Posted Mar 20, 2012, 3:33 pm
Hello you all! 
I'm a small elephant. My name is Troot. Mommy gave me that name, because she thinks my voice sounds like troot troot troot... hihii...
I'm too curious in my personality that I want to see everything in this World. It's a big goal, don't you think? Hih, but it doesn't bother me, because I L-O-V-E adventures!
My favourite coulour is blue. I would really like to see, touch and taste all blue coloured things. Will you help me to make this true?
In the following pictures you can see, how I was wondering what mommy was doing. I tried to help her, but it was a catastrophe. I'm not very good in chrocheting, you know... Mommy helped me out of that situation, and she gave me a brand new scarf!!! Wow, I like it very much! Thanks mommy!
Oh, and all my friends here at home already wished me a safe journey (you can see all of them in the picture, too). I'm going to miss all of them, but I'm still happy to be able to see the World.
I found mommy's classball of the Earth planet, and I looked all those countries. Sooooo many places to see!!! I'm so exited! And I'm looking forward to start my travelling.
Posted Mar 20, 2012, 5:48 pm
I'm soooooo exited!
Mommy show me from the map, where this country is.
Just can't wait to arrive there!
Posted Mar 21, 2012, 8:30 am
I'm going now! Bye mommy! Bye my friends at home! Bye Finland! I love you all!
Germany is waiting for me... and all new adventures...
Posted Mar 22, 2012, 4:24 pm
<3 <3 <3 Travel safe, Troot! <3 <3 <3
Posted Mar 24, 2012, 1:18 pm
Today was an exciting day! I arrived at my first hosts.
I was kindly received! Tobbi and Philly from Germany and Misha from Latvia are also here.
I kiss you!
Lots of love,
Troot
Posted Mar 26, 2012, 2:07 pm
Today was a beautiful sunny cozy Sunday.
Because it was so nice outside, we played a new game. It' called "Fina". It' s about fruit growers in Mallorca.
We got a bit warm in the sun ...
And what it works?
Exactly! A delicious ice cream!
We drove to Burgebrach to eat Italian ice cream.
Are we there yet?
Hurry up!
Yummy!
I hope, your Sunday was also beautiful!
Troot
Posted Mar 27, 2012, 2:04 pm
Today we were at the customhouse to collect a TV .
We must bring this note.
Unfortunately we were not allowed into the customs office.
The envelope was already open when our host mother came out again.
But later at home we could look into it.
Who's Bobi?
He is a cute little dog from Italy!
We welcome him friendly!
Bye,
Troot
Posted Mar 28, 2012, 4:08 pm
Today we have bought purple pansies and forget-me-not.
Together we have planted some flower boxes.
As first the soil ...
in the flower box.
Now plant the pansy.
Everyone has helped!
Then we have planted forget-me-not.
Done! Can you see me?
I'm sitting on the middle window!
That was fun!
Bye,
Troot
Posted Mar 29, 2012, 3:42 pm
Today was my creative day!
Everyone was allowed to paint an Easter egg!
First I make two holes in the egg ...
... then I blow out the interior of the egg.
Everything is ready!
Here we go!
What color should I use? Brown?
Or red?
Haha, I want kidding you! I take blue of course!
Then I make white stripes on the egg.
Iloista pääsiäistä! (Happy Easter in Finnish) I hope you like it!
Looks great!
I kiss you!
Troot
Posted Mar 30, 2012, 12:34 pm
Today we've helped in the garden.
We have sown sunflower.
First soil in the pot ...
... then 3-4 sunflower seeds into it.
Hey! What are you doing to me? Don't plant me! That's not funny ....
Well, it looks a little funny!
So many sunflowers we planted!
Lots of love,
Troot
Posted Mar 30, 2012, 4:01 pm
This afternoon was another envelope in the mailbox.
Yet another TV? It's getting crowded here ...
From Switzerland! Open up!
What's this?
Misha dares to open the thing ...
Look! It's Buddy! He's not from Switzerland but from Australia! There are about 15,000 km to go there!
We welcomed him very friendly.
A neighbor's dog came to say "Hello!".
Bye,
Troot
Posted Mar 31, 2012, 6:01 pm
Guess what was in the mailbox today...
Yes, an envelope. Again!
We are very curious ...
Look! It is Uilina! Finally a girl with us guys! Who has the best chance for her?
Best regards,
Troot
Posted Apr 3, 2012, 8:10 am
Today we're in the beautiful city of Bayreuth.
We're in the Lohengrin-thermalbaths.
