Travelog for: Matcha

Hyvää Kekriä, äiti! 

Kekri is the traditional finnish celebration of the last day of October.
It is related to the celtic samhain and more modern Halloween.

The Kekri was the end of the work-year, when all the harvest was done, the animals were slaughtered, the berries and mushrooms were
collected, and the larders were full.
So there was more food than any other time of the year, and a good
reason to celebrate. 



We went for a trip into the Porkkala area,
and on our way there Henna told us that the harvest celebration was just half of the Kekri.
The Kekri was also the last possibility to celebrate for a long time,
since the whole month of November is a month of the dead.
Even the finnish name for November (Marraskuu) means "The month of death".



Tuli told me that during the whole November the dead people are on the move, visiting their old homes and
keeping an eye on their descendants.
They were served food and the sauna was heated fro them throughout
the whole month, and the living people had to behave in a very
subdued manner and keep up their best behavior and manners.

So, in Kekri people were drinking and dancing and uhm, doing certain
fertility rites. 



I must say after hearing all that talk about
spirits moving upon earth made me feel a bit creepy.
I was watching behind my back more than usually, but didn´t see
anything. 



It was a beautiful, lightly misty day,
and the sea looked beautifully grey.



We made up a fire and heated some glögi
over it. 
That is a warm drink the finns like to have in winter.
It is a bit similar than the german glüchwine. 



It tasted good and felt great! 






Then we walked round the forest collecting herbs
for a magical potion. 



While collecting, we hummed a secret
toyvoyager chant we have to chant when collecting herbs for
Kekri potion.
I´m sorry I can´t tell you more, it´s a toyvoyager thing! 



When we were loaded with various herbs,
we sat in front of the fire warming our paws.



On our way home we stopped on the yard
of a desolated house and climbed onto its attic, because we still
needed some ingredients, like spiderweb.
We felt all a bit nervous in the attick, it was like we had heard
odd whispering sounds and felt sudden gusts of cold air,
but we didn´t see anything.
Well, it was just an old house, full of rejected stuff. 



Like some old paintings leaning against the walls with broken frames..



At one point I felt like something touching
my head!
But I couldn´t see anyone! 



I asked the others if they also felt we weren´t
there alone, and they answered that hell yes, we´re in a big bunch
of toyvoyagers and no one can feel like being alone in one! 



At last we had all the nessessary ingeredients!

"Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble!
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravined salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digged i' th' dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat and slips of yew
Slivered in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-delivered by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron!" 

Well, our ingredients weren´t quite that horrible! 



Then we carved some oranges and one
turnip to make lanterns, and when the evening came we lit
candles in them. 



And then we went inside to celebrate the
Kekri!



We ate and sung and drink our magical
potion, and that made us dance so that we couldn´t stop
the whole night! 
So we sung and danced and drank some more!


Here you can see us dancing

See you soon again!
Hug from Matcha! 

Tere hommikust, kallis ema! 
(That is estonian and means "Good morning, dear mother"
Estonian language has to do with my todays update. 



One morning Henna kidnapped us into her backbag
so early, that we didn´t even wake up.
We were dozing of peacefully until Henna woke us up.
"Hi you lazy little brats! Open your eyes and check were we are!"

So I put my head out from the backbag - it was still dark outside and my eyes weren´t properly open,
but I could see we were entering one of the Viking Line boats! 
(It is the red one in the pic).
"Hey! What´s up?" I shouted and then everybody else came to
take
a peep out too, and then we were all shouting at the same time, and Henna could hardly explain that she needed to visit the
uni library in Tallinn, which is the capitol city of Estonia, and that
meanwhile we could stroll in the citys Old Town part.
Great! 



Inside the boat we walked along many narrow
corridors and looked for our own little cabin, where we could rest or watch television if we happened to feel like it. 



Hah! No one of us wanted to sit in the cabin
watching television, but can you imagine, that´s just what Henna did! 

After watching a really boring political document for some time she
fell into sleep on the couch and started to snore.
Who is the lazy brat here, I just ask!? 



We sat on the small window and watched the morning turning from dark to grey and rainy, and listened to Hennas
snoring for some time. Although it was entertaining (she makes funny noices)
we soon wanted to see wider horizons and went out onto the deck. 



Here I´m somewhere in middle of the Finnish Gulf of
the Baltic Sea.
The distance between Tallin and Helsinki is only eighty kilometers,
and the crossing over took us two and half hours.

