Travelog for: Stoker

My host had promissed to take me out to more places in Bruchsal, but then allergies and illness it the family. And the weather was strange too, but today everything seemed right to go on a short walk. We went over the graveyard of Bruchsal, which is close to my hosts home.






The church St. Peter is in my hosts street. It is a nice baroque church, one of the few remains after world war II. About 80% of Bruchsal was destroyed on 1rst of March 1945. The church is at one corner of the graveyard.




We walked next to this small wall. In the middle of the photo you see a grey building in the far. This is a catholic grammar school, which was founded by padres of the Pallotti order.






Then I learnt something about this nice old church. It was designed by Balthasar Neumann.






A memoral stone on the graveyard is a reminder of the Baden Revolution. We still don't really know, where this stone is




because it isn't the one next to the board.




We didn't take many photos on the graveyard, but here you see some. The graveyard is a difficult place for older people, because it is rather steep.






There are many nice chestnut trees on the graveyard.




This is a reminder for people, who lost there lifes in World War I.




These are the newest graves of the Jewish graveyard.




We are at the upper entrance of the graveyard. You see the newbuilt new apotholic church.




Standing next to the church we tried to catch a view to the Palatinate mountains in the far. If you look more closely, you will see them too.




Here we see the backside of the house called Santa Maria. I will tell you more about it later.




Between the two trees you can see two towers. The right one is the keep of the ancient castle and the left is the tower of the catholic church, which belongs to the palace of Bruchsal.




Here is the front of Santa Maria.




The institute Santa Maria was opened in 1908. In 1981 it became a private school for social-pedagogy. Since 1988 there is also a Kindergarden Museum.




We are close to home now, so this is the last photo of our walk. I really enjoyed it.

Today evening we saw a nice double rainbow. My host family still has to fight with illness

Petra told me, that I will go to school with her tomorrow and that I had to be prepared about their theme Baden-Württemberg. She told me, that I should tell her pupils something about those federal states, which I have seen already and that I will learn something more about Baden-Württemberg, too.

The tip of this biro shows, where you will find Bruchsal on the map.




Here's the coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg. The deer on the left is the heraldic animal of Württemberg and the griffin on the right is the heraldic animal of Baden.




On this map of Germany you see Baden-Württemberg in green. You can spot Stuttgart and Bruchsal.




Here's a map of Baden-Württemberg with some important cities and the Bodensee (Lake Constance).




The green part is the Rhine Valley, the brown is the Black Forest and Swabian Mountains and the blue is Lake Constance.




I had to answer some questions like, which city in the Rhine valley is called "Fächerstadt" (Fan-City): Karlsruhe, because it is built like a fan around the palace.




I learnt some Badisch and Swabian, like Grumbiere for Kartoffeln (Potatoes).




And of course I had to learn the Badner-Lied.

Today I went to my host's workplace - a primary school. She is a teacher of 4th graders. I'm sorry, but she didn't want to take photos with me, while her pupils were there - she said, that she had no time for it and I really believe, that she told the truth. She even had to run to take some photos with Stoker, Spencer and me of the Baden-Württemberg exhibition. Her pupils had made posters of different themes, but all of them have to do with Baden-Württemberg, which is the Bundesland (state), to which Bruchsal belongs.

Three pupils had to find out interesting places for pupils. Here are two of their posters:






Other pupils had to tell something about the Black Forest, the Schwarzwald, which is only about one hour drive from our host's home. The Black Forest is famous for the Kuckucksuhr, Black Forest Cake and the Black Forest costumes.






The Mummelsee is a 17-metre-deep lake at the western mountainside of the Hornisgrinde in the northern Black Forest of Germany. It is very popular with tourists travelling along the Schwarzwaldhochstraße. According to legends, the lake is inhabited by a Nix and the King of the Mummelsee.






The Schwarzenbachtalsperre (Schwarzenbach river dam) is also located in northern part of Black Forest. It was finished in 1926.








Konstanz is a city at the Bodensee (Lake Constance). It is close to the neighbour countries Austria and Switzerland.




Heidelberg is famous for its castle and the river Neckar with a nice bridge.




Karlsruhe is the main city of the Baden part of Baden-Württemberg. It is only about 20 km from Bruchsal and my host told me, that she studied there ages ago.






And finally Stuttgart, which is the maincity of Baden-Württemberg. It is called Stuttgart, because there were farmhouses for mares - in German "Stuten". That's why you see a horse in the coat of arms. Stuttgart is also famous for Porsche, the oldest television tower and Wilhelma, the Stuttgart zoo.








At last I was allowed to sit on the large Germany puzzle. I sit next to Baden-Württemberg, you can see the red dot Freiburg. At the border, which is the thick green line you maybe can spot some blue, this is the river Rhine, which flows through Bodensee (the blue part at the border to Switzerland (CH) and Austria (A) to the Netherlands. Bruchsal is located in the Rhine valley.




Two pupils talked about the Rhine, because a part of it flows through Baden-Württemberg.

In the early afternoon we went to see the baroque palace of Bruchsal. The most part of it was destroyed during the Second World War, but then rebuilt until 1975.