Do you know for what event is Bayreuth world-famous?
Exactly!The Richard-Wagner-Festival. The festival is every year in August and you have to wait about 10 years for a ticket! This is really long
!
This is the festival hall.
The flowers in front are very nice.
This is the building of a health insurance company. I find the figures funny!
On the way home we're stop short in Bamberg.
This is the cathedral.
This is called "Little Venice". It looks beautiful!
I wish I could shown you more photos, but there were so many people and cars there, it hasn't been fun ... My hosts have promised that we go to Bamberg again.
Look what I've done at home ...
Take care!
Troot
Posted Apr 16, 2012, 11:13 am
Today we were at a party. Ismael, the godson of my hosts had first holy communion (a Catholic ceremony).
The other guest had never heard of TV ...
We have told so much about it that we didn't have much photos
...
But we had a lot of fun
!
Love and kisses,
Troot
Posted Apr 30, 2012, 12:49 pm
How are you? I'm doing very well!
Today we had together a lot of fun outside!
First, we have looked up our sunflowers. Look how they have grown!
The tulips are blooming beautifully.
The daisies are so pretty ...
that I've pick them and ...
make a chain from it.
How do I look?
Look, I make rainbow-bubbles! That is fun!
I hope you have fun as I did!
Hugs,
Troot
Posted May 3, 2012, 9:48 am
I had a fantastic day!
It was my “blue” day
!
Like every day I woke up in my blue bed.
First I take a shower and ...
dry myself off with a blue towel.
I brush my teeth with a blue toothbrush and blue toothpaste.
For breakfast: a blue egg.
I drink my tea from a blue cup.
I got blue sunglasses given. Cool
!
Then I helped with the housework.
I wipe dust and ...
pour the blue flowers.
I bring the paper into the blue bin.
In the Forget-me-not I have a rest.
Then I looked around me for blue things.
For example, traffic signs:
I saw "Cafe blue". It is a shop for coffee makers....
I found blue pansies.
Then there was a surprise for me
What is this? Blue Ice
?
My first Life-mission will be fulfilled!
I get to eat something blue
!
Back home, I discover a blue umbrella.
In the refrigerator is a blue drink.
Yummy!
Oh dear! It was alcohol ... Hicks!
In the following hours, I don't remember ...
I was in a Tattoo-shop!
Don't be mad Mommy!
I have a blue tattoo-heart! Only for you
!
When I was sober again, my host mother consoled me with a blue gummy bears.
It was a wonderful day!
I kiss you,
Troot
Posted May 5, 2012, 12:29 pm
I had a great time here but I have to go...
I travel to Ratingen near Düsseldorf, Germany.
On the Internet I find information about my next destination.
Ratingen is a Finnish twin town (Kokkola)!
I say goodbye to all my TV-friends.
See you,
Troot
Posted May 5, 2012, 9:37 pm
Posted May 21, 2012, 6:07 pm
after a really short journey I arrived in Ratingen. I was welcomed by another ToyVoyager, called Leif E. He’s a monkey and is originally from the USA. Since December he’s staying with my new host. Furthermore he told me that we’re going to London upcoming weekend and we’re going to travel there with other ToyVoyagers as well. So I really can’t wait.
And here’s another picture of me and some candies for my host.
Love and miss you,
Troot
Posted May 21, 2012, 6:08 pm
guess where I am! Yeah right, on the plane and on my way to London.
And here’s another picture of me and the other ToyVoyagers. I really can’t remember their names except of Marawarpina, the lil black rat.
Love you,
Troot
Posted May 21, 2012, 6:09 pm
today we went a bit sightseeing. Didn’t get to see a lot, but it’s more than nothing.
I’m not sure, but did you read “Harry Potter”? If so, you know where I am, or? If not: I’m at King’s Cross, entering the Platform 9 ¾ for getting the train to Hogwarts. Unfortunately it’s not the 1st of September, so there wasn’t any train
Afterwards we took the underground to go back into the city. We left it at the Tower Bridge. Some information about the Tower Bridge from Wikipedia:
Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name. It has become an iconic symbol of London.
Then we went to the Tower of London. It is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078, and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. (Wikipedia)
Afterwards and our last station was the Buckingham Palace. Ever heard of it? If not, here’s the last information from Wikipedia: Buckingham Palace is the official London residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focus for the British people at times of national rejoicing and crisis.
Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to go with our host to the Starlight Express UK Tour, but she promised that we will visit the one in Bochum – as she’s hanging around there once a week. Furthermore we had to catch the flight back to Germany very early on Sunday. So.. That’s all from London.
