Travelog for: karlheinz

Hi, I am in Lyon now! Just travelled by car from Wurzen, my home town to Lyon and made a break at the football stadium of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

karlheinz is ready to go on his first journey.
Going to Remscheid, Germany. He is so excited and courious!

Hi,
I arrived in Remscheid today. When my host Katja returned from work she found me sitting in my envelope on the stairs.

Here I am!



Bye
karlheinz

Hi,

I am not the only ToyVoyager here. I already met Roo, the kangaroo, a witch named Gui with her cat Migui, Ewan E. Ewok and Chance, a monkey which arrived also today.

We took a first walk in the afternoon. Katja wanted to show us a bit of the vicinity of our current home. I'm living here now, in the attic storey.



Katja told me that this part of the city was not destroyed in World War II, so you can find many pretty old houses here.



We went to the Trasse des Werkzeugs  (Route of Tools) than. The Trasse des Werkzeugs is a lane for pedestrians and cyclists which was built on a closed railway track. It was sponsored by local tool producing companies. This lane is about 5 km long and is leading from the central station to the district Hasten. Along the route you can find signs which are showing the logos of the sponsors, also artwork.

The first one of those signs is showing the city arms of Remscheid.







You can find distance data on the ground.





Here you can see that this lane really was a railway track once.



This is a bench made of a gigantic screw clamp.



Here are the tracks still visible.



In this part of the town you can often see old factory buildings close to dwelling houses.



We reached Hasten than.



You can see this district is situated close to woodland.



Knockers like this are typical for this region. Many of the old houses still have them.



This beautiful Patrician villa contains a museum.





On our way back home we walked through the municipal park. Here are allotment gardens.



They have a rose garden here. The roses are not blooming yet, In the background you can see a momorial, dedicated to the deads of several wars before World War I.







The observatory is situated in the municipal park.





That's all for today. I want to watch "Tatort" on TV with Katja.

Bye
karlheinz

Hi,
it's raining today, so we did not go out. Instead we helped Katja to make ice cream.

To make ice cream you need milk, cream, 4 egg yolk, sugar, vanilla sugar, a chocolate bar, chopped walnuts, butter, sugar and a bit of honey to caramelize them.

First you have to heat the milk and melt the chocolate in it. In the meantime you beat egg yolk, sugar and vanilla sugar until it is a thick, almost white foam. Than add the egg foam to the milk and heat it for another two minutes, without cooking. Cool this mixture down and put it into the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Ideally the caramelized walnuts are ready now.



Than you take the ice cream maker out of the fridge, fill in the prepared mixture and switch it on.





After 15 minutes stirring you can add the walnuts.



When the machine finishes its work, put the ice cream into the fridge for about half an hour. Than you can enjoy it.

Bye
karlheinz

Hi,
we visited Katja's sister today. We sitting in the garden, enjoying cake and coffee and playing.

I climbed up the monkey bars with Chance.





I saw a flag which is showing the crests of all 16 German states. The one I marked with an arrow is the crest of Northrhine-Westphalia.



A swinging frog!



Those daisies are larger than me.



Bye
karlheinz

Hello,
today Katja showed me the city hall. She is working close to the city hall so had a closer look at it. A really pretty building with a tower, 48 m high. The original city hall was built in 1906, than it was destroyed mostly destroyed in World War II and rebuilt afterwards in a more modern style.





This is a water tower, situated at the rear side of the city hall. The drinking water for the inhabitants of the city centre is pumped from a dam in a nearby valley up to this water tower.



In the background of the next photo you can see the beginning of the shopping street.



Also on our way home ...



Bye
karlheinz

Hi,
today Katja showed me more of tht Trasse des Werkzeugs (Route of Tools). This time we started at the same point as last week, but we walked to the opposite direction today.

The first interesting thing was the Ampelmännchen (the little man on the pedestrian lights in the former German Democratic Republic).



This is the rear side of a supermarket. Someone tried to paint the Berliner Bär (the heraldic animal of Berlin), but the result is looking more like a wolf.



Along the route you can also find delapidated factory buildings.



This complex of buildings is the former slaughterhouse. The buildings are listed buildings.



Here is more artwork, a bench which was made of the axis of an old water wheel and an original sleeper.





More old factory buildings ...



Here  the route is shaped like a landscape, with seatings and plants.





This is a discarded carriage which was used  to transport alcohol which was extracted from agricultural products by ethanol fermentation.







We proceeded into the direction of the central station. I sat down in this  hole for a moment.



The Trasse des Werkzeugs is ending here at the moment. It will be built all the way to the central station which is also renewed at the moment.







We walked to the city centre than.



Good bye for today
karlheinz

Hi,
today we took a walk to the neighbour city Solingen, to visit Schloss Burg, a medieval castle. Katja's friend Birgit went with us.

We took the first photos in Solingen-Unterburg, which is one of the oldest districts of Solingen, the closest to Remscheid. You can walk there through the forrest, it takes about 75 minutes to get there. Unterburg is a picturesque part of the town with lots of "Bergische Häuser" (houses in the style of the region Bergisches Land), mostly covered with slate and also timber-framed houses.





River Wupper is running through Unterburg, but on the next photo you can see the Eschbach (a creek), which is opening here into the river Wupper.





To get to the castle, we had to walk uphill through the forrest. Here we are still at ground level, you can see the chairlift, which is going steep uphill, directly to the castle. Of course Katja wanted to walk.



