Drescher, Vienna, Austria

MamiTig


Posted Oct 27, 2011, 2:38 am
Drescher was very excited to start a new life in America! He arrived at his new home with a post card and a whole lot of happiness! Thank you,Leslee!
MamiTig


Posted Oct 28, 2011, 4:50 am
Drescher visited the Neosho River today. Host mom said it is one of her favorite places to come and see how the seasons change things.
MamiTig


Posted Oct 29, 2011, 3:38 am
Drescher met some pretty princesses on the way to their Halloween ball! :)
MamiTig


Posted Oct 31, 2011, 2:54 am
Drescher found the no excuses zone today...
MamiTig


Posted Nov 1, 2011, 3:02 am
Halloween... the kids thought it was very exciting, but Drescher got a bit scared!
MamiTig


Posted Nov 2, 2011, 3:36 am
Drescher met the cutest baby hedgehogs (and their mama) today!
MamiTig


Posted Nov 3, 2011, 2:42 am
Drescher went to the dentist today, to see what it is that humans do there. He learned a lot about teeth!
MamiTig


Posted Nov 6, 2011, 3:30 am
Drescher visited Diebolt lumber with the host family, to buy supplies for a fence.
MamiTig


Posted Nov 7, 2011, 12:29 am
Drescher visited the SDA youth group in Thayer, KS and enjoyed doing crafts with the kids.
MamiTig


Posted Nov 7, 2011, 3:28 am
It was beautiful out today, so Drescher went out with his host family, to explore the countryside!
MamiTig


Posted Nov 8, 2011, 2:53 am
It was dark and stormy today!
MamiTig


Posted Nov 8, 2011, 2:54 am
Drescher met the new visiting TV, Coker, today. He liked Coker's taste in ties.
MamiTig


Posted Nov 10, 2011, 3:18 am
Drescher joined host mom for breakfast today. The cereal and yogurt sure looked delicious!
MamiTig


Posted Nov 11, 2011, 1:40 am
Drescher took a morning jog around Garnett's south lake, to enjoy the crisp, autumn air.
MamiTig


Posted Nov 12, 2011, 5:53 am
Drescher is on his way to Germany!
fam-united


Posted Dec 18, 2011, 3:37 pm
Today I finally arrived at my new host's place. I had been very happy to see them all and to get out of my package. My host says thank you for the postcard and stickers.

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We decided to listen to the White Christmas Album while we baked a Hannchen Jensen cake, which you can see on the left page. We baked it with peaches, because we don't like cherries in it.

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While we took care for the Hannchen Jensen cake, Petra baked some cookies. You see, it isn't that easy to hold Mi-Go back from eating everything. He just threw us around when he jumped up to catch some of the finished warm cookies.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 18, 2011, 3:47 pm
Today we baked a braided yeast bun, because Petra's one son had a belated birthday party. It tasted really fine - and once more we had to take care for Mi-Go to not eat it all before any other person had a chance to get a slice of it.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 18, 2011, 4:01 pm
Today we wanted to create some tea-light holder. We needed four pieces of hard transparency foil and napkins with small ornaments on them and some glue for napkins and white colour.

At first I had to rip out some ornaments of my napkin.


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Then I had to glue it on the foil.

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After it was dry again, I stamped some white colour around the ornament.

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Some even used golden colour.

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Petra helped us to staple them together.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 19, 2011, 7:48 pm
Today we helped Petra to bake two large apple cakes, because tomorrow is the last day of her son's alternative service.
We prepared the dough and cut apples into pieces, added cinnamon, raisins and sliced almonds to the apples and cooked them. Then we made a part of the dough in the plate and filled it with the warm apples and covered it with dough again. I would so love to make this internet able to give you a hint of the smell in the kitchen, yummy.

While we all worked really hard, one of us sat around and only listened to music of the cd-played. Of course one whose name is Priscilla can only listen to music of Elvis, especially when it is Christmas time and it is a Christmas album.


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The first of us, who discovered the new cd was Henry the Adventure Hound.

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We needed a lot of flour for the cake.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 19, 2011, 8:21 pm
This weekend there is a special event in Bruchsal. There is a second Christmas market for three days around the palace. The weather wasn't that great - no snow:(, but it was cold enough and the place was full of people.

At first we listend to the trombone choir playing Christmas songs. We also took a look into all the tents, but it was too crowded to take photos there.


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We left the Christmas market and took a photo of the front of the palace by night before we drove home again.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 20, 2011, 3:30 pm
While our host was teaching at school, it started to snow. We asked her to go out with us, but she said, that the snow is rather wet and that it isn't nice outside. Nevertheless she took some photos with me to show the roofs covered with some snow.

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Here you see the two towers of the church St. Peter.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 28, 2011, 9:03 pm
Petra has time to do some more baking. At first we all sat down at our place, where Petra wanted us to sit.

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We took the book and searched for some nice recipes. You can see, which recipes we picked out for baking today.

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We also baked some other sorts of cookies.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 28, 2011, 9:35 pm
Today is a very special day. We all were allowed to help packing the presents for Christmas.

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Later we helped to cook chicken fricassee in the clay pot and some corn salad and of course we helped to eat everything:)

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Later we ate some of our selfmade cookies.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 28, 2011, 10:21 pm
Merry Christmas to you!

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In the morning we watched a movie, which Petra got as present yesterday evening: Elvis: That's the way it is.
I must say, that he was a really cute guy and I also like some of his songs.


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Our sheep waited in the stable with the sheep.

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Then we all went to the crib with the newborn Jesus.


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fam-united


Posted Dec 29, 2011, 1:42 pm
Today we helped to cook again. We had lamb, dumplings, vegetables (carrots, onions, oranges and dates) with red pepper pearls. It tasted very very fine, although it was a diet recipe - without the dumplings.

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Then everyone went away and we were alone at home. We prepared everything for dinner: raclette. Look at this amount of black olives.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 31, 2011, 2:46 pm
Today we went to Petra's parents in law to celebrate Christmas with them and her husbands' sisters families. We saw some nice angels and another beautiful Christmas tree.

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fam-united


Posted Dec 31, 2011, 3:36 pm
The weather was a bit better, so we decided to go on a short walk over the graveyard, which is close to where I live right now. There is a beautiful baroque church next to the graveyard. It's called St. Peter.

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We also visited to Jewish graveyard.

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Next to the newapostolic church on the left we had a good view over a part of Bruchsal. The big house on the right is the backside of Sancta Maria.

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Next to Sancta Maria we had another good view over the city. I hope, that I will come closer to those towers to see exactly, what these buildings look like. Petra told me, that from left to right you can see the tower of the city church Our holy lady, church St. Damian and Hugo, which belongs to the palace and the old tower of the ancient castle.

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Here is the front of Sancta Maria. It is a school for soon to be kindergardeners and also home for some Franciscan nuns.

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fam-united


Posted Jan 2, 2012, 3:14 pm
It's the last day of 2011 and we start to bake a new year pretzel. At first we had to take flour, some warm milk and fresh barm. We prepared a yeast sponge. Later we added honey and melted butter and salt.

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fam-united


Posted Jan 2, 2012, 3:38 pm
Happy New Year

We celebrated with friends and had a lot of fun. At midnight we watched the fireworks.


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I'm sorry, it was really difficult to take a nice photo. This one isn't really a nice one.
fam-united


Posted Jan 2, 2012, 8:35 pm
Mandy Sheep read a lot about Baden-Württemberg, because she joins in the Big German Round Robin. After hours of searching for information about the state we're living with our host right now, she got bored of reading so much, so she decided to listen to a nice song on youtube. Maybe you will watch it to. It is "Crawfish" from Elvis Presley's movie "King Creole".

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She called us to join her.

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fam-united


Posted Jan 27, 2012, 6:45 pm
The weather isn't the best one, but today we've seen some blue sky:)
I decided to join my host and her daughter, when her daughter delivered a journal of the catholic church to some people.
On our way we saw some nice old houses.


