Travelog for: Madam Miff

Hi there!

My name is Madam Miff von Teacup.

Today Mommy told me I could go on a great adventure! Now I´m a real ToyVoyager! I´m so proud!

Look, I show you my home and my friends. Also mommy took photos with me and my desire, sitting in a cup. 

Tomorrow we will go outside to take photos, mommy promised. So I can show you my hometown. 

So far, Miff

Hi!

Today we went outside and visited our neighbourhood. I saw the village church and the old house where they bake bread and cake in an old oven.

Then we went to a food product market. After that we went back and we needed to hurry because bad, bad weather was coming.

So now we´re at home again and I´m eating the stuff we just bought. 

See you tomorrow,
Miff

Hi again!

The weather turned very much better, so mommy and I took a walk through a little forrest and fields.




Do you see me? I climbed on a tree on my own! 



Some daisies.

That was a very nice walk.

Take care,
Miff

Hi!

Today mommy and I tasted Bubble Tea. The bubbles were funny.  I think once in a while you can have one. 





After that we worked off these calories on the trampoline. That was great fun! 



See you,
Miff

Hi!

Today mommy showed me "Geocaching". That was much fun!



This thing we needed to know where the cache is.


This is a prison for young convicts. I was a little scared. 

After a while we came to this very nice protected lansdcape.




Now I´m going to bed, because that was an exciting day!

Good night,
Miff

Hi there!

Today mommy needed to work a lot so I had time to sleep late!
Tigger did the same. 



After that we played "Das verrückte Labyrinth" with our friend MuhKuh.



I will go on a RR soon. But I´m still waiting for my e-mail. So I checked my mailbox a lot of times today. But: nothing! 



I´m really excited. Hope it will start soon.

So far,
Miff

Hi!

Now it´s time! I´m on my way to Jan4ik today! 

I´m so excited!

Here mommy will leave my.



This is my ID-Card.



I really will miss my mommy and my friends. Especially my dear friend Tigger.



Now I´m in the envelope and on my way!



Byebye, mommy

and hello Jan4ik!

Take care,
Miff

Hi there!

Today I was starting my next adventure.

Sadly, on my first I got lost. I was so scared and mommy told me after that, she  was scared too. But in the end I came home again. I´m so happy!

But as I sad, today I started again. I will travel to fam_united and I really hope, this time I really will arrive!

So Mister Spike (he will travel to the USA the next days!) and I climbed on the cat tree and enjoyed the look.



This puzzle mommy has to do on her own now. I´m curious if she will make it till I´m back. I don´t think so. 



At last Mister Spike and I needed to say Goobye.





So, I hope to see you soon!
Take care!

Hi Mum,

I arrived in Bruchsal just in time to start the Christmas time together with my host family. I'm really happy to share this time of year with many other toyvoyagers.

Take care, Miffy

Today we watched the snow falling to the ground. If it will stay there for a while?

In the evening we heard some loud noise outside. We saw it was a firework in a park and tried to take photos of it with us. It was quite difficult, so the photos are rather blurry. You can see the curtain in the door of my host's room.

Our host was way too busy during the last weeks. And we sat there and waited for things to happen. Today finally she decided, that Christmas without Christmas cookies isn't Christmas. So she sorted our the recipes of the cookies, she wanted to bake. At first we baked the Zigeunerschnitten, a sort of gingerbread. It is my host's favourite.

It is Sunday, the fourth of advent. So nobody did think, that the doorbell would ring and the postman would come and bring a package. But suddenly we heard a bell ringing and when we went to the door we found a big package in the hands of the postman. Of course we were very excited, especially because it was the day before Holy Eve. So we all sat around the package and waited until Kari and Robby had opened it.




What a big surprise for us! There were so many new toyvoyagers guests in the package: Michel, nosyblue, Bobi, Hippy and Queenie and Robbi. So the house got crowded








We told them to walk out of the package, so we could introduce each other and exchange adventures. We had a nice chat.

Our hosts received a present: An Anastatica. Anastatica is found in arid areas in the Middle East and Sahara Desert, including parts of North Africa and regions of Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, and Pakistan .

After the rainy season, the plant dries up, dropping leaves and curling branches into a tight ball, and "hibernates". Within the ball, the fruits remain attached and closed, protecting the seeds and preventing them from being dispersed prematurely. The seeds are very hardy and can remain dormant for years. Wetted again in a later rainy season, the ball uncurls and the plant wakes up from its dormant state, which causes the capsular fruits open (dehisce) to disperse the seeds.