Love and miss you,
Troot.
Posted Jun 9, 2012, 4:49 pm
today my host went to Cologne (Köln in German) for visiting a friend, who studies there. Both haven’t seen each other for a while although Cologne isn’t that far away. Around an hour by train, so it’s really okay. Nevertheless we were allowed to go with her and so, we finally were in Cologne.
First I wanna tell you something about Cologne. It’s the fourth largest city in Germany and the biggest one in North Rhine – Westphalia (NRW). It’s supposed to be the capital of the Federal State NRW, but it’s not – it’s Düsseldorf. Cologne is located on both side of the Rhine. The most famous building over here is the Cathedral (Kölner Dom), directly on the mainstation of Cologne. Behind the mainstation, there’s another “Dom” called the Musicaldome, where my host used to be quite often as “We Will Rock You” were in it. Anyway. The university her friend studies is one of Europes largest and oldest one.
Finally here are some pictures:
It’s me at the Cathedral. Isn’t it large?
Me at a bridge of the the Rhine in Cologne.
It was a quite adventures day. I love and really miss you.
Posted Jun 9, 2012, 4:51 pm
today we went to the Starlight Express in Bochum.
I’m not sure if you know what Starlight Express is. If not, I will tell you now: Starlight Express (short StEx) is a musical by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber in which a boy dreams of the world championship of the trains. There’s a young steam train, called Rusty, whose girlfriend Pearl, the observationcar is. But there’s also a Dieselengine, whose girlfriend Dinah the dinning car is. The Diesel engine is called Greaseball. He is said to be the favourite as he is the “fastest thing you’ve ever seen.” Suddenly there’s a new engine – Electra, an electrician engine and right before the first race Pearl decides to leave Rusty for Electra. So Rusty doesn’t want to race anymore. The first race starts (together with Greaseball, Electra and two international engines) and Greaseball and Electra win. Greaseball uncouples Dinah. In the meantime Poppa, an old steam train, finds Rusty and sees that he is not that confident anymore and that he does not want to race without Pearl. So Poppa takes his place and wins the second race. But due to the fact that he is old, he doesn’t have the power to take part in the final race: So he begs Rusty to take his place and after a small argue he does. So he asks for the Starlight Express, a God-like train. Back to Dinah: After Greaseball uncoupled her, she talks to her friends (Ashley the smoking car and Buffy the buffetcar) and in the end she decides herself to race with Electra because Pearl is racing with Greaseball now. The third race takes place and Rusty is cheated. So he lost his tracks and the race has to be repeated. The audiences sees and know that it wasn’t his fault, because Greaseball and Caboose did it. That’s what even Pearl gets to know but she can’t leave Greaseball as she also took place in this race and is guilty as well. During the fourth race, Pearl gets injured and Greaseball uncouples her. But before this race takes place Rusty finally meets the Starlight Express and now he has the power to win the race. The race takes place and surprise: Rusty really wins! Pearl just recognizes that she has been in love with Rusty all the time and returns to him.
That’s it and to be honest: I really shorted the story as I think, you have to watch it all by your own. I also didn’t mentioned all characters that occur in the musical.
Back to our trip. Today is a very special day in Bochum. It’s called “Goodbye” or “Castchange”. That means, that this day is the last one of some of the actors as they’re leaving StEx for going back to her home (most of them are English, American or whatsoever, but you hardly find a German actor in it) or because they already have another musical they are staying in. Unfortunately we didn’t watch the show, but we do on Wednesday, as it is the opening show of the so-called “New Kids” (actors, who rehearsaled for the last three month for staying in there. In this time they learnt how to skate, how to do the make up, how to sing the songs (in German) and the choreography). I really can’t wait to see the show.
Today I met some other ToyVoyager as well – the ones I already travelled with to London – and we had a little party with a really big pizza and stuff like that.
Unfortunately we didn’t take so many pictures, but as I already said, it isn’t the last time, that we’re around the Starlight Halle. Here are now some pictures:
That’s us in front of a banner. Here you see the character Pearl, the observationcar (pink) and Buffy, the buffet car (yellow / orange)
That’s just me and Dinah, the dinning car. We both have the same colour ^^
Love and miss you
Posted Aug 14, 2012, 9:15 pm
You have already travelled too long time from Germany to back home Finland...
Mommy is missing you! Come home, where ever you are...
Posted Aug 27, 2012, 8:53 pm
Please find your way to come back home... where ever you are...
