Travelog for: SammyFire

HELLO DADDY, I'M IN BERLIN!
The first photo shows the view over a part of Berlin out of my host's window.
The other one shows two new friends of mine: The guinea pigs QuamQuam (brown) and Klea (black). They are so cute
I'm looking forward to my adventures here.
Bye for now
SammyFire

Today I visited the EASTGATE with my host Marie! It's a big modern shopping center. The majority of the shops are shoe shops and clothes shops. I didn't know that a woman can go shopping sooooo long .
Because I stayed the course I got a piece of Pizza as a reward. YUMMY
Oh, I have to show you the bag in which Marie will take me through Berlin. Looks like made for little tv's like me

How are you, Daddy?
I took a walk through Marzahn.
Marie lives on the tenth floor of a high rise. Fortunately there is a lift which brought us down . First she showed me the big meadow in front of the house. It's really nice. Then I played on the little playground. I had a lot of fun!
After that we went to a village gravejard (Marzahn used to be a village). It's very small  but beautiful. Marie says it looks better when the trees have green leaves again.
But that wasn't the end of the tour. I also visited a little petting zoo with sheep, donkeys, geese and goats. Next to it was an exhibition of farm machines, very interesting. There was another playground where I rided a sheep and drove a tractor . The last thing Marie showed me was a mill.
I hope you like the photos
SammyFire

WHOAA! The first snow in Berlin this winter. And I'm here too see it . Immediately I built a little snowman.
The sad thing is that the snow is melting already .

Hey Daddy,
today Marie's little sister took me to the cinema to watch "Der gestiefelte Kater". The cinema is in a big building where you can do many other things like bowling or learning to dance. But we only visited the cinema. It consists of nine cinema halls and the seats are very comfortable . We bought popcorn and then we watched the film. It was very funny.
Greetings
SammyFire

HEY HEY,
today the weather in Berlin is very bad and so Marie and I stayed at home. I helped her with learning for an exam in Biology and then I read her favourite book: "Felidae". It's about a cat which tries to solve a criminal case. It's brilliant but some parts were very scary. I hope I don't get nightmares...
I also listened to her favourite Band: Wise Guys. It's a German  acappella band and they sing really funny songs with intelligent texts.
Love you, Daddy
SammyFire

Ahhhh, Marie has holidays at last
So she had time to go to the "Grüne Woche" with me. It's a international exhibition of food industry, agriculture and horticulture. It took place in a big building, the "Messe Berlin". We went inside and there were soooo many things to see. At first I ate a special Tunesian meal: scrambled eggs with chicken meat, onions, parsley and Tunesian flavoring in it. That was delicous . Then I watched some animals again: cute ones like cats and pigs but also spiders and bearded dragons which looked a bit scary. After that we came to a nice indoor garden, look yourself.
The "Grüne Woche" has a big assortment of bread, I never saw so much bread in one place
I was a bit disappointed because I saw no fire brigade but a tractor is almost as cool as this
This was it for today
Bye
SammyFire

Hello Dad,
today Marie made a sightseeing tour with me. But first we went to another shopping center: the "Alexa" to eat something.
Then we started the tour and went out on this cold cold winter day (even a bit snow ).
The tour began on "Alexanderplatz", a big place with many shopping centers and high buildings. There I saw the "Fernsehturm" (368 meters high!!) and the "Weltzeituhr" on which you can see what time it is overall in the world. It's also a popular meeting point. The "Rotes Rathaus" is very nice, too. Right next to it is the "Marienkirche". It's one of the oldest churches in Berlin.
I saw the "Neptunbrunnen", too. It's very impressive with it's figures and Neptun on the top.
Because we felt like icicles the tour went on by bus. Looking out of the window I saw the "Humboldt Universität" and the "Humboldt Box".
The bus took us to another famous sight: the "Brandenburger Tor". It marks the border between east- and west Berlin. We went through it and came to the "Bundestag".
On our way back I could see the "Berliner Dom" and the "Spree".
Now I'm very tired. But that's ok because I can sleep in the envelope in which Marie will send me to my next stop, Bremen, tomorrow.
Good night
SammyFire

Now the time has come to continue my journey. I'm looking forward to my new adventures but I'm a bit sad, too, because I have to leave Berlin and my new friends.
But I know, wherever I am all my friends will think of me now and then and I will think of them.
CU
SammyFire

Hey Daddy!!

I arrived savely with juls!
Being on the Germany trail is really exciting. Today the weather was splendid and so we went straight into town for a little bit of exploring!

Juls took me for a first glimpse of Bremen's most famous sight!
I saw the town hall, which is world national heritage. The Roland the statue on the market. Böttcherstraße, where in medieval times wooden barrels were made. (Böttcher = barrel maker). Today there are museums there and craftsmen merchants. But also the small candy manufacturer. sweet stuff coming through!
Obviously we also stopped by the statue of the town musicians which are really much smaller than everybody expects.
It was all really great. The Dom is beautiful, juls said maybe we can go inside another day. And also we looked around the market square, saw some of the old houses and the "Schütting" which is directly opposite the town hall. The architecture is really beautiful!

