Travelog for: MiniMarshmallow

Hello  My name is Mini Marshmallow. This is me:

And this is me with two future ToyVoyagers - Noodle the Dog and Wilfred the Owl.

I live in Hertfordshire with my mum, dad, brother and sister. We live just north of London, where my mum grew up. We have lots of fun together but I'm very excited to be off travelling soon. My mum has always loved travelling and she wants me to experience lots of things in the world too.

I told Mum that the thing I want to do most is eat lots of marshmallows. She wasn't too impressed...  So she's helped me come up with 4 other life missions as well, which she thinks will help me grow as a person/marshmallow.

PS I need to figure out how to put photos in the right places in my travelog 

Well, I have just got back from my first family holiday! We went camping in Cornwall, in the south west of England.

This is me in the car just about to begin the long drive. I found the marshmallows but Mum said I wasn't allowed to eat them as they were for a yummy treat when we're there.




Here I am on the beach:



It was a lovely sunny day.  I did a bit of sunbathing and turned a fetching, slightly darker, shade of yellow.

Then the sun disappeared... We just managed to cook our bananas with Nutella chocolate spread and of course, mini marshmallows, before the rain came down and we had to run and hide in the car! It was rather delicious anyway though!



Another day we went to Land's End, which is the furthest westerly point on the mainland. It was soooo windy. I very nearly got blown away a few times, but Mum held on to me tightly.



That building in the distance is the first and last house in the country!

It was so much fun on holiday. I can't wait to start my world travels. Mum said I can go soon, but not just yet...

When we got back from holiday, we found that Krümelknirps from Germany had arrived! I was so excited to meet him. He's from Nuremberg, which is a place my mum has visited. I'm looking forward to Krümelknirps telling me all about it.

Here we are watching TV together:



I'm sure we'll have lots of fun.

Today we went to my grandad's birthday party. Lots of family were there. It was nice to see them as it's been a while.

It was such a hot day, we just ate cold meats and salad:



Very delicious!

No marshmallows though...

When we went to my grandad's birthday party today, we stopped off at the postbox.



This has been painted gold because a local person won a gold medal at the Olympics. There's another one in Enfield somewhere too.

This is me with my new friend Krümelknirps.

I'm very excited as Mum told me I'm allowed to start my world travels very soon. I have a host mum in Germany waiting for me, so I'm going to be off at the weekend. I can't wait!!

Oops, Mum wasn't very happy with me today. I was just walking up the wall and got stuck...



I had marshmallow on my feet! I should've eaten them more carefully and Mum would never have known I'd found them in the cupboard.

Anyway, Mum says I'm off to Germany on Saturday. I need to start packing...

Well, I'm off! Wow, I'm so excited to be going on my world travels. 

Here I am getting into the envelope.



I'm on my way to my host mum's in Germany. Mum is very excited for me as she loved it in Germany.

I hope I get to eat some marshmallows soon.

Hi Mummy,
I arrived at host's home today. Three ToyVoyagers, HolgiHH, MuhKuh, Emma Squirrel and my host Katja gave me a warm welcome.



I took a look out of the kitchen window - there is a small park just opposite of the house!



Now I'm going to explore the apartment.

Bye
MiniMarshmallow

Hi Mummy,

today we visited an arboretum in Wuppertal, the "Staatsforst Burgholz". An arboretum is a collection of trees, sort of a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study. We went to "Staatsforst Burgholz", a woodland area which is situated in both urban area of Wuppertal and also the urban area of Solingen, but only a small part of it.

When World War II was over, there were nearly all trees felled for rebuilding of destroyed city areas and also as firewood.

Searching for fast-growing forest species trees from foreign counties were planted than in this area to study their growth in local weather conditions. Plants from North America, South America, Asia and Europe were planted.

There are several walking paths through the arboretum, of course we chose the longest of them, about 6 km long, displaying a variety of trees from Europe, America and Asia. At the parking lot we found a map of the arboretum area.



We decided to walk along a path showing trees of Northern America.





In the background, along the slope different kinds of conifers were planted.



This is the sign we had to follow.



You can find informations about the foreign trees.



The path was covered with clover.



Yellow flowers ...





Our path is meandering through the forest. Look how good "Chief" Emma Squirrel was looking!



Finally we saw sequoia trees.





This was a very interesting trip.