Posted Nov 4, 2012, 9:11 pm
Troot never came back home...
Posted Nov 22, 2012, 9:53 pm
I'm Troot Junior. It's nice to meet you! You can call me Troot.
My brother Troot (original Troot) is somewhere in the World, in some kind of mystery place, because he has never returned back home... And mommy still miss the original Troot, and if he ever come back home, he is more than welcome...
Well, I have now very special task to handle: I'm going to travel around the World and to tell all my adventures here in this travelog. This is kind of my own travelog for now on.
And because I'm new here, I want to show you how small or what size I am. In this picture I'm next to "normal" sized postcard. So, I'm quite small elephant, and I would like to meet only thrustworthy hosts.
Now I'm curious... Where would I go in my very first journey?
Love,
Troot
Posted Dec 3, 2012, 7:17 pm
I arrived safe and sound in Switzerland. Because it's late, I go to sleep first. Tomorrow I will tell you more.
Good night mommy
your Troot
Posted Dec 4, 2012, 4:34 pm
I had enough sleep and can now tell you of my arrival in Switzerland. After a short, pleasant trip, I arrived in Lichtensteig. I heard many strange voices. Then my envelope is opened
and a lot of curious faces peered inside.
I was a little scared, but I bravely climbed out.
Friendly TV's welcomed me warmly and marveled at my presents.
Host mum was happy about the tea. She loves Christmas tea. I think I'll have a good time here.
Hugs and kisses
Troot
Posted Dec 7, 2012, 7:04 pm
It snows all the time.
And we are waiting for Santa. While we wait, the old Theodore tells a Christmas story.
We have not seen Santa, but we heard him. He brought us nuts, tangerines, cookies and a chocolate Santa for each of us.
We were all behaved TV's;-)) Now we wait for Christmas.
I think of you
Troot
Posted Dec 9, 2012, 7:02 pm
The last days I was busy. I helped host mum to bake Christmas cookies.
We baked a lot.
Most of the cookies get host mum's dad, her brother and an elderly neighbor who lives alone. I had lots of fun and it smelled sooo good.
Love you mum
Troot
P.S. number 6 was my door, but i needed a little help
Posted Dec 12, 2012, 3:32 pm
Today was a Hello and Goodbye day. First we welcomed Lancel,
a little rabbit.
She is the third Bunny here. And then we said goodbye to Mr. Wilson.
He's moved on to Germany, where he will spend Christmas.
That's it for today
Troot
Posted Dec 12, 2012, 7:14 pm
after a week of snow and icy roads we could go outside again today. Wonderful winter weather.
As host mum came home from work, she grabbed us immediately into her bag and off we went.
We walked up a forest path.
The sun was shining through the trees.
So much snow.
Above we saw pristine snow.
We had a wonderful view.
This walk was lovely.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
your Troot
Posted Dec 16, 2012, 1:53 pm
look at that.
A dream for a small elephant.
A small elephant with a big heart.
It beats only for you, mommy.
your Troot
Posted Dec 20, 2012, 9:45 pm
Today I was able to accompany host mum to work. She is responsible for inventory management and shipping to a company for hotel and kitchen supplies. First I visited her office.
It is not ready set up, they moved just two weeks ago. Then I looked at the warehouse.
Thousands of kitchen towels, tablecloths, napkins, aprons and more.
Even here was Santa Claus.
It was great to see what host mum does when she is not at home.
Love you mum
Troot
Posted Dec 24, 2012, 2:59 pm
I wish you all a wonderful, merry Christmas.
My thoughts are with you at home.
I love you all and embrace you.
Troot
P.S. Today I had a lot of fun. (Which you'll see tomorrow)
Posted Dec 26, 2012, 1:01 pm
I had a very merry Christmas. On Christmas Eve we have decorated the Christmas tree with host dad.
Sorry if some pictures are blurred. We laughed so much as host dad fought with the fairy lights.
The Christmas tree looks wonderful.
Then came the big moment.
Everybody got his gift.
I got a Cuddle Pillow and a cap.
Now I can dream of Finland and of you, mommy.
Hugs and kisses
Troot
Posted Dec 30, 2012, 2:45 pm
it's so boring at the moment. Since Christmas storms and rains every day. No chance to go outside. Therefore, I sit with my cuddly pillow and the new cap in the peanuts and wait for nice winter weather.
hopeful
your Troot
Posted Jan 1, 2013, 12:29 pm
mum, I wish you and all the loved ones at home a happy and healthy new year. After a great dinner, we watched a bit of television
to sell us the time. Then host brother has ignited table fireworks.
