Travelog for: Lamikins

I am at home with Grandma, looking forward to my first travel adventure. I live near a lake, and close to the ocean.  I play with my siblings and Bootsie, the cat. 

Bootsie kisses me.

Today is Sunday. I went with my family to the Holtsville Ecology site. We visited the small zoo and the greenhouse. It is a sunny day, so there were many animals and people enjoying the outdoors. 

I went to see the flowers in the greenhouse. They are getting ready for Mother's day.

Eduardo Bear and I looked for the black bears in their habitat. We read all about them, but at first we couldn't find them. Then finally we saw them both, and one came close to the edge of the fence. He was big! We learned that there are black bears living in the wild in New York State, but not on Long Island.

Today is the first day of my long trip to Germany! As you can see from the picture, Teddy helped me to get into my envelope. I tried two ways, first with my legs bent up to my head, but it was uncomfortable. I ended up jumping head first into the envelope, with my knees bent a little. It is a little stuffy in the envelope, but I can breath. Grandma took me to the post office, and now I'm on my way across the ocean. I guess I will be on an airplane. I hope I don't get airsick. I wonder what it will be like? I've never traveled far. I'm excited.

Hi Grandma,
I arrived at my first host's home today. I will spend some time in Remscheid in North Rhine-Westphalia. My host's name is Katja.

Katja and the ToyVoyagers Sean, Anna Pineapple, Sidney L. and nosyblue, another sheep, gave me a warm welcome.



I already met two of Katja's pets. I noticed that something furry was crawling into my envelope! Even two of them.





Oh, what is this? A cat? A raccoon? At least it is something cute







Neither cat nor raccoon, but ferrets. Very obviously they had a lot of fun playing with my envelope



Katja told me that there were two more ferrets, but they were asleep.

She invited me to take a walk with her and a friend. My new friends did not come with us.

Bye
Lamikins

Hi Grandma,
I took a walk with Katja in the late afternoon. We went to a nearby forest, but first we picked up a friend.

The first photo was taken close to my current home. I like those old houses.



In the background of the next photo you can see the tower of the city hall.



Here we went into the forest.





Hidden in the valley I saw this house. It is a timer-framed house, typical for this region.







I found pretty flowers, in Germrany they are called "wild rose".





We crossed a railway track. Repair works were going on there.



In this district you can find lovely houses.



Far in the distance you can see the city centre of Remscheid.



Katja took me through a rural area than, although this place is not so far away from the main street.



I said hello to those goats, but they did not come closer.





More lovely flowers, foxglove this time and a blooming bush.



From here we had to walk uphill for nearly half an hour to get back home

Bye
Lamikins

Hi Grandma,

today we visited Germany's highest railway bridge, Muengsten Bridge.

Katja told me that Germany's highes railway bridge is connecting Remscheid with the neighbour city Solingen. We went to the valley of the river Wupper to take a walk here. First we went into the forest.



We found a lookout point with a fantastic view to the bridge.





In the meantime we went downhill and followed the river.



Katja told us there would be artwork along the path, mostly engraved rocks like this.





We went down to the river bank and enjoyed the sun.







What a lovely shady place under the trees!



We crossed the river here.



You can find maps and information boads along the path, telling you interesting facts about history and geography of this region.





It was time for another rest



We had to walk uphill than, can you see the river deep down in the valley?



Finally we reached the leisure park underneath the bridge. Muengsten Bridge was built of steel, completed in 1907. It is about 480 m long and 107 m tall. There are extensive repair works going on in the last few years and they are taking place at the moment. The bridge will be closed until November.

Some years ago a leisure park was built under the bridge. You can find lawns for relaxing here, a crazy golf course, playgrounds for the kids and restaurants.









Can you see the outlook pavillion in the background? From here we had a first look at the bridge.



Bye for now
Lamikins

Hi Grandma,
we are still having fantastic weather here in Germany! So Katja took me out to the city centre in her lunch break. She is working in a law firm nearby the city hall. The city hall was the first building she showed me.



The tower of the city  hall is 48 m high! The city hall was partly destroyed in World War II - like many districts in Remscheid - and was rebuilt in a more modern style afterwards.



The lion on its pillar is the heraldic animal of Remscheid.





You can find this water tower at the back side of the city hall. This and the city hall tower create a characteristic silhouette which you can see from many places around the city, even over a large dsitance as the city centre is situated on top of a hill.





