Travelog for: Glory

Hosts for Glory:
1) fam-united- Germany (ARRIVED) (SENT)
2) yazienda (postcrossing)- Malaysia (ARRIVED) (SENT)
3) ChristinaB-Vienna (ARRIVED) (SENT)
4) Thitirat- Thailand (ARRIVED) (SENT)
5) annbear- Switzerland (ARRIVED)
6) Anarivel-
7) ElsePels( postcrossing)-
8) skylerdragon- St. Louis area
9)
10)

A really late update about my arrival. Somehow Petra forgot to tell here, that I arrived at her home. Maybe it was the hectic, because she prepared everything for the trip to the Bavarian Forest. So here I am with my friends in her living room: Bongo, Kari, Tamalyn, Decker, Tux, Alfie Langer

Finally we are on the trip to the Bavarian Forest. We will stay in a hotel for two nights and I hope to see as much as possible.
Right now I'm playing with Sabrina and the other toyvoyagers, which are going with us on this trip.

After a long long while we left the freeway to have lunch at the Walhalla.




This is a Hall of Fame and Honour, modelled after the Parthenon in Athens and located 10km west of Regensburg on the Donube River.

It was an idea of Crown Prince Ludwig I. of Bavaria in 1807. It was meant as a place for the commemoration of great figures and events in ethnic German history, at a time covering 1800 years, beginning with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9AD).

Wow, we were so tired and happy to see these beds in our room. We jumped out of the bag and on the beds. I'm sure you see me.



Unhappily our hosts meant, that they would sleep in the beds and we should sit and sleep on the windowsills



While Petra and Sabrina went swimming, we cuddled together, because it wasn't that warm so close to the window.

After a very tasty breakfast we started off to visit the "Weinfurtner Glasdorf".

In the afternoon we visited the Great Arbersee (lake). This lake is one of three lakes in the Bavarian Forest. On the Czech site of this big forest is the Bohemian Forest with five more lakes. The Great Arber is the highest peak of the Bavarian-Bohemian-mountain rigde, with an elevation of 1456 metres, while we were on 935 metres. We unhappily couldn't see the Arber, because the weather was too foggy.

We all are a little sad, that it is time to say good-bye and drive home again.
At last we want to visit Regensburg.
Regensburg is located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. The old town of Regensburg is Unesco World Heritage.

The first settlements in Regensburg date to the Stone Age.

Finally my host Petra showed me the palace and the Belvedere.

Here you see a part of the rosegarden, which belongs to the palace.


Here you see the backfront of the palace. It was destroyed during the second world war and rebuilt during the 70th.


This is one of the statues in the palace garden. There are four statues showing the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. And four other statues show the four elements: water, fire, air and earth.


Here is a pond with many ducks. Especially kids love this place.


Here is the beginning point for a guided tour through Bruchsal.



This building is called "Belvedere". It was a former hunting lodge and now it is a place for open air theatre.



In the park called " Stadtgarten" next to the Belvedere you find this fountain.

Untergrombach is one of the suburbs of Bruchsal. Here we are on the "Michaelsberg" (hill) and have a wonderful view over the Rhine valley. On the first photo you see a part of Bruchsal in the background. Petra's parents live close to the wood.
As young girl she loved to swim in that quarry pond, but since she is married and has kids, she prefers to go to the swimming pool of Bruchsal. In the background you see the hills of the Palatinate.



(Sorry, but my camera didn't do like my host wanted)

This chapel stands on the top of the Michaelsberg and it is called Michaelsbergkapelle (chapel)


On this photo you see a part of the Kraichgau hill country. Bruchsal lies at the border to the Kraichgau and Rhine Valley.

Here we are back in Bruchsal. The building you see here is the old slaughterhouse. Nowadays a part of it is a restaurant and a place for comedy shows. Ralf and Petra, my hosts, like to go there. Funny!
Also you see on the photo, that Bruchsal has parts belonging to the Kraichgau. The first photo with the view to Bruchsal (in Untergrombach) showed a part that belongs to the Rhine valley.

Today we played soccer. It's not so easy to play "sit-soccer" (that's how my hosts call it), especially for someone so tiny like me.


At first everyone sat on the place, where he or she was supposed to be. You only had been allowed to move on the place by turning around, but without walking. Alfie Langer was the referee. He was the only one with a real soccer shirt.



At once Tamalyn tried to score, but Elisabeth did a good work and



just jumped to the right place and caught the ball. But then her punt was bad and luckily Bongo got the ball. He tried to score, but Decker was just at the right place to defend in front of Tux, who was the goalkeeper.



At the end of the first half we still played 0:0, but of course we had some chances for the first goal.


Start of the second half



Somehow I fell. I know, that nobody hit me or something.



Small Fry nearly shot a goal after that, but Tux was such a good goalkeeper and caught the ball. I fell again, maybe I  already was very tired.



Here Tamalyn got the ball and tried to play to me.



Small Fry got the ball to play, but had no chance to score.



After a while Alfie Langer had to talk to Dottie Grace, who complained about something I didn't understand.



1:0 against my team!!! Thanks to Dottie Grace!!



And then a silly thing happened, but this was a big luck for my side. Bongo and Small Fry tried to catch the ball with their bodies, but they had no luck.



Elisabeth jumped to the right side of her goal, but the ball rolled into the goal on the left side.
So at the end the result was 1:1



After the match we danced around the ball, because we were happy that nobody had lost in this match.

Today it is National Holiday of Germany and most people don't go to work on that day. There are some celebrations, that you can watch in tv (television, not in a toyvoyager ). But the people in Germany don't really celebrate on that day.
Petra and her family decided to go shopping in the Alsace, which is in France. So you see Sabrina and me with the other toyvoyagers in the car on our way to the border to France.

In Lauterburg my hosts had lunch. We were in a restaurant, where you only could order pancakes or crepes to eat and of course something to drink.




Somehow I slipped out of this photo.

Then we drove to Weissenburg (Wissembourg), because we wanted to see the old part of that city, but it was so crowded, that we headed home again.



Not far away from Weissenburg we found this chapel. I think, it was very interesting.
Of course it was a little crowded by us toyvoyagers, but we tried to keep silent.

The German Winegate is a building of the worst time in German history. It was built in 1936 officially to make the wineyards of the Palatinate more famous. Of course it was also a provocation against France, because the border is very close (only 1km to Wissembourg). The gate is the end point of the Palatinate Wine Route.
(I can't put this online without telling, that I'm so sorry for everything that happened during these years.)