Bye
MiniMarshmallow

Hi Mummy,
after attending a birthday party and eating far too much we felt an urge to take a walk in the late afternoon. First we went to the municipal park, only a few minutes to get there. On our way there we came along those nice dwellings.



This is the police headquarter with a little park in front of it.





We went to the municipal park than. In the entrance area you can find the observatory.





We enjoyed the lovely weather.





We left the park to reach the historical district Hasten. Here many lovely old houses remained after large parts of the city centre of Remscheid were destroyed in WW II.



There are calm streets to live in .



I like those traditional houses with their green shutters.



This Patrician villa was built in the late 1790 years. Nowadays a museum is situated in the building.



The German Tool Museum (Deutsches Werkzeugmuseum) is also situated on this estate. Here you can see some of severeal outdoor facilities.









This looks like some kind of weird instrument of torture





Another calm residental area ...





From here we had a good overlook to the green surroundings of Remscheid.



Remscheid is an old industrial city. You can often find industrial complexes - often historical ones - among dwellings. This is a famous producer of car seats.



We decided to take a longer way home, through another park.



My current home is in the house just beyond the park.



It's really nice to look into the trees flooded with sunlight (or rain ).

Bye
MiniMarshmallow

P.S. Until today my host did not make any effort to buy marshmallows for me. She seems to be a person with more healthy food preferences. What a pity!

Hi Mummy,
we took a short walk in the late afternoon in the surrounding forests, most of them are nature protection areas.



Summer is over now, have a look at the fruits of a plane tree.



The path was following a railway track for some time.





Once more we walked through a housing area with those lovely houses.



We had to hurry home than, it started to rain again.

Bye
MiniMarshmallow

Hi Mummy,
today I had a look at Katja's larder.  As if there was only healthy food



Peanut butter, more peanut butter, chocolate, honey, cans ... and ...

marshmallows!



Katja's dauther was here on a visit, she helped me to make the perfect BBQ marshmallows.



Than she even had a better idea: We made marshmallow-banana-shashlik with chocolate!





YUMMY!



Love
MiniMarshmallow

Hi Mummy,
we are having lovely weather today - a good opportunity to take a walk in the surroundings of Remscheid.

There is a lot of green around, several outskirts are hidden there.



Turkeys ... they will probably end as a thanksgiving dinner! Not so at my host's home - she is a veggie



The sheep did not recognize us at all.



We found the remains of a villa hidden in the forest. The house is no longere there, but those stairs.



We walked through a rural area than.





We enjoyed the sunshine



Back in the valley we found some old mill ponds.



This is the creek the valley was named after - Morsbach.



From here we had to walk uphill for some time to get back home. Why does my host  has to live on top of this hill?

Bye
MiniMarshmallow

Hi Mummy,
today there is a national holiday in Germany - it's German reunification day! This means my host does not have to work, but to take a walk with the TVs instead We went to the neighbour city Solingen to take a walk in the outskirts.

First we walked through a forest for some time.





We reached a more rural district than.









A lovely medieval castle came into sight than.



Although it seemed to be rather close to us my host told me that we'd had to walk some minutes to get there. Time for a rest



Than we reached the castle. Katja told us that it was originally built in 12th century by one of the former reigns of this county. We took a look at the courtyard with many shops.


Here you can buy wine and several spirits. One of them is called "Hexenschuss" -  German colloquial  speech for low back pain.



This memorial is showing Adolf IV, count of Berg who originally built this castle in early 12th century. In the following centuries it was enlarged, destroyed an rebuilt until nowaday'Äs appearance.





You have a stunning view to the surrounding valleys and forests.





I bought a post for you, Mummy. I'm going to send it next week.

Love
MiniMarshmallow

Hi Mummy,
today I helped Katja to make pancakes. The receipe is

6 eggs
200 ml milk or milk with water
200 g wheat flour
salt

Mix everything and let it rest for about 15 minutes. Than preheat a pan with oil and make delicious pancakes.





Help! There are furry little aliens running around, trying to pinch my feet!



Hell! What was that??? Ferrets!



Katja told me that she liked her pancakes filled with tomatoes and cheese. What would I like?  I had an idea ....

MARSHMALLOWS!

I took strawberry jam and a few marshmallows ...





While I was waiting for my pancake I saw that the pile went higher and higher.



Ready!



Bon appetit!



Bye
MiniMarshmallow