Travelog for: Shaggy Bear

Hi Mummy,
today Katja took me with her to work because she wanted to buy some vegetables on the farmer's market afterwards.

The market is held on the place in front of the town-hall. In front of the building we saw this fire engine.



Katja bought her vegetables at this fruit and veg stall. She bought cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes and leek.





We had to hurry because the market was already closing. When we arrived at home it came back to her that she forgot to buy apples. (Why did she make a photo of me sitting on all these apples  ?)

Back home a surprise was waiting for us. On the kitchen table we found an envelope with something struggling and moaning inside. This could only be Moony!



We opened the envelope and freed poor Moony.



We had lunch and we  tried Katja's coffee. She has a mug with a ... a rat on it, what else?

We will take a walk later so Moony will see where he landed.

Bye,
Shaggy Bear

Hi Mummy,
in the afternoon we took a walk with Moony. As soon as we got outside the weather was getting worse. It started to drizzle.

Can you see the animal in the enclosure? It is a pot-bellied pig. Katja said there had to be more of them, but only one was outside the stable.



You can see many old granges like this, only in a short distance to the main road.



This is one of Remscheid's sports halls. You can find one of Remscheid''s stadium next to it.



We walked into a forrest, along a cemetary. On this cemetary you can also find a memorial for dead soldiers of World War I. We will visit it when the weather will be better. I hope it will be better the next days.

Unfortunately I'm not going to Bavaria tomorrow. Katja's collegue will not travel there because someone of her relatives is ill.

I'm looking foreward to dinner. We'll have pizza.

Bye
Shaggy Bear

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk in the evening, Katja, her daughter, Moony and me. We went through an old district of Remscheid, called "Blumental", in English it would be "Flower Valley". In this district many streets are named as operas written by Richard Wagner, for example we have a Valkyrie-Street, Tannhaeuser-Street, Rhinegold-Street, Parzival-Street and some more.

In this district you can find some beautiful old houses like these:





When we left the valley, we went along some grazing land. In the background you can see bales of straw, protected by foil.



From here you can see the silhouette of Remscheid. The sun has already begun to go down. Look, you can even see the tower of the town-hall, almost exactly in the middle of the photo, a little bit left of Moony's nose.



When we arrived home it was almost dark. From here we only had to cross two streets and than we arrived at  Katja's home. We walked for two hours.



I will close now, Mummy. Tomorrow Moony and me will go to the office with Katja. Maybe we can help her a little bit.

Bye
Shaggy Bear

Hi Mummy,
today Katja took us with her to work. We had a lot of fun. We read today's newspaper in the waiting room. Later we helped her to arrange some dates, we helped to make photocopies and to type something.







The most fun we had with the postage meter.



In Germany you have  to collect your mail with postage meter stamps in such large red envelopes before you put it into the mail box.





Then we brought today's mail to the mail box.

On our way home Katja had to buy some batteries in the shopping mall. Today we saw an artist!



In the afternoon Katja will take a walk with a friend. I'm looking foreward to it, I love forrests.

Bye
Shaggy Bear

Hi Mummy,
in the afternoon we took a walk with Katja's friend. She has two boys, one of them was going to his basketball lesson and the smaller one visited his grandma.

We saw some interesting signs in the forrest today. Maybe you have seen something like this before?



You can find such a sign at stream beds, which are made of concrete. Usually there is flowing only little water, but with heavy rainfall these stream beds can turn to a torrent. So you are not allowed to play oder walk there.

The  next sign means that this area is a nature reserve.



This sign is showing the course of a subsurface gas conduit.
In the forrest some people built their houses and of course they need gas for heating or cooking.



We walked back along the railway route.



Then we went to the sports-hall to pick up the son of Katja's friend. The boys are already gone to the changing room.



We went home because Katja has to do a lot of updates 

Tomorrow we will go to Wuppertal, the town with the world famous "Schwebebahn", a suspension railway.

Bye
Shaggy Bear

Hi Mummy,
today we went to Wuppertal for shopping. Wuppertal is the neighbour town north to Remscheid. We got there by bus. As the name of the town implies it is built along the valley of the river Wupper.

Let's begin with the Concert-Hall, inaugurated in 1900 by the German emperor, William II, and his wife.



One of the most famous jewelers in Wuppertal has a museum for clocks. Here you can see a glockenspiel that's playing a song every hour.



Then we had lunch. Guess where  ?



We also bought shoes for Katja's daughter.

Along the river Wupper the "Schwebebahn" is built. The Schwebebahn is a suspension railway that was opened in 1901 A.D. It is the oldest monorail system in the world.

