Travelog for: Shaggy Bear

Today I get to know my next destination. I will travel to Freiburg in southern Germany on Wednesday. Jenny has been there and she showed me some photos.

After this we looked once again around Jenny's place and I took a photo with some of Jenny's favorite books. And I said goodbye to my new friends.

Tomorrow I will write my last update and go into my envelope to on the road again!

Here comes my last update from Hamburg. I am already on my way to Freiburg in southern Germany. I hope my travel won't take long. Such an envelope is not very comfortable...

Goodbye Hamburg, I had a great time!

Hi everybody!

Today together with really fantastic weather I arrived at my new host in Freiburg. I was very warm welcomed  from her and toyvoyager hoppity, who is also staying here. That's great, so I'm not alone.
Both showed me a little bit around,  and later on, we're maybe going to have some ice cream!

Cu, Shaggy Bear

Hi!

Weeks run so fast, uff!

and my host were very busy, so hoppity and I helped her a little bit with the laundry. Until we found a cosy place in the clothes basket
Sarah need to go to supermarket and brought a really nice looking ice cream with her, a decorated one called "Vienetta" hmm it was very delicious!

Some days  ago, hoppity and I went with sarah to her work in a home for elderly. she showed us her coating room and the some parts of the elderlys home.
After that we went to her walking dog "Polly"
First I thought *oohhhh!!Panic!* Because it was a huge black dog
but she is very friendly and mainly hoggish.

We had a really nice walk with really nice weather and I hope we do it soon again.

Sarah has an appointment tommorrow, I don't know if we're able to go with her. Defently, we join her on Saturday, when we drive to the Black Forrest, to meet some friends of her.

So hear you next time again,  Shaggy

Hello everybody!

Yesterday, the weather was really warm, so  I went by train (so cool!) with hoppity and our host to Kirchzarten in the Black Forrest.

There I met Sarah's friend and a lot other toys. I was very shy first, luckily was hoppity there.
He picture me to his friend "Ih- Ah" a little bit slowly and depressive talking donkey, the sister to our host's whale Luca called "Orca", her dolphin friend "Dora" and a lot other's

After a while we started, hoppity and I were spoted in a small bag and walked through Kirchzarten, which is a nice village.

Our first stop was on a miniature golf area. And we watched and cheered our host, while her playing

After that we walked again through the nice nature and lots fields
and than (poor host) high up a rather rampant hill. Luckily we had that save place in her bag.

On the top we had a fantastic view over the landscape /hills and down fare Kirchzarten.
Also we visited the small church there, and had a break at the restaurant next to it (Badly silly host forgot to photograph that).
We sat under a  big tree with panorama of the area.

While walking down (this time on directly way on the street way)
we stopped at cemetery, to look after ours host's friend's dad grave.

Back home, we had a break so hoppity and I could Orca and Dolphin Dora, from our journey.

Our next trip started with driving by car to a nice restaurant, which is in the style of black forest tradition and area. The meals they had smells very nice.

Than we drove again, back to Freiburg, as Sarah told us. To the dancing school of our host's friends.
There we joined a dancing night in a huge impressively hall
with good music, lots of (well dressed) people.
It was really funny to see them (and other people) dancing or sometimes bouncing around like that

Very very late we were luckily droven home from our host friends, and all three went straight to bed.
What a exciting day!

Today, on sunday (it's Pentecost and Mother's Day) we get up very late (too late for church, Sarah said). So we started relaxed.

Bye, Shaggy

Hi!

I had a really nice last day here. As I didn't know from the surprise.
I just know, we're going for a little bit hiking.

While our host is hiking Hoppity and I sat on the top of here bag and had a really nice view about the diffent things on the way and what happenend.
It was really really hot, but luckily we had enough water bottles with us.
Everything was fine, until we had another drinking stop.
She hit an entrance or housing of ants. And a (absolutly true) horde of ants are everywhere and our host were screaming, because (so she said, they bit). Hoppity and I hide in the bag and Sarah closed asap the bag, so that we are save.
It really takes, with water and shaking the bag till most biting ants were gone, and we could move on, uff!!
After a long time in the sun (luckily I didn't get like our host a sunburn) we arrived in Kirchzarten, in Black Forrest!

There we went straigh, to an ice cream parlou an shared a big glas of strawberry milkshake together, so yummy!!!
We sat a while together and went than to a fountain, were Sarah is cooling down here feet.
Hoppity and I sat on a higher part of the fountain, but just I was brave enough to go to the border of it.



Than walked a head and met, the friend of our host I've been one time again, this was really nice to see her again!
For farewell we made a lot of different places, and especially the break at area of vale bailiwick  with small streams and the pond was great!





Than it was time to say goodbye from our host's friend and Kirchzarten and walked a nice way at the hometown stream "Dreisam" towards Freiburg.


The last part of the way, we made with a funny small bus and the Tram.
And had a nice evening together in front of the TV.
Tomorrow, when Sarah is going to work I'm ready in my envelope and going from the next letter box on a new journey.

So, good night and goodbye Freiburg!
Shaggy Bear

PS:The oneway camera is ultimatly full, and when the pictures are ready and digitalised Sarah will still insert them in my travellog.