We wandered along the corridors and scared people by running between their
feet and such, and let Henna to sleep until we were in the Tallinn
harbour. (She claimed she never slept, just rested her eyes, hah!) 



The first thing we saw of the medieval Tallinn was this cannon tower called Paks Margareeta (Fat Margaret).
It is one of the many towers in the town wall, which surrounds
the Old Town. 



On its one side is the Great Sea Gate, trough
which we entered the Old Town. 




Tallinn Old Town became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site  in 1997,
and is often referred to as the “medieval pearl of Europe”.
Unlike other capital cities in Europe, Tallinn has managed to preserve the completeness and structure of it’s medieval and Hanseatic origin.
Most of the cobblestone streets and properties, important state and church buildings, citizens’ and merchant’s  residences, barns and warehouses dating back as far as to 11th century, are preserved in their original form. 



We walked past Oleviste Church.
On 15th and 16th century, the church with it’s 159m high tower was the highest building in the world! Ha ha! 



We saw a very interesting car! 
The was plake announcing it to be "a moving art gallery", and so
it looked like too! 



Here I am in Raekoja plats.
The big building behind me is the Raekoja, Town Hall.

There has been a town hall in Tallinn since at least 1322 and a town square next to it ever since then.
The hall was rebuilt from 1402 to 1404 into its current form, and a Christmas tree display has been held in the square since 1441, making the Tallinn Christmas tree display over 570 years old. 



Then we saw another church called
Pühavaimu kirik (The Church of the Holy Ghost).
Building of the church probably started sometime during the first half of the 13th century, and the church is mentioned in written sources for the first time in 1319. 




This is the beautiful door of the guild house of
The Brotherhood of Blackheads.
It was an association of local unmarried merchants, ship owners, and foreigners in the medieval times.
The brotherhood traces its origin to a group of foreign merchants who, according to the legend, had participated in the defense of Reval (present-day Tallinn) during the St. George's Night Uprising between 1343 and 1345 when the indigenous population of Estonia unsuccessfully tried to exterminate all foreigners and eradicate Christianity from Estonia.




We saw still one church, Jaani kirik.
(Lots of churches in Tallinn!) 



Then we came back to the Town Square from
another direction and saw the famous restaurant Olde Hansa,
which serves medieval food.
It looked very inviting, but sadly had to leave allready back towards the harbour,
because we our boat back to Helsinki was leaving soon and we still
had to Henna out from the library, where she was buried under papers. 


See you soon again, mom, and again in a different part of Europe! 
Your travelling frog Matcha 

Bom dia, querida mãe! Beijinhos de Portugal! 
(Good day, dear mom, greetings from Portugal!)
As you can see, I´m learning a lot of European languages these days! 



After coming back from Tallinn, Henna kidnapped us again,
and soon we found ourselves in the Helsinki airport! 



To be honest, I think it was time to leave
Nuuksio behind us.. it was already beginning to be too cold for frogs!


We waited in the airport about two hours for our flight.



I met there Muumipeikko (Moomin) and Nuuskamuikkunen (Snufkin) in front of a shop! 



The flight to Lisbon took five hours, and first
we were running under peoples seats and binding their shoelaces
together and such, but then we started to feel a bit sleepy. 



I fell asleep watching the clouds.. 



It was already late evening when we arrived to Lisbon.
We had a supper of castanhas assadas (roasted chestnuts). 



And juicy slices of mango! Njam njam!
This country seems promising to me! 



Can you imagine - next morning we were
travelling again! 
We took a bus towards south, a small town called Pias in the area
of Alentejo, where Hennas portuguese friends parents have a house.



It was about 200 kilometers distance, and
I was mainly admiring the views along the road.
We passed many olive groves. 



Here is the house in which we spent some days.
It is a very typical portuguese country house - they´re all chalked
white, and usually they have only one floor.
There has always been a lack of wood to build, so the houses have
been growing sideways, not upwards. 



There is traditionally no heating in the house, except
the big fireplace in the kitchen.
Nowadays there´s of course also electronical heaters in the bedrooms,
but in the old times everyone packed to sleep in the kitchen in cold
winter nights.




There was a fantastic bougeanvillea growing
on one side of the house. 



We went to investigate everything in the yard.There was all sort of fruit trees, and Henna told us to pick some
to eat later. 
We picked some tangerines and made the day of a granny in the
neighbouring yard, when she saw us up in the tree. 






