Travelog for: Mumble

Petra thought, that she could try to drive to the parking place next to the chapel on top of the Michaelsberg, but the road was too icy under the snow. So we only took some photos on the way.




The houses you see on this photo, belong to Obergrombach, a suburb of Bruchsal.

There was still some time left before Petra had to go to school, so she decided to take us with her for some photos in Bruchsal.

At first we took a view over the roofs of Bruchsal:

The churchs: the tower of the old palace, the church Our Holy Mother (Unsere Liebe Frau, Stadtkirche) and Lutherkirche (from left to right).



A view to the baroque church St. Peter and the house St. Maria, both really close to the house, where we live.



Here you see the building of the houses for older people on the left side.





Then we crossed the road and walked into the park to see the Belvedere.



It was still some time left, so we drove to the baroque palace. First we saw the back side of the palace and the statues. There are four statues for the four elements water, fire, earth and wind and four statues for the four seasons spring, summer, autumn, winter.














This is church St. Damian and Hugo, which belongs to the palace. Inside it isn't baroque anymore, because it was destroyed during the second world war and when it was rebuilt, it was too expensive to make it inside like it was before.




Here you see a view to the Damianstor, jailhouse tower (red tower next to the Damianstor) and the county court.



Now we have to hurry a bit, but there is still time left to take a photo of the entrance of the palace.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Help, help! Oh, no! Uuuups, what happened????



Hey friends, let's have some fun in the snow. Come on, I show you our backyard. There is a swing, do you know?

It started to snow again, but only big wet snowflakes and Petra told us, that they will melt away at once. I had been so happy to see some snow again, but it was too less to play in it.

L e t ' s    h a v e    a    c a r n i v a l   
p a r t y


Cassiopeia invited Mousy Mouse, Fox Force, Surprise Bear, Galo, Khetiwe and me.

The first guests, who arrived by car, were Mousy Mouse and Galo. FoxForce helped Cassiopeia to welcome us, because she still wasn't ready to dress herself up - she is a turtle.









Surprise Bear arrived too. He wore a crazy frog face.





Finally Cassiopeia arrived too with her hat on her back, because she had to run - do you know, how fast turtles are able to run, if the have to?





Of course she put her hat on as soon as she arrived there.





Galo saw the sofa and ran there to sit down. He knows, where is the best place





Mousy Mouse, the beauty!





Fox Force is wearing high heels, very high heels





Emmh, you know, this is Surprise Bear - the frog faced.





Cassiopeia had a special seat. They found something round for her, because she just sits perfectly on something like that. She have some kind of problems, if it comes to sitting on a chair or something like that - She's a turtle, you know.




Emmh, why are we sitting so far away from each other?????



Did you see, that there are still some empty chairs? I and Khetiwe still searched for something to dress up.




It's time to dance now! Does anyone want to join?




There is falling something down from the ceiling, but it seems, that Petra's photo only works, when the things are too high or too low. Hehehe, you should learn to take photos like this.





Do you see that little something on the top?




Hmm, Sabrina and Petra! We want to dance or play now, don't wait too long to take this photo.







Hehehe. Finally the "thing" fell down on Galo.





Let's dance Samba - what else should we dance, if it is carnival.






Uuuups, Mousy Mouse! Be careful! Fox Force, please help her to stand up again.





Finally, while Cassiopeia and Galo danced too, Khetiwe and I arrived. Better late than never.




At once we started to dance with Surprise Bear.




Lalala  lala laaaa lala, lalala lala laaa lala, Samba

Later we played some games. We played spin the bottle and really had a lot of fun.



At first it was me, who had to spin the bottle.












Galo had to spin the bottle at next.



It's Mousy Mouse.




Cassiopeia had to do a hind feet stand.


We all were very thirsty, so Sabrina mixed us an alcohol free cocktail.











Petra showed us the time and told us to get ready for bed as soon as possible.

Today Mousy Mouse, Cassiopeia and FoxForce decided to take a bath. Of course we wanted to jump into the bath tub too, but Petra told us to leave them alone.

Sabrina and Petra decided to make soap today. So they invited us to take part and help. I can tell you, the soap smells heavenly and it is really bubbly.




I helped to cut the basic soap into pieces.




Then we had to melt it in the microwave.




I tried to help with the Asian letters.




Then Sabrina added some red colour and vanilla perfume.






At last we added blue colour.

