Travelog for: TezTez

Hi mommy!!!!
This week are the festivities in the neighborhood of Sants. It’s typical to decorate some streets and we have visited two of them.
The first one we have found is decorated like a coalmine!!! We are in a coalmine!!!






And the second one shows us North Pole and South Pole.
North Pole…


And South Pole. Can you see us?


It’s all made with recycled materials: bottles, bags… It’s so beautiful!!
Bye mom!!!

Hi mommy!
Today we helped Rico the Tiger and Doña Felisa to draw and write in the travelling notebook. This notebook will travel soon, so they wanted to participate in it before it continues its trip

Hi mom!!!
Today is my last day here, I’m leaving today, and Zero is very sad

Z- Before to do your Check Out, I have to do the Rico the Tiger and Doña Felisa’s Check In
R-Rico the Tiger from Germany, 13th August 2012


D-And Doña Felisa from Austria, the same day…


Z-Now, TezTez is leaving today…


T-C’mon, Zero, don’t cry!!!


Z-We will miss you a lot!!!


T-Bye guys!!!
Z,A,R,D-Byeee!!!!


So, mom, I will continue my trip!!!
Germany!!! Here I go!!!!!

Hey Mummy,

I arrived in western Germany today, to be exact in a city called "Dortmund" It was a long journey but I finally made it. I spent the whole day in the letterbox because my new host Kate was very busy and just came home at evening. I heard some voices and something that sounded like a duck and I was curious what's gonna happen. As I crawled out of the envelope I saw my new host and a TV, Commodore Quack. Quack is a duck, so I was totally right as I thought that I heard a duck.





Well at first I had to orientate where I am and needed some food.




My host visited Austria in July so I found something related to my home, a bust of Sisi!! It makes me miss home...



Alright, I'm tired now and need some sleep...

Love,
TezTez

Hey Mummy,

Kate took a long walk with Commodore Quack, me and her dog today. It was so lovely, we started at the Zeche Zollern. It's an old colliery and it was built from 1898 to 1904. After the closing of the colliery in 1969 it became a very important museum. Afterwards we passed many fields and walked through a forest. Besides we made a stop at a castle set on a lake, called “Haus Dellwig”. It was built in the 13th century, was destroyed in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and was rebuilt from 1658 to 1690. It’s a lovely place, everything’s so quiet and peaceful, there are no cars or people but many animals and it's surrounded by nature.

Starting at Zeche Zollern


This is my host's dog, a Jack Russell terrier named "Lady". I guess you remember her as my buddy Monster ^_^ stayed in Dortmund with Kate


This was the first field that we passed.


This picture was taken in the forest, there's the "Dellwiger Bach", it's a stream.


As we continued our walk we passed through an allotment-garden area with a lovely colourful bench



Later we passed another field.


The castle came closer and closer, we were almost there!!



And finally, this is the castle. It's a lovely building Here you can see the back view and the side-view:



This is some old agricultural equipment in front of the castle:


Here you can see the entrance of the castle, the inner courtyard and the castle itself. It's lovely, isn't it?





There was an Egyptian goose, it absolutely wasn't bothered about us walking around there. 


Next to the castle was a paddock with some horses.


On our way back home we walked through a forest again. There were some steepish stairs!! It doesn't look that steepish on the pictures, but I swear it was very hard to go up there. 



After a long walk we came home and now I'm really tired. I enjoyed the fresh air and the landscape and I'm happy that I saw this nice castle

Love,
TezTez 

Hi Mummy,

the weather was lovely today so we decided to visit the zoo here in Dortmund. It's a huge zoo with many animals, it was so much fun!!
I couldn't take pictures with all the animals there, some were too far away to take a nice picture with me and the animals. Well, but I did take some pictures

Here you can see me with a rhino from close up, from a distance and the rhino itself





There's an amazonhouse with 3 levels. The climate in this house is like in a rainforest, there were some animals who just walked / flew through this house without any cages or something like that. One of the animals was a big iguana


Here you can see a camel


Let's come to the lions, it was the most funniest part of the zoo. There are two lion cubs, named "Lolek" and "Bolek". They were so cute!! They squabbled and played with some toys, it was so much fun!!