I'm in Sweden!  I've arrived at my new host-mum Anna and host-dad Kent. And look! A new friend was waiting for me! This is my new friend Ramses, who's also staying here for a while. 

Yay, I'm at a picnic!  Here I am relaxing out in the wild, together with my new friends. This was so great, we stayed for hours and I enjoyed every second! 



Here I am at the picnic, getting a big bite of a delicious cream bun, yummy!! 



Here's me and my new freind Ramses at the picnic.  We ate so much, we fell asleep! 

Here I am in the town of Vadstena, at a real castle! 
Vadstena Castle was built by King Gustav Vasa in 1545 as a fortress to protect Stockholm (the Capital of Sweden) from enemies from the south.
The fortress consisted of three smaller stone buildings facing the lake, Vättern, three 31 meter wide ramparts, a courtyard, a moat and four circular cannons turrets. The original ramparts were torn down in the 19th century and the present ramparts were inaugurated in 1999. The stone buildings later formed the ground floor of the castle.

On August 22, 1552, King Gustav Vasa married his third wife, Katarina Stenbock, in Vadstena. One of the castle banqueting halls is called The Wedding Hall (Bröllopssalen), although its construction wasn't finished in time for the wedding.

The reconstruction from fortress into a castle began in the 1550s, when prince Magnus Vasa became Duke of Östergötland. Duke Magnus was the only son of Gustav Vasa who didn't become king of Sweden. Magnus died in 1595 and is buried in the nearby Abbey Church.

In 1620 the castle construction was finished and all the kings of the House of Vasa up till then had led the construction. Since 1620, the castle has been very well-preserved, and is one of Sweden's best examples of Renaissance architecture.

Hello !

Today I arrive to Jesenice. David show me his home and I meet his two gerbils Vinko & Stanko. David will upload some pictures soon... See you !


                                                              Greetings,
                                                                            Shaggy Bear

G'day mates! I have arrived in Johannesburg and it is blistering hot!

I have 21 days scheduled, so I'll try and do a daily update to tell you what it is like around here.

Fi said, I am just about to experience my first Highveld thunderstorm. She says when it gets unbearably hot and feels humid, it is a sure sign of rain as Jo'burg is usually very dry.

She also says I have to stop saying G'day mate and learn to speak like a local so: HOWZIT, my china! That is the exact translation of G'day Mate apparently. Oh well...when in Jo'burg...

Oh look how dark it is getting! That was very sudden.



We had to take a little drive. You can see Jo'burg city from here usually, just not when it is raining. Fi says it is much blacker behind us but she can't get a photo of it.



Holy thunderclap! That was scary...and loud. The thunder is quite vicious. I'm going to find a pillow to hide under.....

Howzit! See, I learn fast!

Today was lovely and cool...it was overcast almost the entire day and it has been rainy and stormy since 16.30.

Just before the storm started (my gosh it was rattling the windows - I thought they were going to fall out!) I went outside to have a look at the house Fi lives in.

Oh dear, the whole house doesn't fit in one photo! Can you see there is a room above the garage doors? That is the HOTTEST room in the house and where Fi spends all of her time - her PC is in there... and the sky looks blue here, but trust me it was actually grey.

See what all the sun and rain and hail have done to the gutters? She needs to get up her ladder with her paint brush!




And this is the rest of the house... bedrooms mostly.



And the back of the house - well part of it, too many trees in the way to see it all.



On my way round, I met one of the dogs... she sat and posed for a photo! (Showing her best side of course...)



I was most interested in supper this evening. I thought there would be ...oh... I don't know...lion? Kudu? Crocodile? Warthog? Worms?

It was boring old roast beef!!!



Fi, you have got to try harder with my whole African experience.

Today we went to watch Fi's son play in his last mini cricket match of the season. It was an amazing sight. There are about twenty games going on at the same time on one field! The field is circular and the teams spread out around the perimeter - kind of like a clock, here we are at half past four  That's our boy batting (in the blue shorts)



They won their match but scores are not kept at this level. They are encouraged to play for the love of it, not for winning - they save that for later when they go up against us Australians!

It was a sweltering hot day (38°C / 100.4°F) and there was NO SHADE and Fi got sunstroke (she really can't handle the heat - I can't believe she lives in Africa!) Well that put paid to any plans for the next few days....

As a special treat we all went out this evening to a family restaurant called the Lone Wolf Spur. Spur is a franchise right across the country. It has an American Indian theme though they are basically a steak house.

Hmmm...I'm starving, I wonder what's to eat?



Ooh! Pizza...wait, ribs! No, fish fingers....aarggh!



Yeah baby! Hang on, that's bigger than me! Who wants to share?



We were sitting outside as there is a huge play area for the children. Don't the lights look pretty? (Okay, okay - and a bit fuzzy...)



Naturally, as we were sitting outside, it started raining... so we went inside to the other play area. We watched a bit of a movie with Shane till we got bored and then played computer games with Natalie for a while.



...and then we climbed the wall...no really!



Fi can we have five Rand please?

It rains an awful lot in summer in Jo'burg.....