Travelog for: Theodore

Hi Mummy,

today we took a walk with Katja's friend Kerstin and her family dog, Pepe. We went to Wuppertal, Scharpenacken, which is 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.









Many people are coming with their dogs to let them play with others. There are also people flying model aircrafts or kites.



The complete area has a size of about 185 Hektar (or 457 acres). There are open ranges, trees, creeks, you can walk steep uphill or downhill.







Nothing but green and the blue sky!



We were resting here close to the creek while Pepe was playing with some dogs.





We are all hoping that the weather will stay like this.

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
we went to the town centre today. There is a spring market (the last years it was called Easter market and it was there for two weeks). This year it is taking place only this weekend. There are some booths for food and also some where they sell Easter decoration. There is also an exhibition of local artisans. They are showing their work which is related to gardening and construction of houses.

The owner of a local restaurant wants to set a new world record: He wants to sell the longest bruschetta which was ever sold. It is about 800 m long, sold in the shopping street.

When we went there, we walked along the town hall.



Here we are on Alleestraße, the shopping street, a pedestrian area.

This is a wood splitter. I don't think that any private person would buy such a maschine to make its own firewood, but it was nice to watch the machine working.



Here you can see a few metres of the world record bruschetta.



This artisan is carving several figures out of tree trunks, with a chainsaw!



They are also showing animals, chicken and goats.



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
in the afternoon one of Katja's friends called and asked if she wanted to take a walk with her. What a question to ask! Of course she wanted to take a walk.

We started our tour in Kueppelstein, a district in the southwest of the municipal area. It's a rural area. From here we went into the forrest.



I saw horses here, they looked as if they were in need of a shower.







We reached river Wupper than. I have been here before, in December, when we visited the medieval castle.





We found a rock which has a engraved board game on his top. Do you know this game, mills? Katja promised to take 18 gaming pieces when we should come here again. Then we would be able to play here.





In the background you can see Muengsten bridge now.



We had to walk uphill again ...



... and reached the bridge.





We rested close to a small waterfall for a moment.



We reached the outlook pavilion than. From here you can take perfect photo of Muengsten bridge, as long it is not late afternoon like now and you have to take care of backlight.





Almost perfect You can even see a train crossing the bridge right now.



Katja showed me this age-old beech tree. She says that it must be a few hundred years old.



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
in the late evening we helped Katja to prepare a mojito.

The mojito is one of the most famous rum-based highballs, originally from Cuba. You need five ingredients: white rum, lime juice, fresh mint leafes, cane sugar and carbonated water.



First you put the juice of a lime into a large glass, add two or three teaspoons cane sugar and mint leafes. Than mash with a muddler, so the sugar dissolves and the mint leafes will be bruised.



You fill in 6 cl white rum, carbonated water and crushed ice or ice cubes.



It's delicious and refreshing.

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today in Eifgental, a valley which is following the creek Eifgen in the neighbour town Wermelskirchen. We went with Katja's friend Kerstin, a girl named Tina and four dogs. One of them is Pepe, Kerstin's dog, and Kira, Bonny and Pino, Tina's dogs.

The valley itself is a nature protection area with only few houses. Here is one of them.



We walked along meadows and through forrests.





The forrest soil was covered with anemones in some areas.



Doesn't is look pretty here?



We even managed to take a group photograph of the dogs.



From the left they are Pepe, Pino, Bonny and Kira.



This is our last photo for today. The dogs had to clean their dirty feet and legs in the creek before getting into the car.



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
today we made a trip to the Eifel. The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia and northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate. It's close to the border of Belgium and the border of Luxemburg. We went to the northern part of the Eifel.

We had planned a hiking tour and a visit of Monschau, a little town with a beautiful old town, situated at the river Rur (not to be confused with the river Ruhr).

We parked the car at Perlenbachtalsperre, a drinking water reservoir dam. We started our hiking tour here.

We reached to small town Hoefen than, part of the so-called "Monschauer Heckenland" (country of hedges), an area around the town Monschau. Here were large beech hedges planted from the 17th century to protect houses from cold winds, coming from the Hohen Venn (High Fens). Many of those hedges are as high as houses.





We reached the small town Rohren than. Here we saw something really special: A small replica of the grotto of Lourdes, a major place of Christian pilgrimage and of alleged miraculous healings.

We drove to Monschau finally. The historic town center was not destroyed in World War II, so the many half-timbered houses and narrow streets nearly unchanged for 300 years make it a popular tourist attraction nowadays. Historically the main industry of the town were cloth-mills. Monschau is also famous for its historic mustard mill.







They have steep stairs everywhere to reach the streets which are lying at the hill.







What a pity that the weather became so bad, we would have liked to sit down on the market place to have a coffee.





On our way back home we saw this base load power plant next to the motorway A4. Not a pretty sight!



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy.

we visited Katja's parents today. They are living in the district Lennep, the second largest urban district.

Lennep has a historical old town, rebuilt afer the last devastating major fire in 1746 A.D. Many houses are under preservaton order.

We saw a blooming tree in a park.



A part of the town centre is still surrounded by remains of the former city wall. We are sitting on this wall.





Typical for the townscape are narrow lanes.



This is the market place, the farmer's market is taking place today.









You can see forsythia everywhere.





When wee took our photos the sun was shining. In the afternoon it started raining again.

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

we took a walk today. Katja told us that now the forrests are nearly green, so we should have a look. Yes, she seems to be right.