See how much tangerines!
Can you even imagine how many kilos we were eat.. uhm, picking? 



These are marmelos (quinces).
Originally the word "marmelade" meant only jam made of these
fruit, told Hennas friend. 
They were ripe, so picked some of them too. 



The lemons were still green, and we left them
to ripen more. 



The passion fruit trees were hanging their branches low
with the weight of the fruit, and we decided to lighten their burden
a bit!  (You can see we had altruistic motives!)






Here we are transporting our loot to the shade
of the wall. 



Uh huh! This is a well-earned moment of rest! 



Then we started to pick olives! 



Our paws (and everything else) was soon colored dark purple with the juice from the ripe olives.



Here is what I picked. 



Then we spent some juicy times amongst oranges. 



Here I´m investigating if there´s any figs in the fig tree. Sadly, there wasn´t.



After all the hard work (and eating) it was time
for a little siesta. 






And time for playing too! 



Then we ate MORE fruit. 






In the evening we tried to diwe into the night life
of the town, but there wasn´t any. 



So we made our own night life by watching
the moon. 



Then we lit a fire into the big fireplace and
sat late in front of it talking. 

See you soon again, mom!
Next time I´ll tell you about our day in a small town called Serpa.
Kisses from Matcha and greetings from Henna!

Bom dia de novo, querida mãe! 
(Good day again, dear mother!)

I hope you´re well.
I´m soon ready to leave towards Germany, but I still have to write couple of updates from here before I go. 



On our way away from the little town of Pias
we stopped in another small town called Serpa for couple of hours
to switch from bus to bus.
We used the two hours by walking around. 



We encountered the similar narrow streets
enclosed by rows of houses chalked white, and little grannies
peeping trough the curtains everything that moves along the streets. 
Those grannies don´t miss anything!
In some places the police has enrolled them to do cooperation. 
Really, I´m not fooling.



I could really feel the eyes on my back.
These towns are so small and so much aside from the main highways, that there is
not many outsiders visiting them, and the inhabitants all know each others faces.
So a bunch of turists is a real sight for the locals - not to speak of a bunch of toyvoyagers. 






We walked trough a beautiful little park with palm trees. 



On its other side we saw three olive trees, which
are believed to be about thousand years old. 
Just imagine it! Living beings who have been wittnessing
birth of cities, many earthquakes and medieval plagues, and still
they´re carrying fruit every winter!






Look, mom! So many olives from a thousand year old tree! 



Then we continued our walk between the rows of houses.
They are so white, that on a sunny weather they can even blind you momentarily!

We saw the ruins of a castle looming ahead and went nearer to see it.



The town of Serpa existed already before the Roman occupation
of Portugal - its beginning is in the calcolithic periods urbanization.
The romans inhabited the town, and so did the moors in the 12th century.

The castle was built round the town by the portuguese kings in the 13th century. 



The name of the town - Serpa - means either a snake or a dragon, and we could see the pic of a dragon in the emblem of the town over the
castle gate, but it is too small for you to see it in the pic. 



We walked forward along many more narrow alleys and got lost. 



But getting lost is one of the best things in travelling, don´t you agree? 
By getting lost we see so many things we wouldn´t see otherwise.






Getting lost we found accidentally this beautiful church,
Igreja de Santa Maria de Serpa. 
It was built in the 15th century over a mosque built by the moors come centuries before. 



We admired the impressive road to the museum of Serpa,
between a gate foremd by two huge stones, but we didn´t have time to go in,
we had to go back to the bus station.



So we run again trough the little alleys and the stares of the
grannies..



We got to the station in time, and mingled with the locals. 

See you very soon again, dear mom!
Your Matcha 

Boa tarde, mamã amada!
É o Matcha que está a escrever. 
(Good afternoon, dear mom!
It is Matcha who is writing.)



We made a trip into the region of Évora to help
Henna in her task of collecting material for her masters thesis she
is writing about the megalithic culture in neolithic Portugal. 

We stayed in a small hostel in Évora town and drowe around in
a hired car in search for the megaliths and other stone heaps Henna has a passion for. 

In this photo I´m standing on Alto do São Bento watching over the
town of Évora. 



Why we came here, on this high ground is because
here is the beginning of the city of Évora, about five thousand years ago.
Here was a big well defended village which grew into the town
which then became the nowadays Évora.
Now there is only old windmills and couple of small farms and the
town of Évora has moved couple of kilometers away. 



