Travelog for: Lady

We took a walk in Gelpetal, a region between Remscheid and the neighbour town Wuppertal where you can see some historic industrial plants. In Remscheid you have metalworking industry since medieval times, partly because of the geographical situation. The city of Remscheid is located on a hill which is surrounded by valleys where you can find lots of creeks. In ancient times water power was used to run forges. At the beginning of the path that leads through the valley you can find severeal boards with informations about the valley.



You can also find fishing ponds here.



We reached a restaurant which is located here for more than 100 years.



You can also find a small dam for drinking water in the forrest. Here we are standing on the dam.



The weather has gone bad in the meantime, it’s already raining a little bit.



These houses are typical for this region, half-timered houses with green shutters. The weather side is often covered with schist.



From this moment on it startet to rain heavily and we jumped into Katja’s bagpack.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,

today we took a walk in the outskirts of Remscheid. We started on the same path as on Friday.

Here you can see the sign at the entrance of the path and one of the historic buildings.







We walked through the forrest to the next district. Here we saw much grazing land, in the background you can see the silhouette of the town centre of Remscheid with the towers of the town hall and the water tower. Here you can see that the town centre is located on a hill.



Here you can see a photo of the district „Westen“. It’s funny that the district’s name means “West” although it is lying in the north of the muncipal area.



Katja made a flower chain for Bokkie, she was really looking beautiful with it.



We reached the next district where you can also the typical houses, you can also see that there is a lot of woodland around these small districts.



We saw again pasture and harvested fields .
In the background you can see the town’s silhouette again. We rested on a bank for a while.



.

We went through a meadow with flowers which were almost as large as an adult person.



On our way back to the town we decided to have coffee and muffins at the home of Katja's friend. Here we played hide and seek between the flower pots on the balcony. Can you see me among those red flowers?



We were very tired now.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,
a new ToyVoyager arrived today - Dieuwerke from the Netherlands.

We had delicious cookies: letter shaped chocolate-cookies:



Katja wrote my name with the cookies.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,
today a new ToyVoyager arrived - Pien, a cute little elephant. I was sleeping when he arrived.



Katja took me, Dieuwerke and Pien with her to work in the afternoon. She is working in a law firm. We had a lot of fun in the office and we kept her from working too much successfully.

First we were sitting on the telephone



and on her files.



We found something really exciting - the photocopier! We made a photo of our backsides, but that did not look so good.



We tried it once more



and this time our photo was much better. Have a look!



Now it was time for Katja to work a few hours. We were banished onto a filing cabinet with a really good overview.



This hard work really made us tired.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk in a  forrest. Remscheid is surrounded by forrests so there are lots of forrests I haven't seen so far.

We saw a small farm. Two dogs were watching over the yard.



We saw large stacks of wood. Katja told us that in January 2007 a terrible storm destroyed large parts of woodland. Even today not all the fallen trees are taken away.





That golden light in late summer is beautiful.



We saw Schloss Burg, a medieval castle which was built in 12th century. Maybe we will visit this castle some day.



Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,

today we visited Cologne. We went there by bus. We arrived in Cologne at 10:30 a.m.

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city. 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. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. It is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. In 1996 it was designated a World Heritage site.

Katja had a wonderful surprise for us. We met fam-united and her family in Cologne! She was also showing Cologne to a lot of happy ToyVoyagers.

Of course we started our tour at Cologne Cathedral.







We wanted to take a look inside the cathedral but there was still church services going on, so we decided to walk around and have lunch first.

We walked to the river Rhine first. The old town is close to the river.







We found the perfect place to take photos with all ToyVoyagers, both Katja's and Petra's. Have you ever seen so many ToyVoyagers all at once?





We went back into town then to walk to the restaurant we had chosen for lunch. This restaurant belongs to a brewery, Mühlen Kölsch.



Of course we had a "Kölsch" there, a special beer which is only brewed in Cologne.



When we finished lunch we walked back to cathedral. Now we could view the inside.

Cologne Cathedral is one of the world's largest churches, being the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Construction, with interruptions, of the gothic church began in 1248 and took until 1880 to complete – a period of more than  six hundred years. It is 144.5 metres long, 86.5 m wide and its two towers are 157 m tall.





After viewing the cathedral we went back into town again because the ladies were in need of coffee.

We found a nice cafe.



Here you can see Katja, Petra and all ToyVoyagers who visited Cologne today.



Now we had to walk to the central station. We had to get home by train, Petra and her family went home by car.

We took a last photo of the cathedral, this time even with both towers on the photo.