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fam-united


Posted Jan 27, 2012, 8:26 pm
In the evening we went to take the stars from a storeroom of the church, where our hosts belong to. Petra takes care for the stars, which will be carried around by the starsingers on 6th January. Some of the stars are old, some don't look nice anymore, so Petra creates new covers and we decided to help her today.
Here you see a star, that still looks nice. Nevertheless it isn't, if you take a closer look. Last year it rained a lot and the star got wet. Now you can see white glue running down, where it should be only clear yellow. Some said, that it doesn't matter, but our host didn't like it and she asked us to cut out new yellow transparent paper and a new black star silhouette.


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We didn't like the yellow side of this star, so we decided to spray it bronze and cut out a new yellow transparent paper and black star silhouette too.

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We had to work really hard.

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We also didn't like these two stars and we had to throw one into the bin, because it was broken on the back totally.


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Then we had to outline the first star on the transparent paper.

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Priscilla helped to cut it out.

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But it was rather difficult for her, so Lintilla offered to help her.

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While we worked, we found some marzipan potatoes.

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We tried to speak really low, because Mi-Go had been fallen asleep in our back and you know, that he always runs to get it, if he sees something to eat.

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But we should have knows it better. Of course he also feels, if something to eat is around. He jumped up and caught the marzipan potatoes in the same second. Only Lintilla seemed to take no notice of it.

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Proud Mi-Go! We tried to keep calm and go on with our work. We had to outline the black star now.

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Mi-Go was anything else, but no help for us.

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But to our surprise, he was the one, who asked us, if he could be the one, who was allowed to cut out the black star silhouette.

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That looks really difficult, but it seems, that he's the one, who knows, how to do it.

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And yeah, it just looks great. Now you can be really proud, Mi-Go.

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But, oh dear, we had done a mistake, when we outlined the yellow star. It was the wrong side of the paper and so the star didn't fit perfectly to the wooden star. We were very disappointed.

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We had to cut out another yellow star and black star silhouette, which fit perfectly then.

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Then we had a break and read the newspapers. We read, that Wulff is the Federal President and that there are some problems, but they aren't really interesting for toyvoyagers. But it was really interesting for us, that they wrote about a storm, which should hit Germany soon - no toyvoyager weather:(

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For me it was interesting to see a photo of the wife of Baden-Württembergs Minister-President Kretschmann. I read, that she doesn't want to be called a First Lady. I did want to read this whole news article, but the others didn't and so we went on to the next page.

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We saw a photo with a little bit of snow. Wow, there's snow somewhere in Germany.

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But then we turned to read the Bruchsal news and the first thing we saw, what a nice bird singing and a pussy willow blooming. It seems like springtime here.

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Did you know, that petrol in Germany is that expensive? I'm not sure, because we didn't know about this. Diesel costs between 1,37 Euro and 1,48 Euro, which means between 1,8092 US-Dollar and 1,9544 US-Dollar. It would be interesting to know, how expensive it is in other countries.

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On Karlsruhe page on the right we read about a big construction area, where they build a new way for the city tram.

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Here is an interesting page. It shows items, which you can buy in the newspaper shop. They sell items of Baden. Maybe we should go there and take a look, but surely they will cost some money.

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fam-united


Posted Jan 28, 2012, 10:15 am
I like this Christmas decoration on the window. It's on the same place each year. If you like it too and want the originals to cut them out for yourself, please send a note to Petra.
It's a nice place for us toyvoyagers, too. It is warm and you can see everything that's going on on the street
:)

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The first photo is without flash, just to show you, how dark it is outside although it is early midday. If Petra hasn't done a mistake, then there are 26 toyvoyagers sitting together. Some are her toyvoyagers, some her daughters and some are rescued toyvoyagers, which still are at her place and of course some are guests, who will move on again.
fam-united


Posted Jan 28, 2012, 10:51 am
After the big group photo session we finished the stars.

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The other toyvoyagers were really curious and came to take a look at the beautiful stars.

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Later a group of starsingers visited our house, but we just had been too slow, so we aren't on this photo. Nevertheless we thougth, that it is a good idea to show you, how starsingers can look like. They don't carry one of our stars, though. They belong to the church region, were our hosts live, but our hosts go to another church, where they lived before. It's a bit complicated:)

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In the afternoon we all helped our Petra to bake two cakes. She told us, that tomorrow isn't only Epiphany, but also her husbands 50th birthday and that we will go to the parish hall and carry cakes with us. At first we baked a Hermann cake. It is a cake like a round robin, that's how it seems for me. Petra told us, that she received a part of the cake a few days ago and that she had to stir it and to feed it and that now it is ready to get baken. Of course we added some more stuff like flour, sugar, almonds, cinnamon, chocolate pieces.

We read the recipe.

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Then we had to get some more dishes for the "kids" of this cake.

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We had been really busy.


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We also added some apple pieces.

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We wondered, if this dish would be big enough and decided, that it wasn't. So we took a star for the dough of Hermann.

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fam-united


Posted Feb 6, 2012, 2:17 pm
Today we drove to the Michaelsberg in Untergrombach. Untergrombach is one of Bruchsal's suburbs with about 6000 inhabitants.
3500 to 2600 BC there were frist human signs on the Michaelsberg, which gave this culture the name "Michaelsberger Kulturkreis"
1502 AD Joss Fritz from Untergrombach planned the "Bundschuhaufstand" during the time of Peasant's Wars.


In the far (right side) you see some houses, which belong to Bruchsal.


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Bruchsal and also Untergrombach are located at the edge to the Kraichgau. Here you see the Rhine Valley. If the weather is sunny, you can see the Palatinate Forest in the far.

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The chapel is on top of the Michaelsberg.

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fam-united


Posted Feb 19, 2012, 11:24 am
Karlsruhe is the third largest city of Baden-Württemberg. It is the main city of the Baden part. It is located close to the German - French border, only about 25 km from Bruchsal. We arrived at Karlsruhe after a drive of about 25 minutes.

We first tried to find a parking place and then crawled out of the car. Wow, was it cold outside. We all didn't have the right clothes for a walk, so we had to hurry.

Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states. The town surrounding the Palace became the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht) whose decisions have the force of a law in many cases, and the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof), the highest court of appeals in matters of civil law and criminal law. It therefore considers itself the home of justice in Germany, a role taken over from Leipzig after 1945.

Due to similarities to the United States capital city, it has been speculated that Karlsruhe was a model city for the cityscape of Washington, D.C.[4] Both cities have a center — in Karlsruhe the palace and in D.C. the Capitol Building — from which the streets radiate outward. L'Enfant, Washington's city planner, had been given the plans of Karlsruhe (among numerous other European cities) as an inspiration.
(you can read this and more on wikipedia)


In 1715, Charles III William, Margrave of Baden-Durlach established Karlsruhe (Charles' repose), where he built his residence.


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The city was planned with the palace tower (Schloss) at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, or the ribs of a folding fan, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the "fan city" (Fächerstadt). Here's a photo of the palace.

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We really wanted to see more, but it was so cold, that we hurried back to our car. When we looked out of the car window, we could see the State Art Gallery.

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fam-united


Posted Feb 21, 2012, 4:41 pm
We decided to drive to Durlach to climb the Turmberg. Our hosts told us, that the view from Turmberg would be just perfect. So we are really excited. You can see the top of the Turmberg just straight ahead.

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fam-united


Posted Feb 21, 2012, 7:09 pm
Durlach is a borough of the German city of Karlsruhe with a population of roughly 30,000.
It was chosen by the margrave Charles II in 1565 as residence of the rulers of Baden-Durlach, and retained this distinction though it was almost totally destroyed by the French in 1689.

Margrave Charles III William decided that he needed more space which led to the foundation of Karlsruhe, which in 1715 became the new capital until the state was merged into the grand-duchy of Baden.

We only drove through some narrow streets, because it wasn't far from sunset.


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fam-united


Posted Feb 21, 2012, 10:39 pm
The Turmberg ('tower hill') is a vineyard-covered hill of the northern most part of the Black Forest. A castle ruin with watch-tower are located on top of the Turmberg. The watch-tower in particular offers fine views of Karlsruhe towards the west and the Rhine River valley. On very clear days even farther west the Vosges in France can be seen. The Rhine River is the border between Germany and Alsace area of France. The South and East offer nice views of the Black Forest, and since the Turmberg is the northern most tip of the Black Forest you have hills more than actual mountains.

