Travelog for: Friendship Bear

We are really really busy now, that my hosts are on holiday. Today we drove again about 3 hours until we arrived at our destination. At first I saw many high buildings, mostly belonging to banks.


(Ok, you're right, this isn't the highest building I've seen.)

We visited Luxembourg City today. The casemates are Unesco World Heritage.





We saw the casemates there, very impressive. The first casemates of Luxembourg had been built in 1644, during spanish rule. They were about 23 kilometers long (since 1867 only 17 km) and reach about 40 meters into the deep. Because of this fortress Luxembourg got the byname "Gilbraltar of the north".









We also visited the cathedral Notre Dame.








Then we went to see the other part of casemates, but this time we didn't go inside.

On our way home we has to refuel and because it is much cheaper in Luxembourg than in Germany, we did it there. We also bought some coffee and chocolate, but this time we waited in the car for our hosts to come back.




Then we drove back to Germany. You see the signs over the bridge.

We had a short stop at Igel to take a photo with the Igel Column, also Unesco World Heritage. The brothers Lucius Secundinius Aventinus and Lucius Secundinius Securus built it around 250 for them and deceased relatives. It shows scenes of daily life of cloth merchants and of mythology.

Then Petra had the idea to show us a great view over one of her favorite cities: Trier. Because it was early evening and we wanted to take photos, they decided to drive to St. Mary's Column on the Pulsberg. It was built from 1859-1866 in neo-Gothic style.



You have a wonderful view over the Moselle valley and Trier.








Because Petra's camera is rather good, she zoomed in, so I can show you some more Unesco World Heritage places. It was too late to go closer, I'm sorry.


Portra Nigra



Cathedral of Trier



Constantine Basilica



Kaiserthermen






St. Matthias' Abbey



Römerbrücke

Today we drove to Heidelberg.
Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg. About 140 000 people live in the city's area. It lies on the river Neckar at the point, where it leaves its narrow, steep valley in the Odenwald to flow into the Rhine valley. The river Neckar joins the river Rhine at Mannheim.

Approximately 1 000 000 years ago the "Heidelberg Man", whose jaw-bone was discovered in 1907, the earliest evidence of human life in Europe, died at nearby Mauer.

Our hosts love to take photos of the castle and the view to the Neckar. Every now and then they go there - just for some photos. They are crazy, but to tell the truth: I love Heidelberg. I lost my heart in Heidelberg - like many others before.

Petra went on a sightseeing tour through Bruchsal today. At first she showed us a nice view over Bruchsal.

Here you see a part of the older people's house and the grey building in the far on the left side is a private grammar school.





Here you see a view to the catholic church St. Peter, which is close to where I live right now. You surely saw the towers of this church already, when we took pictures out of the window.





Here is the main part of the town. From left to right you see the tower of the old palace, the tower of the inner city church Our holy mother (Stadtkirche), a catholic church, and the tower of the evanglic church called Lutherkirche. Bruchsal has four more catholic church and two more evanglic churches, one lutheran and the other methodist. There also is a mosque and a new apostolic church. And there are some more churchs in the five suburbs of Bruchsal.





Here you see the Belvedere, which is just behind the place, where we took the photos before. The Belvedere is a former hunting lodge, now mostly used as schoolyard for a grammar school. Here you see the scaffolding, which is used as a place to sit for the visitors of the open air theatre.





Then we drove to the "new" palace of Bruchsal. It is a rather big area, which belongs to the palace. Here you have a view to the county court, the highest building on this photo.





On the right side you see the main entrance of the palace and the building, where you see the tower behind, is the catholic church St. Damian and Hugo with its tower. Petra and her family go to service there.




Here you see the backside of the church and the tower again.




Here you see the backside of the palace.





We went to the pond to see the ducks,




but I only saw one single duck and many doves.




There are many statues along the middle way of the palace garden: four show the four seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter and four show the four elements water, earth, air and fire.

Today we were invited to Martin's 16th birthday, which he celebrated on 12th June already, but today the whole family came to celebrate with him.






I'm waiting for some coffee, but Petra told me, that I'm too young to drink coffee and so she brought some milk.

Today is a big flea market in front of the palace of Bruchsal. Petra's husband and her son were "very happy" to take me and the other toyvoyagers with them and take photos with us and then they took no photo with me - seems I have been hiding invisible in the backpack.

It is raining cats and dogs and the thunder is very loud. Petra says, that the thunderstorm is just over Bruchsal. Later we read in the newspapers, that one house burnt. Thank Godness, nobody got hurt.

Here you see two views out of Petra's bedroom.

Petra's daughter is on the way to Stockholm, Sweden. It is her first flight and she is very nervous and so is Petra. She took three toyvoyager with her: Precious, Kari and Hasi. So of course we are excited too. Here I watch the flight and the airplanes arrival in Stockholm.




Petra's daughter sings in a choir, which takes part at the big Pueri Cantores Festival in Stockholm.




There is a very long list of choirs from all over the world.

Ralf and Petra read in the newspapers, that there are Scottish Highland Games in Angelbachtal. Both are big Scotland fans, although they never had been there already - but they surely will go there one day, that's what they told us. So today they decided to go to the festival and watch the games and listen to the Pipes and Drums Bands.





(sorry for being not in this photo, Petra said, that she has to zoom it)


There were several shops and Petra bought a Scottish Teddy Bear and some hair bands and Ralf bought two Scottish flags.

Wow, I can tell you, Petra had some crazy last weeks at her school. She is so happy, that there are only 2 more days and then summer break starts.
I'm sure, you aren't really surprised, that it is raining once more and very windy.

Today we visited the Unimog Museum in Gaggenau. It is located between Rastatt and Freudenstadt in the beautiful Murg River Valley.
There is an exhibition of various alternating Unimog of six decades from the beginning until now, giving hints about technology, love stories between drivers and vehicles and lots of models.
We also took part in off-road driving on the Unimog Museum premises, climbing various hills and tackling other obstacles on the Unimog parcours. It was so so great!








I'm sorry, but there is only one photo with Spooky outside at the parcours.

Another thunderstorm! It is unbelievable, how often we have lightning and thunder.

Today we drove to the Michaelsberg in Untergrombach. Maybe you remember, that I had been here the other evening? Today it was time to learn something new and to repeat some other parts, I've already heard before.

Untergrombach is one of Bruchsal's suburbs with about 6000 inhabitants.
3500 to 2600 BC there were frist human signs on the Michaelsberg, which gave this culture the name "Michaelsberger Kulturkreis"
1502 AD Joss Fritz from Untergrombach planned the "Bundschuhaufstand" during the time of Peasant's Wars.









The chapel is on top of the Michaelsberg.







In the far (right side) you see some houses, which belong to Bruchsal.
   




Bruchsal and also Untergrombach are located at the edge to the Kraichgau. Here you see the Rhine Valley. If the weather is sunny, you can see the Palatinate Forest in the far.







I learned something about "Magerrasen" (neglected grassland), which is typical for the Michaelsberg. Behind the sign you see so-called "Steinriegel" (field clearance cairn), made by people working on their fields a long long time ago. They threw the big stones from their fields to the border of the neighbour's field, so that in the middle all stones were accumulated. Many animals and flowers love this gaunt places and that's why a few weeks ago, people cleaned the Steinriegel from all the earth, that came between the stone during the many many years and from all the other plants, that love to grow in earth.







The nature reserve sign, they shortly added some rules.