Wörlitz, Germany - 23rd June 2013
By: MA_17
Hello Mommy,
today I visited the park of Wörlitz, which is a part of the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm.
While my host was taking part on a bike tour we Toyvoyagers decided to visit the park.
The central Wörlitzer Park lies adjacent to the small town of Wörlitz at an anabranch of the Elbe river. It was laid out between 1769 and 1773 as one of the first English gardens on the continent. According to the ideals of Duke Leopold III the park would also serve as an educational institution in architecture, gardening and agriculture, therefore large parts were open to the public from the beginning. Most buildings were designed by Erdmannsdorff, while the gardens were laid out by Johann Friedrich Eyserbeck. The gardens are protected from floods of the Elbe river in the north by a dam which is also a belt-walk offering numerous views along the park's sight lines.
Wörlitz Palace finished in 1773, residence of Duke Leopold and his wife Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt, was the first Neoclassical building in present-day Germany. The palace and its interior with valuable cabinets from the studio of Abraham and David Roentgen as well as a large collection of Wedgwood porcelain were publicly accessible. Louise had her private home in the adjacent Graues Haus (Grey House). At the eastern rim of the palace's garden stands the Wörlitz Synagogue built in 1790 as a rotunda modelled after the ancient "Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. The Neo-Gothic St Peter's Church in the west with its 66 m (217 ft) tall steeple was finished in 1809.
The philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the aesthetic of Johann Joachim Winckelmann underlie the design of the park. Wörlitz Lake featured an island atop which was a model of Mount Vesuvius. The duke would stage fireworks that seemed to issue from an erupting volcano to entertain his guests. At the foot of the mountain on the island was a building intended to suggest William Hamilton's home at Pompeii.
Few years ago my host worked as a tour guide in the castle and the park.
This is the most famous building, the palace.
We walked along the beautiful lake...
We found old stones.
This is the church. You can already see it when you're still 10km away from the city!
There are lots of flowers, trees, stones...
This stone is a volcano and it is called "Vesuv" like the famous one in Itlay!
It was a really nice day.
Tsukumo
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Posted Jul 3, 2013, 10:13 pm
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host's mom's home, Germany - 10th July 2013
By: MA_17
Hello Mommy,
today the bell rang. We opened the door and welcomed 2 new toyvoyagers called Nathalie and Big foot.
We all cuddled them.
Then both showed us their souvenirs.
Yours
Tsukumo
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Posted Jul 17, 2013, 8:56 pm
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host's mom's home, Germany - 11th July 2013
By: MA_17
Today I left the others.
See ya soon.
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Posted Jul 20, 2013, 10:02 pm Last edited Aug 21, 2013, 10:52 am by MA_17
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Bruchsal, Germany - 13th July 2013
By: fam-united
Today I arrived at my new host's place. They are really busy here it seems. Will we do something special in the afternoon?
I will tell you more later.
Bye, Tsukumo
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Posted Aug 24, 2013, 5:29 pm
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Ulm, Germany - 3rd August 2013
By: fam-united
Today we drove to Ulm. Ulm is a city in Baden-Württemberg, located at the border of Swabian Jura to Bavaria and was founded around 850, but the oldest traceable settlement of the Ulm area began in the early Neolithic period, around 5000 BC. . Ulm lies at the point where the rivers Blau and Iller join the Danube.
Internationally, Ulm is primarily known for having the church with the tallest steeple in the world, the Gothic minster (Ulm Minster, German: Ulmer Münster) and as the birthplace of Albert Einstein.
The Minster is a Lutheran church. Although sometimes referred to as Ulm Cathedral because of its great size, the church is not a cathedral as it has never been the seat of a bishop.
It is the tallest church in the world, and the 4th tallest structure built before the 20th century, with a steeple measuring 161.5 metres (530 ft) and containing 768 steps. From the top level at 143 m (469 ft) there is a panoramic view of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg and Neu-Ulm in Bavaria and, in clear weather, a vista of the Alps from Säntis to the Zugspitze. The final stairwell to the top (known as the third Gallery) is a tall, spiraling staircase that has barely enough room for one person.
We had a wonderful view around, but the weather was not as nice as we would have liked it. It even started to drop. (wikipedia)
Here you see the river Danube. The houses in my back belong to the so called Fischerviertel (fishermen's quarter), where we will go later. The houses on the other side of the river belong to the Bavarian city Neu-Ulm.
The Rathaus (Town Hall), built in 1370, featuring some brilliantly-coloured murals dating from the mid-16th century. On the gable is an astronomical clock dating from 1520. Restored after serious damage in 1944.
I've seen this nice fountain next to the town hall.
There are many nice houses. I tried to find more information about this house without success.
In the Fischerviertel you find a house named "Schiefes Haus" (crooked house), a 16th-century house today used as a hotel. It is really crooked.
The river Blau (first photo) flows through Fischerviertel into river Danube (second photo).