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fam-united


Posted Mar 18, 2012, 1:21 pm
Today we drove to Cologne. Petra's husband had to be there for a Trade Fair and Petra met olgamaus.

Here is some information about Cologne (wikipedia):


"Cologne (English pronunciation: /kəˈloʊn/, German: Köln [kœln], Kölsch: Kölle [ˈkœɫə]) is Germany's fourth-largest city (after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.

Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. The University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln) is one of Europe's oldest and largest universities.

Cologne is a major cultural centre of the Rhineland and has a vibrant arts scene. Cologne is home to more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics and sculpture. The Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom and the Photokina."



Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom) is the city's most famous monument and the Cologne residents' most respected landmark. It is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. In 1996, it was designated a World Heritage site; it houses the Shrine of the Three Kings that supposedly contains the relics of the Three Magi. Residents of Cologne sometimes refer to the cathedral as "the eternal construction site" (Dauerbaustelle).

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Cologne Central Station: On an average day, about 280,000 travellers frequent the station, making it fifth busiest station in Germany.

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Then we walked down to the Rhine.

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We turned around and took a look back to the cathedral.

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Here's the Hohenzollern Bridge.

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Great St. Martin Churchis a Romanesque Catholic church. Its foundations (circa 960 AD) rest on remnants of a Roman chapel, built on what was then an island in the Rhine. The church was badly damaged in World War II, with restoration work completed in 1985.

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We then walked around the Imhoff-Chocolate Museum. 

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We took a look back to the Hohenzollern Bridge, cathedral and Great St. Martin.

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The museum is run by the Schokoladenmuseum Köln GmbH. Since March 2006, the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli has been its partner in producing exhibits. Prior to that the partner was the Cologne chocolate producer Stollwerck, and the museum was formerly known as the Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum.

On this photo you can see, how hight the water was in 1995 and you can see, where we took the photo with the chocolate girl, where we stand for the view back to the churches and bridge. The yellow line shows the way we walked around the museum and the green line the way, where we came from.

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Inside the museum we saw all the machines which are necessary to make delicious chocolate.

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There is a real chocolate fountain! We all got wafers dipped into melted chocolate. Yummy!

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This equestrian statue shows Frederick William III of Prussia. You can see here, who else is on the base of the statue.

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The Heumarkt is beside the Alter Markt the biggest place in Cologne historic city.

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There are several small breweries in Cologne. This one is located at the Heumarkt.

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It started to rain and we walked back to the cathedral. We entered it and it was so so dark inside, that we had problems to take nice photos. So please excuse the quality.

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So this was the last photo of Cologne and we drove back to Bruchsal again.
fam-united


Posted Apr 6, 2012, 3:11 pm
Today we were invited to celebrate our host uncle's 80th birthday. We celebrated at a Greek Restaurant close to the Rhine. In the early afternoon we went on a walk to have a view on the Rhine. Both, the Rhine and the Neckar flow through Mannheim. Mannheim is a nice city, Petra told me, but she had no time to show more than the Rhine.

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fam-united


Posted Apr 29, 2012, 8:45 am
Happy Easter to you!


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fam-united


Posted Apr 29, 2012, 5:58 pm
Finally I found time to read these two pages of two different newspapers of the week. The one is about Bruchsal asparagus. Bruchsal is famous for its asparagus fields and auctions.

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The other newspaper page is about the baroque palace of Bruchsal. I think, you have a good view to many different parts of the main building with the church tower, but still many houses are missing.

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fam-united


Posted Apr 30, 2012, 5:21 pm
We have typical April weather in Bruchsal. There is sunshine and the next moment there is hail and thunder and rain.

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Tom+Jerry


Posted May 8, 2012, 10:44 am
Hi Mum,

I safely arrived at my new hosts home :) I met new nice buddies - TezTez and Mr Pumba when I climbed out the envelope.

As a first thing I helped hostmum with the laundry. I'm a good guy, am I  :p

And in the evening we had BBQ!!! Look at me an the guys waiting for hostdad - the grillmaster!!  :cyclops:
Wow, yummy chicken wings!

Mom - I ate like a horse and we were so full that we fell asleep right away!
After a small nap we all needed an Espresso  ;)
Tom+Jerry


Posted May 30, 2012, 9:29 pm
On May 19th we started our vacation trip to Cadzand in The Netherlands.

I was very eager and packed the car together with TezTez and Mr Pumba.

After a 2,5 hours car ride we arrived and started vacation with a huge portion of fish and beer  :cyclops:
Tom+Jerry


Posted May 30, 2012, 9:50 pm
On my first holiday I joined my host mum and dad on a 50 kilometer bike trip to a big harbour called Zeebrugge together with Mr Pumba and TezTez.
We all had a chance to see a fire fighting boat, a submarine and a very big ferry. On one picture you can see myself sitting on an anchor with my friends  :D
Tom+Jerry


Posted May 30, 2012, 10:09 pm
Mum, look!

I visited Brugge together with hostmum, -dad, -grandma and -grandpa. And of course my buddies - TezTez and Mr Pumba.

First, we visited the "Begijnhof". A béguinage (French) or begijnhof (Dutch) is a collection of small buildings used by Beguines. These were various lay sisterhoods of the Roman Catholic Church, founded in the 13th century in the Low Countries, comprising religious women who sought to serve God without retiring from the world.

Afterwards we found a nice canal with typical buildings.

And then I tried my first Irish Coffee - wow! YUMMY!!!  ;)

The last pics show us on the market place in the heart of Brugge.
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 5, 2012, 7:50 am
Hey Mum,

there are many many Geocaches to find in Belgium!!
Here's one we logged in Damme  :cyclops:
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 5, 2012, 7:55 am
One day we started a round trip from Nieuwvliet to Vlissingen and then we visited Walcheren by bike.

On our way to the ferry we saw a lighthouse!
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 5, 2012, 7:56 am
Look Mum, I loved to be on the ferry. AND NO SEASICKNESS, yippiiiieeehhh!!!  :p
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 5, 2012, 8:23 am
We had a stop in Vlissingen which is located in Walcheren.

Walcheren is a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. It lies between the Oosterschelde in the north and the Westerschelde in the south and is roughly the shape of a rhombus. The two sides on the side of the North Sea consist of dunes; the rest of its coastline is made up of dykes. Middelburg lies at its centre; this city is the provincial capital and Vlissingen 9 km to the south is the main harbour. The third municipality is Veere.
Originally, Walcheren was an island, but polders and a dam across the Oosterschelde have connected it to the (former) island of Zuid-Beveland, which in turn has been connected to the North Brabant mainland.
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 5, 2012, 8:25 am
Another stop on our tour was Veere which is located at the Veerse Meer.

The Veerse Meer (Lake Veere) is a lagoon in the province of Zeeland, the Netherlands. It was separated from the North Sea in 1961 by the Delta Works dam system. It is 22 km long, and 1,500 m wide in places. Lying between the old islands of Noord-Beveland, Zuid-Beveland and Walcheren, it is linked to the river Scheldt by the Zandkreekdam lock, which allows this lagoon to have brackish water, slightly less salty than sea water. There are 13 small uninhabited islands in the lake. Some of its banks, underwater at high tide, have been made into nature reserves, while others are popular for water sports, such as sailing.
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 5, 2012, 8:30 am
Mum, I fullfilled one of my life missions!!! I had a walk on the beach together with hostmum, hostdad, TezTez and Mr Pumba!!!  B)

But: Business before pleasure! We found a Geocache which was buried deep in the sand. It was hard work to dig it. But look what an amazing BIG thing we found!!!

After the hard work we lay down in the sand to catch some tan  :D
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 5, 2012, 8:34 am
From The Netherlands we went to Norderney to visit some friends.

There was a fantastic beach volleyball competition and a lot of action!!!!
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 6, 2012, 3:07 pm
Look Mum, today I had to say goodbye to my buddies TezTez and Mr Pumba:(

But I look forwards to some Geocaching, BBQ and other adventures together with my host  :D
Tom+Jerry


Posted Jun 14, 2012, 7:38 am
Hey Mum!!!