There is thousands of dolmens in Portugal,
and the Évora region is one of the densest concentrations of them.

Dolmens are here called "anta", and they were built 7000 - 5000 years ago. 

This is the first anta we visited, Anta Grande de Comenda da Igreja.



The dolmens were used as collective graves
for the neolithic societies, but actually they were much more.
Antas were built to serve as wombs of the Mother Earth.
Dead people were buried into them so that they could later reborn
back upon earth.. 



This is a bigger anta we went to see.
Actually it is the biggest anta in Iberia - Anta Grande do Zambujeiro.

Anta Grande do Zambujeiro was declared a national monument by the Portuguese government in the 1971.
It is composed of 8 mauled granite stones, all 6-8m in height (above ground), with the largest at the rear almost 4m wide.
The whole structure has been originally covered by a huge mound. 




It is hard to understand how people were able to
build something like this without any modern day machinery!



To see these monuments we had to driwe
along really small lanes and paths in the deep countryside, and
our small hired Smart -car wasn´t the best vehicle for those routes,
but we saw very beautiful landscapes.
Most of the monuments were situated in midst of cork oaks. 



The evenings we spent in our small hostel room, which was in a very old house.
The night were very cold, and we had five blankets in the bed! 



Our small toilet was built into an old clothe closet, and we had to climb a stair to get in there.
At nights I missed a pot under the bed, when roaming out from underr
our five blankets and climbing the stair to get into the freezing
cold toilet! 



We slept all tight together to keep warm, and even
kept the scarfs round our necks! 



When it get too boring to be sitting in our room,
we went to walk along the streets of Évora.
Sadly I can´t show any daylight pics to you from town, because
we used every possible minute of daylight to run after the megalithts.. 



Here is the main square and town hall of Évora. 



There was a "Cepo de Natal" burning there every evening.
It is a portuguese version of a Christmas log. A whole trunk of an oak or an olive tree is burned in the main square of many towns
every evening about a month until Christmas.
People come to stand around it to keep warm and to chat and eat
roasted chestnuts. 




Here we are in a small café which also had
a fire burning in the hearth. 
The old houses here don´t have any kind of heating, and even
if they have, they are built in such a way that they don´t keep the
warmth.
Many old people come to spend time in cafés or round the cepo just to be warm. It is a bit sad..
but this is the way they are used to live for centuries. 



This is another day on our trip.
We are walking trough a small town called Alandroal.
It is famous for its woven carpets.



But we climbed to see the castle of Alandroal.
Its building started 1298, and it is a fine example of Mudéjar art, which means it is a fortification commissioned by Christian elites but built by a stonemason or architect of Islamic origin. 




In climbing up there we got a nice view on the
surrounding countryside.
We could hear the sheap bells from down there, but otherwise it
was quite silent. 
I like that sound!



On top of the hill, inside the castle wall there
was a church.



And other small buildings and towers. 



And even more beautiful and wider landscape. 



This is the Menhir of Almendres.
It is about four meters tall, and is situated about a kilometer away from the Cromelegue of Almendres stone cirkle.
When the sun sun rices on the winter solstice day the shadow of
the menhir points towards the highest stone of the stone cirkle, which in its turn is casting a shadow towards the Anta Grande do
Zambujeiro we visited earlier.. 
Pretty interesting! 




Here is the Cromeleque dos Almendres stone cirkle, which was maybe the most interesting site we visited. 



The site consists actually of two stone circles, and it was built in two phases between 5000 and 4000 e.a.a, which makes it two thousand years older than the famous Stonehenge in UK and the oldest known stone cirkle in Europe! 

The result is an oval of 92 stones, which measures 30m x 60m.
It includes various markings such as cup marks, spirals and circles which can still just be seen on some of the stones.
Most of these are propbaly symbols of planets. 
Originally there was over 100 monoliths, but people have been
taking them away to use in building. 



Here is one of the stones with carvings we managed to spot. 



The Almendres monoliths are directed to show both important lunar and solar dates and alignments with other
megalithic constructions.
It has stones that face both the sunrise and sunset of the equinoxes. 



If nothing else, this place I will remember from my trip to Portugal! 



See you soon again, dear mom!
My next updateis propably the last I write from Portugal, and in it
we´re back to Lisbon again. 

Many kisses, muitos beijinhos, from Matcha! 

