Travelog for: Friendship Bear

Today we drove to the Michaelsberg, a small hill, which belongs to Untergrombach. Untergrombach is one of Bruchsals suburbs. There are Untergrombach, Obergrombach, Heidelsheim, Helmsheim and Büchenau.

The first photo shows a view to Obergrombach.





On top of the Michaelsberg there is a chapel called Michaelskapelle. Next to the chapel is a restaurant, where you have a nice view over the Rhine valley.

Petra loves to go on the Michaelsberg to show the Rhine valley to her guests and to show them the edge to the Kraichgau. Today she told us, that she wanted to go there, because she wanted to watch the sunset.




The houses you can imagine on the right side belong to Bruchsal. And you see a part of the quarry pond of Untergrombach too. On the horizon you can imagine two small small towers, which belong to the nuclear power reactor of Philippsburg.





Here you see Untergrombach down the hill.





Here we look in direction, where you come to Karlsruhe, which is in the Rhine valley too. You maybe can imagine the edge to the Kraichgau with its small hills.





I love this last view to the chapel in the evening sun.

Martin, Sabrina and Petra took us for an outing today. We drove to Pforzheim to visit the wild park. It was founded in 1968, is about 16 ha large and there live more than 400 mammals.

Just a few minutes after our arrival, Petra stumbled over a roundwood and fell on her two hands. She was happy, that she had time to relax before she had to drive again - but she didn't expect, that she had broken her right thumb and torn a ligament there too.


I listened to different bird songs and tried to find out, which bird it was.

Today we drove to Oberhausen to take a look at the church, especially because Ralf, my host's husband, has to take photos of a wedding there.

Then we drove to Rheinhausen, because we wanted to see the Rhine. The Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at 1,320 km,with an average discharge of more than 2,000 m³/s. It is the longest river in Germany. The Neckar, Main and Moselle flow in it in Germany.















There is a post museum in Rheinhausen. I wanted to go inside, but there was no time for it, we where too late. The oldest post office is located in Rheinhausen, dated 14. July 1490.
In 1552 the post house was built by the family Taxis and members of the family lived there as administrator.

In the Rhine Valley they plant asparagus. Bruchsal is the most important asparagus market in Europe. So it isn't a big surprise, that my hosts like to eat asparagus during asparagus season. They prefer to eat it with mayonnaise and cooked potatoes.

Rainy days with thunder and lightning in Bruchsal







So we sat together in Petra's bedroom and read her current favorite book

Another thunderstorm

Today we saw a beautiful rainbow

Finally the weather is better again, so we went outside to take some photos of the beautiful flowers in Petra's garden.

Mhost family drove to Heidelberg, because their son begins with work experience at a medical laboratory tomorrow. So they thought, if would be a good idea to look where this laboratory is and then go to see the castle. But it was so crowded at the castle, that we turned around and decided to go there sometime later. So we only had been able to take a photo of the bridge.

When Petra read the newspaper today, she saw a photo on the first page with a large poppies field. She asked us and her son, if we want to come with her to take a look, if we could find this beautiful field and get some photos taken there. So we drove to Büchenau, which is one of Bruchsal's suburbs. It is a small town with about 2200 inhabitants. Just enjoy the photos. I love this poppies too, although they aren't pink.

It's raining again.

On our way home from Heidelberg - we drive this way each day now, because Fabian is there - we stopped by at the chapel on top of Letzenberg. It is really beautiful. It was built in 1902. They say, that there already was a pilgrimage chapel around 1300.
You have a great view to the Rhine valley and Kraichgau.

Then we drove to Münzesheim to visit the Japanese Garden, which belongs to the therapy centre against alcohol and other dependencies.







There are some rules we have to follow.



















There is a round room with many many blue bottles as roof.

Petra and her family visited Ralf's aunt and uncle in Koblenz today. They also invited Ralf's parents to join them - and us, of course.

Koblenz is a city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) and its monument (Emperor William I on horseback) are situated.





It is the third largest city in Rhineland-Palatinate, with a population of c. 106,000 (2006).




Here you see the confluence of Rhine (right side) and Moselle (left side).



Ehrenbreitstein Fortress
(German: Festung Ehrenbreitstein) is a fortress on the mountain of the same name on the east bank of the Rhine opposite the town of Koblenz.

It was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, Festung Koblenz, by Prussia between 1817 and 1832 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French troops repeatedly before. The fortress was never attacked.