You know what!? I'm now a fan of the German soccer team  :D !!!

You might know that there's currently the European Championship? Germany won the first match against Portugal and yesterday they won the match against The Netherlands!!! Yeeeehaw  :cyclops:

Look, I was absolutely prepared for the match - with German memorabilia, some chips  and a huge TV :p

Tom+Jerry


Posted Jul 2, 2012, 8:46 am
Hi Mummy,

I'm sorry, it took me a while to post some news. This is because I had been in training for a half marathon together with my hosts!

And last Saturday we made it! YEAH. We ran 21 kilometres!!!  :D

Look - in preparation for the run I needed some stuff like drinking bottles, a heart rate watch and of course mosquito-repellent spray!  B)
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And here's the competition number  :p
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Tom+Jerry


Posted Jul 4, 2012, 3:47 pm
Hey Mum,
we currently have beautiful and sunny summer weather in Germany, therefore I decided to catch some tan in the garden. I grabbed my book and enjoyed  B)
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Tom+Jerry


Posted Jul 17, 2012, 12:12 pm
Hey Mum, long time no see... but I have amazing news today! I went to Berlin together with hostmum and -dad!!!

Here you can see me in the plane  :cyclops:
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After the arrival I had to get some sleep in the BIG hotel bed!
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Tom+Jerry


Posted Jul 17, 2012, 12:25 pm
We visited all the important places in the main city of Germany.

BUT FIRST - VERY IMPORTANT - a yummy breakfast  :D  :p
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Here you can see me in front of the famous Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral). Berlin Cathedral is the colloquial name for the Evangelical (i.e. Protestant) Oberpfarr- und Domkirche (English analogously: Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church, literally Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church) in Berlin, Germany. It is the parish church of the Evangelical congregation Gemeinde der Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin, a member of the umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. Its present building is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough.
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Here you can see me in front of a museum
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LOOK! The famous Fernsehturm! The Fernsehturm (English: television tower) is a television tower in the city centre of Berlin, Germany. Close to Alexanderplatz, the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic administration who intended it as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. With its height of 368 meters, it is the tallest structure in Germany.
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Afterwards, we paced the Brandenburger Tor  :o
The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is a former city gate, rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch, and now one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. Having suffered considerable damage in World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation). During the post-war Partition of Germany the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall, and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989.
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Me in front of the Reichstag! The Reichstag building (German: Reichstagsgebäude; officially: Plenarbereich Reichstagsgebäude) is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Reichstag, parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse; the parliament (Volkskammer) of the German Democratic Republic met in the Palast der Republik in East Berlin, while the parliament (Bundestag) of the Federal Republic of Germany met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn.
The ruined building was made safe against the elements and partially refurbished in the 1960s, but no attempt at full restoration was made until after German reunification on October 3, 1990, when it underwent a reconstruction led by internationally renowned architect Norman Foster. After its completion in 1999, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the modern Bundestag.
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Tom+Jerry


Posted Jul 17, 2012, 12:33 pm
There are many places in Berlin where you can find memories to the Berliner Mauer. The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
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The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (German: Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas), also known as the Holocaust Memorial (German: Holocaust-Mahnmal), is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The stelae are 2.38 m (7 ft 10 in) long, 0.95 m (3 ft 1 in) wide and vary in height from 0.2 to 4.8 m (8 in to 15 ft 9 in). According to Eisenman's project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. A 2005 copy of the Foundation for the Memorial's official English tourist pamphlet, however, states that the design represents a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because Eisenman did not use any symbolism. An attached underground "Place of Information" (German: Ort der Information) holds the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem.
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Here you can see me on "Straße des 17. Juni" with the Siegessäule behind me. The Victory Column  is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), giving the statue a new purpose. Different from the original plans, these later victories in the so-called unification wars inspired the addition of the bronze sculpture of Victoria, 8.3 metres high and weighing 35 tonnes, designed by Friedrich Drake. Berliners, with their fondness for giving nicknames to buildings, call the statue Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy".[1]

The Victory Column is a major tourist attraction to the city of Berlin.
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Tom+Jerry


Posted Jul 17, 2012, 12:39 pm
On the last day we explored Berlin from the water. See me on the boat  ;)
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Tom+Jerry


Posted Jul 31, 2012, 9:38 am
Today, I said goodbye to my hostmum and -dad. Thanks for the wonderful time in Germany.

Mum - I'm coming home  :D

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MamiTig


Posted Aug 14, 2012, 1:30 pm
Drescher returned safely home to Kansas, where he met Spoink, the baby pig who is being bottle fed by the host family. Once he's big enough to be outside on a regular basis, he'll be going to a  family that plans to keep him as a farm pet for a 4-H project :)
MamiTig


Posted Aug 17, 2012, 1:39 pm
Host mom took me to see the Neosho River again. She said that in the twelve years she's lived here, she's never seen it this dry. You can definitely see the results of the drought!!
MamiTig


Posted Aug 18, 2012, 4:17 pm
Today I experienced an anime convention called Motaku! We are going to be here for the whole weekend and it's so fun! Today I played in the board game room, met people in costumes, and learned about kandi beads!
MamiTig


Posted Aug 20, 2012, 2:18 am
We had lots more fun at Motaku today! We went to several interesting panels and people watched!
MamiTig


Posted Aug 21, 2012, 6:09 am
We visited the host family's friends and met their cats! They have nine cats, and I liked these two best!
MamiTig


Posted Aug 22, 2012, 5:19 am
The host family loves to go to Red Robin for the amazingly delicious veggie burgers!
MamiTig


Posted Aug 24, 2012, 1:38 pm
Sunflowers are the Kansas state flower, and this sunflower grew in the host family's back yard! It got really, really, really tall all summer, then it bent over, and now it has little sunflowers!
MamiTig


Posted Aug 26, 2012, 4:23 am
It finally rained today!! It was very badly needed. Host mom said she heard that two days ago, one of the small towns ran out of water. Everything is dry and there have been fires. I sure hope we keep getting more rain!
MamiTig


Posted Aug 28, 2012, 1:40 pm
We walked over to the Cottonwood Garden to see what is left as summer starts to fade. The Cottonwood Garden was just a vacant lot until someone bought it, landscaped it, and donated it back to the city for everyone to enjoy.
MamiTig


Posted Aug 29, 2012, 1:09 am
Drescher is headed for Austria!
Mausbären


Posted Sep 16, 2012, 4:22 pm
Hi there!

Today I arrived in Vienna, and something very embarassing happened to me :o

I was waiting in the letterbox for my hostmum to get me, when another voyager she hosts came by. He is called Mr. Furrington. We liked each other immediately and decided to suprise hostmum by getting me out early, and then waiting for her in the flat.

Well, so Mr. Furrington tried to pull me through the opening of the letterbox. And really, that opening is soooooooo small- I'm sure I would have got stuck if I wasn't so slim. However, halfway through the opening I wasn't convinced of the idea to get me through there anymore  :stare:  And I was right.... I myself got out allright, but I lost my pants in the progress.... :o

It was soooo embarassing, but Mr. Furrington was very nice about it. So it wasn't that bad
:)
Mausbären


Posted Sep 19, 2012, 7:01 pm
Hello!

It just came to my mind that I never told you about the first evening I spent with Mr. Furrington.

So here it is: We met a rhino, called Mr. Awesome- who was really nice. He wanted to celebrate his unbirthday- and as it was both of our unbirthdays too, he invited us to party with him

So we got a nice barrel, and all had a drink to celebrate. It was really cool
B)
Mausbären


Posted Sep 19, 2012, 7:13 pm
At the weekend I also managed to fulfill alifelong dream - we went to a flea market  :D  and not a standard flea market- but the biggest one there is in Vienna :cyclops:

In order to get there we had to go on the S-Bahn(it is somewhere between the underground and a train). The train itself was very funny, as there were all kinds of signs around, telling you the best way to behave- there was even a sign telling us to keep our voices low, but the train itself was sooooooooooooooo loud, we had to talk a bit louder to hear each other  :o

When we arrived, we saw that there were really loads of people around, looking for all kinds of stuff. Hostmum was looking for baby stuff, as her sister is expecting her first child.