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Posted Aug 25, 2013, 12:12 pm
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Blaubeuren, Germany - 4th August 2013
By: fam-united
Today we drove to Blaubeuren. Blaubeuren has about 12 000 inhabitants. At first we visited the Blaubeuren Abbey, which was a house of the Benedictine Order. The monastery was founded in 1085.
I love the halbtimbered houses.
I'm sorry, but there was only a bit of battery left in my host's camera, so we had to safe it for the next place and couldn't take a photo inside the abbey.
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Posted Aug 25, 2013, 2:20 pm
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Blautopf in Blaubeuren, Germany - 4th August 2013
By: fam-united
The Blautopf (German for Blue Pot; "blau" means blue, "topf" means pot) is a spring that serves as the source of the river Blau in the karst landscape on the Swabian Jura's southern edge.
Numerous legends and folk tales refer to the Blautopf. Its characteristic colour was explained by the account that every day someone would pour a vat of ink into the Blautopf. Another myth stated that every time someone tried to measure the Blautopf's depth with a leaden sounding line, a water nix stole the sounding line. Therefore, it was not possible to determine the depth of the Blautopf.
The entry to the Blauhöhle lies at a depth of about 18 metres (approximately 60 ft). Therefore, access is restricted to experienced and well-trained divers. The size of the Blautopf depends greatly on the level of rainfall, though it never entirely dries out. The Blautopf is the second largest spring in Germany, after the Aachtopf.
he water's blue color is the result of chemical properties of limestone densely distributed in the water.
We only could take one "bunch" photo due to the battery problem and because it started to rain.
Near the Blautopf is a hammermill fed by the water of the spring.
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Posted Aug 25, 2013, 2:50 pm
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Bruchsal, Germany - 8th September 2013
By: fam-united
Two days later the weather was nice again and so we decided to see some more places of Bruchsal.
Here is the Bürgerpark (citizens' park)
and a view to the community centre of Bruchsal. Next to this building you see the tower of the ancient castle. The tower is the only remaining part of this building.
This is a street with some of the most beautiful old houses.
Finally we came to the baroque palace. This is the tower of the church. On the left is the parish hall and the right building is a passageway, which leads to the church, which you see in the second picture.
The Palace of the Speyer prince-bishops with more than 50 individual buildings. Built from 1722 under cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, completed ca. 1760 by his successor, Cardinal Franz Christoph von Hutten. Amalienbrunnen (a fountain), designed in 1912 by Prof. Dr. Fritz Hirsch, is dedicated to Margravine Amalie von Baden (1754-1832), who after secularisation made the palace one of her domiciles when widowed.
The palace was badly damaged during World War II. They rebuilt it and reopened it in 1975. They didn't rebuilt the inside of the church, though, and many people are disappointed, when they visit the baroque palace and want to see a baroque church too, but the costs would have been too high to built it the way it was.
The left building is the main building of the palace. In the right part - opposite the church - is the chamber music hall.
This is the backside of the church with church tower. We are on our way to the palace garden. Maybe you see the tops of the tents. There was no way to walk through the park as my hosts usually do.
Do you see the sun dial?
We walked through another gate to the frontside again.
Did I tell you, that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his father visited Bruchsal twice?
We walked through the gate called Damianstor and left the palace area, which is a rather large area, I think. In the gate building you can visit art exhibitions.
If you search for a place to eat a special meal, you can go to the restaurant Bären. It is rather expensive but if you look for something special it is really worth to go there.
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Posted Nov 23, 2013, 6:22 pm
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Bruchsal, Germany - 8th September 2013
By: fam-united
Close to the palace area you pass by the prison of Bruchsal. It is a really interesting building at least from the outside.
We went to the hospital. This is the oldest building of the hospital.
Inside this building is a little chapel. It is very dark there, so it wasn't easy to take a nice photo with me.
This is the parking place behind the hospital. From here you can see the backside of the building we were inside and another building, which belongs to the hospital.
From the same place you can see the prison again.
Here we are in the so called Stadtgarten, another park.
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.
From the top of Andreasstaffel, which leads up from Huttenstraße, you have a nice view over the roofs of Bruchsal.
Here you see the roofs of houses, which belong to Huttenstraße, the tower of the ancient keep, the tower of the city church.
The roofs in front of me belong to the older peoples' houses. In the far you can see the church St. Peter.
Here you still can see the older peoples' houses and in the far you can see a grey building, which is next to the older people's houses. This grey building is a private catholic grammar school called St. Paulusheim.
At the edge of the Stadtgarden you still can find some beautiful old houses.
This is the catholic grammar school St. Paulusheim.
The Klosterstraße is a street with old houses, too.
Here we are in Engelsgasse, which led us back to the church St. Peter.
In a small wall you still can see some very old crosses.
The stairs leads to the graveyard.
The Institute Sancta Maria was opened in 1908. Nowadays there still live some nuns and there is also a school for social pedagogy.
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Posted Nov 24, 2013, 11:05 am
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