Schloss Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful Baroque palaces in Germany and the only episcopal Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. The foundation stone was laid in 1722 by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Speyer, who made the palace the centre of his absolutist dominion.




There are nice chestnut alleys in the palace garden.




At one crossing you see statues of the four seasons. This here shows summer.






There's also a small pond with green water and some ducks.






At the next crossing there are statues of the four elements water, air, earth and fire. This statue shows fire.




Here we are in the rosegarden.








On this wall we found a sun dial, but we wondered, whether the time was right on it.




You see, that many houses belong to the palace area. The house with the little tower is the county court.



Petra wanted to take a photo of me with the palace entrance, but the battery stopped working So this is my last photo of my stay with her. I left her home in the late afternoon.

Hello from Bonn!

I'am at the first time in Bonn and it's a really nice little town.
Yesterday i made a first lookaround... 

Doy you know this men? He was born in Bonn and lived here in the 17th century and was a musician....


Here a view to Bonn-Beuel at the over side of river Rhine...




...and now a view to Bonn. It's a small town. But very nice...


At the back left you can see the "Langer Eugen", the headquarter of the United Nation...former it was a building from the german government before the move to Berlin...


The promenade beside the river rhine...normally full of people..


After that, i climbed on top of a hill called "Kreuzberg", located at a district called "Endenich". From here you can see the "Kölner Dom" at the horizon. And yeah...the weather was good enough!!! 
I have marked it to show you where it is....


So this was the first tour for me!!!
Have a nice weekend!!
Greetings
Stoker

Hello Mummy and HELLO BERLIN
I arrived safely at my host Marie's home and was welcomed by two tvs! On the left side you can see Kuromi-chan from Singapore and on the right side _Mishuta_ from the Ukraine. They are very friendly and showed me round my new home for the next month. At the end of our little tour I had a look at Klea, Marie's guinea pig. Isn't she cute ?
I'm really looking forward to the following days.

Greetings
Stoker

Hello Mum,
today_Mishuta_, Kuromi-chan and I visited the zoo in Leipzig. After one and a half our by train we finally arrived at the central railway station. From there we took the tram to the zoo.
We saw different animals like monkeys, zebras, meerkats, turtles, elephants and many more as you can see. We also visited "Gondwanaland", a big Tropical Hall. Inside I felt like I was in a real rainforest! Doesn't it look great?

Greetings
Stoker

Hi Mummy,
Mishuta and I visited a Trümmerberg (mountain of rubble) together with Marie and her family. It is called like this because it consists of debris from World War II. Now everything is covered with plants and we took a little walk.
On our way we collected many elderberries, you can see them on the fifth photo. At home we made soup out of them, I liked it very much .

I miss you, Mum
Stoker

Today is our last day together because tomorrow Mishuta and Kuromi-chan will travel to their next hosts. So we made a little farewell dinner: "Crostini"- slices of baguette with tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, basil and olive oil. At first we cut the baguette. Then we cut the tomatoes and mixed them with the other ingredients. When we were ready we put the mixture on the baguette slices. The dinner was sooo good .

Greetings
Stoker

Now I have to travel to the next host, too. I heard it's RikeH and that she takes me with her on holidays. I'm really looking forward to it.

Love you, Mummy
Stoker

Hello Mum, hello Dad,

Just in time I arrived in Sülfeld.My cousin Dicker Kumpel was a little surprised where I landed.



Then he gave me a warm welcome!



He introduced me to the other guys here.



Some of us will travel to another country soon – this will be fun.



Then I showed the others the best way to sleep.



I think I will like it here.


Love
Stoker

Hi Mum and Dad,

We went to Poland – and I had a look out of the window of the plane.





In the evening we made a walk through Warsaw and saw this nice fountain.



At this place the people think of dead soldiers.



This is one of the best hotels here – but we didn’t have a room here.



The home of the President – if I remember it right.



To tell the truth – I have no idea what building this was.



This is the Sigismundsäule.



And this is the castle of the town.  Yes - a new Castle for my collection!



Do you know the man on the photo?





Another beautiful building.



This is a nice big place in the old city.



Here you see a monument – Polish people love monuments like this one.



And Mum and Dad – this was my famous place in the city! RikeH allowed me to sleep here – it was so much fun and I met some other bats.



Yours
Stoker

Hello Mum and Dad, 

We left Warsaw and I saw this funny building.



Then we went to a region called Masuria. We took a trip on a river called Krutynia.





Look – we sat on a boat like that one.



We had wonderful weather!



There was a nice tree – sadly dead, but it looked great.



I loved this trip.







Later we stopped at another place and had a great view.



I loved the wooden houses here. You can see me with my friends in front of this house.





Love
Stoker

Hello Mum, hello Dad,

Today we visited a nice church – called Mariä Verkündigung in Swieta Lipka.



We had a nice time in the church and listened to an organ recital.





In front of the church I saw this nice harvest crown.


   
A pilgrimage route seems to be here.



Can you see this nice Castle – unfortunately it was a ruin.



We had a nice stop at the port of Mikolajki.







On the market place there was this fountain with a fish on it.



Near to our hotel I had fun in this boat.



I had a great view from a hill there.



Around the hotel there were some funny guys.









It was a very beautiful hotel!





yours
Stoker