We then took some pictures of antiques- there were even some bears around them- They told us about their lives. Due to their age they have experienced so many adventures - I really hope to experience just as many fabulous things  :)

When we went back home, we saw that the train stop was most beautifully located. It really looked as if we were at the country  :)
Mausbären


Posted Sep 28, 2012, 4:54 pm
Hi everyone! :D


Unfortunately host mum has been very busey with exams lately, but now that some of them are finished, she took us to celebrate to the nices little cupcake store. I enjoyed a Hugo, which is a trendy drink in Austria this summer. You can drink it either with or without alcohol. I had the alcohol free version, which goes with sparkling water, quite a lot of mint, and elderflower syrup. I really enjoyed it immensely :D
I also had a chololate mouse cupcake, which I really liked.

:cyclops:
Mausbären


Posted Oct 4, 2012, 3:24 pm
Hi there!

Today we went past a flea market- again! I couldn't believe my luck. :)
Well currently it seems it is the flea market season here in Vienna, therefore there are quite many around here.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take too many pictures, because the battery of the camera needed power. :(

But I managed to take pictures of the most interesting things there :D

The first one is the Children's flea market. It was really a part of the big flea market, and is the section where children can sell toys they don't want anymore, and also buy new ones  :)

The second one is a small section where they sell music boxes. The coolest one was a advent calendar, that looks like a house. When you open the doors to get your treat for the day it will play another song everytime.  :D  I really hope it is going to be Christmas soon, as this calendar really made me developing a huge need for Christmas cookies (well, I also wouldn't say no to any other cookies, to tell you the truth ;)
Mausbären


Posted Oct 12, 2012, 6:15 pm
Hello!

As today it is really cold outside, host mum suggested to bake something - I immediately wanted to help.  :)

So we made a nice dough, for which we were even allowed to use the "big machinery" the host family has in their kitchen    B)
The dough had to rest a bit before baking, so we started to make frosting.

For the frosting we first had to prepare the gelatin, which has to stay in  water until it is all soft and soaked.

Then we put together sugar and one egg, and mixed it above a double boiler, until it got all creamy.

Next, we mixed it with whipped cream. That was all it took to finish the frosting    ;)

Finally we were allowed to put the buns into the oven. When they were done, they had grown so much, I wasn't even sure if I could eat one all by myself :o  (well, I'll try my best.... I guess I will be ok    ;))

We then cut the buns in the middle and put the frosting inside, and decorated them a bit more.

In the end we had a lot of little monsters - as it is Halloween really soon I liked them a lot    :D

I even ate more than just one in the end    :cyclops: 
Mausbären


Posted Nov 1, 2012, 11:25 am
Hi there! :cyclops:

Today Mr. Furrington and me went to the Bisamberg, which is a small mountain next to Vienna. It is really special because for once it offers the Vienniese people a nice area to chill out and enjoy the woods.. Furthermore it is also a place where many artifacts of really long ago have been found.

Once we had decided which way we wanted to go, and read about the historical significance of the bisamberg, we tried to climb a lot of trees, and to play tag in the green. I really enjoyed it a lot, even though the weather wasn't very nice... :)
Mausbären


Posted Nov 1, 2012, 11:35 am
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

As today it is Halloween I wanted to make a jack o'lantern. Hostmum said, that Mr.Furrington and me could of course do so, and got us a nice pumpkin :D

We immediately started our work on the lanterns. First we opened them, then we hollowed them out (this was very hard work, but fortunately host mum helped). Then I and Mr. Furrington each cut a face into a pumpkin- they looked sooo great  :D

We also made a soup out of the pumpkin, which was quite tasty.

Last we also made other lanterns, which I liked re
ally a lot- i  also found them quite spooky ;)
Mausbären


Posted Nov 23, 2012, 9:23 pm
Hi there!

Today it was really not nice outside- nevertheless, we decided we wanted to see some more of the city and visited Schönbrunn- this is a castle and a parc quite similar to Versailles (only much smaller). The emperor and empress of Austria once lived there.

We went to visit the gardens, which are really beautiful. The fountain, that you can see on the pictures is called the Fountain of Neptune. It represents Austrian's rule over the seas (at that time Austria still had a coast 
Actually Schönbrunn is full of statues of roman gods and goddesses, because Austria was once an empire quite similar to the Roman empire. Nowadays it'S small and cosy, and full of culture and wonderful landscapes- which is also quite perfect  ;)

The yellow building is the Schönbrunner Castle. Actually it was meant to be pink- but I think it was actually lucky that they accidently ordered the wrong colour- it looks much nicer that way    :D

The Gloriette (the building on the hill) was once the breakfast room of the emperor, nowadays it is a viewing point, and also a restaurant.

I really liked Schönbrunn a lot  :D
Mausbären


Posted Dec 5, 2012, 7:03 pm
Today we went to Weitra, which is medieval city in Austria, which is especially famous for its castle and its Christkindlmarket-which takes place all over the city.

The Christkindlmarket is an Austrian tradition which takes place before Christmas. They are markets where you can buy traditionaly christmas food, or ornaments, but also modern stuff.

We entered Weitra through the ctity gate, which already was very impressive. Right after passing Mr. Furrington and me saw the city hall- and in front of it there was a huge Christmas tree - it was so great looking :D
Mausbären


Posted Dec 5, 2012, 7:10 pm
Next we walked through the castle gate and went up a very steep way to see the castle, and the Christkindlmarket inside it.

While we were walking we enjoyed a really great view above the roofs of Weitra- we were reminded of the Mary Poppins movie, when they are dancing above the roofs of London- that's why we started singing Chim Chim Cheree immediately. ;)
Mausbären


Posted Dec 5, 2012, 7:24 pm
Next, we had a look around the castle. It is full of many interessting sights, like the whisper dome - where you can stand in one corner and whisper stuff a person in another corner of the room will hear like you are standing right next to them - it was sooo cool B)

We also saw the theatre which belongs to the castle- it looks really magnificent  :D

We then had a good look around the Christkindmarket, where I especially enjoyed meeting some snowmen, who were really nice :)

We also saw the carp fountain, which is a fountain full of carps, which are meant to be a christmas dinner. This plan actually nearly failed because [tv]Mr. Furrington[/] wanted to jump into the fountain to eat them all- but host mum stopped him- it was sooo much fun :D
Mausbären


Posted Dec 9, 2012, 7:27 pm
Since it is really freezy in Austria, the host family decided to take a little timeout at a thermal spring bath and hotel.

It was really nice there. Especially because it started to snow, and I could take several warm baths, while enjoying the beautiful view. :D

We had a great time, and were able to relax quite a bit :)

Lots of Love,
Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Dec 13, 2012, 10:10 am
Hi there!

Today we went all chrismassy, as the Honeymooners are back home for a short visit and we went into our life size Adent calendar.

We also met a snowman, who was looking very beautiful- of course we immediately took a picture  :D

I really enjoy having the Honeymooners here with me. It is nice to have some company, now Mr. Furrington has continued with his travels. The Honeymooners are a really nice couple. She is a shining beaty (as you can see from the picture ;)  )

We are planning to bake some Christmas cookies, and go to several Christkindl Markets soon. I'm looking very much forward to that. We might even go for sleigh rides, if it snows enough. :D
Mausbären


Posted Dec 17, 2012, 10:09 am
Today, we celebrated host mum's birthday at the Schönbrunner Christkindl market. :)

We first had a punsch to warm up, which was really nice.
Then we went for a short walk in the park. We saw a lot of ducks, which were really hungry. Luckily, we had a lot of nuts with us, and could feed them.  :D

In the evening, we went to see a musical, Beauty and the Beast. I enjoyed it very much
:D
Mausbären


Posted Dec 30, 2012, 6:53 pm
Merry Christmas! :D

I had a beautiful Christmas, even though all the snow we had in Vienna melted before the 24th. :( Nevertheless there was a feeling of Christmas in the air, which I liked a lot  :D

First I enjoyed Christmas at host mum's parent's place, where the family and me sang a lot of Christmas carols, while watching the candles glowing on the Christmas tree. They also have a very big nativity set, which they made themselves. It is even lightened by small electric fires and looks very nice.