Here you can see the central station.





We said good-bye to all the other TVs and of course Petra and her family.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy.

Katja showed us the town hall today.

The town hall was built in 1906. In world war II it was nearly destroyed but rebuilt later. The tower is 48 m high!

The farmer's market is held on Wednesday and Saturday on the place in front of the town hall.

The lion is the heraldic animal of Remscheid, you can see it on the pillar.





Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,

today we  visited Katja’s sister. She is living in Remscheid-Lennep. Lennep suburbanized to Remscheid in the year 1929. Lennep was founded in 12th century, receive its town charter in 1230 A.D. It’s one of the oldest towns in the region “Bergisches Land”. Its medieval city centre is mostly maintained, many houses are listed buildings.

We started a little sightseeing tour in a small park. You can see that autumn is coming.





This wall is part of the city's former fortification.



This weekend the annual city party is held, it's called "Altstadtfest". They have a flea market, live music and the shops are open even on Sunday. Unfotunately the weather was not good today.





We saw lots of cute plushy guys who were looking for a new home. We rescued three of them. Katja took a funny little red guy with her and also two cute little bears. I will show them to you later.

Later we walked through the old town. Let me show you some nice places.





Many fences are overgrown, some of them with grape-vine.





Can you see my friends sitting in the plant?

We went to Katja's sister's home then. On the balcony we made a group photo with the  three new friends.



Now we are all debating about names for those three new friends.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,

today the weather got better again. In the afternoon, when Katja came home from work, the sun was shining. She wanted to go outside with us but she had to pack the Teddy Bears for Threadbear first.

When the package was pasted and labeled we went to the post office first. The Teddy Bears are on their way to South Africa now!

The post office is located in one of the old districts of Remscheid, in Hasten.

Here you can find many of the old typical houses.



Katja wanted to show us  the muncipal park. We walked along the "Route of tools" (Trasse des Werkzeugs) to get there. This is a lane for pedestrians that was built on a closed railway line. It was sponsored by local industrial companies. Most of them are metalworking industry, they make all sorts of tools.

You can find many signs and artwork of local artists along this route.

This bank is made from a gigantic screw clamp.



This is one of the tool symbols on the ground.



When we left this route we had to walk straight uphill to get to the muncipal park.



This is the observatory.



The next picture is made in the park. In spring and summer many flowers are blooming in the park. Now there are only a few kinds of flowers blooming, these for example.



This pillar is a memorial place for citizens of Remscheid which died as soldiers in previous wars before world war I.



Large parts of the park appear more like a forrest than a park. Here you can see that autumn is coming soon!



On our way back home we walked through another little park. Here you can find a pillar that's showing the crest of Remscheid and the names of the partner towns.



Katja's daughter cooked pasta with tuna sauce for us. We'll go to bed soon.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,
we went into the town centre today to buy some things for our dinner. This time we saw the town hall from the rear side. The building site on the left side belongs to the shopping mall which will be enlarged.



Here you can see the water tower. From here the households in the town centre are supplied with water.



The next picture is taken in the shopping mall. They have a Nici-Shop here!



As you can see on the photos there's no longer good weather. Now in the evening it's raining really heavy.

Bye
Lady


It started to rain again. Such a pity.

Bye

Hi Mummy,
we made a fantastic trip today. Katja met her friend Erika at 10:00 a.m. The two ladies had something really special in their minds.

Today it is the "Tag des offenen Denkmals". In english it is called European Heritage Days.

European Heritage Days is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 49 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, Europe: a common heritage. The annual programme offers opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally accessible to the public. It aims to widen access and foster care for architectural and environmental heritage. This years’s motto is "Archaelogy and building research".

We decided to visit an ancient mine today. In this region ore mining started in 16th century.

There were three different periods of mining: The first one was before Thirty-Years War (1618 - 1648), the second one from 1758 – 1765 and the third one in 1853. Traces of the second period are difficult to find today.

Mining stopped after the first two periods because there was no possibility for smelting in this region. Actually they had watercraft, but the owners of the lot where smelting would have been possible had no interest in building a smelting works. They even were disappropriated. During this time the slag heaps had become so large that it was impossible to smelt the iron core.

Then in 1853 there was a last effort to revive the mines. In World War I parts of the large slag heaps were assimilated.

In a wooded area a local construction engineer excavated a gallery on his own ground. He found the mouth and built a new pit. Today we were able to see the pit. Before photos of the building site were shown. The engineer startet his work in 2002 and in about two or three years the mine should be ready for visitors.

