Travelog for: Galo

Today we helped to make some "Schichtsalat" for Petra's sister's birthday. Usually you should prepare it the evening before.

1 leek, finely sliced
1 small tin of sweetcorn, drained
1 small tin of pineapple chunks, drained
150g cooked ham, diced
1 small glass of celery salad, drained (hmm, very German, you could replace it with gherkins)
2 apples, cored and diced
200g Gouda, cubed
3 hard boiled eggs, diced or sliced
1 glass of Miracle Whip (can you get this in the UK? It is mayonaisse, I can check the quantity tomorrow for you)
Place the ingredients in a bowl in the order of the above list. Do not stir. Place in fridge overnight.
Stir just before serving.
You can replace the pineapple with mandarine oranges if you prefer.
This makes a bowl for about 8-10 portions.

Right before we started to prepare the dough for our Donauwellenkuchen Tito arrived in Bruchsal. The first place, that he saw, was the kitchen.





At first he had to tell a lot about Mexico and everyone told him about their lifes as a toyvoyager, but Petra said, that we would have more time to tell stories, but now we would have to get ready with our work.




So he climbed on Cassiopeia's back to have a place with a good view over everything.




At first we added white and then brown dough into the baking dish.






Then we added morello cherries.






While the cake was in the oven, Petra showed us the snowdrops in her backyard.




Because it just didn't rain, she thought, it would be a good idea to go to the church, which is only a few meters from our home. We all were happy to see something else than the house.

We saw the call box next to the church and I thought about calling you, but Petra told me, that it will be too expensive to do it.





This is the church St. Peter. It is a baroque church and I think, it is really nice. Maybe we can take a photo, when it is sunny, too.
The Church of St. Peter is an original building of the 18th century and was not destroyed during World War II. The church was designed by the world famous baroque architect builder Balthasar Neumann.
The cementery behind it is a beautiful place for peaceful, contemplative walkds and its numerous memorials also rovide an insight into the history of Bruchsal and its people.





We found a stone about the Baden Revolution. It is a reminder of the citizens of Bruchsal, who were victims of the Baden Revolution. It was erected on the initiative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and dedicated on 1st November 1900. Here, next to the church you can see the grave of Johann Baptist Bekk, He was Minister of the Interior in Baden during the years of the Revolution and found his final resting place in Bruchsal. (www.bruchsal-erleben.de)







The roofs belong to an old part of Bruchsal. Most old parts were destroyed during World War II. In the far you see a big grey building. It is a private grammar school founded by patres of the Pallotti order.



When you stand in front of the entrance of the church and just turn around, you have this nice view.




After we came home again, we had to get ready with the cake. First we had to make a butter cream and then we had to make a chocolate icing. This time Petra was really unhappy, that the icing didn't look nice.

Today we drove to the Michaelsberg in Untergrombach. 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

Back at my host's home again, it was time for Cassiopeia and Mousy Mouse to say goodbye to everyone.

Petra and her family decided to visit the railway museum in Heilbronn. They asked friends to join them and of course, they didn't forget to take us with them too.
We all were fascinated by those big locomotives and I hope, you aren't too disappointed, that there will be no explanation about each single one.

Today Petra asked me and some other toyvoyagers to help her in her so called "paper-room" at school. She had to sort the paper, which they need for handicrafts and more.

Today Petra's family met members of their familyclub from church. They meet about 2 times a month and go somewhere together. Today they drove to Germersheim to visit the street museum. We saw old machines, which they needed to built streets, but also other machines like this old copy machine.

I want to show you some of the flowers in Petra's garden behind the house. I love those flowers.

Today we decided to go on a day trip to see a model railway. We drove to Merklingen (near Ulm), where they say, that they own Europes most beautiful model railway.















I also saw a real Ralf Schumacher Formel 3 race car.

On our way home we stopped at Märklin museum in Göppingen. Petra and her family go there about one or two times in a year. Today seems to be a model railway day.

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.
























You see, what my favorite animal was there - I think, I fulfilled one life mission

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.