Travelog for: Friendship Bear

Then it was time for Tito, Tilla Mook, Galo, Nanu the cub, Coco, Kari, Tasmanian Devil, Scotty, Spooky and me to say good bye to Precious.

Once more we are in Eichtersheim. This time there is a big medieval market and a joust.







Two zoomed photos without me:

Today we drove to Enzklösterle. At first we played Adventure Golf and had a lot of fun.




Then we had lunch at a restaurant, where the Krippena is located. We saw the world largest wood carved Christmas crib and a Christmas tree.

On our way home we stopped at a field, where you can pick flowers and throw the money in a box. We bought some gladioli.

Today I will write down some more information about Bruchsal. Bruchsal (orig. Bruohselle, Bruaselle) is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km Northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route.
Bruchsal is the largest city in the district of Karlsruhe and is known for being Europe's largest asparagus producer and one of the economic centers of the region of Karlsruhe


Bruchsal is located at the edge of the Upper Rhine River Plains and the Kraichgau along the Saalbach, which is a small tributary of the Rhine that joins it between Philippsburg and Oberhausen.
                                   
Ancient era and early Middle Ages
Excavations and artifacts that were discovered evidence a settlement existing on the Michelsberg (Untergrombach) as early as 4000 BC during the Neolithic. In the core of Bruchsal the oldest settlement discovered was dated back to 640 AD. It is located near the present Peterskirche, where I stay right now. The first mention of Bruchsal in official documents occurred in 976 when the King came to town. And during October of the year 980, Otto II and his Court stayed at the King's palace in Bruchsal for several days

1248 was the first time Bruchsal was referred to as a city and in 1278 St. Peters Church is mentioned for the first time. After extensive damage to both, the Palace and the Peterskirch were reconstructed in 1320. The Bergfried (an outlook and defensive tower bastion) was erected in 1358 and the city wall was completed in 1452. In 1460 the first coin was pressed in Bruchsal.


By April 24, 1711 Bruchsal had recovered sufficiently to play host to Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Habsburg Court in Vienna. Then in 1716 the Bishop of Speyer, Heinrich von Rollingen, moved his residence into the Bruchsal Palace. This move elevated the city's status to that of an official residence of the Diocese of Speyer. At the same time, Bruchsal became the seat of the "Vizedomamt", the most important office held by the Diocese on the West bank of the Rhine. In 1719 Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn became the new Bishop and after settling in he commissioned in (1722), among others, the new baroque château and the new Peters Church (from 1742). Both were built and, in part, designed by Balthasar Neumann. In the Bishop's honor, the Southern gate out of the château grounds is referred to as Damian's Gate to this day.


In the afternoon of March 1, 1945, Bruchsal was bombed. In addition to the 1,000 lives that perished that day, the entire inner city and the baroque château were destroyed. The baroque palace was rebuilt in the 70th.
   

That's enough of history now. I'm not sure, whether you want to read everything, but I thought, Petra should write a bit about Bruchsal's history. She used wikipedia and you will find more history and information there.

Do you already know the sundial at one of the buildings, which belongs to the palace area?





We are resting in the sun at the back side of the palace and you also see the church tower.





Then we saw some interesting statues, when we walked in the palace garden.





There are some of the most beautiful and oldest houses of Bruchsal in Franz-Bläsi-Straße.





On our way back through the palace garden we found this old and interesting tree. Here all toyvoyagers, which stay in Bruchsal right now, are sitting together on the tree. It was a nice resting place and we had a good view from there.






On our way back to our current home, we went past the old tower of the old castle, called Bergfried.

In the afternoon we went to Stuttgart airport, because olgamaus had to fly home again.

From the roof of the car park we could see the famous Bosch-Parkhaus (Bosch-car park). It spans across the motorway A8.
The car park has space for 4200 vehicles on five stories. The logo is the second largest illuminated sign in the world and the biggest logo in the world after the unlit Hollywood Sign.









Then we went to the visitor terrace, where we could see some planes starting and landing.




We also took a look at the old planes and helicopter, which belong to an exhibition on the visitor platform.


Antonow An-2









Dornier DO 27



Harvard AT-6G

Then we drove to Stuttgart-Degerloch to take a look at the TV (television - hahaha) tower. Since 11th July 2009 it is "Historic landmark of engineer art of construction in Germany. It is 217 m high, the first tv tower in the world and therefore the prototype of many other tv towers.