Later we went on to celebrate Christmas at host mum's place. There I sang Christmas Carols together with Barney the cat. I loved it  :D
Mausbären


Posted Jan 17, 2013, 1:58 pm
Hi there! :)

lately I've been very busy with helping host mum to study for her finals. But today it snowed so much, that we decided to take half a day off, and enjoy the snow for a bit.

I tried to make snow angels- but I wasn't very good at it. In fact my snow angel looked more like a square- but I and host mum liked it nevertheless  :D

It's been snowing for one day now - but everything is full with it- it looks so great  :)
Mausbären


Posted Jan 17, 2013, 2:02 pm
Then I met some penguins, and they were so cool  B)

They of course enjoyed the snow even more than I did, because they do not get cold as easily  :)

I made a sleigh race with two of them and I won  :D
Mausbären


Posted Jan 17, 2013, 2:07 pm
Then we went back home, because I was really getting cold by then

On our way home we went passed a garden which had a castle in it. We nearly didn't see it, because it was so full of snow. When we had a closer look we really liked it. In summer it seems it even has alittle toy train, which drives on the rails surrounding it  :D

Now, I'm all packed up back at home, eating lunch :)
Mausbären


Posted Jan 26, 2013, 7:37 pm
Hi there!

Today was a great day  :cyclops:

I was allowed to come along to one of host mum's jobs. (she is a tutor in a school, but also works on saturdays, while still studying at university)

What I have to tell you first, is that I got a hat!  :D  After our walk in the snow, I asked for one because I really got cold. Now I got one and I love it :)

It was quite early when we started our trip, but it was simply beautiful outside. We had to wait a little for our tram, so we took some pictures at the statio, which was next to a small parc. In the parc there were some christmas trees, which are brought there to collect them. Host mum explained to me that later on they are brought to the zoo to feed various animals.

Then we got on the tram, which is full of pictures, which ask you to give your seat to people who might need them more than you do. I guess you could say that Austrian's trams are very polite
  ;)
Mausbären


Posted Jan 26, 2013, 7:40 pm
Next we travelled on the underground- which I didn't get, because all way long the train didn't travel underground but above. But, well, it is still called underground :rolleyes:

On the plus side, we got a beautiful view over the danube river, and could even see the danube tower, which counts among Austria's highest towers.
Mausbären


Posted Jan 26, 2013, 7:47 pm
Then finally we arrived at host mum's work place. It is sooooo cool  :cyclops:

It is like a arge playground, but you can also get very creative and do some handicraft or play boardgames.

Overall the playground looks like a large treehouse, and you can climb all around in the tree. There are roastnuts hanging in it, which you can climb, and there are many other different obstacles and things to climb and play with.
Mausbären


Posted Jan 26, 2013, 7:51 pm
In the boardgame room, I met a crocodile. It was very nice, except for the fact that it bit me.  ;)

But it explained to me that I really looked all nice and yummy- so I took it as a compliment.

I also got creative and made myself a little something for mardi gras, which is called Faschingsdienstag in Austria  :D

i really enjoyed today!

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Jan 31, 2013, 1:21 pm
Hello!

Today a new toyvoyager arrived, Mr. Curious. He is a bear like me, and we liked each other immediately.

In fact we already became BBFFs - Best Beary Friends Forever  B)
Mausbären


Posted Jan 31, 2013, 1:38 pm
Hi there!

Today we went with host mum to the small school, where she teaches chemistry - Mr. Curious was very curious about her other working place, so we went along.

We only had little time to look around, because host mum was sooo busy  :stare:  but I'm hoping we will be able to go there again soon  :D

First we had a look at the room organisation plan - and we found space for our class, a short introduction to chemisty, which we were given immediately  :)  I didn't expect it, but I really enjoyed class, and hope that host mum will soon do some experiments with us. I guess that will be really exciting  :D

Then host mum had to teach her other students, and Mr. Curious and me had some free time in which we explored the room of the school's secretary  :D  It is full of plants, which not only look nice, but are also great to climb  ;)  We also discovered a picture of two famour bear models, which we liked so much that we had to take a picture in front of it  :D

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Feb 9, 2013, 5:49 pm
Hi there!

Today we had to celebrate Faschingssamstag, which is really celebrated everywhere all around Austria. When you are grown up Fasching is the time to go to various vienniese balls like the opera ball in vienna, but when you are younger, like us you will enjoy a party with a lot of games and food  :D

For this I of course needed to dress up. Unfortunately I forget to bring something for such an occassion, therefore I had to make a costume myself.

I decided to dress myself up as a bug  :D Hope you like it  ;)
Mausbären


Posted Feb 9, 2013, 7:03 pm
[size=2]Next, I met Mr. Curious, who had also dressed himself up - as Mickey Mouse  :D - and we decided to decorate our party location. When we finished the other guests arrived who had dressed up as a corn and a cow- and we decided to have drinks and a Krapfen first.  :)

The Krapfen is like a donut, only that it is round as you can see on the pictures, and traditionally filled with marmelade. It tastes really really yummy  ;)
[/size]


Later on we decided to use the table for a game of pool  :D - My team won  B)  (I played together with Kuhbärt (the one dressed like a cow)
Mausbären


Posted Feb 9, 2013, 7:14 pm
Host mum suggested that we play a game of Luftballon zerplatzen. This is a game where you put a balloon around your ankle with the help of a string. Then you try to jump onto the ballon of another player and making it burst.

I didn't do too bad. I destroyed the ballon of cornbear, but my balloon was destroyed by Mr. Curious.. But as Mr. Curious had destroyed the one of Kuhbärt before mine, I came in second place  :)
Mausbären


Posted Feb 9, 2013, 7:22 pm
The last game we played before the dance started (did I mention before that we had a diso?  :) ) was Blinde Kuh (blind cow). In this game someone has to close their eyes usually with the help of a ribbon and then to catch the other players. It was soooooooooo much fun  :D

Then we danced the night away.  ;)

I really live Fasching in Vienna!

Greetings to all of you!
Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Feb 11, 2013, 9:29 pm
HI!

Today another Toyvoyager called Susy arrived - which meant that we had another Faschingsparty.

First Susy wanted to dress up, just as we had, and did so by exchanging her dress with Kuhbärt's. After she had done so, we had our first real welcome.  :) 

Then we decided we should make the second Faschingparty something like a suprise dress up party.  :D  When we discovered a big cupboard full with clothes the theme for our party was a settled matter  B)

I wanted to dress up as the fresh prince of bel air (Will Smith's one and only TV show) and found the perfect clothes to do so  ;)

Yet, later on I had to change my clothes again, and  here is why:
Mr. Curious and me were already dressed up a long time before Susy was ready, because she couldn't decide on her clothes  ;)  When she was finally ready, and she saw that Mr. Curious had dressed up as a princess she like the idea so much that she and me changed clothes again  :D  - I enjoyed it  :)

We than had our supper, all dressed up, which was so much fun, but went to bed soon after.

Susy was quite tired after her travels, and Mr. Curious and me had hardly slept the last night, because of our party. As we lay down, Susy told me about Spain and Switzerland.

Mr. Curious went to sleep a bit later, because he is bigger than us (in fact he is younger than me, but he didn't seem to think that this was a reason for him to go to bed at the same time as we did  ;) )

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Feb 18, 2013, 6:40 pm
Today we went to school!  :cyclops:

This time we had more time to ourselves and therefore were really able to enjoy school, with all its different things.

The first thing one has to do when in school is playing "Hangman", a word guessing game  B)

Then we did some shots of ourselves - I'm sorry that not all of them are  sharp, we only had a small camera with us...