Olá, mãezinha! (Hi, dear mom!) 

This is my last update from Portugal!
Next time we´ll meet when I´m already in Germany with Rike! 



After our trip to Évora we came to Almada, which is
a smaller city just next to the capitol city of Lisbon.
This is where Henna lives while she is in Portugal. 

Before going to see the wonders of Lisbon we walked a bit around
in Almada.
This is a church Igreja de São Tiago. 



There is many old houses in Almada, some of them in a bad condition and many of them empty, which is a shame, I think.



There is still more green areas left than in Lisbon, and many people are growing cabbages and other vegetables
in the backyards of the blocks of flats. 
We got a view on the river Tejo over this kitchengarden.




We started to search our way towards the rivershore.



We passed the portico of the Lisnave shipyard, which
was one of the biggest ship builders in Europe in its time.
Now it has been shut for some years.



On the riverfront we found a small sandy beach,
and there we saw a jellyfish.
Even Zoe didn´t feel like eating it. 



The bridge behind me is the Ponte Vinte e Cinco de Abril (25 of April Bridge), which connects Almada to Lisbon.
It is named after the 25.4 1974 revolution, which ended the time
of dictatorship in Portugal. 






We could see the city of Lisbon on the opposite
bank of the river.
We decided to go there. 



We took a small ferry, which are crossing the river
from Almada to Lisbon about every fifteen minutes.
They are called "cacilheiros". 



After crossing the river the first
place we saw in Lisbon side  of the river was the town hall and square.
It was here where the first Republic was proclaimed on 5 October 1910.



We walked onwards and came to the next important square, The Praça do Comércio, Commerce Square.

The statue in the middle is picturing  King José I, by Machado de Castro (1775). The King on his horse is symbolically crushing snakes on his path, and I really don´t know why,
since I don´t like crushing any animals, not even snakes,
although they sometimes eat frogs. 



The square played an important role in the
economy of Lisbon.
The buildings round the square were filled with government bureaus that regulated customs and port activities.

In the picture is the triumphal arch called  Arco da Rua Augusta. 



The square is situated in the shoreline of Tejo,
and this was also the spot where the ships arrived loaded with
spices and other valuable things overseas. 



These two pillars are left on their place to remind
people of the nautical activities of the past times. 



This is Sé de Lisboa, the main cathedral of Lisbon.
Its building started 1147, but since that it has been modified several times and it has survived many earthquakes. 



We stepped in to the cathedral.
Here I´m standing on the main aisle. 






We met there some interesting folks from
different times.
This is Nossa Senhora de Fátima, who appeared six times to three shepherd
children in 1917 near a village called Fátima.
The children described her as "a woman brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and stronger than a crystal goblet filled with the most sparkling water and pierced by the burning rays of the sun". 
The woman shared three secrets with the children, and to her later
apparitions has been linked the miracle of "dancing sun".

Nowadays Fátima is a big cult centre with hundred thousand people
flocking there every year.




We also met there a dead portuguese King from the 15th century.
He was holding a sword on his arms and we were carefull not to wake
him up. 



There was also a dead queen, and she was
reading a book.
I went to see what she was reading, but it seemed to be some rather
boring religious text starting with "Miserere" - have mercy.

I hope she has not been reading the same book all these centuries! 



The little dog of the queen was on her feet
gnawing a chickenhead. 



The next creature we met had escaped
from the laboratory of a mad genetic scientist.
He was partly a lion, a bat and a lizard, but he was quite a nice
chap and told us exciting things about the secret nightlife in the
cathedral.
Such an ancient place with many people buried there has of course
its share of the ghosts of Lisbon.. 



Before we left the cathedral, the others
lit a candle to the saints to ask a safe trip to Germany for me.
I think it was very sweet of them. 






Next we went to see a nice little garden and a viewpoint with a bergola and blue tiles, which are typical to portuguese
architecture.



From the bergola we got a beautiful view over
the old town of Lisbon toward the river Tejo. 

This is a popular place to spend time, and in summer evenings it is
invaded by youngsters drinking beer.



Here you can see the tiles properly.

We sat  there for some time enjoying the sun. 






We continued then our sightseeing and went
to see the Rossio Square.
It has been one of its main squares since the Middle Ages. It has been the setting of popular revolts and celebrations, bullfights and executions, and is now a preferred meeting place of Lisbon natives and tourists.



This is one of its beautiful fountains. 