Then we finished some other cookies called Staenglein. They are very yummy.




On Holy Eve we had the family's traditional dinner: chicken fricassee in pasty with lamb's lettuce.




Later we sat around the plate with cookies and sang Christmas carols under the Christmas tree.
sorry, it was so dark, so the photos aren't that good and somehow the flashlight didn't work.

It's the last day of the year and it's not raining. So we decided to go out on a sightseeing tour in Bruchsal.

At first we walked through the so called Bürgerpark, citizens' park. It was created in end of 1980something. There are two memorials of National Socialism victims and a third memorial as sign for understanding between different people of the world.




Here you see the medieval tower and a part of the community centre. The tower was built in 1358 and is the oldest building of Bruchsal. It belonged to the old castle.




Bruchsal has about 42 000 inhabitants, if you also count those in the five suburbs, which are Heidelsheim, Helmsheim, Untergrombach, Obergrombach and Büchenau. It was first mentioned in 796 A.D., but there had been an older settlement. 80 % of Bruchsal had been destroyed during World War II. on 1rst of March 1945. So you hardly find really old places.

Schloss Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful Baroque palaces in Germany and the only episcopal Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. The foundation stone was laid in 1722 by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Speyer, who made the palace the centre of his absolutist dominion.
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. 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".

We're now standing in front of one of the three entrances to the palace church called St. Damian and Hugo. From here you can see the county court, the Damian Gate and the tower of the jailhouse. The building on the left side,m which of course is the right part of the building,  houses the chamber music hall.




Inside the church you can see these plates, which show the palace during the years. In the top photo you can see, how it looked like after World War II. In the last photo we were standing just in the corner, which you see in the middle of this top photo, between main building and church.




The church wasn't rebuilt in baroque style. It is really modern. Somehow that's sad, but the costs were just too high. Here we are at the backside of the church. You see, that the tower isn't directly next to the church.




This is the backside of the palace. In summer there are weeks, when they play open air theatre and in winter there is a second Christmas market since a few years.




Next to the main way through the palace garden you find a lot of statues. At one crossing you see in each corner one statue of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. Here you see the statue earth.




The statues in the next crossing's corners show the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn. Here you see winter.






At one small gate you come to this street with really old houses.




Here you see the mainbuilding of the palace.




Just turning around on our heels we saw the county court building and the Amalie fountain.






The Amalienbrunnen is called Schnecklesbrunnen ( in Bruchsal dialect), which means snail fountain.




This is the gate called Damianstor. It is the entrance to the palace area. In the Damian Gate you can visit art exhibitions.




We walked to the Stadtgarten, another park. This fountain is called Ferdinand Keller Brunnen. Behind the fountain you can see a part of a grammer school called Schönborn-Gymnasium.




The Belvedere on the edge of the "Stadtgarten" was built by Leonhard Stahl in 1756 as a hunting lodge for Prince Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten. The location was chosen so that the lodge would command an unspoiled view of the palace, town and Rhine rift valley beyond.

Especially worthy of note are the two towers, each of which has a viewing platform topped with a Chinese-style baldachin – an example of the fashion for chinoiserie prevalent at that time. Today, the Belvedere is used as a venue for concerts and theatre productions.




At top of the Andreasstaffel, high stairs, you have a great view over Bruchsal. The houses below belong to the oldest part of Bruchsal. You also can see the tower of the ancient castle and of two churches (from left). The houses, which are in one line right in front of us, belong to the Huttenstraße.








Here you see the baroque church St. Peter in the far. If you take a look right to the edge to the wood, you can see a big house. This house is called Sancta Maria. It is a school for social education and it is still home for Franciscan nuns.




The buildings right in front of us and the white building in the far on the left side are all part of the old people's home. The big grey building behind the white is another grammer school called St. Paulusheim.




We also walked a bit down the Andreasstaffel and had a few to the top from there. You see that small house. It is called Wingerthäusle. Maybe you can read about it in the next photo, it might be a bit small.






We saw a beautiful house next to the Stadtgarten. If you plan to stay in Bruchsal for a holiday, you can rent this house for a while. It belongs to a hotel and restaurant.




Finally we walked back home again. We came to the baroque church St. Peter, which is only a few hundred feet from our host's place. THe church is still baroque inside. It is located at the edge to the graveyard.[img]null[/img]