Btw juls told me something very interesting about the Roland. First: the head is a copy. The original is placed in the museum to protect it from erosion. And second: the length between its knees is the exact measurement of the "Bremer Elle" (measurement of length). When there was dispute on the market concerning the length of cloth, the customes could measure between the Roland's knees to make sure he was not deceived.

Cool right?

Hugs and kisses
SammyFire
xxx

Hey Dad!

Just as promised , I visited the St. Petri Dom of Bremen with Juls yesterday!
It was so great!
The Dom was built in the 11th century. It is pretty old you see. It is a cathedral in typical gothic architecture. In the 19th century it was restored and since 1973 it is a world national heritage!
If you are interested you can read more about it here.
Juls wanted to take me all the way to the top of the Bell-tower, but it is closed during the winter season.

Instead we went into the "crypt" and saw the baptismal font. The cathedral has gorgeously coloured windows that depict Christian religious scenes. We did not take pictures of the altar or Christ (I hope you don't mind) and anyway they look the same everywhere.

After this adventure Juls and I were really hungry, so we met up with a friend of Juls' and went to a very special restaurant. "Jackie Su" a special tip should you ever be in Bremen! We ate butterfish curry. Delicious

It is still freezing around here but now snow...
More news soon!

hugs and kisses
xxx
SammyFire

Hey Dad!

The weather has been rubbish these past few days.
But before the last ice was gone, we took a walk along the banks of the river Weser and look at these enormous ice shells! It has been quite some time since there were ice shells on the river, Juls told me.

You can see one of the many shipyards that line the opposite site of the river. Also the other side is already Lower Saxony. But only where we took our walk. A bit further upstream the border extends across the Weser.

We saw some seagulls too, and an anchor and a buoy. And when we got back inside, where it was warm an cozy we had tea with Juls family.

Hope you are well
love
SammyFire

Hey Daddy!

After some slight technical problems finally some news from Bremen!
Weather has finally improved and things are brightening up.
It is a shame really because Juls had to prepare a presentation so we were busy all last week reading. I helped her.

So here is little something on typical Brem-ish culture
(Don't worry, it's juicy!)
It's about "Bremer Plattdeutsch", a variety of Low Saxon spoken in Bremen.
Funny fact:
-It is closer related to Dutch than to High German.
- It cannot describe abstract words (i.e. there is no word for "weapon", just for "knife" or "gun")
- it lacks modern terminology ("Kernschmelze" etc) and has no words for things outside of the realm of Northern Germany ("Bergsteiger" etc)
-It was originally spoken by the Saxons settling in western Holstein.
-It was lingua Franca during the times of the German Hanse.

And finally here is some lexicon I picked up that comes in handy when I travel around Bremen.
Kattekel  - Eichhörnchen
Bottervogel - Schmetterling
Foftein - Feierabend
Banane - Bonaan
al - schon
gau - schnell
Bremer Platt is de Aart vun Plattdüütsch, de in de Stadt Bremen un in de Dörper dor ümto snackt warrt, de nah Bremen henhöört.
And btw. it "Moin!" all around the clock!

After so much work we decided to have a reward. we made muffins. Delicious!
Almost Spring outside so we decided to take another walk again. We saw the Schulschiff Deutschland and a Schute (Barge). The second barge goes towards Bremen Harbour. So it goes up the Weser!  The first goes towards the north Sea it goes down the Weser!

See you soon!
SammyFire

Moin from Bremen!

Hey Dad, soon I wil continue my journey, and I am already really excited about it.
Today a new TV arrived with juls : blou beer. I was really curious about his arrival and we became good friends already.
Juls is invited to a big party tomorrow and we had to prepare cakes. We made small sponge cakes filled with custard cream and a soda cake. I helped! (Now my tummy hurts a little from eating too much dough, but that was definitely worth it!)
Anyway here are some of the scrumptous pics!

Delicious greetings!

Hello from Rhineland-Palatinate!

I'm not far away from home. And if I wanted to go home I would jump into the Rhine and try to swim to the other side. The flow would do the rest 

I started my trip in Braubach. There we were walking in the Rose Garden. There is also a war memorial and in the back you can see the Marksburg.



The view is similar to home:





The war memorial has been built for the victims of the Franco-German war in 1870/71. It's not the biggest one but still nice.



Here is a picture with me and the War Memorial and the St. Barbara's Church in the background:



And on the top of the mountain (or hill as you want to view it) the Marksburg the only medieval castle of the Middle Rhine that has never been destroyed:



And one view about the rhine plants with me:





Here the castle from a distance, because we've gone along the valley:



Here we are in Osterspai. A small village with the so-called "Ritt" a peninsula with a beach and nature reserve and marine reserve.



On the other side of the Rhine you can see the vineyards of the Boppard Hamm, a good wine from the region:





Then we went back. Here I am in Lahnstein in front of the Martin Castle. Lahnstein is the residence of my host FraJ. The castle is now a carnival museum.



In Braubach I will also try to visit the volunteer fire department. Lahnstein I'll only be able to see from the outside.

So I'm excited to see what I'm experiencing here!

Cya