Next to the lions were the tigers. This one had to stay in this bleak cage for a few minutes because the zookeeper cleaned his terrain outdoors.


This is a part of the terrain of the siamangs. Siamangs are apes / gibbons with black pelage.


Well, it was very interesting and I learned much about animals from all over the world. I'm so happy that I completed one of my missions!!! 
Oh and you won't believe what happened!! A bird just shat on my host's head as we looked at the giraffes. I couldn't stop laughing but Kate wasn't very amused..   
Alright, it was a long day and I need some sleep now.

Love,
TezTez

Hey Mummy,

a new TV arrived today, her name is Germanya and she only travels through Germany. Commodore Quack and me welcomed her




In the afternoon we took a walk through a forest to enjoy the nice weather It was great, there were some stacked boles and a beautiful tree that fell over sometime. I climbed on it









Alright, that's it for today.

Love,
TezTez

Hi Mummy,

it's Commodore Quacks birthday today Germanya, my host and me sang a Happy-Birthday-Song for him and he got a present. He really had no idea what it was and he was very excited



Commodore Quack unwrapped it and saw a necklace with a wheel!! We told him that he got a wheel because of his love for boats and the sea. He loves it!!



He gave Germanya and me a big hug and gave thanks to us. He wouldn't have thought that he'd get such a nice present



In the afternoon Kate showed us the theatre of the musical "Starlight Express" in Bochum. The theatre is very close to our home here in Bochum, it's just 10 minutes by foot. My host is a huge fan It was composed by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's a musical about the world championship of some trains. Engines from all over the world try to win the championship, the maincharacters are Greaseball - the Diesel engine, Electra - the electric engine and Rusty - the steam engine. Besides it's about finding some self-confidence and the true love.
It will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year!! It's the musical with the longest repertory season in Germany (it opened in Germany in 1988) and there's a world record for the most visitors to a musical in a single theatre. This theatre was especially built for this show. The musical is also currently on tour through the UK.



This is a train which is placed on the forecourt of the theatre, apposite to the theme of the musical



Have a nice evening, Mum!!

TezTez

Hey Mum

The weather was absolutely beautiful today!! The weather forecast for the next days isn't good, it says that it'll rain as from tomorrow, so we decided to enjoy the last sunny day. We took a walk around a lake, called "Ümminger See", it was so nice!! 
We crossed a little bridge, I think it looks pretty with the trees on both endings.



This is the big lake



Here you can see a small pond which is next to the lake:



There was a tree with a hole, it was so cosy in there. 



Oh what a lovely day, the sunshine combinded with the lake and the setting was awesome 
I really hope you had a nice day.

Love,
TezTez

Helloooo Mum!!

You won't believe it, we made a trip to the german North Sea coast today We visited many little towns in the East Frisia region, located in Lower Saxony. We started in Greetsiel. There are twin windmills which are very very old.



Afterwards we visited a small town called "Neßmersiel". Well, it's more a holiday resort than a normal town. My host used to spend her holidays there for many years since she was a child. Neßmersiel belongs to the county of Aurich.



There's an old sluice, but it's not used anymore. Besides there's an old windmill. The sails of the windmill don't exist anymore, so it doesn't work




Neßmersiel lies directly behind a dike, cows are grazing there during the day.




Our next stop was in Neuharlingersiel. It's a lovely fishing village with a small harbour. My host told me that there are more boats normally, it looks a bit 'empty' on this picture.



And finally our last stop was in Carolinensiel, another lovely fishing village. We saw a paddle steamer there!! It was so nice




In Carolinensiel were many more boats than in Neuharlingersiel



Oh it was such a lovely day. I loved being on the coast, seeing so many boats and scenting the air of the sea. But it was a loooong day... The journey there took more than 3 and a half hours by car and the return journey took more than 3 1/2 hours as well. That's 7 hours just for the journey there and back, not included the ways between Greetsiel, Neßmersiel, Neuharlingersiel and Carolinensiel. So many hours in the car, gosh, it was exhausting! But it was totally worth it

Love,
TezTez

Hi Mummy

Long time no speak, I'm so sorry!!! My host is very busy at the moment
It was time for some shopping today!! The shopping centre that we visited is called "Ruhr Park", named after the river "Ruhr" which flows through the Ruhr Area.