The elderberries are ripe and so it is time to pick them. My hosts know a good place to go, where many elder bushes grow. So they went there and came back with three big plastic bags.





At home we had to wash them.







Then we had to cook them and to fill the juice into the bottles.

Altleiningen is a castle and a town in Rhineland-Palatinate. It belongs to destrict Bad Duerkheim. It was built on top of a 400 m high hill. You still can see a few remains of the old building from 1100 AD. Nowadays it is a youth hostel and my hosts' daughter already had been there with her class in 2006.

At Neuleiningen we only had a short stop to take a far away photo of the castle there.

On our way home we drove to a village and came through this beautiful street. Kleinkarlbach is a municipality in the collective municipality of Grünstadt-Land in the district of Bad Dürkheim in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in southwestern Germany.

Kleinkarlbach is a wine-growing village in the Palatinate lying near the edge of the Palatinate Forest. (wikipedia)

Schwarzach is a town in the district of Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was first named in 1143, since 1823 it is divided in the towns Unterschwarzach and Oberschwarzach - we were in Unterschwarzach. It is about 0km east of Heidelberg.
At first we visited the wildlife park. It is part of nature park Neckar valley- Odenwald and UNESCO- Geopark.

At the entrance we saw the world's largest mortar bell.




In the far we saw some deer.







Here you see, how I saw them without zooming.




Do you want to read some German about the deer?





There aren't only animals, which are from Germany originally.




I also saw some zebras.




Feeding a shy roe isn't easy.




We had a nice funny ride on a small train.

Then we drove to the "Schwarzacher Hof", which belongs to Johannes-Anstalten Mosbach, located at the castle set on a lake. The oldest building is from 1914/15, the biggest part was built in second half of 20th century. There's place on the farmyard for 780 living quarters and exterior living groups for disabled people.

We went throught the park, that belongs to this farmyard.







There is a small barefoot park and we tried it.





I went through a labyrinth. Do you see me? I'm with my host's daughter.






We are at the centre now.




When we were outside of the labyrinth again, we sat down on a large thumb.




Do you remember that blue room in the Japanese Garden of Münzesheim? Now I know, where they found the bottles.




We had fun on the slide.





A last glimpse at the labyrinth from a higher place.

Dear Mommy,
I finally arrived at my new host's house here in Okinawa, Japan! Jayme was getting a bit desperate to get away from her school books and out of the house so we headed towards Kokusai-Dori. Its a shopping area here in Okinawa. We started out on the main street, there are lots of fun shops and what not here.  Many of them have attractions outside to try to attract customers. Here is a Hello Kitty dressed like a Shisa.

And we stopped on a goya bench. Goya is a vegetable grown in Okinawa.

And Jayme thought this shark head just looked odd.

And pork is very popular here on Okinawa oddly, see this sign on the building?

Unfortunately we didn't make it too far before Jayme's son was complaining he was hungry, so we stopped at McD's to grab some food.


It was pretty yummy for fast food
After stopping for a snack we headed into Heiwa-dori. This is supposed to be the discount street area where things are slightly cheaper.

Here you can see a view of the street.

We walked all the way to the end of it where they have a section right outside for pottery. It was a nice street outside.

And see some of the small ceremics they make? Its more Shisa's. They're very popular in this area to sell.  They also had some more elaborate pottery.

After that it was time to head back to the car and home, we were all pretty tired out from walking! Whew! Hopefullly there'll be more updates soon!
Friendship Bear

Dear Mommy,
You could probably tell with the pictures at Kokusai Street that it was very cloudy, and it just hasn't let up. It seems to be raining non stop. Or at least be very cloudy. One day the sun came out for just a little bit and Jayme quickly headed to the playground with the boys since they are very restless! First we walked along the water for a little bit.

Then we stopped at the playground. This was the only photo I managed as I was quite busy helping Jayme chase the boys.

Then we walked over to feed the ducks, which the boys enjoyed.I said hello, but it was a good thing Jayme had a good hold on me. I must have looked like bread because the duck tried to take a bite out of me!


After that close call it started to get cloudy again and we hurried to the car before we got rained on. More soon,
Friendship Bear