Travelog for: BellaKitten

In the afternoon we went to Stuttgart airport 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.





We went to the airport than, checked in and went to the visitors terrace. From here we could see some planes landing and starting.



On the visitors platform they have an exibition of old planes and helicopters. We had a look at them.





At 17:15 it was time to go to our gate than. From Duesseldorf we went home by train.

Bye
BellaKitten

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today in the neighbour city Solingen. We walked along the River Wupper for about 6 km and than back.

First we went buying some things in a nearby wholefood-shop. We parked the car and had a look across the valley, where our trip will start.



I saw lamas on a meadow, but they did not come closer. Katja has to cuddle every animal in sight





This is River Wupper.



You can find many old houses in the valley, they are called "Bergische Häuser" (Bergisch houses) because this reason is called "Bergisches Land".



This house (house?!) is completely overgrown with Virginia creeper. It was a factory building once.



This is a really pretty landscape.



This hamlet is called "Unten-Rüden". This seems funny because "Rüde" is the German word for a male dog.



It is a rural area here, so much green around.







Behind those flowers River Wupper is flowing. Do you also know impatients in Pennsylvania? They are also called "Touch-me-not".



After a 10-km-walk we finally rested on a thick branch for a while (Oops - River Wupper is flowing underneath our feet).



Bye
BellaKitten

Hi Mummy,
we visited Düsseldorf today.

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The city is situated on the River Rhine, and is renowned for its many events and also for its fashion and trade fairs. We went here by train and started our trip at MediaHafen (Media Harbour), a former harbour which is now a modern business quarter.

First we saw an interesting building called "Stadttor" (city gate).



This is the old harbour, now a modern business quarter with a lot of interesting buildings.





We walked towards River Rhine than.



There is a bridge overspanning the inner harbour. From here you have a great overview.

From here you can also take a good photo of Rheinturm (Rhine Tower), a telecommunication tower with a rotating restaurant behind the windows.



Katja showed us the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia, the parliament.





Finally we walked towards the old town of Düsseldorf, along River Rhine Promenade.





Close to the city the promenade is full of bars.





We saw that one of the excursion boats was just coming home. It should start its tour about 10 minutes later, so we decided to make a boat trip. The trip was supposed to last for about 90 minutes.



From here I had a look at the Altstadt (old town). The Düsseldorfer Altstadt is known as the longest bar in the world (»längste Theke der Welt«), because the small old town has more than 300 bars and discotheques.



We were off than, downstream first.







In the meantime the boat made a turn and was going upstream.







It was extremely windy. My travel tag was flying around



We went into town than.



This is part of the Altstadt with its many bars and pubs.



We enjoyed an Altbier here, a special beer which is only brewn in this region.



Next I will show you the old city hall, situated in the old town.





We bought some postcards and a funny fridge magnet.



This is the famous Königsallee, a shopping street where you can find exclusive clothings, jewelry,shoes and other accessoires.



The shops were closing than, it was almost 8:00 p.m. We went home by train. I was really tired, but not too tired to write a postcard to you.

Love
BellaKitten

Hi Mummy,
I'm on my way to Finland now.



Bye
BellaKitten

Meow! I arrived safely in Finland! I was very warmly welcomed by several toyvoyagers and some people. They even had drawn kittens on them!   

Meow! My host finally took me for some sightseeing. We went to the riverbank on the otherside of Porvoo Old Town. In the first photo there's Castle Hill which we'll visit later. The cannon is from World War II and obviously not usable anymore. Those red shorehouses are the most wellknown attraction of this little town. They're used as storage and private living quarters. As you can see from the flower arrangement, Porvoo was established 1346. It started from around Castle Hill and started spreading along the river. That small bridge was the only bridge crossing the River Porvoo in the old days. Nowadays there are 4 more! My host promised me she'll show more in the near future!

I went to the local sightseeing tower with my host.  I got a relly good view over the city of Porvoo! Porvoo is the 2nd oldest city in Finland. It has almost 50 000 inhabitants of which 33% is native Swedish speakers (finnishswedish). Porvoo is only 50km east from Helsinki, the capitol of Finland. It takes less than an hour to drive there.

The story tells that the sightseeing tower was made by a giant: he heard that they were building a church in Porvoo and got angry (apparently giants don't like churches) and threw a stone all the way from Sipoo (where he lived, a place not too far from Porvoo). He didn't either aim it too well or his arm wasn't in good enough condition as he missed the church.

The stone has been a place to gather for festives a hundred years ago. Kids were told that babies were picked up from under the stone. Around 1880 they made the stairs and it became a sightseeing tower. Nowadays kids are told that a stork brings the babies - which is weird because you very rarely see storks in Finland...

Look how pretty and colorfull the nature is! Unfortunately there's also a cool breeze in the air... It's autumn here.

Meow! I'm visiting the Porvoo Cathedral! Just like my host promised The Cathedral was built in the 15th century, although the oldest parts date from the 13th century. The Cathedral was the site of opening of first Diet of Finland March 28, 1809 where Finland was declared an autonomous Grand Duchy, with the Emperor of Russia as the Grand Duke of Finland.

