Travelog for: Smokehouse

Smokehouse is reading some books about airplanes and pilots, dreaming and wishing someone wouldn't mind hosting him so that he too can see the world.

He will be joining the USATVT December 1st.

I was terribly excited to hear that I would be visiting Austria, and I have been busy all day.

First, I had to play with my airplane (you didn't think I was working the whole time, did you?) If I'm going to leave it behind, I want to make sure I spend plenty of time zooming it around the house.


Then, Jenn took me to the store to find my travel pod (aka envelope).


She even let me drive for a bit, which was extremely difficult considering my growth has been so stunted by an exorbitant amount of chocolate.

When we found the perfect travel pod, we went back home to wash my clothes. Jenn didn't want me to be smelly for my gracious host.

Then I played some guitar hero with Friedrich because he will be leaving as well. I'm going to miss that overly thoughtful tortoise.






Then, into my travel pod to rest for the long, bumpy journey ahead (I hear this is worse than flying coach!).

After a looong flight I safely landed in Vienna/Austria. I had a warm welcome from my "crew": my host family and some other toyvoyager staying here at the moment.

The first day in Austria was pretty quiet since I was sooo tired from the trip, but yesterday we already did some sight-seeing.

We visited Prater which is the big amusement park here in Vienna! It was wonderful! I had sooo much fun there with all the different rides. And of course I saw the famous Giant wheel, one of Vienna's most famous sights.

I also had an extra-flight in a wonderful aircraft! And look where I landed - just in front of Vienna's planetarium!!

Today we had a long walk in the woods nearby. Autumn already started and I helped the kids to seach for chestnuts. We found tons of them, yeah!

Yesterday we went to see the house created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It looks really beautiful and I like it alot! There is nothing special in this house, just normal flats (next time I come to Vienna I'll try to find a host living in there  ). Everybody living there has the right to decorate the surrounding of his/her window just as he/she likes - but only as far as the arms reach. Interesting, isn't it?

Surprise!

I'm not sure, if you still know me. I had been offline for about three years, but I'm back again. I saw, that Vienna is a really beautiful city and I hope to see more someday.
Now I hope to hear from you again. I'm not sure, what I should do next. At first, I think, I will play with all the other toyvoyagers, who traveled with me and those, who were here already. Maybe we will have a big toyvoyager party too. Petra just told me, that there are still some more in this house than the ones you can see with me on the photos.

Bye, Froggie

Petra's camera had been at the shop to get rid of the amount of sand in it. So we had no chance to take photos in the meantime.

Today it was warm and now there are heavy clouds at the sky. We wait for more rain.

Today we took a photo of nearly all tvs, which stay here right now. There are several tvs of our host: Aaron, Robinson, Schnuffi, Scotty, Cassiopeia and Simba Leon. Then there are the regular guests: BarryO, Bubo, Henry, Sanji, Tuffy, NiliHH, Jack, Chuckle, WillyW. All the others are tvs, which stayed with hosts, who had some problems and no chance to send them on to their owners or the next host, including me. It is the biggest amount of toyvoyagers I ever had around me

Today we drove to Münzesheim to visit the Japanese Garden, which belongs to the therapy centre against alcohol and other dependencies. All buildings and works of art are made by patients of the therapy center based on antique models. The garden is about 5.000 m² large, it is open for patients and visitors. You will see a roof made of blue bottles, put into the concrete with there bottom to the outside - it's an interesting room, fascinating. Wall and floor are covered with blue tiles.
So now just enjoy the photos.












I hope, you like the group photos













Two more group photos in the blue room.















More group photos in the pavillon.

A thunderstorm is coming.

I like this Christmas decoration on the window. It's on the same place each year. If you like it too and want the originals to cut them out for yourself, please send a note to Petra.
It's a nice place for us toyvoyagers, too. It is warm and you can see everything that's going on on the street






The first photo is without flash, just to show you, how dark it is outside although it is early midday. If Petra hasn't done a mistake, then there are 26 toyvoyagers sitting together. Some are her toyvoyagers, some her daughters and some are rescued toyvoyagers, which still are at her place and of course some are guests, who will move on again.

After the big group photo session the guests finished the stars.




Of course we other toyvoyagers were really curious and came to take a look at the beautiful stars.







Later a group of starsingers visited our house, but we just had been too slow, so we aren't on this photo. Nevertheless we thougth, that it is a good idea to show you, how starsingers can look like. They don't carry one of our stars, though. They belong to the church region, were our hosts live, but our hosts go to another church, where they lived before. It's a bit complicated




In the afternoon we all helped our Petra to bake two cakes. She told us, that tomorrow isn't only Epiphany, but also her husbands 50th birthday and that we will go to the parish hall and carry cakes with us. At first we baked a Hermann cake. It is a cake like a round robin, that's how it seems for me. Petra told us, that she received a part of the cake a few days ago and that she had to stir it and to feed it and that now it is ready to get baken. Of course we added some more stuff like flour, sugar, almonds, cinnamon, chocolate pieces.

We read the recipe.




Then we had to get some more dishes for the "kids" of this cake.




We had been really busy.



























We also added some apple pieces.






We wondered, if this dish would be big enough and decided, that it wasn't. So we took a star for the dough of Hermann.

Petra has created the German Rescue, so she keeps an overview over all the toyvoyagers at her place. The German Rescue is for toys, who were stuck at a place and then send on to fam-united.

I'm sure, I will travel home as soon as you write to my host.

Wow! We have another sunny day! I really had no chance to see the flowers in the garden behind the house until now, because the weather was that bad. I can't remember, that we had springweather like this before. All flowers are blooming at the same time and the trees got leaves within minutes it seems.