The suspension railway travels along a route 13.3 kilometres long, about 12 metres above the surface of the river Wupper  and approximately 8 m above the city streets.  At one point the railway crosses the A46 motorway. The entire trip takes about 30 minutes.

I like the Schwebebahn. It's swinging in curves. We made some photos.









Here you can see the "Kaiserwagen", a historical waggon. You can hire it for special events like marriages or birthday parties, it's not used for regular transportation.



We're resting a little bit, 8 m above the street.



Here you can see us sitting near the station "Landgericht", the  district court.



Here is a station that was restored some years ago. It is the station "Schauspielhaus". The Tanztheater Wuppertal, headed by Pina Bausch, is world-famous and regularly plays at theatres in New York, Tokyo, Paris, London etc.



In front of the Tanztheater we saw this funny colored container. I think it is used for information and selling tickets.



We were very tired and drove back home by bus. At home Katja cooked pasta with vegetables, cheese and tomatoe sauce for us.  Moony and me went to sleep without watching television.

Bye
Shaggy Bear

Hi Mommy,
this is my last evening with Katja, her family and Moony.
Katja had a surprise for Moony and me - "Ü-Eier", actually their correct name is "Kinder Überraschung", but everyone is calling them only "Ü-Ei". This is an egg made of white and milk chocolate, containing a yellow plastic egg with a little surprise inside.

We opened them, ate the yummy chocolate and opened the plastic eggs.

I found a small toy in it. You can let a green ring fly around. Moony found a little orange bunny in his egg.







We played the whole evening with our toys.

I'm a little bit sad that I have to leave tomorrow, but I'm sure I will have as much fun in northern Germany. Katja told me that Hamburg is a beautiful town with a fantastic inner port. She also told something about "Reeperbahn" ... This is not a transportation system .... Maybe I will learn more about it.

I will go to bed now because I have to get up early tomorrow to get ready for travelling.

Bye
Shaggy Bear

Hi Mummy,
I'm on my way to Hamburg!



Katja and Moony gave me a hug and then my envelope was closed. I hope that I arrive in Hamburg soon, maybe already tomorrow.

Bye
Shaggy Bear

Hello out there!
I arrived in Hamburg at Jenny's house after a short trip of only two days. I had to wait for her in my envelope because Jenny had to stay at university until 6 pm. But when she arrived at home the first thing was freeing me from the envelope and reading the nice postcard I was given for her.

Although it was a short journey, I was very tired. So I had a little sleep while Jenny went to play some volleyball.

After sleeping for 2 hours I was wake enough to meet some new friends. There are three little bears here and they are all very kind. I hope we will have a lot of fun together.

It is really late now and we will go to bed to be fit tomorrow.
Good night!

Hello everyone

I couldn't update here yesterday so I will tell you now. I stayed at home while Jenny was at university again. I think she is very busy there. But after she was back home, we had some very delicious cake. I met two new guys over the day and I shared my cake with them. The left one had stayed with Jenny all her life, he was a present for her birth.
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In the evening we watched a handball match on TV.

The teams were HSV Handball versus THW Kiel. I don't know were Kiel is but they are very good players I think. But Jenny naturally supports the team from Hamburg. She showed me her flag from Hamburg and we made some photos. Ah, the match ended 36:36...
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I hope I will see more of Hamburg soon. Tomorrow we will take a walk around the neighbourhood and we will go sightseeing at the weekend. I hope the weather will be good. Today there was some rain and very much grey...

Hello again!
As the weather was okay this afternoon, Jenny went to a playground with me. It is next to her house and we didn't have to go far. The sand is really bad so we couldn't built a castle from sand but we found some other nice things. It was really fun to have some time out in the fresh air.


After we had enough of the playground we went to a supermarket to buy some things. I saw some of the neighbourhood as well. But there wasn't anything really special. It was just interesting to see how people live in Hamburg.

Before we went in again, we looked at the flowers in the garden. It is finally getting warmer in northern Germany, so all the flowers start to grow and make blossoms. It looks really nice. I also met the budgie PingPing today. He lives with the family. But Jenny told me that he doesn't like cameras at all. So the picture was taken from as far away as possible.

This evening I met another TV. He is called Ceryni and has lived with Jenny all his live. But now he decided to go travelling. We talked a lot about my expiriences as a TV. I like him very much, he knows a lot about the world.

We will now go to bed.
Stay well,
Shaggy Bear

Today I went with Jenny to a volleyball competition. We had to go around 30 minutes by car to get there. It was very exciting to see so many people playing volleyball. It was some mixed-class, so that men and women played together.

