Travelog for: Emil

Our host is very interested in herbs so we helped her to search for them. We found lots of blooming wild violets and helped our host to pick them because she wanted to make sirup of them. If we would not have helped her she surely would have needed a long time to fill the small container.
Later we also found woodruff which will be dried and used for tea and food flavouring.

We went out for another walk to pick herbs at Türkenfeld. We found chickweed, deadnettle, chervil and lots of other herbs.

Yesterday we had sorrel soup for dinner (delicious!!) and today we used the herbs for chickweed salad, then deadnettle lasagna and wild herb quiche ... I could not resist and tried every single dish. For the quiche I helped to collect more than 10 herbs: chickweed, deadnettle, silverweed, yarrow, sorrel, stinging nettle, dandelion, meadow sweet, ribwort, beech leaves, daisies, chervil, violet leaves .... I think that's about all of them. And all of the dishes were really tasting great. 

I did a bit of sight-seeing today and visited the Marienplatz

I made a trip to Frankfurt on the weekend. The photos show the view of the Frankfurt skyline taken from a bridge over the Main river.

Just around the corner there is the Isartor. It's one of the old town gates and is used today as a museum.

Oooooh, I crawled into another envelope to travel to a continent I have not been before - Africa!!! So exciting!

Yay! I've arrived!! I'm safe and sound! Vicki actually fetched me from the P O Box yesterday and her children Juanita and Nicholas were soooo excited. I arrived together with Grape Ape, so they were arguing over who was going to hold who first!! I love all the attention!

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I was told I arrived a day too late for Juanita's pageant at school. She won the title of Miss Photogenic and tried to put her sash on me.... uuummm, it's a bit big!



Look at the beautiful flowers she got!



The children showed us their drawings and paintings, wow! They have an art gallery here!



This is their little dog Lulu, she wants to play but Juanita said she will protect us, whew!



Here Juanita is holding us and she is very proudly wearing her winning sash.



We also got to meet Juanita's TV Pearlz who is getting ready to travel to her first host. She's very excited. Vicki told us that we are the first two ToyVoyagers that they have ever hosted, they were visiting the post box everyday, waiting for our arrival!

Soooo much excitement! We are getting ready to cuddle up with Juanita tonight! Yay! She has a nice big bed! I can't wait t hit the hay, after such a looong journey and all this excitement.......zzzzzzzz!

Good morning! We had such a nice warm, toasty sleep. Juanita warmed up her bean bag for us and we both cuddled up.



I was so excited to start the day! Vicki had assignments to finish, she is studying through UNISA (Univ of South Africa) to be a teacher. She is already teaching at the school her children go to. Of-course I offered to help.....



Yes, yes, this is very easy! I know the answers, we'll be finished in no time!



Vicki says she loves Math! 
Now the work is done and we are going to have some fun!! Nicholas was playing a cricket match at the club. The boys played a game against the Dads. It was a lot of fun and they allowed me to make some 'runs'. I had to run from one wicket to the opposite wicket. In the end, the boys beat the Dads and were very happy!! Whew, what a day. All the fresh air was exhausting!

Hey! Juanita's cooking supper!



It looks delicious, hope there's some for us!





Oh no! Not the dishes! I'm exhausted! We're not helping with this chore, sorry! My bed is calling.....

Hey Mom, how are you? I bet you were wondering what we were up to way down south here!! It has been a busy week and here's the catch-up!
On Monday and Tuesday it was pretty chily, so we stayed snuggled up indoors, but on Wednesday I got to go to school with Juanita.
Her friends were so nice to me, even though they made me get up to some tricky stuff! They get up to mischief sometimes but they were a great bunch of kids! Erm, guys....why the firehydrant?



That's a bit better, that sculpture behind me is lovely! Please don't let me fall!



Aaaah, English class. Juanita says they are reading the Merchant of Venice, she says Shakespeare is difficult.



Now for the Technology class, J loves technology, the teacher is really cool! No guys, no nonsense in here! Especially at the glue station...



and with the nails....



oooh, the children are making blankets for the poor. I'll just cuddle up in one for a quick nap!



That was quick, more glue?



Ummmm, Juanita! That's NOT funny!!



See what I mean about mischief! No guys! Not in there! Can't you read?



Whew! That's the end of classes and now off to watch Nicholas play a soccer match. Don't you love the socks?! Hey Grape Ape, how's your day been?



What an exciting game....



Yay! Nic's team won 3-1, it was a nailbiting game though. Vicki and I were hoarse from shouting!



We went home for lunch and Vicki made us tea, with delicious South African Koeksusters! Yum, they are plaits or knots of dough that are fried and then dipped in cold syrup. They were very sweet.



Later in the afternoon, Vicki took us to visit Mrs C and Threadbear. We took some bears to help with Threadbear's mission of handing over 500 bears to the Teddybear clinic in Johannesburg. Can you see Grape Ape and I in the front of the photo?



Here we are with Threadbear and his brother Buttons.



We also met up with Pinky bear and Fiona, we had a lovely time together.



There are approxiamtely 160 bears on this couch. Imagine 500 bears together?!!



What a busy day, back home to relax.

On Thursday Grape Ape and I went to school with Vicki. She teaches Art and English at the same school that her children go to. 
The Grade 4 classes were busy making 3D figures of themselves. They had so much fun and so did we!
This model is not quite finished yet.



The boys love soccer! They made themselves as soccer players.



It was a tiring day, because as I said, the children were 'busy'!!