Today we helped to make some "Schichtsalat" for Petra's sister's birthday. Usually you should prepare it the evening before.

1 leek, finely sliced
1 small tin of sweetcorn, drained
1 small tin of pineapple chunks, drained
150g cooked ham, diced
1 small glass of celery salad, drained (hmm, very German, you could replace it with gherkins)
2 apples, cored and diced
200g Gouda, cubed
3 hard boiled eggs, diced or sliced
1 glass of Miracle Whip (can you get this in the UK? It is mayonaisse, I can check the quantity tomorrow for you)
Place the ingredients in a bowl in the order of the above list. Do not stir. Place in fridge overnight.
Stir just before serving.
You can replace the pineapple with mandarine oranges if you prefer.
This makes a bowl for about 8-10 portions.

Right before we started to prepare the dough for our Donauwellenkuchen Tito arrived in Bruchsal. The first place, that he saw, was the kitchen.





At first he had to tell a lot about Mexico and everyone told him about their lifes as a toyvoyager, but Petra said, that we would have more time to tell stories, but now we would have to get ready with our work.




So he climbed on Cassiopeia's back to have a place with a good view over everything.




At first we added white and then brown dough into the baking dish.






Then we added morello cherries.






While the cake was in the oven, Petra showed us the snowdrops in her backyard.




Because it just didn't rain, she thought, it would be a good idea to go to the church, which is only a few meters from our home. We all were happy to see something else than the house.

We saw the call box next to the church and I thought about calling you, but Petra told me, that it will be too expensive to do it.





This is the church St. Peter. It is a baroque church and I think, it is really nice. Maybe we can take a photo, when it is sunny, too.
The Church of St. Peter is an original building of the 18th century and was not destroyed during World War II. The church was designed by the world famous baroque architect builder Balthasar Neumann.
The cementery behind it is a beautiful place for peaceful, contemplative walkds and its numerous memorials also rovide an insight into the history of Bruchsal and its people.






We found a stone about the Baden Revolution. It is a reminder of the citizens of Bruchsal, who were victims of the Baden Revolution. It was erected on the initiative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and dedicated on 1st November 1900. Here, next to the church you can see the grave of Johann Baptist Bekk, He was Minister of the Interior in Baden during the years of the Revolution and found his final resting place in Bruchsal. (www.bruchsal-erleben.de)






The roofs belong to an old part of Bruchsal. Most old parts were destroyed during World War II. In the far you see a big grey building. It is a private grammar school founded by patres of the Pallotti order.





When you stand in front of the entrance of the church and just turn around, you have this nice view.




After we came home again, we had to get ready with the cake. First we had to make a butter cream and then we had to make a chocolate icing. This time Petra was really unhappy, that the icing didn't look nice.

Today we drove to the Michaelsberg in Untergrombach. Untergrombach is one of Bruchsal's suburbs with about 6000 inhabitants.
3500 to 2600 BC there were frist human signs on the Michaelsberg, which gave this culture the name "Michaelsberger Kulturkreis"
1502 AD Joss Fritz from Untergrombach planned the "Bundschuhaufstand" during the time of Peasant's Wars.

The chapel is on top of the Michaelsberg.





In the far (right side) you see some houses, which belong to Bruchsal.





Bruchsal and also Untergrombach are located at the edge to the Kraichgau. Here you see the Rhine Valley. If the weather is sunny, you can see the Palatinate Forest in the far.







I learned something about "Magerrasen" (neglected grassland), which is typical for the Michaelsberg. Behind the sign you see so-called "Steinriegel" (field clearance cairn), made by people working on their fields a long long time ago. They threw the big stones from their fields to the border of the neighbour's field, so that in the middle all stones were accumulated. Many animals and flowers love this gaunt places and that's why a few weeks ago, people cleaned the Steinriegel from all the earth, that came between the stone during the many many years and from all the other plants, that love to grow in earth.





The nature reserve sign

Back at home again it was time for Cassiopeia and Mousy Mouse to say goodbye to everyone.

Petra and her family decided to visit the railway museum in Heilbronn. They asked friends to join them and of course, they didn't forget to take us with them too.
We all were fascinated by those big locomotives and I hope, you aren't too disappointed, that there will be no explanation about each single one.

Today Petra asked me and some other toyvoyagers to help her in her so called "paper-room" at school. She had to sort the paper, which they need for handicrafts and more.






(sorry for the blurry photo)