We filled in the attendance list together, and then had a look at nearly all the English books, which the students can borrow to learn better.  :D

We were also allowed to copy some papers for our host mum- and when she wasn't looking we used the chance to make a copy of ourselves. - well almost...it turned out that Mr. Curious was too big to get himself copied, but that was fine as we needed him to press the start button anyway  ;) 

I had so much fun at school  :D

Love, Drescher

Mausbären


Posted Feb 23, 2013, 4:34 pm
Today, there was soooo much snow in Vienna that we decided to go outside and enjoy it for a while. SO we put on our warmest clothes (I put on a jumper, and my hat; Susy put on a jumper, a hat and a scarf, and Mr. Curious who has so much fur, only needed a scarf.)

When we were outside we suddenly decided that we wanted to build a snowman together. So every one of us built a snowball, and then we put it together. The first ball, which were the feet of the snowman, was the ball built by Mr. Curious. He is the biggest of us, so he wanted to built the biggest snowball. Second was my snowball, and the third was made by Susy, who had to climb up Mr. Curious's head, to put her snowball onto the snowman's body.

Then we looked at our snowman..and we were shocked  :o it simply did not look as it should. We thought about what to do about it  :stare:, but soon came to the conclusion that it was simply not finished yet. ;) So we built two arms, and I put my hat on the snowman's head. Susy gave it her scarf to complete it, and after we had given him a nice face, he really looked perfect  :D

We continued our walk, and found a lovely looking bench, a beautiful tree, and a cave.

When we arrived home, all I wanted to do was to warm up, so I lay in bed, and Barney, the cat joined me. When I got hungry, I was allowed to eat my food from Mc Donalds in bed - this was soooo comfy  :D

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Mar 13, 2013, 10:10 am
Hello!

A few days ago, Mr. Curious got his shirt - which turned out to be a footballshirt.

Since he is a big football (soccer) fan, he was very curious about what playing with us would be like  :)

So today we all played a game of soccer. First Mr. Curious explained all the rules to us, which were quite interesting to hear about- then we built the goals, and went on to play. Another bear joined us, so that we could make 2 teams with two players in it.

I played with Mr. Curious - lucky me- he was really good  :D
As we played I got two chances to make a goal, but only managed to do so one time. The other time Susy stopped the ball.  :(
I wasn't able to stop one ball getting into our goal, but it was impossible to get a ball past Mr. Curious. ;)

We finished the game when Susy and her teammate shot a goal with a second ball. It turned out that they hadn't listened too carefully when the rules were explained and thought that a second ball would be ok  :cyclops:

Mr. Curious and me even got two medals for winning, because we had got two goals, whereas the other team had only managed to do one.  B)

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Mar 29, 2013, 1:51 pm
Hello!

Yesterday it was Green Thursday in Vienna, and that is when the easter eggs are painted- so that was exactly what we did- and I loved every minute of it.

First, I talked to the Easterbunny, who gave me some good hints on what to do, and then me and the others went to work  :D

We started by unpacking the eggs- which were quite a few, and putting them into hot water, to hard boil them.

In the meanwhile we prepared the color, in which we would have to put them once, they were hard boiled. Well, that's what we did, and after a few minutes, we took them out and had very pretty red eggs.  :)

We didn't stop there, but each one of us, decorated one egg with nice little pictures. I think alls our eggs turned out very beautiful.

We also made a blow-out egg, which we will put on the pussy willow later (so I will not show you the finished egg just now). To make such an egg, you have to push a spear through the shell, so that you can later on blow the yolk and the other stuff that's in it , out of the egg. Then you can paint the shell and keep it forever  :D

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Mar 31, 2013, 6:35 pm
happy Easter!!!

Today we ate loads of food, and met the host mum's family - which is basically what it means to celebrate Easter in Austria  ;)

In order to get to the host mum's family, we had to get rid of a lot of snow on the car, but then Mr. Curious and me were even allowed to drive it ourselves  B)

When we arrived we first ate a little something, and then I started to talking to some Easterbunnies, and chicken, who all have to do a lot of work to make Easter happen- but they really enjoy it :)

I even got a small Easter basket all to myself  :)

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Apr 1, 2013, 5:27 pm
Hello!

Today we visited Schönbrunn Palace, and walked in the gardens surrounding it.

The gardens are decorated with a huge amount of statues, and fountains, all in a Roman style.

The first famous sight we swa was the Obelisk fountain. The Obelisk itself stands on 4 turtles and is so high, I wouldn't really want to climb it- even though you would have a wonderful view from up above    Basically the Obelisk represents a stable government, which was of course very important, even in former times.

Second, we saw the Roman Ruin, which was basically only built as a nice garden feature - and really looks impressive. The two figures you can make out in the picture represent the Danube river and the river Enns, as they are the goddesses of these rivers.

Another famous fountain in the Gardens is the Neptune fountain. The god Neptune was an often used symbol for monarchs controlling the destiny of their nations.

Right behind the Neptune fountain is the Gloriette and opposite the Neptune fountain is Schönbrunn Palace, which was originally intended to be pink, not yellow. The wrong colour was ordered, and only halfway though painting the castle, the mistake was discovered, which was already too late- well I also like it in yellow 

I really enjoyed Schönbrunn Palace! 
Mausbären


Posted Apr 14, 2013, 12:59 pm
The weekend after Easter we went to a spa, so we had to pack a few things.

At the spa we were surprised by another toyvoyager who was already there waiting for us  :D

To celebrate his arrival we had a glass of wine, and then started looking at what the spa had to offer.

We soon decided that we wanted to do a lot of swimming and have many baths.

It was such a great and relaxing weekend! I really enjoyed it a lot!  :)
Mausbären


Posted Apr 25, 2013, 9:07 am
Today we did something very cool- but I'm not telling you right now- you will have to guess....

We did go somewhere, quite far away from Vienna- we had to look it up in a map- we would go to Niederöblarn, Styria.

Yet, even though it is some 3-4 hours drive we would only be there for a short walk, and then return to Vienna again.

Yet we would do a whole lot of sight seeing.

How does this make sense? Well, you have to guess.... ;)
Mausbären


Posted Apr 25, 2013, 9:15 am
Well, if you've guessed that we were going to do some sight seeing by plane- you guessed right!!! :cyclops:

I couldn't believe it. But we went into a hangar, with lots of planes, and one of us was ours for the day  :)

We were thrilled. It was going to be sooooo cool  B)

First we had a good climb on our plane, in order to get a good look at it. But soon we had to go to the fuel station- but there we had some time for climbing a bit more.  ;)

I have to tell you, the insides of such a little plane look so confusing- it's all switches and stuff. I don't really get how anyone can make sense of this stuff, but it was good the hostfamily did  :o
Mausbären


Posted Apr 25, 2013, 9:24 am
Then I had to work off the take-off checklist- which is really essential to make sure that the plane works the way it should.

Well, and before I could really believe it, we were already high up in the air  :cyclops:

First we passed lowlands (Vienna is comparably low to other parts of Austria.

Then we came across many small mountains and hills. The mountains grew bigger and bigger, until we arrived at the Ennstal. The Ennstal is really flatl, but surrounded by the Alps- so it's surrounded by huge mountains, which makes it really look impressive.

The last mountain we passed before landing is called Grimmig- meaning Grumpy- I found this very funny  ;)

Mausbären


Posted Apr 25, 2013, 9:28 am
Then we were in Niederöblarn- which was really beautiful.

We enjoyed the scenery, before returning home again. It was a great day. I really enjoyed flying. :)
Mausbären


Posted May 5, 2013, 12:53 pm
Today we wanted to something different an decided to cook for ourselves- we settled for wraps.

So we had to cut many ingredients mix them together and fry them- then we put them together into a wrap- and it was sooooo yummy  :D
Mausbären


Posted May 17, 2013, 12:34 pm
Hello!

Today it is very windy outside, so we decided to make skites- in order to make good use of all the wind.

We first had to fold a sheet of paper, in order to get the right structure for our skites, but the rest was all to us- we could do with it whatever we liked- so I gave mine a Toyvoyager design (which host mum loved  ;)  )

I can't wait to let my skite fly  :D

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted May 23, 2013, 7:49 pm
Hi there!

Today we went to St. Stephen's cathedral, which is Austria's largest church- you can even see the outlines of it in Rome, in St. Peter'S basilica.