Can't wait for Saturday! Vicki said we will go shoppig and to see some sights around their neighbourhood!
Lots of love
miss you Mom!!

Hi there again!
Well we truly had a busy day today. We went to the library to help Juanita get some new books. She is a real bookworm!! This is the 'library basket' with all the books to be returned.



Here is Juanita choosing some new books.



And I am helping!



Then off to a local shopping centre called Cresta.



Wow, what a lovely shopping mall...



And soooo many people. Juanita and Nicholas held onto us and held us up to see the sights.



They were both wearing their Springbok rugby jerseys because there was a big game on: SA vs Wales and a lot of people were wearing the green and gold colours. Here we are with Nicholas.



Then into a bookstore, more books Juanita??



Nicholas wanted a Cricket magazine....he is sport crazy!



And we sat watching the people go by and of-course helped Juanita pick ANOTHER book!



We did a bit more shopping and then made our way back home. Ken, Vicki's husband, took out the Harley. This is a lovely bike and now I have ridden on a motorised bike too!



Here is a photo of us at the water feature in the front garden.



This is Vicki's back garden, in the distance is Johannesburg city. We will take another photo on a clear day!



Here's the trampoline..... we had a lot of fun jumping!!



....and another view of the back garden. Maybe we will take better photos in the sunlight. The sun was setting and it was getting dark and chilly!



Ken made a 'braai' for supper. This is like a barbeque, quite a tradition here in S Africa!!



Lucky there are lots of greens too! Coleslaw salad and Greek salad too, yum!



Off to bed, it's been an exciting day.....

Hello again! Today was Father's Day here in South Africa so Vicki and the children said they would treat Ken to lunch at a lovely restaurant in Pretoria. First we went to visit the Voortrekker Monument just outside Pretoria. The municipal area is now called Tshwane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tshwane
The monument was erected to commemorate the Dutch, German and French settlers who left the Cape and trekked inland from 1835 onwards. The settlers (or pilgrims) wanted to be free of the British rule in the Cape.





There were huge bronze sculptures in the gardens, here we are sitting on the ox-wagon.



This is a magnificent bronze statue of a Voortrekker mother and her children (and Grape Ape and I!).



We went to the top of the monument, which is about three stories high and this is the view of Pretoria city! It was a hazy day so you can't see too much unfortunately.



There are marble wall murals which depict the stories of the past in the Hall of Heroes.





We went right to the top of the monument, Ken's idea, thank goodness no one is scared of heights! Well Vicki wasn't sooo sure of this, walking up a narrow straicase.... This is the view from the very top down into the basement where the cenotaph is. This symbolises the resting place for all those who perished in the Great Trek.



This flame symbolises the civilisation in South Africa.



The building from the outside.



And this was the cannon called 'Grietjie' that was pulled along behind the ox-wagons for protection.



The museum is full of paintings and tapestries. Here is a painting with embroidery on it.



The Monument is surrounded with a huge wall made with 64 of these ox-wagons built in it. It forms a 'laager' around the monument as they did in the days of the trek.



We all posed outside the monument for a photo. Vicki sure likes taking photos!!



On the way out , we visited the gift and curio shop and Juanita and Nicholas showed us some of the little creatures (the springbok and crocodile were cute!) that they were trying to convince Vicki to buy and make into Toyvoyagers but Vicki said that the two TV's (Pearlz and Potjie) they already had were enough for now.



Here we are sitting amongst the beautifully decorated ostrich eggs....



...and here are the miniature handmade Baobab trees that are indigenous to Southern Africa.



After all that walking around, we set off for the Blue Crane restaurant. Aaaaah! I looked forward to that nice cool drink!



No, no not that drink! Ken was given this tot bottle because it was father's day.



These are the majestic birds that are the national bird of Southern Africa and that the restaurant was obviously named after. What a lovely venue!http://www.sa-venues.com/wildlife/birds_blue_crane.htm



Food was really yummy too! There was traditional fare, Babotie, Lamb curry and Pap ( made from maize meal ), which Juanita always enjoys!



After a delicious lunch we took a drive up to the Union Building which is the official seat of government and the residence of the presidency. Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa.http://www.southafrica-travel.net/north/a1pret03.htm




Oh dear! It seems the mouse on the computer is no longer working!! Vicki will have continue with this update when the mouse is working again, sorry mom! I am having a good time though and will update more soon!
love Emil.

We're back! That was a worry! The mouse would not respond at all in the end but Vicki switched the computer off, nothing else would work.  It seems to be working fine again so now Vicki can finish catching up. Where were we??

The Union Buildings have pretty gardens, here is the view from the Buildings with Pretoria City in the back ground.



What? Another canon?



On our way home we went past Cosmo City. Here they have built low cost housing to help house all the previously disadvantaged people living in shacks. You can also see the Dome far in the distance.



We also drove past Nooitgedacht squatter camp. There are so many immigrants streaming into South Africa and this is where many of them live. It is here that some of the xenophobic attacks happened.



This is a better photo of Cosmo City with the Dome in the back ground.



We drove right past the Dome, they hold concerts here and exhibitions. Vicki said we will take a closer look another time.



The week has been busy with Grape Ape and I helping Juanita and Nicholas with their homework and their studying for tests. Vicki is also very busy with her school work and her assignments for her studies. But the weekend is here again and while the children are at Art lessons this afternoon we are going shopping again! Whopeee!
Speak to you soon...
Take care
love Emil.