Travelog for: Sofia

Hey Mommy,

it is our first full day in Amsterdam! The weather is beautiful! Blue sky, looooooots of sun and it is really hot! No jacket needed! Time for sightseeing!

Let's go!

First thing we noticed: Not even the sky is blue, also Amsterdam! There's so much water everywhere! Nearly 1/4 of the city is wet area. So we started with that blue stuff.

Amsterdam is home to more than one hundred kilometers of canals. The three main canals are Prinsengracht, Herengracht and Keizersgracht, all 3 of which are navigable by boat. In the Middle Ages, Amsterdam was surrounded by a moat, called the Singel, which now forms the innermost ring in the city, and makes the city center a horseshoe shape. The city is also served by a seaport. It is often nicknamed the "Venice of the North," due to its division into approximately 90 islands, which are linked by more than 1,200 bridges.

Here we are close to a part of the port. Lots of tourist ships start their tours through the canals here. The big ship looks like a pirate ship. We were told that it normally doesn't leave the city. And the swimming house is a museum and it is not really swimming. Because of the beautiful weather we decided to stay outside and don't visit any museum today.


Can you see the green building on the right which looks like a boat? It is the Science Center Nemo. The other big houses are located on one of the islands. When we got closer to that bridge next to Nemo we realized something big behind the houses...


We went closer and passed that bridge next to Nemo, but no chance to see that big thing. So Sanny had the great idea to jump on a fairy, cross the  Het IJ (which is the canal between IJmeer and North Sea) and travel to Amsterdam Noord. We had to walk a bit and then we saw that big thing. It was an AIDA cruising ship. Look! It was smiling at us!


We enjoyed the day close to the water and didn't realized how time passed by...

Sofia

Hey Mommy!

In the evening we decided to visit the water again!
First we wanted to travel by fairy again, but unfortunately it was too cold!

So we saw a nice sunset close to the harbor. 

Sofia

Hey Mommy!

It's Friday 13th and it's not spooky at all. The weather is still beautiful! We thought we will be doing lots of sightseeing, but Sanny had other plans.

Today we went to the Rijksmuseum (State Museum). It is the Netherlands national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam.
The museum was founded in The Hague in 1800 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808, where it was first located in the Royal Palace and later in the Trippenhuis. The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened its doors in 1885. On 13 April 2013, after a ten-year renovation which cost € 375 million, the main building was reopened by Queen Beatrix. In 2013, it was the most visited museum in the Netherlands with a record number of 2.2 million visitors.

The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. The museum also has a small Asian collection which is on display in the Asian pavilion.

Later Sanny went shopping and geocaching and more shopping...

Let's see what will happen tomorrow when we have our last day in that beautiful city.

Sofia

Hey Mommy, I have to tell you something, but DON'T tell the boys!
In my last post I told you about the geocaching. There were some events that day. :roll eyes:
So in the evening I left the boys alone in the hotel, locked the door (for their own safety) and went to visit a geocaching event. It was a tiny meet up with people from all over Europe. After this event I was invited to go and find a cache. Lucky me I met a girl from Finland so I could use her GPS. That was great! All the information about the cache were in Finnish! So I could use my own language in a foreign country! And guess what: we found that cache!!!

Can we do this at home, too???


Btw: The guys didn't notice that I wasn't home. When I came back they were already sleeping. And some of them were talking while snoring.

Sofia

Hey Mommy!

This is the first day where we didn't have a blue sky! But nope, we don't care. It is our last day in Amsterdam, so we had to do some more sightseeing!

We started at The Royal Palace (Dutch: Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam or Paleis op de Dam) which is one of three palaces in the Netherlands which are at the disposal of the monarch by Act of Parliament.
The palace was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The building became the royal palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House. It is situated in the centre of Amsterdam,


The National Monument on Dam Square (Dutch: Nationaal Monument or Nationaal Monument op de Dam), Amsterdam, is a 1956 World War II monument in the Netherlands. It is on the opposite of the Palace.


