Travelog for: DottyCroc

Hi Mummy,

today we took a walk in the outskirts of Remscheid to meet a friend. Katja's friend is living in the district Luettringhausen. Not far from my home you can already see the green outskirts.





In a valley we walked along a farm with cameroon sheep, chicken and geese.







There were some houses hidden in the valley, one of them this lovely half-timbered house.





In the meantime we met Katja's friend

Bye
DottyCroc

Hi Mummy,
today we walked along the Korkenziehertrasse (corkscrew route), which is also a former railway track. We started at the former central station of the neighbour city Solingen, only the depots remained there.

This route is called "Korkenzieher" because its course, meandering through the city, reminds of a corkscrew.



We started at "Standort Bahnhofstraße" and walked to Gräfrath.



Here you can also find some artwork, these scissors for example. In Solingen cutlery, utility knifes, scissors and swords are produced for centuries. So this sculpture is a great mixture of a local symbol and the one for the Korkenziehertrasse.





Still close to the city centre you can find all kinds of industrial plants situated at the former track...



... and a cemetary in a housing area.



One of some tunnels ...





Suddenly the city disappeared and there was this rural area.



At a playground I found this "hamster wheel" for humans



Oh dear, so many possible destinations: a zoo, a path to Muengsten Bridge, to the historic district Graefrath, to an arts museum ...



We left the route here. This is Museum Baden, a museum of art.



Later we took a bus to get back to the city centre. They are having trolleybusses here! Looks interesting



Bye for today
DottyCroc

Hi Mummy,
the weather was fantastic today! In the early afternoon we were picked up by a friend to take a walk in the surroundings of Remscheid. We started our trip in Kueppelstein, a small district close to a larger woodland area. First we walked along a farm.





We walked downhill for some time towards river Wupper. This is a small pond in the forest.



Here you can see river Wupper with the only bridge between Solingen and Muengsten in Remscheid.



There were steep rock walls along the walking path.



We reached Solingen-Unterburg than with its small church and a special historic graveyard.



This graveyard was opened in 18th century, in 1744, with 105 numbered gravestones, all made from the same kind of sandstone. It was closed in 1854. Nowadays you can still find 52 of those gravestones.















We went to the tiny city centre of Solingen-Unterburg, located at the junction of river Wupper and Eschbach, a creek.





This statue is showing a "Kiepenkerl". In ancient times, when there were no streets, all kinds of goods were carried to all the widespread hamlets by people carrying such panniers.



We had to walk back than, this time we walked along another path which was located at the slope of the valley. From here we had a good overview to that small church and the graveyard.









We all enjoyed the sunshine.

Bye
DottyCroc

Hi Mummy,
we had mussels in white wine broth with garlic for dinner. Yummy!

We had to clean the mussels first, and we had to sort out those with a broken shell.



In the meantime Katja prepared a delicious stock with onion and garlic, white wine and some spices. The mussels had to boil for a few minutes in this stock until all the shells were open.



We enjoyed the mussels with salad and bread.



Bye for today
DottyCroc

Hi Mummy,
we visited an arboretum today. 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.

We went to Wuppertal by bus and had to walk for about 15 minutes to reach the historic district Cronenberg. Here you can find a lot of lovely old traditional houses.









We reached the forest than and also the starting point of our walking-tour. 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.



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We had to follow a yellow marking, showing a pine cone. The first highlight were those sequoia trees.





The walking path was rather muddy, all those creeks carrying a lot of water.



We walked uphill and downhill, seeing lots of interesting trees.



Can you see all these different kinds of pines along the slope?





This was a really interesting trip today

Bye
DottyCroc

Hi Mummy,

we went to Cologne today to visit Cologne Cathedral and the Flora / Botanical Garden.

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area. Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River.

We went here with Strunki and her guests. The car was parked at the opposite bank of River Rhine, so we had to cross Hohenzollern Bridge first.









Trains and pedestrians are crossing the river here, but no other traffic. Four equestrian statues showing famous members of the Hohenzollern family are placed at the four corners of the bridge.



A freight ship was passing.



Hohenzollern Bridge is famous for thousands of love padlocks which were attached to the trellis so far.







Of course the very most important thing you have to see in Cologne is Cologne Cathedral. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. Cologne Cathedral was built between 1248 and 1880. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe, its towers are about 157 m tall. Cologne Cathedral is  is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne.







Church service was going on, but visitors were allowed to enter the rear part of the inside of the cathedral.











Next we went to see a bit of the old town. Katja showed us Heinzelmaennchen fountain, located in front of the oldest brewhouse in Cologne. Heinzelmännchen are a race of creatures appearing in a tale connected with the city of Cologne, they were said to have done all the work of the citizens during the night, so the citizens could be lazy at daytime.





We went to the promenade and walked past the old town of Cologne. Those houses were built in 17th ventury.



Even in winter there are a lot of excursion boats.



We had to walk for a longer time along the promenade to get to the Botanical garden.