The church has been destroyed by fire numerous times; in 1508 by Danish and in 1571, 1590, and 1708 by Russian forces. In May 2006, the outer roof collapsed after arson, however with the inner ceiling undamaged and the cathedral interiors intact. An 18 years old male was found guilty and convicted to three years and two months imprisonment in August 2006. The Court of Appeals later increased the sentence to six years and six months on May 2007. A further appeal is pending. The Cathedral was reopened in July 2008.

The red wooden building next to the Cathedral is the Small Church. The small church was dedicated in 1740.  The church was restored in 1973-1974. It has two altarpieces of which one dates from 1892, and the other was painted in 1833. The pulpit is from the 19th century, and the organ dates from 1887.

This is how it looks around the Cathedral I just visited! This is also Old Town. How appropriate that there was also that fancy old car  The pink house in the second photo is called "Poet's House". The town rents it for free to artists for a certain amount of time (a few years) so that they can do their art in peace. It doesn't have to be poetry, right now there lives a couple who paints (at least the other one does).

Meow! This is the Baltic Sea - or the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic sea. Anyway, did you know that the creator of Moomins spent her summers on a small island nearby? No wonder Moominpappa loves the sea!

Meow! Or 'Miau' as the cats in Finland say. I visited the Korkeasaari Zoo today! And I met real tigers and lions and red wallabys and emus and wapitis and... The lion couple had had cubs - awww!

What made it "interesting" was the rain. It wasn't any small scale, lovely raindrops rain - nope, it rained like we had been swimming vertically! Honestly! See the drops in the sightseeing photos! And it was very windy too! Like a hair-drier blowing on max speed - just less warm. Actually, that's not windy enough either. Even the animals stayed under roofs - except for the tiger, she was quite restless...

We managed to be indoors during the heaviest rain; looking at dwarf moongooses being fed, Hoffman's sloth, monkeys, frogs, snakes, turtles, birds...

After seeing the bears we were "beary" hungry  So we had lunch - just sausages and fries, nothing fancy.

It was mostly fun, despite the rain and wind. My host had promised her kids to take them to the zoo so she had to do it, despite the rain. And I did complete one life mission 

Meow! Friday is sauna-day in my hostfamily. They have their own sauna like the majority of Finns have. We took some pics before they'd heat the sauna up as the steam wouldn't allow us take good photos. That's also why the thermometr shows normal indoor temperature. My host says a good sauna heat would be +60...+80 degrees Celcius. But that's  her opinion. There are even competitions during summer - who lasts longest in sauna when the heat rises. The Finns have even a Sauna Society!

Basically it works so that people get naked, take a shower to get wet - go sit in sauna (throw some water on hot stones if want it hotter) - wash themselves afterwards. It's really relaxing and cleanes you from the inside (as the sweating pushes all dirt out).

In public saunas (like in the  swimming halls and hotels) women and men go in separate saunas. In private saunas you can do as you like.

Hmmm... I'm gald I don't have to go as I'm a cat.

Miau! Today we went to the main library in Porvoo. We went to the children's department first. They had all sorts of fun decorations to amuse the kids; a small house, a huge ant on the roof, live fish...

I read a few Moomin and cat books.
Did you know that the first Moomins were meant to adults more than kids? For example because in the early, original Moomins Moominpappa drinks whisky and smokes! Did you also know that Tove Jansson didn't draw much Moomins after 1958? Yep, I read that ina book! Her brother took over as she was too busy with Moomins - she wanted to continue write and draw other stuff finally.

I also read Viiru & Pesonen (Viiru being the cat) which is a popular character from Sweden. Their names in the original language are Findus & Pettson. Then I found a new book on Katti Matikainen which is a popular character in Finland - she acts in children's tv every week.

Upstairs was a music department and an "archive" (a study room). There was also those miniature displays of a harbour near my host's home - displaying how there used to look.

We spent about 2 hours in the library and you know what happened during that time too? It started snowing! It was the first snow  this "winter"!

Meowwr! Catzilla here!  Just kidding - but that's how I felt today, visiting a Miniature World on the other side of this municipality, in a small village. It's situated in a former carpentry workshop. It's owned by a christian organization that helps people with alcohol problems. They have this social company where people then make these miniature models and other small projects.

The miniture dioramas were very good! And they make more all the time - so it's a constantly growing exhibition! I saw the Titanic, Pisa Cathedral, the leaning tower of Pisa, Vyborg Castle, shots from Finnish wars, lighthouses, Kolumbus' ships... That was in the first room. They have this other room where they had a whole city! They had put Golden Gate Bridge, Eiffel Tower and a Finnish castle in one place  There was also the Colosseum, several Cathedrals (see, there's even a wedding going on in one!), the Rocky Mountains - and a railroad driving round the whole thing!

It was really interesting! I would've wanted to walk along the streets but my host didn't let me...