Love,
TezTez

Hey Mum,

today wasn't a special day, I just spent the time at home while my host had to be at the university. As she came home I helped her writing some postcards, she's a postcrosser The one with the cat and the mouse goes to the USA, the other one goes to Russia.



Love,
TezTez

Heeelloooo Mummy!!

Kate showed me the german mining museum ("Deutsches Bergbau Museum" ) in Bochum today. It's one of the most important museums about mining worldwide. Aside from the normal museum you can go on the shaft tower and there's a recreated adit in in a depth of 20 meters which you can explore. The length of the tunnel is about 2,5km. 
Bochum and the whole Ruhr Area were famous for mining and industry. In the past, there were lots of collieries and steel productions in the Ruhr Area. Most of the collieries don't exist anymore.
This is me in front of the museum and the shaft tower




Can you find me, Mum?




Love,
TezTez

Hey Mum!!

Kate had a surprise for me and you won’t believe what we did today!! We went to the “TV Total Stock Car Crash Challenge”! It’s a huge television event where german (and some foreign) celebrities take part in a stock car racing. It takes place in the “Veltins Arena” in Gelsenkirchen, the football stadium of the popular football club “FC Schalke 04”. The host of this show is Stefan Raab, one of the most famous TV hosts here in Germany. There are 10 teams with 3 drivers each. Guess what, Formula 1 driver Adrian Sutil took part too! Since 2005 there’s one TV Total Stock Car Crash Challenge per year, so this is the 8th time, it’s the 5th time that my host was there

It’s kinda complicated to explain exactly what it is but I wanna try it. There are 3 different car-classes (1500 cm³, 1900 cm³ and 3000 cm³).
In the first heat are 3 races (one race for each class) where the drivers get points for every lap. The driver who first finishes 10 rounds is the winner.
In the second heat are 3 races as well. The drivers get points for every lap AND they get points when they overturn or spin another car. Every race lasts 10 minutes, the driver with the most points after 10 minutes wins the race.
After these 2 heats there’s the “Caravan Crash Cup”. As you can imagine the goal of it is to destroy the caravans of the other drivers.
The last race is the “Rodeo”. It’s the most exciting race of the day. Every car (no matter which class) that is still fit do drive (many cars get destroyed in the second heat) takes part in this race. They have to destroy the other cars (by overturning, spinning, ramming and things like that) until one single car is left. The driver of this car is the winner. There were 2 winners this year for the first time! Adrian Sutil and Timo Scheider (a DTM driver) ended up in a "sudden death" to make out a winner, but both cars broke at the same time! Crazy!



The Veltins Arena is a strange arena, you can’t pay cash there so you need to buy a “Knappenkarte” first and then you can buy your food and drinks with it. This is the Knappenkarte of last year’s event. The man that you can see on the card is the host, Stefan Raab.



Here you can see the arena with the race course and the pit of the team "Software Pyramide" on the left. The seats in front of us were empty when I took this picture because we were there veeery early and had to wait 2 hours until the beginning, but better too early than too late, right?



The box of the TV host Steven Gätjen, who moderated the show for the TV viewer and for the 50.000 people in the arena, was right next to us!! It was so exciting to see all the german celebrities walking and standing near us. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of it

It was a fun night even though it was bitterly cold (even Steven Gätjen wore a winter jacket) and I was very tired at the end. We stayed there from about 6pm untlil 2.15am next morning!!!

Alright, that's it about my evening. Sorry for the long post

Love,
TezTez

Hey Mummy,
how are you doing? I hope you're fine!!
Autumn's slowly arriving in Germany these days. The leaves start to become colourful, it rains much and the people start to decorate everything.

I spent some time outdoors today and I found many mushrooms



Look, the leaves became red



This is a restaurant which is next to our house here in Bochum, it's called "Gasthaus Goeke". It's more than 100 years old and my host says that the food is delicious



This is the catholic church of the district where we live.



This is the view from a window. Isn't it nice?? Look at the different colours of the trees of the forest. I can't wait until they become much more colourful and turn deeper red, orange and yellow, but I think I have to wait a few more days or weeks until it happens.



Look, a straw man He's placed in front of our door.



Love,
TezTez