Now I will show you some photos.

Here we are on our way to the forrest where the mine is located. We are standing on a railway bridge here.



Suneshine in the forrest ...



A view from above to the pit ...



This is the emblem of the association that arranged this meeting.



This is  the entrance to the pit, hanging above is the closing.



The pit goes down 6 metres and meets the gallery then. It is revetted with concrete.



Here you can see the mouth, unfortunately one of the outside walls crashed so it was not possible to go inside.



We walked then through the forrest to Schloss Burg, an medieval castle in the neighbour town Solingen

We reached Solingen-Unterburg. On our way through the forrest we saw many mushrooms. We had a lot of rain here last week, that makes mushrooms grow.



We had to walk downhill really steep to get there. You can see many old houses here.



A cute cat was lounging in the sun.



Here the Burger Pretzels are made and sold. Burger Pretzels are a local speciality, they are sweet pretzels. This is the "Pretzel bakery".



This is the creek "Eschbach", it's flowing into the river Wupper in this district.



We then walked uphill to the castle. It is located above the river Wupper. Those who don't want to walk take the chair lift.



Schloss Burg, located in Burg an der Wupper (Solingen), is the largest reconstructed castle in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and one of the most popular tourist attraction. Its early history is closely connected to the growth of the Duchy of Berg.

In the beginning of the 12th century (after 1133) count Adolf II von Berg built Schloss Burg on a mountain over the river Wupper.

In 1632 the castle was under siege  by Swedish soldiers. After the Thirty years war, in 1648, Imperial troops destroyed the fortifications of the castle including the keep, walls, and gates. In 1700, the main building was partially reconstructed and thereafter used for administrative purposes. 1849, the castle was sold to be scrapped, decayed, and became a ruin.

Today’s appearance is not exactly the original castle was. The reconstructed castle of today is a major public attraction. It also contains the Museum of the Bergische Land. The surroundings offer hiking trails to the forests and to Unterburg, that is where the village is located, at the foot of the mountain.











When we walked back downhill we took another photo. Here you can see the distance to the other part of this district.



Here we saw an ancient cementary. It was sided here in 18th century with 105 similar looking tombstones. About 50 of them are preserved until today. They are all made of a special sort of sandstone.





From here we walked to Muengsten Bridge.

Here we are standing exactly underneath the bridge.



The Müngsten Bridge is the highest steel railroad bridge in Germany. The bridge is 107 metres  high and spans over the valley of the river Wupper, connecting the cities Remscheid and Solingen. Originally the bridge was named Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke (emperor Wilhelm bridge), to honour emperor Wilhelm I. After the end of the monarchy the bridge was named after the district between Remscheid and Solingen.

We could see the bridge from a beautiful look-out pavillon.







Can you imagine how long we were walking now? It was about 16.30 p.m. when we reached the pavillon.

Katja showed us our tour in Google Earth. Here you can see a picture of today's tour. It was about 17 km long!

today's tour

I'm sooo tired now! I will go to sleep immediately.

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,
today Katja took me, Hueso and Bokkie with her in the morning. The weather is looking better again and she wanted  to show us a little bit more of the town centre because we will leave soon.

We went with her to her working place. In the late morning she had to go to the local court to pick of the mail there.

On our way to the court house we went through a very narrow lane, it is the most narrow public lane in this town.





In the court house they have a room for the lawyers which are working in Remscheid. Every lawyer and law firm has a mail box here. Here the mail between the local lawyers and the court is exchanged so it does not cost postage charges for anyone.

Hueso and I were sitting in the mail box of Katja's boss.



On our way back to the office we enjoyed the morning sun although it was not warm.



Do you know what this is?



These are sweet chestnuts. Katja told us that in winter hot chestnuts are sold on the christmas markets.

Now you will see a bit more of the town centre with the shopping mall.







I will spend the weekend with Katja's colleague Elke. She is taking a trip to the river Mosel with her husband. Hueso is also coming with us. We will join a winetasting there!

Bye
Lady

Hi Mummy,
Katja's colleague Elke took me and Hueso with her for her weekend trip. Elke and her husband spent the weekend at the river Moselle (in German: Mosel).

On our way to the river Moselle we had a stopover at a camping ground in Hahn am See. We visited one of Elkes friends from her skittles club there.





After a short walk we had a sparkling wine with strawberries, called "Love charm". Really refreshing!





When the bottle was empty we had a little nap.



When we reached the river Moselle we needed a refreshment from a well.



Bye
Lady