Travelog for: Bamboo

Hello everyone!

Nice to meet you, my name is Bamboo and I'm a little gorilla from Barcelona (Spain).

I spend hours and hours jumping,climbing and eating bananas in a palm tree!! Mmmmm I love nature,and fruits!!bananas,peaches or watermelon are yummy!!! But I want to try some new! And what about peanuts???!!!

I'm sweeter and more calm than King Kong,but every time I hear the sound of a saxo, I dance uncontrollably!!hihihi

I'm very curious and adventurous!! I've been dreaming of travel around the world since my mum was a child and we saw Around the World with Willy Fog on TV together. He's my idol and I want to follow his steps:
Discovering different places, languages, food...I enjoy reading and learning new things!

As I'm a strong,speed and avenging, I'm very prepared to start my adventure But my mum says I need to be careful,sometimes I'm clumsy!haha

Also I'm looking for caring hosts that can show me new and different places, buildings, parks, trees and food! I want to learn sooo many things and having so much fun!

Hope to hearing from someone and start my adventure very soon!

Have a nice day!

P.S.1 I'm not to be released in the wild please as one day I want to be reunited with my family and explained them all my adventures!!

Hi Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid, Germany, today!

I was welcomed by some curious ToyVoyagers and my first host Katja.



I hope I will memorize their names. There are (un)Lucky Lily, Commodore Quack, Sotty and Henrik, There should be even some more.

Katja took me out for a short walk in the afternoon to meet a friend.

Mummy, where did you sent me? It's autumn here!

The first photo was taken in the street where I am living at the moment. A lot of old houses, like at home.








Katja told me that there were storms last week, a lot of chestnuts were thrown from the trees.







I can see that there is a lot of woodland around the city.







I found at least an evidence that maybe it is still summer.





Bye for today
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
today we had the same ugly weather as yesterday, but no, even worse. Have a look at the morning weather



In the afternoon we went to one of Katja's friends to take a walk with her dog. Katja also told me that she had to buy some things in a DIY-store.

We went to Scharpenacken, 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.



They are using sheep as lawn-mowers.



n the background you can see a housing area in Wuppertal, famous for its exquisite villas built by factory owners.



We found  hawthorn, already wearing its berries.





On these signs you can find information about this area. It will be renatured in the coming years.



In the meantime it started raining, so we hurried back to the car.

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
now I know what Katja bought in the DIY-store - wall paint! We helped her to paint the kitchen walls.

We were wearing paper hats so we could not become stained with paint.



Three walls were painted with a colour which was called "Linen", another one was painted dark red.





Tomorrow the red wall will have to be painted once more.

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
finally summer is back! Katja showed me around the city centre in her lunch break. As she is working close to the city hall, we started our trip here.

The city hall was originally built in the early 1900's years, than it was nearly destroyed in World War II and as rebuilt afterwards in a more modern style. Its tower is 48 m high, visible from all the surrounding cities.



On the large open space in front of the city hall there is the farmers market twice a week. Here is also one of the entrances of the shopping mall. The lion on the pillar is the heraldic animal of Remscheid.



This is the main entrance of the shopping mall.



We also walked along the shopping street.



Katja promised that we would take a walk in the evening, in the forest. That sounds great!

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
indeed, we took a walk in the evening. Katja was picked up by a friend and we drove to Solingen, one of the neighbour cities of Remscheid. We started in the  historic district Unterburg, situated at the river Wupper.

First stop was a weir.



This is an ear-trumpet which intensifies the sound of the water, pouring down the rock.



This is river Wupper.



We walked along the path, the river on the left hand side, rocks on the right hand side.



We crossed the river Wupper here.



In the background you can see parts of an old pump, once used in a nearby dam.





We walked further until Schloss Burg, a medieval castle, came into sight in the distance.



Here is a zoomed photo.



We rested here for a while, still high above the river level. Someone painted this rock pink and white!



A chairlift is going uphill to the castle.



We reached the "town centre" of Unterburg again. Here you can find lovely historic houses, built close toghether with only narrow lanes between them.





Some of these half-timbered houses were built in 17th century!



This statue is showing a "Kiepenkerl", a traditonal worker in the past, who carried all sorts of goods in his pannier. The German word for pannier is "Kiepe", that's why they were called "Kiepenkerl".





Once again the chairlift.



Than it was really time for dinner!

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
today we visited the medieval castle, Schloss Burg, which I already showed you on yesterday's walk. It is situated high upon a hill above the River Wupper.

This is the view from the street.



We went into the courtyard and found a lovely half-timbered part of the castle.



