Travelog for: Ohkwari

Watching my fish friends today. Waiting to hear if some one would like to be my host so I can start my travels.
I am very excited.

Sitting with my friends and letting them know that I will soon be on my way to Germany.  They are all very exited for me. 

This is good friend Ika. I told Ika that I will be on my way to Germany this week and now Ika is jealous.  Ika wants to come to Germany with me, but I  know mommy will find a good place for Ika to visit.

I am leaving to Germany sometime today. YAY!

Dear Mum

Goodness, that was a long journey. I was stuck at customs but now I've finally arrived in Heidelberg and was so happy when my envelope was opened and I could breathe fresh air again.



I showed nuriayasmin the cards and coin I had brought with me and she was absolutely delighted.



Then some of the other TV's who are staying here came to say hello. The pig on the left is Sooky, the reindeer on the right is Rendolph and the cute little mice are DuDette and DuDu who are also from the USA.



Then I met Sammy, nuriayasmin's cat. He's very friendly and thought I smell very goodl.





The weather here is still all right but they say it will get colder next week.

Talk to you soon.

Ohkwari

Dear Mum

Today I strolled along the river Neckar and had a look at the Old Bridge which Heidelberg is famous for. The castle is situated over the bridge in the mountains but because of the fog up there, you can't see much of it on the photo. However, I may climb up to the castle next week, depending on the weather, of course. Unfortunately it has become quite cold here now.





Love you very much,
Ohkwari

Dear Mum

Today I'd like to tell you how I spent my day at home with nuriayasmin and the other TV's. First I had a piece of cake and a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast.



Then we TV's decided to do something useful and learn some bits of an additional foreign languages. Fortunately nuriayasmin is quite a language nerd and gave us all her textooks and grammars for Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Norwegian and Japanese.



I chose Italian which sounds really great and isn't difficult to learn. Here are some useful sentences I learnt.
My name is Ohkwari: Mi chiamo Ohkwari.
I'm American: Sono americana.
I like travelling: Mi piace viaggare
How are you? Come stai?
I'm very well: Sto benissima.



I had a look at the new cat Shelley who has been living here since last week. She was abandoned and spent two months at the animal shelter. She's 14 years old like Sammy but looks older and also moves much slower. And she's really tiny compared to Sammy.



I had a look out of the window. The trees have almost no leaves anymore and it looked very grey. It's also very cold today.



Then there were some household tasks to do. I helped getting the clean clothes out of the washing machine.



I had Chinese noodles and orange juice for lunch.



In the afternoon all TV's gathered around the Swedish cookies nuriayasmin had bought for us and told each other about our journeys and dreams of journeys to come. I also had a big cup of hot tea..





Then we helped nuriayasmin to write some postcrossing cards. Each of us was allowed to write one card. Mine went to Russia.



Last not least I did some ironing which was definitively the least enjoyable task today.



And finally I sat down in front of the laptop and updated my travelog.



Hope you and the pets are doing fine. I enjoy my time here in Germany but also miss you a little.

Ohkwari

Dear Mum

Today a bunch of ToyVoyagers invaded Heidelberg Castle. There are stairs which lead to the castle which is situated in the mountains over the city and we climbed them - about 400 I guess. Afterwards we needed to take a rest and took the chance for a group photo.



I had a look down to the city. It's a bit foggy up here as always during the last two or three weeks.



The castle of Heidelberg was built in the 13th century. For a while there were two castles, one situated a bit higher than the remains of the current one.  During the Thirty Years War (1618 - 1648) the castle was attacked and partly destroyed for the first time. In 1692 the castle was destroyed by the French and although basic repairs were made, the castle has basically remained a ruin since then. In the early 19th century a French count became interested in the castle and served as a voluntary castle warden. Between 1897 and 1900 the castle was partly reconstructed and became one of Germany's main tourist attractions.











Another look to the city centre, the Old Bridge and the river Neckar.



Bye, Ohkwari

Dear Mum

I went to Speyer today. It's a small town not too far away from here. It took us about 45 minutes by train to get there. Speyer used to be an important city in the Middle Ages.

Speyer Cathedral was built between 1030 and 1080 by the Salic Emperors and designed as their last resting place. 8 German emperors and kings, 4 queens and several bishops were buried in the cathedral's Crypt between 1039 and 1309. Since 1981 the cathedral has been a UNESCO world heritage site.

This is the front of the Cathedral:



This is the back part of it where the Crypt is situated.



After visiting the Cathedral we walked through its park to the Sea Life Aquarium.





It wasn't allowed to use flash inside the aquarium so taking photos resulted to be extremely difficult and they didn't turn out well.









Speyer is situated at Germany's biggest river Rhine. Here's a port for small boats.



We took a walk along the Rhine, watched some big freight ships and then returned back to town from where we took a bus to the train station.













It was a great day and not even very cold.

Keep fine, Ohkwari

Today we said good-bye to Sooky. She spent two months in Heidelberg and will now travel to her next host. Have a safe journey.



Ohkwari

Dear Mum

Advent time has started and it's common here to put a wreath with candles on the table. Children often get Advent calendars which have 24 doors with some candie hidden behind each of it. We were were given a plate full of cookies, mandarines and chocolate. Next week DuDette, DuDu, Nook and Willy Olson will leave but we're expecting some new TV's.





Take care,
Ohkwari

Dear Mum

I went to the supermarket today. We cycled like always, it took about 20 minutes to get to the supermarket. However, before we left, I had my photo taken in front of the house where I'm currently living.

















I'm sending you a big hug,
Ohkwari

Dear Mum

You haven't heard from me for quite a while and I'm very sorry about that. The weather has become quite grey and rainy here and my host has become very lazy and stayed home most of the time she didn't have to work. Today I accompanied her to town and we wanted to take some pictures. However, it started to pour again and so I preferred to stay in my host's big warm bag. However, here's a photo of me in front of the gate which leads to the Old Bridge.



Hope you're doing fine.

Ohkwari

Dear Mum

How are you doing? Hope you had a good start into 2012. I'm really sorry that I haven't written for so long. However, I'm doing fine, we've just all been very lazy here. Nuriayasmin told me that you're looking for another host for me so I'm already curious which my next destination will be.

Today I said good-bye to Claire Squirrel. After spending a couple of weeks at home she's now travelling to another German host. The cute rat next to me is Remy. He spent the month of January with us and will return home next week.



I also visited the rabbits in their cage today. Krümel was very curious and tried to find out if I'm tasty. I had to remind him that he's a vegetarian and then he left me alone.



Unfortunately Lola has been ill for a week. She caught a bad cold and is still very weak. Nuriayasmin has to feed her three times a day and she still needs medicaments. Hope she will get well soon.



The temperatures have fallen below 0°C and the weather forecasts says it's going to become even colder. No snow though as it's very dry.

I promise that you won't have to wait for my next travelog entry for so long again. Keep fine.

Ohkwari

Dear Mum

A new TV has arrived today. When nuriayasmin gave us the envelope, we were all very curious and gathered around it.



Finally Kazumi took some scissors and cut the envelope open.



A lot of sweets fell out of the envelope and Remy looked as if he wanted to eat them all at once.



There was also a note which I read to the others.



Then we heard some sounds from inside the envelope and suddenly a cute little green rabbit appeared.



He looked so frightened that I just had to take him into my arms and cuddle him. I'm sure we're going to have a nice time with him once he has grown accustomed to us. It's his first journey after all.



Keep fine,
Ohkwari