We had great fun with all the funny things.
Later we listened to the church bells and welcomed the New Year with champagne. Then we watched the fireworks.
As our host family went to sleep, we have emptied the remaining bottles. May be this was a little much for some of us
but we had a great party. And the party will go on, we have in fact two birthday kids. But that's another story.
Love you all
Troot
Posted Jan 6, 2013, 7:42 pm
after three weeks of rain (host mother can not remember such a terrible winter) we were finally able to back outside. No sun but dry. We all wanted to play in the snow. And for snow we had up high,
very high. Sledding on Schwägalp was funny.
Then host mum had the idea of visiting the Santis. So we took the cable car
and were on our way to Säntis peak.
At the top station we admired an exhibition of various museums around.
Then we reached the summit. It was so cold and windy. Everything was frozen.
This is the weather station.
And that's the big TV antenna.
After a warm-up break, I wanted to feed the mountain jackdaws. Host mum was afraid that something happened, but host dad promised to take care of me.
That was an adventure. Then I tried skiing.
Was not bad. On our way back we even saw the sun.
It was a wonderful day.
See you mum
Troot
Posted Jan 9, 2013, 6:57 pm
Today we said goodbye to Meomie.
She continues her journey and will visit Germany. We sang a song of farewell
and wished a safe journey.
On Saturday we will have a great trip. Host mum will not tell us where we go. All we know is that we take the train, and the rest is a surprise.
I can not wait.
your Troot
Posted Jan 13, 2013, 1:38 pm
Yesterday morning we had to get up very early. At 7 clock we sat on the train.
Our first stop was Zurich. There, we had just enough time to photograph the station
and to find out where the journey takes. We will travel to Basel. Basel is one of the oldest cities in Switzerland, located on the River Rhine. The city, near the border with Germany and France is known for its chemical industry. After our arrival in Basel,
we saw only a few steps from the train station Strasbourg Monument
and the Bank for International Settlements.
Our route took us to Elisabeth church
next to the Theatre. We had a short break at the Tinguely fountain.
This fountain, called Fasnacht Fountain was a gift of a great food discounter to the city of Basel.
Then we saw the Basel Cathedral,
located on the cathedral hill high above the Rhine. We had a magnificent view of the river and part of the city.
The skyscrapers that you see in the center of the image, is the fair tower.
Through narrow streets
we found our way to the river Rhine. We crossed the "Middle Bridge" and could see the old town from the other side.
On our way back we saw the red city hall.
It was built in 1504-1514. After these many impressions we were exhausted and slept through the journey home. I hope you like Basel as much as I.
Greetings, Troot
Posted Jan 18, 2013, 1:38 pm
host mum told me that you found a new host for me and I will continue to travel. It will not be a long journey, because I stay in Switzerland. We had a small farewell party with cupcakes.
I had to eat the big muffin because host dad had secretly eaten a TV muffin.
Then I packed up my stuff: my cuddly pillow, my cap, a card and candy.
I climbed into my envelope
and made myself comfortable.
Every one of my friends wished me a safe trip.
They controlled everything was fine
and now I'm on my way to new adventures.
See you soon, Troot
Posted Jan 28, 2013, 12:14 pm
Let's start some new adventures!
Posted Feb 5, 2013, 8:07 pm
Posted Feb 5, 2013, 8:11 pm
This is a SNOWMAN!!!
I just have to look after his eyes...
Posted Feb 13, 2013, 7:39 pm
Posted Feb 17, 2013, 8:04 pm
Posted Feb 17, 2013, 8:31 pm
This brand-new gondolas opened last December.
Wow, have you seen the big elevator? It's also new. ...I almost get fear of heights
The cable car to Bonistock.
...just enjoy the wonderful mountains. ...the weather was just perfect!
Posted Mar 13, 2013, 5:11 pm
The bridge in the background is still broken because of the high water in 2005. I hope that they will finally repair it...
Posted Mar 15, 2013, 9:15 pm
Posted Mar 15, 2013, 9:17 pm
This powerstation produces electricity from hydropower.
Posted Mar 15, 2013, 9:27 pm
Hi, nice to meet you!
Posted Apr 3, 2013, 7:50 pm
Posted Apr 3, 2013, 8:01 pm
I just had a look around. Let's show what I discovered:
The famous Ice-Hockey stadium. It's called the "Vaillant Arena".
The sign of the HCD (Hockey Club Davos).
Look, wonderful weather! So beautiful!