Everywhere you can find modern buildings and historic buildings close together, like this roman church.







Not far from the Botanical garden we found this park with a sculpture exhibiton.



A lot of interesting sculptures were placed on the lawn like this giant ring.



Next I visited a house without window panes, roof and floor.



From here it only was a short walk until we reached the Flora / Botanical Garden.



In a few weeks thousands of flowers will be blooming here.



We walked along greenhouses ...



... and a palmtree alley.



I found blooming winter aconite.









A walkabout brought us back to the palmtrees.





We visited a greenhouse showing desert plants. So many kinds of cacti!







Another highlight was the Japanese Camellia exhibition.









This is not a camellia, but this giant plant was found in the same greenhouse.





After walking around for hours I had to say good-bye to Cologne



Walking down the bridge I almost got dizzy



Love
DottyCroc

Hi Mummy,
in our lunchbreak we strolled around the city centre of Remscheid. Katja's work place is close to the city hall, so we started our trip here.



The tower of the city hall is 48 m tall, visible from most outskirts and the surrounding cities.



There is a large open space in front of it, a farmers market is takingi place here twice a week.



This is a water tower, located behind the city hall.





This is the rear side of the shopping mall with the parking deck.



Here you can see the central bus station.







Remscheid was twinned to Wansbeck in Northumberland. This dumper was a present from Wansbeck.







Back in the city centre ...



The shopping street is beginning here.





This is the main entrance of the shopping mall with a fountain in front of it.



Bye for today
DottyCroc

Hi Mommy,
today we met Katja's friend Kerstin and took a walk with her and her dog Pepe. We went to Wuppertal, to Scharpenacken, a former army training area. This area was used for military purposes until 2004 A.D as a shooting range. Today there is a local recreation area with vast open areas.







Soon we reached a woodland area. Here we found large tinder fungus.





We reached more open areas than.









Although it was not extremely cold yet, this puddle was frozen



The dog had fun and we also did

Bye
DottyCroc

Hi Mum,
we bought food for the pets today. Three ferrets are living here and they eat raw meat and intestines  from all kinds of poultry and rabbit, they like ground meat from calf and lamb as well.

Everything was chopped into small pieces and than portioned and frozen.





Here you can see one of those cute predator, Shiva.



The ferrets are very playful, cheeky and hoggish

Bye
DottyCroc

Hi Mommy,
today it was time to leave Remscheid and all my friends here. I am travelling to Northern Germany now while Kirin will visit Berlin and Tigerlily will travel to Delft in the Netherlands.



I really enjoyed my first trip



I hope I will arrive soon!

Love
DottyCroc

Hello Mum,

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



Then he introduced me to his other guests.



I showed my postcards and the sweets I brought with me.



Now I have to talk to my new friends!

Love
DottyCroc

Hello Mum,

Today I went to Hamburg – this lake is called Alster.





Behind me you can see the town hall.



And this is another nice view over the Alsterarkaden.



Look – what a beautiful postbox.



Here you can see the town hall again – a beautiful building.



Love
DottyCroc

Hello Mum,

We went to the port of Hamburg today. I had a nice view from a place called Landungsbrücken.





What a nice tower.



On the other side of the Elbe River there are two musical halls – the left one is really new.



Behind me you can see the sailing ship Rickmer Rickmers.



Then we had a great idea – we jumped onto a small ferry to the building Elbphilharmonie. I had a nice view over the Elbe River.



Hamburg’s port is really beautiful.



We came near to the both musical halls.



Me in front of the skyline of the port.



This is the Elbphilharmonie – a very expensive building.



I looked to another part of the port – the cruise terminal – but there is no cruise ship today.

   

And here is the part where they load and unload big ships.



It was a nice trip for us TVs, RikeH had a hard time, because it was really cold – and her fingers got so cold!

Yours
DottieCroc

Hello Mum,

Many greetings from the Cruise Ship AIDA Sol. We celebrated the start of our trip with delicious Champagne.



Today we went to a city called Valencia. We had wonderful sunshine.



This is the Basilica on the Plaza de la Virgen.



Next to it was the Cathedral.



Behind me you see the Cathedral from the other side.



Then we started our trip on a Segway.



We went to a place with great buildings – this is the opera house.



It looks like a shark from this place.



Another nice building.



Later we stopped in the beautiful market hall.



Valencia has a lot of interesting buildings – these are the older ones.





Bye
DottyCroc

Hello Mum,

We started our day on our balcony.





It was enough place for all of us and we talked a lot.



This is the view to the front of the ship – yes we are living in the front of the ship – just over the bridge.



There you can see the front of the ship.





On a cruise ship you spend a lot of time with eating – so it was time for some sports. We have a Power Plate in our cabin. First RikeH explained us how it works.



Then it started to shake…



…and we had to train our arms.



After that it was time to relax in the living-room.



This is the place where I write my updates.



And here I am sleeping – in the morning I can see the sea out of my bed – this is great!



Love
DottyCroc