cookies onto a baking tray. They now had to be brushed with egg-white and dredged with coarse sugar. Than they were put into the oven for about 20 minutes.

When we took them out of the oven there was only one cookie that looked exactly like those in our book.



I'm afraid we put too much of the filling into the cookies. In the oven they lost their shape.



But that's  not so bad, they taste delicious anyway.

Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
we had fantastic weather today. We already had planned a trip to the most interesting touristic highlights of this region. We wanted to visit Muengsten Bridge and Schloss Burg, a medieval castle with a christmas market.

Here you can see the river Wupper which marks the border between the towns Remscheid and Solingen. In the background you can see a lookout pavillion. Later we came to another one similar to this one.



We reached Muengsten Bridge, the  highest railway bridge in Germany. It was completed in March 1897. It is 107 meters high and 465 meters long. It was built with about 5.000 tons of steel (5.000.000 kg). The bridge is overstretching the valley of the river Wupper. A few years ago a theme park was established. There are beautiful playgrounds for children, takeaways, lawns for relaxing, a miniature golf and souvenir shops. Katja told me that every year in summer a big festival is held underneath the bridge with fireworks.







We found a plate with some facts about Muengsten Bridge.



From here we walked to Schloss Burg. Along the path you can find artworks. On the surface of this table shaped rock  these impressions of hands are engraved. On other rocks poems are engraved or riddles. Most of them are not so easy to discover because they are partly covered with leafes and dirt from autumn and winter.



We had to cross the river Wupper here.

We walked along an old cemetary. It was built here in 1732. The tombstones were all made of a special sort of sandstone in a similar style.





From here we saw Schloss Burg for the first time, located on a hill.



We reached Solingen-Unterburg then. Here you can see many old houses, covered with schist or half-timbered houses.



Solingen-Unterburg is located at the river Wupper. Here you can see the chair lift which goes uphill to Schloss Burg. We were not lazy and walked there through the forrest.



We than reached the lookout pavilion. From here you have a good view across the valley with the river Wupper and Unterburg.



The ceiling of the pavilion is painted with the crests of the surrounding towns, the city arms of Remscheid among them.





We reached the castle then. It is the largest reconstructed castle in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and one of the most popular tourist attraction. Its early history is closely connected to the growth of the Duchy of Berg.

In the beginning of the 12th century (after 1133) count Adolf II von Berg built Schloss Burg on a mountain over the river Wupper.

In 1632 the castle was under siege  by Swedish soldiers. After the Thirty years war, in 1648, Imperial troops destroyed the fortifications of the castle including the keep, walls, and gates. In 1700, the main building was partially reconstructed and thereafter used for administrative purposes. 1849, the castle was sold to be scrapped, decayed, and became a ruin.

Today’s appearance is not exactly the original castle was. The reconstructed castle of today is a major public attraction. It also contains the Museum of the Bergische Land.



Katja and her friend tasted a punch made of fruit wine here. Of course nobody could keep me from tasting it although in Katja's opinion I had enough alcohol for at least six months now.







We went inside the castle courtyard to visit the medieval christmas market.





We had a coffee here.



On the market you could buy many handcrafted things like jewelry, leather bags, ceramic pots and figurines.

We had to rest here for a while.



We than had to walk back to the car for at least another hour. We reached the parking lot just in time before it was getting too dark outside.

We are all tired now.

Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
today we helped Katja to decorate the christmas tree. Yesterday her son went with his uncle to a farm where you can cut down your christmas tree. He found a really nice little spruce.





First we had to attach the christmas lights. It's not as easy as it seems.



Hanging up the christmas  tree ornaments was more fun.





I had to be careful because the ornaments are made of glass.

I like our christmas tree.





In Germany we are celebrating christmas eve. Katja invited her family. Her parents, her sister with her husband and her son and Katja's aunt will come.

I'm so exited!

Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
today we had to pick up two packages from two different post offices. We went to the post office in Katja's lunch break. Katja received a package with a beautiful carved wooded rat in it. It is a present from Thiele's host. She really loves the cute little rat.

Than we had to walk to another district to pick up another package. Nobody knows why the postman did not send it back to the post office in the town centre, but to one in a different district.

On our way I saw a little bit more of the town centre although we had foggy weather today.