From Rossio we walked to see the Elevador de Santa Justa (the Santa Justa lift).
It connects the lower streets of the Baixa with the higher Largo do Carmo (Carmo Square.)
It was inaugurated 1901, and since then it has been a big turist
attraction. 



We took the lift up, where we could watch
again over Lisbon, but this time from a different direction. 



This is the view towards the river Tejo. 



And this is the view towards the medieval castle são Jorge. 



We went to see the ruins of Carmo Convent, which
was destroyed in the earthquake of 1775. The whole Convent  and its famous library of 5000 rare books were all lost. 

Nowadays the ruined Carmo Church is used as an archaeological museum.




We saw there many interesting objects which were saved from the ruins after the earthquake. 



This plake asks us to drop money inside to
help the souls of the people buried here by shortening the time
they spend in purgatory. 



We sailed with a ship.



And surprised an old fountainhead so much he
forgot to shut his mouth. 
He had never before seen toyvoyagers. 






After leaving the ruins we walked along the streets,
and stopped to watch a woman frying and selling chestnuts from
a special wagon with cahrgoal burning inside. 



We saw many VERY interesting looking pastry
shops. 






Every now and then we were passed by one of the cute, famous Lisbon trams.
Oldest ones of them have been trafficing on the streets since 1930´s. 






We took a ride in one of them. 



Here I´m inside the tram.
It was making loud noices and wobling a lot while moving, and it was
interesting to watch the driwer to handle all the pedals and wheels
and buttons. 



We hopped out from the tram in a part of the
city called Belém, and there I saw this statue of Vasco da Gama, who
was the first european who sailed round Africa to India.



We walked trough a beautiful park.



Next interesting thing we saw was the Jerónimos
monastery, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos.
It was classified in 1983 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hi, mom, it was the second one! 




The monastery was built by the Infante Henry the Navigator around 1459.
When Vasco da Cama returned 1497 from his trip to east his ships
loaded with gold, he landed on the shore of Belem and went to
the monastery to thank the god for the safe trip.
After that the monastery came a place for all portuguese sailors
to spend the night in praying before leaving for long seavoyages. 



The main door of the monastery is very impressive.
"The tympanum, above the double door, displays, in half-relief, two scenes from the life of Saint Jerome: on the left, the removal of the thorn from the lion's paw and, on the right, the saints experience in the desert. In the spandrel between these scenes is the coat-of-arms of king Manuel I, while the archivolt and tympanum are covered in Manueline symbols and elements. The Madonna (Santa Maria de Belém) is located on a pedestal on top of the archivolt, surmounted by the archangel Michael, while above the portal there is a cross of the Order of Christ." says Wikipedia.  (I´m not quite sure what a
tympanum is.



The sun was getting lower, and we still
wanted to see another World heritage site, so we marched
onwards. 



Here is Torre de Belém (Belém Tower).
It was my third World Heritage site! 

Belém Tower is a symbol of Portugal's maritime glory, a stone fortress on the bank of the river Tejo dating from 1514.
It was part of the defence system guarding the mouth of river Tejo
and the gate to the city of Lisbon.
Later in history it served for example as a prison.




However, it looked somehow romantical in the
light of the soon setting sun, and we sat there for a long time listening
to the shouting of the seaguls and watching the sun getting lower.



Then we walked slowly back towards the  city center and saw again the Ponte Vinte e Cinco de Abril, this time
from the other shore of the river.



We walked still trough the center and saw this big park
called Parque Eduardo VII, and then we saw some streets in the
Christmas lightning. 






we got still one more nice view over the city from a viewpoint called Portas do Sol (Gates of the sun). 



This is Avenida da Liberdade, one of the most important esplanades in Lisbon.



We greeted a portuguese writer and poet Rosa Araújo.



And then we saw Arco da Rua Augusta again,
now in night lightning. 



We ended our Lisbon sightseeing to the Tejo riverfront and saw the last rays of sun before it dived into the
Atlantic ocean.
My last day in Portugal was a happy one. 

Many kisses for you, mom!
Matcha 

Hello Mum, 

I arrived in Sülfeld. Dicker Kumpel gave me a warm welcome.



Then he introduced me to his other guests.



I showed my card, the little snowman and the sweets I brought with me.



Dicker Kumpel got this great Christmas Crib. Everybody loves to play with it.



Far away on a hill we saw the three wise men!



I am sure that I will have a great time here - and in 10 days we will celebrate Christmas!