We reached a pretty outlook pavilion. From here you have a fantastic overview across the valley and also to the castle.







We reached the castle, this is the front gate.



Schloss Burg was built in 1133 by Count Adolf I von Berg on a hill above the river Wupper.That's why this region is called "Bergisches Land". Many people believe that it's name refers to the landscape with hills and valleys. (For those who do not speak German: The German word for mountain or hill is "Berg", so many people think that the name "Bergisches Land" means "land with many hills" )


About a hundred years later it was enlarged by Count Engelberg II von Berg. This is the guy on the horse in the courtyard.

In Thirty Years War (17th century) many parts of the castle were destroyed. It was rebuilt then, but it was used for industrial purposes for many years. In the end of the 19th century they began to rebuild it as it appears today.

In the castle courtyard you can find souvenir shops and shops whose owners are doing an "old" handcraft. For example someone makes soap, another makes brushes, then you can buy things that were used by knights for the kids, like swords and helmets. 









This monument is showing Count Engelberg II von Berg.





You can see that the castle really is situated high above the valley.



Today it's Father's Day, many people are taking a walk today, so the courtyard is full of booths. You can eat here (Katja had a piece of smoked salmon and a beer, her friend Birgit a currywurst (curry sausage).







We are leaving the castle complex now to walk downhill to Unterburg. This time we took the faster, but much steeper path.

Here you can see the chairlift again.







We walked a bit through Unterburg, waiting for our bus.



They have really pretty houses and narrow alleys here.











I need a rest now, later we will watch TV. Katja already told me that we will return to Solingen tomorrow, to walk the "Korkenziehertrasse", also a former railway track, about 10 km long.

You'll read more of me tomorrow.

Bye
karlheinz

Hi,
today we walked along the Korkenziehertrasse (corkscrew route), which is also a former railway track.

We started at the former central station of Solingen, only the depots remained there.

This route is called "Korkenzieher" because its course, meandering through the city, reminds of a corkscrew.



We started at "Standort Bahnhofstraße" and walked to Gräfrath.



Here you can also find some artwork, these scissors for example. In Solingen cutlery, utility knifes, scissors and swords are produced for centuries. So this sculpture is a great mixture of a local symbol and the one for the Korkenziehertrasse.



You can also find graffity along the route. Some are good, some are not. I liked this one.





Some chicken escaped from a nearby estate.



One of some tunnels ...



The botanical garden of Solingen is situated close-by the route. Of course we made a short detour to visit the botanical garden.





Here is a sun dial.



Here we found fantastic animal sculptures, made of metal, for example ants, a giant butterfly, a reading raven and more.





This butterfly is so big that you almost cannot find us sitting by its leg.







Here is the reading raven









Do you know that there are existing public bookcases? Here is the only one that Katja has ever seen. You can take any book out of it to take it home, bring it back or keep it.  Katja even found a novel written by Michael Crighton here, which she took with her. Next time when she will come here she will put another book into this bookcase.



We learned a lot about insects here. They have "hotels" for many kinds of bees and other insects here.





There were several beds showing the preferred nutriments of different bees.





Back on the Korkenziehertrasse ...

a football ground! I wanted to stay here and watch the kids playing football but I had no chance against two woman and a bunny and a kangaroo which wanted to hop foreward.



Katja told me that this bridge is an alumnium construct which was built in one piece and put to its place with a crane, also in one piece. It's hard to believe because this bride overspans a four-way highway.



This tunnel does not look inspiring confidence, it looks like an entrance to the sewage system.



Suddenly the city disappeared and there was this rural area.



... back into civilisation ...



We left the route here. This is Museum Baden, a museum of art.



We than took a walk in the district Gräfrath.

They have trolleybusses in Solingen. In the district Unterburg you can find a reverser platform for thoses busses, one of worldwide only three reverser platforms.



The district Gräfrath has a historial city centre with lots of well preserved houses. Katja and her friend had a coffee here.









This is the market place. We saw a funny fountain here.







We really enjoyed our trip.

Bye
karlheinz

Hi,
we visited Cologne today. Katja and two friends had planned to visit a photo exhibition in Cologne. We went there by train.

Here you can see me waiting for our tram, at Neumarkt.



First the ladies visited a graveyard. I was really scared. I stayed hidden in Katja's bag.

From there we walked to MediaPark. On our way we saw Colonius, the Cologne telecommunications tower, which was finished in 1981. It's height is 266 meters.



We enjoyed lunch in a pretty beer garden.



Let me show you some street views of Cologne.





This is MediaPark, a project of the city of Cologne to settle companies of the communication and media branch here, intermingled with dwellings and cultural institutions. You can find the EMI Music Germany headquarter here, also a multiplex cinema. The skyscraper is KölnTurm (Cologne Tower), with 148 m the Cologne's hightes office  tower.













Katja and her two friends visited this exhibition today.



Inside the building ...



This is the staircase, with illuminated glass steps.





It was not allowed to take photos in the exhibition rooms.

When we went outside again we were surprised where the nice weather had gone.



We walked back to the central station than. Before it startet to rain we took some photos.



Cologne Cathedral!





We took a last photo at the central station.



Bye
karlheinz

Hi,
I went with Katja's colleague Elke today. Elke and her husband are going to spend the long weekend in Kröv, situated at the river Mosel (Moselle). My updates are following next week.

Bye
karlheinz

Hello,
tomorrow we will travel to Kröv.









Bye
karlheinz

Hello,
the most important thing in the morning is ...



We're ready now.