The Davos Congress Centre. The latest extension has made the Davos Congress Centre one of the alp’s most modern congress venues. Up to 5,000 attendees can come together and benefit from the ideal infrastructure. There are 34 high-tech rooms for 20 to 1,800 people. Every year, the WEF (The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas) is in Davos.
The wonderful bridge on the way to Davos.
Posted Apr 3, 2013, 8:03 pm
Posted Apr 3, 2013, 8:10 pm
Posted Apr 3, 2013, 8:12 pm
Posted Apr 3, 2013, 8:16 pm
Bye Switzerland - Hello Germany! I hope I'll arrive soon.
Grrrr, the weater is very ugly.
Posted Apr 25, 2013, 10:45 am
I finally arrived! What an adventure!
At my new host I was a little bit shy, so I hide myself in my box. The others were starring at me and wondering who I am.
Alex, Landroval and Lupo gave me a warm welcome. Later we ate all my chocolate.
Troot
Posted Apr 25, 2013, 9:33 pm
today we watched some big birds!
Can you see the lights between the trees?
It's getting closer!
Wooooaaaah it's BIG!
Your Troot
Posted Apr 25, 2013, 9:56 pm
we went geocaching today. And yeah we had luck, we found 2 boxes.
Troot
Posted May 3, 2013, 5:40 pm
we explored another channel in Berlin.
They have so many! And there's so much water all over the city! It's amazing.
Troot
Posted May 4, 2013, 11:21 pm
today we visited some lost places. Spooky!
Look, we also found the entry to a bunker! But we were too afraid to go in!
Later we decided to have a view over that little village we're staying at the moment.
Your Troot
Posted May 8, 2013, 2:21 pm
today we visited Ferropolis. The "the city of iron" is an open museum of old huge industrial machines. It's an open air museum which contains machines from the mid-twentieth century. They can measure to 30 meters high, 120 meters long and weigh up to 1980 tons. Moreover, the area is used for several events like opera or music festivals like the "Melt! festival".
There are 5 enormous excavators for open-cast mining and each of them has its own name!
As we are good guys we were allowed to climb on "Gemini". From there we had a fantastic view over the whole area!
Let's start with the lake around Ferropolis. It is called Gremminer Lake.
This is "Big Wheel". It's huge!
These are "Mad Max" on the left and "Medusa" on the right. In front of them you can see the arena.
And these are "Medusa" (once again) and "Mosquito" on the right.
This is "Gemini" where we were allowed to climb on it!
This is the engine room of "Gemnini".
"Mad Max" in front of us.
This was an amazing day.
Troot
Posted May 9, 2013, 10:06 am
Troot
Posted May 9, 2013, 10:15 am
once again we watched some big birds! There were so many. They had their own place to start and land.
I'm impressed!
Troot
Posted May 15, 2013, 10:33 pm
Today the weather was beautiful. So we decided to take a ride near the lake...
A ride... on a skateboard!!! Never did something like this before!
Once again we went to the "Gremminer Lake" where we already visited Ferropolis. On the other side of the lake you can see the "city of iron".
We found a funny red building called "lunchbox".
We climbed inside the lunchbox and enjoyed the view.
Next to the skating area we found some scrap metal figures made by a school. I had a look through the telescope and saw a planet.
It was a lovely day.
Your Troot
Posted May 15, 2013, 11:17 pm
we went geocaching again. And yeah we have good eyes. We found a small cache in the colors of the nature!
Troot
Posted May 16, 2013, 7:59 pm
we did a small tour by bike today to a small village called Möhlau.
It's not very famous so there's not so much to tell about.
In the middle of the village we met some lovely deers. They wanted some food from us, but we didn't have anything.
At the end of our tour we relaxed a little bit near a small lake. It's one of the old pits from the time of brown coal strip mining, now flooded. It's so peaceful here even there's a street with lots of cars next to it.
Your little Troot
Posted May 20, 2013, 11:34 pm
today we jumped into the car and went around. We watched small villages and lots of beautiful countryside! Look at the colorful yellow field of rape. Isn't it beautiful?
Just enjoy the pictures!
Your Troot
Posted May 20, 2013, 11:45 pm
how are you?
Today the weather was sunny. Crawfish picked us up with her pink car and we took a ride on a green field! Toyvoyagers on tour in their own car! Stunning!
Fyi: Crawfish is the proud owner of that car and she owns a driver's license.
Troot
Posted May 24, 2013, 10:19 pm
today we used the car to pick up some TVs at the train station.
Tsukumo and Mr. Stanley arrived.