Then we heard about a place in the inner city which shall be totally different. Not so many tourist and extremely quiet. It was not easy to find it, but hell we are Toyvoyagers!
So we visited the Begijnhof which is one of the oldest inner courts in the city of Amsterdam. A group of historic buildings, mostly private dwellings, centre on it. As the name suggests, it was originally a Béguinage. Today it is also the site of the English Reformed Church.


Tomorrow we will go on traveling...

Sofia

Hey Mommy!

This morning we left that beautiful city, but we didn't go home.

Our next stop was Zandvoort which is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands. It has a long sandy beach, bordered by coastal dunes. It is also the site of the country's most important automobile racing circuit, Circuit Park Zandvoort. Sad we didn't have time to visit the race track.

We walked along the beach, watched the waves of the Atlantic Ocean and collected some sea shells.

It was a nice, but short stopover.





Sofia

Hello Mommy!

Same day, different place!

We did another short stopover. This time in the Dutch city of Rotterdam! We stayed only for 2 hours, taking a few pix near the water and the rest of the time Sanny needed to go shopping at Starbucks.

This evening we are going back to Germany for another short stopover...

Sofia

Hei Mommy!

I'm back in Germany! Last night we arrived in Cologne and we will stay here only for 2 days!

Today we started with some plants...again! Same like in Amsterdam.
We went to the Botanical Garden called Flora Cologne. There is no entry to pay, it is totally free! While some of us visited the plants I decided to stay in the garden, relax on a bank and enjoy the sun!

The building on my picture is the main building, but I couldn't see any plants inside. I heard people use it for parties!



Sofia

Hey Mom,

this is my second and last day in Cologne. So it was time for some sightseeing.

First we visited the most famous sight: the Cathedral!
Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is a Roman Catholic cathedral. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is a renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site. The cathedral is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an average of 20,000 people and 5 Toyvoyagers a day.

The construction of Cologne Cathedral commenced in 1248 and was halted in 1473, leaving it unfinished. Work restarted in the 19th century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880. It is 144.5 metres (474 ft) long, 86.25 m (283.0 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157 m (515 ft) tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires. Its two huge spires give it the largest façade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church.



Then we had a view over their famous river: the Rhine. It is a European river and the second longest river in Central and Western Europe. It is about 1,230 km (760 mi) in length.


This is the Hohenzollern Bridge which is crossing the river Rhine. It is the most heavily used railway bridge in Germany. But that's not the reason why it is famous. Most interesting thing is the decorations! Since 2008 people have placed love padlocks on the fence between the footpath and the railway lines.
Can we go there and place a padlock together?


Sofia

This morning we left Cologne and went back home.
We really enjoyed our big journey!
Last thing to do here was saying goodbye to our nice host in Cologne. Sean (brother of Squab and Alex) offered us a bed and did the lovely sightseeing tour.

Hey Mommy,

we are on tour again!

This time we went to the Harz mountains. Ok, we stopped a little bit before in a city called Halberstadt. No time for sightseeing, just some hiking. Sanny wanted to get a special stamp in her hiking book so we had to join her!
We went to a tower called Belvedere which was built in 1782.


From here we could see the highest mountain of the Harz: Brocken. Can you see it behind me between the trees? There was still some snow on the top.


And this is Halberstadt. It is famous for its sausages.


Sofia

Hello Mommy,

we had some spare time left and went to the Alaris Butterfly Park in Wittenberg. It is one of the biggest butterfly parks in Germany. Its size is about 1000m² and you can find 140 different kind of butterflies.
We went here, because Squab is planning to fly to Canada. He heard of butterflies flying long distances from Canada to Mexico. So he told me to have a small talk with my relatives about useful informations.
It was really hot in this area! I liked it!




First I met this huge guy. I asked if he could help me, but all he said was "Gnaaa". Don't know what it means...


