Travelog for: Hippoda

Hello Mummy,

today we took a walk with Katja's friend Kerstin and her family dog, Pepe. We went to Wuppertal, Scharpenacken, which is a former army training area. This area was used for military purposes until 2004 A.D as a shooting range. Today there is a local recreation area with vast open areas.





There are also people flying model aircrafts or kites.





You have a fantastic overview from the highest point.







We found a tractor and played with it for a while.



Afterwards we had to do some shoppings in a DIY-store. Katja is planning to build a cage for some pets, I hope she does not intend to build a hippo-cage.

Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,

today we are helping Katja to build a cage. She is going to have two ferrets within a few weeks. They are going to live in a selfmade cage, a former closet. Those cages which you can buy are not suitable for ferrets.





Tomorrow we will have to grind the wire , so it won't be sharp any more. Than we will fix it to the doors and side parts of the closet.

Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,
we are still working hard to get the cage ready.





Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,
the cage is ready and the ferrets were brought yesterday. They were taken from a ferret shelter.



Here you can see one of the furry cuties - Shiva.



They are very playful and they like to twitch our toes.

Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,
we had really bad weather for almost two weeks. The sun was not shining, but at least it was not raining. I went with Katja when she went to work after her lunch break.

At the moment I am living in this pretty house on the left side, in the attic storey.



In the vicinity of my current home many old houses "survived" World War II.







We are coming closer to the city centre, no more pretty old houses.





Here you can see entrance to the pedestrian area. Those two large forceps are a symbol for the tool producing industry which made Remscheid famous.



Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk to the municipal park before Katja had to go to work. The sun was shining, so we did not want to stay at home.

We had to walk for about 5 minutes to get there.



The Russian State Circus is here at the moment.



Here you can see the observatory, situated at the  municipal park.









Katja also showed me a pond in the park, ducks and turtles are living here.



We went back to town than. Here you can see the police headquarter.



Katja told us that we will take a walk in Wuppertal tomorrow, along another closed railway track.

Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,
we are planning to take a walk in the neighbour city Wuppertal today, but first we had to go to the post office. Katja took us with her.

This is the public library. They are selling used books at the moment.



Here you can see the publishing house of the local newspaper, Remscheider Generalanzeiger. The statue in front of it is its emblem "Tüpitter".





Here is also the central bus station.





Those statues were positioned here only a few days ago. People already like them and love to sit on the benches - at least today, not last week with all the rain.



Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,
In the afternoon Katja met her friend Erika and we started today's trip to Wuppertal.

We took the bus to Wuppertal and started walking on the "Sambatrasse", a closed railway track. In this region you can find a lot of those so called "Bahntrassen". They are liked by pedestrians and as well by cyclists. Usually you can walk or ride through a town without much contact to traffic and street noise. This route here is about 9 km long.

We started in Wuppertal-Cronenfeld. Soon we passed this building. It's a waste incinerator.



We walked along abandoned train stations and allotment gardens.



It seems that someone found souvenirs along the railway track ...





We saw large stacks of wood, protected against burglary or maybe wild animals.



Most leafs are already fallen.



Suddenly we heard a lot of noise from cars. The route is leading along a motorway feeder.



A part of the Sambatrasse is crossing the Wuppertal Zoo. A bridge is build over the zoo, on the right side you can see the tiger enclosure. We even saw two tiger playing.



The tiger were so far away that we had to zoom.



We saw this funny sign on the bridge, just behind the tiger closure. It says

Info for the tigers - Meals on wheels.

Cyclists have to take care ...  (Maybe not only cyclists).



We reached the end of the Sambatrasse here.







Katja and Erika decided to enjoy a pizza before going home. That's what they always do when they walked along the Sambatrasse *gg*

Here you can see the one and only "Schwebebahn", a suspended monorail, travelling above the surface of the river Wupper.



We went home by Schwebebahn and bus. Here you can see one of the Schwebebahn stations.