Love
Matcha

Hello Mum,

The weather was awful outside so I decided to explore Dicker Kumpel's home. Christmas is coming soon and he decorated the rooms with nice things.

I started with some lighted wooden decorations. First I met Santa Claus.



This one is typical for a region called Erz Mountains.



And I loved this snowman.



I visited another Christmas Crib.



There were three funny guys hanging around on the lamp. The first one was a reindeer.



The second one was Santa Claus.



The third guy was a polar bear.



The rest of the evening I spent in front of this Christmas pyramid. It is so lovely!



Yours
Matcha

Hello Mum,

We went to a town called Bad Segeberg.

First we stopped at this nice place – I think that Santa Claus is living here.



Look – a fountain with a funny guy on it.



During the summer time they show Winnetou in the open air theatre - and you see stakes in the town.





And they had some nice decorated small houses everywhere.



I loved the big Christmas tree…



… and of course the carousel next to it.



There was another Christmas tree on this big place – unfortunately it was not lighted up to now.



Our last stop was in front of the nice church here.



Back home a new guest arrived – HelmutBluePant.



He brought Christmas Gifts for all of us – great!





We just thought about starting to unpack our gifts when RikeH arrived. She told us: It is not Christmas now – and took all our gifts with her.



It seems to us that we have to wait until Christmas.

Yours
Matcha

Hello Mum, 

Happy Birthday to you!!!

In Germany we celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December. Today it was time to decorate the Christmas tree. Look – we had sunny weather – RikeH loves sunshine – but told me that we will have problems with some photos because of the light.

Look – there is our tree.



Here you can see our decoration.



I loved these balls.



These are the wooden things.



Here are the small ones for the upper part of the tree.



These are some ornaments RikeH likes very much.



And some of these she brought from her journeys, most of it is from Denmark.



Witching hour! No – it is not a ghost – it is me. There is still the problem with the sunshine in the living-room.
But I wanted to show you a photo of our Christmas tree.



This is the decoration I love most!



And this is an important part of the Christmas tree – the bird was always in the Christmas tree of RikeH's grandma.
And now it has a place of honour in RikeH's tree.



Mum, I am so excited – tomorrow it is Christmas!

Love
Matcha

Hello Mum,
   
It is Christmas! And look! A child is born!



First Dicker Kumpel read the Nativity Story for all of us.





We all sang Christmas Songs – the last one was Silent Night.



Eventually the two most important guests arrived. Santa Claus was busy, but he sent his two friends Rudi the reindeer and Snowy the snowman.



I started with a Christmas Poem and sang a song.



I am sure they loved it – because I got some chocolate.



We all wanted a group photo with Snowy and Rudi.



Then Helmutbluepant’s big moment came. He had a lot of gifts for us.





I loved the snowman.



We all had a great time!





Merry Christmas dear Mum!


   
Love
Matcha

Hi Mum,

Today we took a walk through Sülfeld. First I learnt something about an old canal here.





There is a small park in Sülfeld…



… with a little lake. Maybe I will see it frozen in the wintertime.



Behind me you can see the old school with a beautiful big Christmas tree.



This is the emblem of Sülfeld.



I went to the church.





On the other side of the street there is the old pharmacy.



In front of Dicker Kumpel’s house there were funny Christmas guys. We talked a lot.



Love
Matcha

Hi Mum,

In the afternoon we visited Dicker Kumpel’s grandma. I loved the candlelight.



Look – there are wonderful wooden things out of the Erzgebirge.



And a really small Christmas crib.



Beautiful!



Dicker Kumpel’s grandma had a very nice Christmas tree.



Love
Matcha

Hello Mum,

It was a great day today! Murph, Soeren, TobiHH and Sean came and visited us.



Murph had gifts for us!





Yummy chocolate!



Christmas is great!





We talked the whole day – but then it was time to say goodbye.

It was so great to meet the other TVs.



We had a big TV-hug. Hopefully I will see the others somewhere again.



Love
Matcha

Hello Mum,

Look – the Christmas tree has colored lights today – time for a party!





Dicker Kumpel decorated our chair.





Then he brought the important things – drinks and food.





After our dinner we played Helmut’s new game. It was great!









After the game Dicker Kumpel came with the prices!



Look! I won the beautiful shamrock!



At midnight we went out to welcome the New Year.



Happy New Year to all of you!



Love
Matcha