We jumped out of the car and welcomed them.
Then we put all their stuff into the trunk of the car. They had so much sweets, magnets and big postcards, the trunk was even full!
We all jumped into the car and Crawfish brought us home. We were too many TVs so Alex had to use his own vehicle.
Troot
Posted May 27, 2013, 10:32 pm
we did a short trip to the Muldestausee. It's the water reservoir of the river Mulde. It's an old abandoned open pit.
Then we met a really big eagle (and lots of other big birds).
Can you see me on top of these birds?
Troot
Posted Jun 4, 2013, 4:48 pm
we did a journey to the capital of Saxony-Anhalt: Magdeburg.
It is one of the most important medieval cities of Europe.
We had just 1,5 hours for a short walk.
The first we saw in Magdeburg was The Green Citadel. A large, pink building of a modern architectural style designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser and completed in 2005. There were trees on the building!
One of Magdeburg's most impressive buildings is the Lutheran Cathedral of Saints Catherine and Maurice with a height of 104 m (341.21 ft), making it the highest church building of eastern Germany.
The area around the cathedral was also very interesting...
In this park we found a monument of Kaiser Wilhelm I.
This is the river Elbe. It's bigger than it should be. I heard a flood is coming!
Troot
Posted Jun 4, 2013, 7:25 pm
we did a little trip by car just to watch the countryside!
Troot
Posted Jun 4, 2013, 10:25 pm
no more updates for this week!
I'm sure you watched the news and noticed about the flood in East Germany! There's water everywhere. The village where I stay is safe, but lots of villages around us are full of water. No places where we could go!
But have a look at Crawfish's update of today! As she can swim she checked the water. We weren't allowed to go. Too dangerous!
Troot
Posted Jun 12, 2013, 8:46 pm
how are you?
We did a sightseeing tour in the capital of Germany: Berlin!
We started at the famous tv tower "Fernsehturm". It was constructed between 1965 and 1969 and with its height of 368 meters, it is the tallest structure in Germany. There is a visitor platform and a revolving restaurant in the middle of the sphere. The tower is part of the World Federation of Great Towers (WFGT).
This is the Red City Hall, the town hall of Berlin. It is located near Alexanderplatz and is the home to the governing mayor and the government (the Senate of Berlin) of the Federal state of Berlin. The name of the landmark building dates from the facade design with red clinker bricks. The City Hall was built between 1861 and 1869 in the style of the north Italian High Renaissance.
Then we visited the St. Nicholas' Church, the best-known building of the quarter Nicholas' Quarter which is the reconstructed historical heart of Berlin. It is the oldest church in town and it was built between 1220 and 1230.
The last place we visited was the Berlin Cathedral which is the colloquial name for the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin. It was built in the 15th century.
The Berlin Cathedral has never been a cathedral in the actual sense of that term since it has never been the seat of a bishop.
That's all for now. See you soon!
Troot
Posted Jun 12, 2013, 9:05 pm
Troot
Posted Jun 18, 2013, 10:03 pm
we did a little tour by car. Can you imagine that the people living in some of these houses have been evacuated just one week ago?!
Look, I show you a picture taken without me just one week ago...
...and this is the same street today!!!
Love you!
Troot
Posted Jun 21, 2013, 12:28 am
today the weather was perfect for a tour on bike!
We visited the elevated dump of the village. It wasn't easy to go up that hill! But it was worth it!
First I just saw the high wind wheels!
Then I turned around and had a great view! It was better than you can see on the picture. We could see the next city which is about 50 kilometers away! Amazing!
On our way back home we also found a geocache!
This box was big enough for a toyvoyager!
Troot
Posted Jun 21, 2013, 12:45 am
It's warm.
Time to chill.
Troot
Posted Jun 26, 2013, 10:33 am
we did another tiny biking tour.
First we stopped on a tiny river. On the other side there were some interesting birds...
After biking for some more minutes we found this cute tiny waterfall.
From there we crossed a lovely wooden bridge...
...and reached a nice lake. Here we relaxed for a while.
Yours
Troot
Posted Jul 3, 2013, 10:40 pm
today I visited the park of Wörlitz, which is a part of the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm.
While my host was taking part on a bike tour we Toyvoyagers decided to visit the park.