This is Muengsten Bridge, which I already showed to you. Katja knows a walking path which is directly beneath the tracks. It's hard to believe that this bridge is 107 m high.



This is a blooming apple tree. If I would still be here in late summer I could pinch some apples here.



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today through the outskirts of the neighbour town Wuppertal. First we had to walk downhill to the valley of Morsbach, a creek which is marking the border between Remscheid and Wuppertal.

From here we had to walk uphill to Wuppertal. Here we are in the middle of the forrest.



You can see fish ponds in the background.



From here you can see a part of the municipal area of Remscheid, the hill in the background.



We walked into the forrest again and returned to Morsbachtal. We rested close to the creek for a while.





We decided to walk to Muengsten Bridge again, because today we could take pretty sunshine photos. Here we are on the way to Muengsten Bridge.



This time we went to the leisure park which was built beneath the bridge a few years ago.





Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
in Germany they have a lot of holidays and commemoration days. Today it's Take Our Daughters To Work Day. Yes, only for the daughters, In Germany it is called Girl's Day. It is meant to introduce girls to professions which are not the typically professions for females.

But even better, it's Day Of The German Beer (Tag des deutschen Bieres) which referes to the German purity law, which was edicted on April 23rd, 1516 A.D.



Katja bought several bottles of beer for us. We had a Paulaner Salvator first, a double beer.





Katja bought some more beers, have a look. Is there any beer which is also known in the USA Beck's beer, I think, is also known in the USA.



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

today we took a walk in the neigbour town Solingen. Katja wanted to show Schloss Burg to Migui+Gui and Decker. Katja's friend Kerstin went with us, this time without her dog Pepe.

We parked the car in Solingen-Unterburg, Almost exactly high above the parking lot you find Schloss Burg. You have to walk there, always uphill or you can take the cablecar. This is the valley station of the cablecar. Of course we had to walk uphill.



Once again I admired those pretty old houses.



In Solingen they have a trolleybus system with a reverser disk. There are only three reverser disks in use worldwide: The one in Solingen and two in England.





Here you can see the cablecar going uphill.



We had to walk uphill, for hours as it seemed to me. We rested in the outlook pavilio I already saw in December.  The ceiling of the pavilion is decorated with the city arms of the surrounding towns, so here is also the city arms of Remscheid.



We reached an outdoor facilityof the castle  first, here you can find memorials for the dead of both World Wars.









We went to the castle then.

Unfortunately we could not get to the courtyard because it was prepared for some events in the following days, especially for Walpurgis Night.



We left the castle than and walked on through the outskirts of Burg. 



You can find farms here, pastures, forrests and large piles of tree trunks.







Here someone decorated his fence with planted shoes.



When we reached the valley again we saw a pump which was once used in a nearby drinking water reservoir.





We walked back along the river Wupper.



This is an ear trumpet which is intensifyieng the sound of the flowing water.



Here is a weir. We rested here for a while.





We reached the car than and went home. Tomorrow we will go to the fun fair

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

we visited Cologne today. Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city and is the largest city in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the Romans in the year 38 BC. Cologne lies on the River Rhine.

We went to Cologne by train and reached Cologne Central station after about an hour train ride.



The first thing you see when you leave the central station is Cologne Cathedral. The cathedral is a World Heritage Site, being one of the best-known architectural monuments in Germany, and Cologne's most famous landmark. Cologne Cathedral is one of the world's largest churches, being the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Building of the Gothic church began in 1248 and took, with several interruptions, until 1880 to complete – a period of more than six hundred years. It is about 144 metres long, 86 m wide and its two towers are 157 m tall.



In the afternoon we took much better photos of the Cathedral, with much better light incidence than. We went inside the Cathedral. Of course I will show you the inside.





We went to the shopping streets than, especially to Schildergasse.









Many peple are riding bike here, because it's really flat here.

We went to the Altstadt (old town) than. This is Guerzenich, part of the old town.



From here we went to Heumarkt. We had lunch here.





This is one of the most famous pubs here, Paeffgen.



More pictures of the old town are following.









Finally we reached River Rhine! There are some excursion boats waiting for passengers.



Here you can see Hohenzollernbrücke (Hohenzollern Bridge)  which is a bridge for rail and pedestrian traffic.



Back to the old town with it's narrow lanes than ...







We left the old town and decided to take a walk along the river.







Here you can see the Schokoladenmuseum (Chocolate museum). We didn't go inside because we enjoyed the sunshine, besides the museum was really crowded with visitors.





Katja told us that they have a fountain with molten chocolate, you can dip cookies into the chocolate.

They have an outlook platform on the museum, from  here you have a really good overview.

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We went back to the cathedral than. On our way we saw many more interesting things.





In the background of the next photo you can see one of the most famous breweries of Cologne: Früh Kölsch. They are brewing Kölsch beer here, a top-fermented beer.



It's almost impossible to take a photo of the complete cathedral because it is simply too large and standing among many buildings. But we tried our best to take some photos showing some details.













Did I already mention that we released six ToyVoyagers here in Cologne?

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
when Katja came home in her lunch break she told me that I would travel home today. Nathalie will accompany me.

Katja bought some vegetables on the farmer's market.



The nice weather is gone, have a look:



That is really a good reason to come home to Florida.

We are ready to leave now.



I've packed my things and than we climbed into our envelope.

Bye, Mummy!

See you soon.

Love
Theodore