Then I met a young lady. She told me stupid Squab should take a plane. Then I saw her wing was broken. I offered her a part of mine, but she said it is ok, she already learnt how to fly with a damaged wing.


Then I met this guy. I asked him, too. Hmm he was not very friendly. He started to snarl and shouted "Get away, it's my food!" Stupid guy. Hmm, I should introduce him to the boys. :roll eyes:


This beautiful lady noticed me and called me. I should look for a butterfly with lots of beautiful red in his wings. Ok, let's do this. She was so very friendly. She also invited me for dinner with her family. I told her to join when I managed to find that red guy!


Oh! Another butterfly with a broken wing! But he had lots of red in his wings. Maybe this could be my helpful guy? When I asked him he said he is the wrong guy. I have to ask his mother, a wise lady butterfly. I just have to look carefully and then I will find her.


There she is! Wow, she looks amazing! Ms Butterfly was surprised to see a foreign butterfly in her home area. She told me that she knows every single butterfly in this park besides me. She was really interested to hear my story so I told her everything about Toyvoyagers. We were talking for so long that I nearly forgot to ask for Squab. Before I left she gave me some informations for him, but I decided to keep the secret of flying for myself. Squab is a chicken! He can use a boat or dove to cross the ocean.


As my job was done I went to the dinner I was invited. There was the girl who invited me before. She introduced me to her family and I was allowed to drink some nectar from delicious flowers. I think all others noticed there was a foreigner in their area. More and more butterflies arrived at the dinner table. We sat there for hours, drinking nectar and taking about live... This was an amazing day.



Your happy
Sofia

Hey Mommy,

today we visited a flew market in Ferropolis, which is also called "the city of iron". We weren't interested in the market, we preferred to see the area. Ferropolis is an open museum of old huge industrial machines. It's an open air museum which contains machines from the mid-twentieth century. They can measure to 30 meters high, 120 meters long and weigh up to 1980 tons. Moreover, the area is used for several events like opera or music festivals like the Melt! Festival. These events seats up to 25000 people!
There are five big machines and everyone has its own name: Mad Max, Medusa, Gemini, Big Wheel and Mosquito.

This is Mosquito:


Mad Max on the left and Medusa in front of me:


Mad Max. During concerts they place the stage in front of that machine.


This is the highest of all: Big Wheel.


Last, but not least: Gemini!


Guess what! We were allowed to climb up to the top of Gemini! Woah!
From here Mad Max looks so small!


Gemini is a really interesting machine. From the outside...



...and from the inside!



Later Alex told us so much more about Ferropolis, I just can't remember anymore. I'm still impressed from these big machines!

Mrs. impressed Butterfly

Hey Mommy,

today we went to Leipzig, the biggest city in Saxony. Sad, all shops were closed, so we went for dinner.
After that we visited the St. Nicholas Church which has long been one of the most famous in Leipzig, and rose to national fame in 1989 with the Monday Demonstrations when it became the centre of peaceful revolt against communist rule. The church was built in about 1165 around the same time Leipzig was founded. It is named after St. Nicholas, the patron saint of merchants and wholesalers, and is situated in the very heart of the city at the intersection of two then important trade roads, the Via Regia and Via Imperii. It is built partially in the Romanesque style but was extended and enlarged in the early 16th century with a more Gothic style. In 1794 the interior was remodeled by German architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe in the neoclassical style. The church has been a Protestant seat since 1539 after the Protestant Reformation, but the Catholic Church is allowed to use it too.

Sofia

Moi äiti!

And we are still in Leipzig. Today we went to the Botanical Garden...for some shopping! There was a cacti fair! All of us were allowed to do what we wanted!

Near the entrance I found a big stone with some butterflies on it. No real one of course!


Oh look, the green house looks amazing!


There was an area in that beautiful green house where lots of butterflies lived! I met a really nice guy. He told me about his life here.It's green all the time and they always get fresh fruits. Of couse he invited me for dinner.


Sofia