This is a restaurant (Katja is arguing with me because I always see the beer signs first).



Here you can see the beginning of the pedestrian area. On the space behind me a farmer's market is located on Thuesdays and Fridays.



This is one of the churches in the town centre.



Parts of the municipality are located in this building, as well as  the adult education centre.



This is one of the grammar schools.



We than walked to the district Hasten where we had to pick up the second package. Here many old houses remained, as well tenements as factory buildings.







Katja's boss was celebrating his birthday. So we already had some glasses of sparkling wine when we went to the christmas market for the last time to drink one or two eggnocks.

Here you can see the illuminated town hall.



The average German drinks Gluehwein. (hot spiced wine), but Katja is allergic  to cinnamon which is always used to make Gluehwein, so she takes an eggnock (or two). Eggnock is made of hot white wine, egg yolk and sugar or sometimes with advocaat, It tastes really good

The second one tasted even better. I'm afraid we've had this before: too much alcohol on the christmas market. Katja had to keep me from ordering the third eggnogg. She said I would be sick tomorrow if I had another eggnock. I'm sure she knows what she is talking about.



Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
it's christmas eve today. Most people in Germany are celebrating christmas today and the following two days.

Here we were sitting with the christmas presents, watching over them.





In the afternoon we had coffee and self made cookies.



Later we were sitting next to the christmas tree. Katja put all the christmas cards onto the dresser.





For dinner we had a fantastic meal: Savoy cabbage with several sorts of fish and pasta. Katja's daughter had cooked the whole meal on her own. After that the ladies had some sparkling wine. Of course I tasted it - really delicious!



After dinner the presents were changed. What an exciting day!

Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
after having  too many sweets during the last days we decided to take a long walk today. Katja's daughter had to go to work, her son had planned to visit his Dad and Grandmother so nobody was missing her. The sun was shining although it was really cold.


We met Katja's friend Erika, she also likes to take walks through the forrests and surroundings of Remscheid. To meet Erika we had to walk to the district Hasten, one of the oldest districts of Remscheid. We walked through the muncipal park to get there. From here we already could see Hasten.



I have been here on Tuesday already but today the sun was shining and everything looked much better. This is the church of Hasten.



We than walked to Katja's friend to pick her up.





From here we left the streets and walked into a woodland area. You can see that it has been very cold today - the ground is covered with hoar frost.





Here you can also find grazing land and cropland.







Later we had a rest on a tree trunk.



This is also one of the outskirts. Only here you can see overhead lines, usually you have underground cables.





Hey. look! A beer truck! Früh Kölsch is brewed in Cologne where I visited a Christmas market. Unfortunately I did not had a chance to taste it there.



We walked for about three and a  half hour. We had a last rest when the sun already began to go down, catching the last sunrays.





Bye
SaruMaru

Hi Mummy,
today we met Katja's friend Erika again. The ladies had planned to go to Wuppertal by bus. Wuppertal is one of the neighbour towns of Remscheid. But when they reached Wuppertal they spontaneoulsy decided to go to Bochum by train. Erika wanted to visit an exhibition there. Before we went to the train station Katja showed us the concert hall which is a masterpiece of turn-of-the-century architecture.







From here you have a good overlook across the city centre.



We than went to Bochum by train. German trains are not so nice.

Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. It is about 45 km apart from Remscheid.

When we reached Bochum the ladies went to the museum first. It was not allowed to take photos there.

They visited an exhibition which is showing original stage settings which are used by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch company, based in Wuppertal in Germany. Pina Bausch is famous for extraordinary stage settings like a stage completely filled with free standing cloves or a stage filled with soil or lawn. Katja told us that for her the most impressing stage setting was a winterly birch forrest. The whole ground was covered with white sand and birch trunks, about 4 m long, were installed to the ground. You felt as if you were walking through a real forrest. All settings were decorated with photos of those pieces in which the settings were used.

Katja showed us a booklet with informations about the exhibition. It really seemed to be impressive.










Because our bus came when we left the museum we even could not take any photo of the museum!

We went back to the town centre to go shopping.

Here you can see the town hall with a gigantic bell in front of it.



This is one of the central places in the town centre.



We went back by train later. At the station we had to wait for a little while.