I got a bot bored in the afternoon because I could just sit and watch. Jenny took me out then and we explored the place around the "arena". We found some very beautiful flowers and a strange bus stop.

In the end we saw another playground and had some fun there. They had a very nice castle to play on.

I hope that I can see Hamburg tomorrow. I am so excited about the harbour and the thing that is called "Reeperbahn".

Hui, what an exciting day! I have been at the harbour, the Michel and the Speicherstadt! But let me tell you one after another...
First we went to the harbour. You have a beautiful view over the harbour just when you come out of the station. There is all the water anmd all the ships. And a lot of tourists.

After we have looked over the harbour we went down to the ships. The platforms swin directly on the water so that no flood can harm them. But I didn't feel anything like that. Mostly I liked the green boat "Rickmer Rickmers". It is an old sailing ship and once a year it still goes to a sailing trip.

The industrial and trading harbour is on the other side of the river. I wanted to visit it but the ships were crouded with people and so we couldn't go. I am very sad about it. There is also the location of the famous musical "The Lion King".

After this, we went to the the main church of Hamburg. It is called St. Michaelis-Church but the people from Hamburg just call it "Michel". First we came along the churches from the sailors from Sweden, Danmark, Norway and Finland. I was really fascinated because the buildings doesn't look like churches.

The Michel is a very beautiful church, I liked it very much! But we weren't allowed to take any photos inside. We climbed up the tower and had an amazing look at Hamburg. Ok, actually we took the elevator. It was really windy up there and I feared to be blown away but Jenny hold me tight.



There was another platform a little higher were we had a look without any fences.

Near to the Michel are the "Kramer Amtsstuben". They are really norrow. I wonder how anybody could have lived there.

Finally we had a walk thruogh the "Speicherstadt". In the past the tradings goods were stored there. The houses were built directly at the water to transport the goods from the ships straightly into the houses. Today mosly carpets from the Orient are stored there...

As the Speicherstadt is really famous, a lot of interesting shows are located there. We discoverd a toy museum, a horror show, a duty museum and a model railway museum. I think we will visit any of them but as they are expensive, we can't visit them all.


After this long tour we were very tired and decided to go home. The harbour was very nice and I am looking forward to see more of Hamburg!

Hello!
Two days ago we made very delicous muffins here. As we had some classic ones last week, we just made some with chocolate and cherrys this time. We really baked a lot of muffins because Jenny took some to the university. First we searched for all the things we needed in the kitchen.

When everything was well mixed, we started to put the dough into form. There was space for 12 muffins in every turn.

The last step, as everyone knows, was to put the muffins into the oven and wait for about half an hour.

We were so excited about the smell that we forgot to take a photo of me and the ready muffins... But be sure, they were very good!

Hello again!
I am back from a very exciting day! As the weather was really beautiful, we went first to the Reeperbahn. I was very keen to see what this is. Jenny told me that it is today the place where most people go to have good and long partys. In history it was a place where ropes for ships were made. The name "Reeperbahn" comes from those times. First we went to the most famous police station in Hamburg, the "Davidwache". It is right in the middle of the Reeperbahn.

We walked along the Reeperbahn and saw a lot of interesting stores, restaurants, bars and discos. As it was Sunday, there were mostly tourists on the street.

Jenny wanted to show me a very special museum in Hamburg and so we went to the underground station "St. Pauli". This is the name of the area where the Reeperbahn is.

The walked past the museum on last Sunday but hadn't the time to go in. This time we spent about 2 hours inside and watched a whole world full of model railways. It was so amazing how real everything was done. On the way to the WC, there were little "windows" in the wall.

First we visited Switzerland.

There was even a Lindt-chocolate factory with real chocolate coming out!

Our next stop was Hamburg. I saw the "DOM". It is a fair that takes place 3 times every year in Hamburg but not now during my visit. I am a bit sad about that... They also had the "Köhlbrandbrücke". It is a bridge above the Elbe and an important way south from Hamburg.

They also built America, so I "visited" the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. They simulate day and night there. Las Vegas was very impressing by night with all the lights.

The last part of the world I saw was Scandinavia. They built Norway with a lot of real water. It looked very real. Finland (which is not actually a part of Scandinavia) was built with lots of snow and reindeers. I also saw Pippi Longstockings from Sweden!

At the end could drive a train by myself and I was very happy to meet another bear there!

On our way back home we had to take the station at the harbour. We saw some special houses for Hamburg. They were the last typical harbour houses left. And we saw some cruise ship leaving the harbour. It was very big and it must be very great to go on a trip on the ship!

This will be one of my last updates from Hamburg as I will continue my travel some day in this week...