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) large 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 handmade brushes, brooms, soap, lovely yarns and wooden knitting needles, toys like swords and helmets and much more.





The round tower was the powder tower, it was restored about two years ago.





You can overlook the valley of the river Wupper from this high point.



We walked into the forest than. From here you can see how high above the valley level we were.



Later, when we walked through a hamlet called Höhrath we saw a sweet chestnut tree in one of the gardens.





In Höhrath you can find many livery stables.



This was a very exciting trip

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
we finished our work in the kitchen, everything is at its place again.





Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
today we visited an arboretum in Wuppertal, the Staatsforst Burgholz. An arboretum is a collection of trees, sort of a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study. We went to "Staatsforst Burgholz", a woodland area which is situated in both urban area of Wuppertal and also the urban area of Solingen, but only a small part of it. When World War II was over, there were nearly all trees felled for rebuilding of destroyed city areas and also as firewood.

Searching for fast-growing forest species trees from foreign counties were planted than in this area to study their growth in local weather conditions. Plants from North America, South America, Asia and Europe were planted.

There are several walking paths through the arboretum, of course we chose the longest of them, about 6 km long, displaying a variety of trees from Europe, America and Asia.

We walked through this large forest with all the strange trees.





The soil is partly covered with soft moss.



These are withered hogweed...



... and thistles.



Here are trees which you can usually find in the USA.







Our path is meandering through the landscape, sometimes with rocks on both sides.



We left the path when we met the "Sambatrasse", a former railway track, nowadays a walking and cycling lane, aobut 10 km long. Those large piles of wood were here for years, Katja told me.



This is a former station, dilapidated now.



While we followed the Sambatrasse to reach the bus station, we walked along an incinerator.



This was a great trip, although it was sort of exhausting

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
a new guest arrived today, it's a cute squirrel, Claire Squirrel.



Later we took a walk in one of the oldest parts of the city, close to a valley where inustrialization started some hundreds years ago.

We had to walk downhill for some time, because we are living on top of a hill, about 365 m above sea level.



Here you can see allotment gardens. Do they also exist in Spain?



Narrow lanes like this are typical for old districts. Of course we also have narrow lanes at home in Barcelona



We saw lots of fruits in the gardens. Here is hawthorn with its red berries.





We had a great overview to the surrounding landscape.



Deep in the valley you can see the district where we walked today.



Time for walking home!

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,

in the late afternoon we took a walk, visiting Germany's highest railway bridge, Muengsten Bridge. This bridge is overspanning the valley of the river Wupper. The bridge was built in early 20th century, finished in 1907 A.D. It is 465 m long and 107 m high. It is made of steel.

A few years ago a leisure park was built under the bridge. You can can find a new café here. It was opened last summer, it's facade looking like rusty iron. There are also lawns with seatings and sun chairs to relax and a crazy golf course. The river usually is really shallow here, so kids can play at the banks.



This is Muengsten Bridge, at least part of it



It is so large that it is nearly impossible to take a photo of the whole bridge. We had t o walk further than the golf course to take a photo.



We walked into the forest than, steep uphill for some time. Soon we were high above the valley.





We found engraved pictures on rocks.



We crossed the river Wupper here.



Walking uphill we enjoyed the last sun of the day.



We saw this lovely outlook pavilion, we did not want to disturb a smooching couple, so we did not get closer



This was a really interesting trip.

Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
today we had another sunny and warm day. We went to Katja's friend to chill in the garden and later take a walk.

Katja was carrying her knitting stuff with her, she is knitting green socks for her daughter's boyfriend.



Although we are alrady having October, I found some flowers.

In the afternoon we went to Scharpenacken once more, to let the dog play. I have been here before, about three weeks ago.

Today we had much more fun





What a clear view!





Because it is often windy here, there are people with their kites.







You can find really excited dogs everywhere





Bye
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
it's the fourth Advent Sunday.



It snowed during the night



Have a pleasant Sunday
Bamboo

Hi Mummy,
we went to buy the Christmas tree today. We went with Katja's brother-in-law, like every year, she told me.

We drove to a farm in one of the rural outskirts of Remscheid. Here you can drive into the forest and look vor your tree in a tree farm. You can even fell it on your own.





Those trees are not large, about 1,50 m .







You can go with your own car here or you can go with the farmer, on the trailer of his tractor.



To pay for the tree we had to drive back to the farm. In the meantime the sun came out, but only for a short moment.

It was time than to disappear into Katja's bag. I was a bit wet and afraid to get a cold.

Bye
Bamboo