This building was the company building of the local newspaper until last year, now you can find a day hospital there.



Not only the surroundings of the city are "green", you can also find many trees in the city centre.



This is the central bus station.







Close to the station you can find these larger dwellings, a large hotel and a bank.





Here you can see the company building of the ADAC, the German pendant to the AAA (American Automobile Association).



This is the station, it was rebuilt some years ago. A modern bridge is leading to the city centre.



Around the station you can find a lot of factory buildings, mostly steelworks. Remscheid is an industrial city, famous for its metalworking industry, especially its tool producing industry.







Back in the city centre ...



We walked along the shopping street which begins here.







This is the main entrance of the shopping mall. People like to sit around the large fountain.





We went inside to buy a few things for lunch and hurried back to work.

Bye
Lamikins

Hi Grandma,

after a week with sometimes horrible weather we all needed a bit walking in the fresh air, so we went to one of the historic districts of Remscheid, to Hasten. They have a little town center here. This district is close to large woodland areas, that's where we wanted to go.



I found those lovely fragrant roses in a garden.





We reached a valley and had to wait for a while until the rain stopped.



A creek, Morsbach, is running through this valley.



This historic tiny house war restored not long ago.



There are some more houses hidden in this valley.



This information board is explaining how people made this valley inhabitably. This is also where the first ironworks were founded. it also tells that wetlands and meadows were used for keeping farm animals, including sheep



This flock looked for cover under the trees when it started to rain a short while ago.



This blooming tree is elderberry. Katja told me that she has planned to prepare an elderberry wine cooler next week. It is made with elderflowers, lemon - both pressed juice and lemon slices, sugar, fresh mint and water. And of course white wine and sparkling wine.







We went back home than. Here you can see my current home.



Love
Lamikins

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today in the outskirts of Remscheid, in the district Lennep. When we parked the car I had a look at those skyscrapers, Katja told me that there were not many of them.



From here we went through a rural area with different fields. Here is growing  barley. It is used for brewing beer, Katja told me.



We went into a forest than. The ground was very wet and muddy, soon our feet and shoes became really dirty.



The branches of those larches were soft like fur.





In a secluded hamlet we found this little church, it is called "Forest Church" (Waldkirche).



Out path led us along Wupper dam, a large barrier lake. River Wupper is dammed to a large lake.



On our way back to the car we walked along some more scenic hamlets.



In another barley field red poppies were growing.



Soon we reached the car and went back home.

Bye for today
Lamikins

Hi Grandma,
today Katja promised us to show us an historic location while taking a walk. So we left the house and walked towards a valley, picking up a friend who wanted to come with us.





We walked through a rather old district where we saw many of those traditional houses, they are covered with slate.



Deep in the valley we came along this steelworks where stainless steel is produced.



We left the roads and followed a hiking path through the valley.





We found a fantastic place in the forest - an historic hammer mill.
Iron and steel was produced here since 15th century.





The hammer mill was run by a water wheel, all those hammer mills and forges were built at a creek or river.









A large millwheel was lying on the ground.





When we walked back home we had to walk uphill all the time

Bye
Lamikins

Hi Grandma,
we visited a friend in the nearby district Luettringhausen, one of the historic districts of Remscheid. We took a walk with dog Pepe in a lovely valley. The first photo was taken in the city of Luettringhausen.



We followed a walking path along the valley.





We found this lovely old timber-framed house in the valley.



There were meadows along the street in the valley.







I asked Katja what this sign is meaning. She explained that it says that this area is a nature protection area.



Do you know this plant? It is yarrow, it's German name is "Schafgarbe" and "Schaf" means sheep



In a woodland area I found this large pile of trunks.



Too soon we returned to Luettringhausen.

Bye
Lamikins

Hi Grandma,
today we took a walk in the area of Wupper dam, where I already have been. This time we started at a different place. The houses in the background belong to a larger housing area, they will be the last  houses for some time.



Linden trees are blooming here, it smells wonderful.



Once again we walked along Wupper dam.







We went though an historic housing area. Along river Wupper there was a lot of industry in the last 100 years, mostly cloth mills and dyeing factories. The factory owners built houses with flats for their workers because there were no housing districts nearby the factories.



After walking through a rural area we returned to the car.



Bye
Lamikins