It's building started a long time ago, namely as early as 1137. Even today it isn't finished (one tower has never been completed)

There is also a legend about why it was never completed. It goes like this:
A young man, an architect, was in love with the daughter of the  man in charge of building the cathedral. He was against the marriage of his daughter to the young man, so he set him task, which he thought impossible to fulfill. He was to complete the building of the second tower. Desperate, the architect made a pact with the devil, saying that while the tower was being build he was not allowed to speak the name of one of the saints. If he did, his sould would belong to the devil. At first all went really well. The tower was nearly completed when the young man, standing on top of the tower, called the name of his love, who was standing in front of the church, in greeting. Then he fell off the tower. His love's name was Maria.
From that day on finishing the tower was considered unlucky.

in fact it was never completed because the style in which it was build went out of fashion. Well, I think I like the legend better, it is more mysterious. ;)

We also saw a small statue of the cathedral which we were allowed to climb and a typical Vienniese restaurant, a Heuriger, which was well visited by many toys. ;)

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Jul 4, 2013, 6:35 pm
Hello!

Today we went to a famous vineyard in Austria- Austria apparantely has fine wines, but it often fails at promoting them the right way- however, we were able to go into the wine cellars, which are spectacular, as they are really big  :)

First we met Fridolin, the cellar mouse, who told us all about a small vineyard in front of the entrance to the cellar. It is quite a young vineyard, but it is also older than 5 years, as the wine is already good enough to be made into a drink.

Also the buildings surrounding it are very special. The first is meant to mirrror the seasons and the vineyard every time of the year. The other has symbols written all over it. This symbols tell the story of how wine was brought to Europe, and how it has to be treated for a successful harvest. :)
Mausbären


Posted Jul 4, 2013, 6:44 pm
Then we entered the cellar and saw the barrels for the first time- It was great- They were so huge, I cannot imagine, that so much wine can be drunk- ever! :stare:

Well, we also met the cellar cat, who is very interesting. it is able to find the best wine, without ever tasting it. This is the case because the best wine will produce the most heat when being stored in the barrell. The cat wants to stay on the warmest barrel, and will therefore always sleep on the one that contains the best wine. :)

We also visited the workplace of the barrrel maker. Unfortunately he wasn't there to explain the making process in more detail, but we were nevertheless able to get a good impression of how much work is involved to produce a good barrel- especially if it is decorated with so much detail as the ones on the picture.

We also visited the former house of the owner of the vineyard. It was really lovely, because it was so old, and really authentical. We were even able to see how they made bread. :)

Last, we had fun guessing the different spices and smells that good wine combines. Therefore we had to smell at different bottles and then guess which spice or fruit would smell like that. :)  It was very hard to do, but also much fun.

Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Jul 17, 2013, 1:15 pm
Hi there!

The last few days we were so buse, we hardly found the time to update. This now will also be only a short entry- but the next one's coming soon, promise! ;)

We had a blast at a lake in Linz, where we went swimming, and played cards a lot- it was such a great time.

Then host mum told us that a surprise was waiting for us. I'm going to tell you about it in my next entry  ;)
Love, Drescher
Mausbären


Posted Jul 23, 2013, 8:30 pm
Hi there!

So what was this surprise host mum was talking about??? :stare:

Guess what- we were about to fly again!

And this time we were even going to fly to another country, namely to Slowenia, to go sightseeing for a day! :D

So we had to look at the flight map of slowenia, in order not to fly into the airspace of ljubljana city. (We were going to Portoroz, which is on the coast of slowenia. ;)

Then we had to look for the shortest way to go from Vienna to Slowenia- of course we wanted a direct, which would mean that we would not have to fly past certain points, but go directly to Slowenia- but, because you can never be sure to actually get one, we had to look up our waypoints.

Then we fueled the plane- and up we went ;)
Mausbären


Posted Jul 23, 2013, 8:56 pm
There we were again- up in the air!!! :)

It was so great! I enjoyed myself so much even though we did enjoy slightly less spectacular views than last time, because we did not pass any of the high mountains.

Yet instead we did enjoy the beautiful and simply stunning view of Slowenia's coast from up above- it was truly wonderful :cyclops:
Mausbären


Posted Jul 26, 2013, 6:16 pm
hello!

i think I just spend the scariest night of my whole life!!! :o

We asked host mum if we could stay the night in a haunted place, as we really wanted to see ghosts- well, spoiler alert- we did not, right there and then, but now on the pictures I see that we were indeeed surrounded by ghosts :o - so scary!!!!

The night itself was also quite frightening, because right as we sat down at the fire, Cilly suggested to tell some ghost stories- The others were quite fine with that, and I did not want to admit that I was already kind of freaked out by sitting in the middle of nowhere with only a small fire to give us at least some light  :(

Well then in the middle of the story, we suddenly heard a really loud, really scary noise- I decided to hide as quickly as possible- well, I was really surprised that I wasn't the only one, Mr. Curious, Cilly and me, all of us hid behind Susy, who might be the smallest, but also seems the bravest of us all.

Of course Mr. Curious urged us to go and see where the noises came from- because frightened as he was by them, he was also quite curious about them. So we went to a strang, and frankly uite scary looking house. I thought we were going to get haunted for the rest of our lives by the spirits that lived in there. Well, but luckily, there weren't any spirits, but A.Piglet, another toy, who had chosen to camp out there- we asked her to join us, and she did.

So at least something very positive has happened- we all found a new friend :D
Mausbären


Posted Aug 2, 2013, 1:47 pm
Hello!

Today we visited one of Vienna's rivers. You can't imagine how surprised we were when we saw a pirate sitting on a raft in the middle of it. As it turned out Störte, the pirate had been traveling by ship to Vienna, but lost it somehow- but not even this could stop him from getting to Vienna ;)

Then when we found a real pirate ship, he even trained us- it was so much fun! :D
Mausbären


Posted Aug 8, 2013, 8:44 pm
Hi there!

As you cannot go the Austria, without hiking the mountains (you know those are the mountains where "Sound of Music" takes place), we hiked one of them today, namely the Rax, which is one of the highest mountains near Vienna.

Even though it was exhausting to get there, it was also very welcome, because we could escape the heat of Vienna (104 degrees Fahrenheit), and also enjoy the great view from up there.

It really impressive and beautiful!
Mausbären


Posted Aug 8, 2013, 8:49 pm
Oops, I just realized I forgot to add the pictures of what we looked at in Portoroz, which even though only a few, are well worth seeing  :cyclops:

So, this is the city of Piran, which is so nice to look at. I enjoyed it very much :D
Mausbären


Posted Sep 8, 2013, 3:32 pm
hey there!

Sorry I didn't update for such a long time, it was quite busy here in Vienna. However, last week I was part of some of the best party I have ever been to.

It was a dress up party, and each of us dressed up just perfectly. I was a flower, Mr. Curious was Batman, Susy was a ladybug, Cilly was Mickey Mouse, Störte the Mad Hatter, and Mr. Moose dressed up as Harry Potter.

We had a very good time, especially when Störte shared his booty with us. We celebrated until we fell asleep- which was what Cillly had been waiting for. She decorated each of us with a Cheshire cat grin, and then took pictures.... :mad: 

Well, but I guess I do look funny with such a big grin  ;)
Mausbären


Posted Sep 29, 2013, 2:08 pm
Today we went to the Baumhaus, which is a large indoor playground, which has trees in it, even though it is inside :o

We had lots of fun there climbing trees and ladders and stones- and even one chestnut (even though none of us can tell you how we got up there- it is kind of a mystery to us) ;)
Mausbären


Posted Nov 11, 2013, 5:36 pm
hi there!

For my last day in Vienna we really visited the Vienniese Central Cemmetry. The Vienniese  traditionally have a reputation for being in love with death- so it does not come to much surprise that they have lots of songs about this cemetry and also lots of stories.

Fact is that this cemetry is really lovely because it consists of many historically significant parts, like the jewish cemetry, which is the most beautiful one, and also 3 other parts.

The Jewish Cemetry is left all natural, and many animals, like deer and foxes have found a place to live in there. That makes it look not only beautiful, but also quite fairy tale like. It is truly beautiful.  :D

Greetings from Austria,
Drescher

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