Bye
Hippoda

Hello Mummy,

we took a walk today to visit Germany's highest railway bridge. It is Muengsten Bridge, connecting Remscheid and the neighbour city Solingen.

Here is river Wupper which is marking the border between Remscheid and Solingen.



Can you see the outlook pavilion in the background? We will go there later.



We had planned to go to the bridge at first because later the sun would have disappeared from the valley. For some sad cause it was not possible to go there. So we had to walk another path. Here we found some engraved rocks. We liked this one especially: The "Pfützenorakel" (puddle-oracle )



It told us that the weather is nice today

The slopes of this valley are really steep, with lots of rock.



We reached the outlook pavilion soon.



From here you have a fantastic overview across the valley of the river Wupper.





Our path is leading underneath Muengsten Bridge, not on the bottom of the valley but in the height of the middle third of the valley.

Muengsten Bridge is made of steel. It is 107 m high and spans the valley of river Wupper. The bridge is 465 m long and was completed in 1897.





This forrest region is a nature protection area.



We saw a cafe in the forrest.



We are in the municipal area of Solingen now, in Solingen-Unterburg. Unterburg is a picturesque old district.





A small shop is decorated christmassy.







Back home I enjoyed the last sunrays in the kitchen window.



Bye
Hippoda

Hi Mummy,
today it was time to say good-bye to my friends here. I am on my way to the Netherlands now.



Bye
Hippoda

Hello mummy!!

First, my host would like to apologize for taking so long to make an update. It has been very busy and my hosts just did not have any time to go somewhere the last weeks.

Thursday I went with my host to Amersfoort. And it was a crazy day! It snowed a lot and it took us 6 hours to get back home (normally just 1,5 hours!) Because there were a lot of problems with the trains and traffic.


Here we are at the railway company's grounds! My host's boyfriend works sometimes here.

More pictures:









And finally in the trainstation of Amersfoort, not knowing yet that would be travelling for 6 hours!!!


Home again! with the Christmas tree


Hugs,
Hippoda

Hello mummy!!

Yesterday we visited Zwolle, in the province Overijssel.
Zwolle is a nice city with many old buildings.

Here are the pictures:

First we travelled by train from Eindhoven to Zwolle, which takes about 2 hours:



Here we are in Zwolle:



We visited a traditional sweet shop:



They sell a lot of different sweets, but the main product are the "Zwolse Balletjes" (typical sweets from Zwolle).



There was still some Christmas decorations in the shop:



Some more pictures of the city Zwolle:











After walking through the city we went to the snackbar for some nice snacks and fries!



The left snack is an "Eierbal" (means eggball), which has a boiled egg in the middle, you can only find these in the northern part of the Netherlands. The right snack is called a "Kaassouffle" it has cheese in it.



and fries with a lot of mayonaise, onion and sate-sauce (peanut).

Tomorrow we are going to celebrate the new year!!!

Hugs,

Hippoda

Hello mummy!!!

Happy New Year!!!

We celebrated new years yesterday with family in Hardenberg. We had a lot of food and a lot of fireworks!

This is me with all the fireworks:



and another picture:



and here you see some fireworks (it was to difficult to get me in the picture and see the fireworks!)





Hugs,
Hippoda

Hello!!!

We had snow again in Eindhoven!
So we walked a bit in the snow!
Here are two pictures of me:


In the background you see the shopping centre "Woensel" and the large tower called "Porthos".


Enjoying the snow!

Yesterday I visited Utrecht! I will post the pictures soon, but now we are going to eat dinner!!

Hugs, Hippoda

Hello!!

Last monday we walked through Utrecht. Utrecht is one of the larger cities in the Netherlands.

Here are the pictures:




Dutch mailboxes










Dom Tower, one of the most famous buildings in Utrecht.


Dom church







I liked Utrecht very much! But it was very cold when I was there. I hope you like the pictures!

Hugs,
Hippoda