The central Wörlitzer Park lies adjacent to the small town of Wörlitz at an anabranch of the Elbe river. It was laid out between 1769 and 1773 as one of the first English gardens on the continent. According to the ideals of Duke Leopold III the park would also serve as an educational institution in architecture, gardening and agriculture, therefore large parts were open to the public from the beginning. Most buildings were designed by Erdmannsdorff, while the gardens were laid out by Johann Friedrich Eyserbeck. The gardens are protected from floods of the Elbe river in the north by a dam which is also a belt-walk offering numerous views along the park's sight lines. Wörlitz Palace finished in 1773, residence of Duke Leopold and his wife Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt, was the first Neoclassical building in present-day Germany. The palace and its interior with valuable cabinets from the studio of Abraham and David Roentgen as well as a large collection of Wedgwood porcelain were publicly accessible. Louise had her private home in the adjacent Graues Haus (Grey House). At the eastern rim of the palace's garden stands the Wörlitz Synagogue built in 1790 as a rotunda modelled after the ancient "Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. The Neo-Gothic St Peter's Church in the west with its 66 m (217 ft) tall steeple was finished in 1809. The philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the aesthetic of Johann Joachim Winckelmann underlie the design of the park. Wörlitz Lake featured an island atop which was a model of Mount Vesuvius. The duke would stage fireworks that seemed to issue from an erupting volcano to entertain his guests. At the foot of the mountain on the island was a building intended to suggest William Hamilton's home at Pompeii. Few years ago my host worked as a tour guide in the castle and the park.
This is the most famous building, the palace.
We walked along the beautiful lake...
We found old stones.
This is the church. You can already see it when you're still 10km away from the city!
There are lots of flowers, trees, stones...
This stone is a volcano and it is called "Vesuv" like the famous one in Itlay!
It was a really nice day.
Troot
Posted Jul 10, 2013, 8:21 pm
the weather was beautiful so we decided to walk around a bit.
First we found a nice square with some flowers.
Then we walked to the famous Tiergarten. It is, with its 210 hectares (520 acres), the largest urban park of Berlin.
After a while we found the Victory Column. It is a major tourist attraction to the city of Berlin. Berliners, with their fondness for giving nicknames to buildings, call the statue Goldelse, meaning something like "Golden Lizzy".
I killed a lion!!! NO!!! I didn't! I just found the sleepy kitty near the Victory Column. He was purring the whole time.
Troot
Posted Jul 13, 2013, 10:21 pm
we did a tour by bike.
First we went through the garden of a castle and found a really nice building.
Then we found the river Spree.
Berlin has also lots of channels so we decided to follow one of them to go home.
Your little
Troot
Posted Jul 17, 2013, 8:58 pm
today the bell rang. We opened the door and welcomed 2 new toyvoyagers called Nathalie and Big foot.
We all cuddled them.
Then both showed us their souvenirs.
Yours
Troot
Posted Jul 20, 2013, 9:59 pm
Posted Jul 23, 2013, 10:30 pm
today we visited the most famous lake of Berlin: Greater Wannsee. Its size is 2,732 km² and it is about 2,53km in length.
Nobody was there in the morning, just some little Toyvoyagers.
Your little Troot
Posted Jul 24, 2013, 10:04 pm
today we drove through Teltow, a small town near Berlin. It looks very nice.
On the place where Teltow ends Berlin starts. There's no space left between both cities.
In Berlin we drove through the shortest avenue of the whole city: Tusnelda Allee. There's just one house number. It's number 1 for the church. There's nothing else in this street.
Troot
Posted Jul 27, 2013, 9:08 pm
today it was hot. Too hot! But we decided to visit the Botanical Garden.
It has an area of 43 hectares and around 22,000 different plant species.
Sadly our camera didn't have enough energy.
Troot
Posted Jul 28, 2013, 1:27 pm
Today we visited Erfurt the capital of the Thuringia. It is also the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany.
First we went to the Krämerbrücke. It is a bridge which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides. It is unique in Europe north of the Alps.
This is the next stop we wanted to visit: the famous Erfurt Cathedral (left) and St. Severus Church (right).
The Catholic Erfurt Cathedral is a 1200 year old church located on Cathedral Hill. It is of an International Gothic style, and is also known as St Mary's Cathedral, and is located, uniquely, on a hillside.
It was beautiful inside the Cathedral.
Your little
Troot
Posted Aug 1, 2013, 10:25 pm
it's my hosts holidays so we have lots of time to visit some nice places.
Today we went to a small village called Wiehe. We were allowed to sit in the first row in the car.
This village is really small with only 2000 inhabitants! But then we were told that here we will find the worlds biggest model railroad year-round show!
It was so impressing. Big train, small trains, tiny trains...
...travelling through the area of Thuringia & Saxony-Anhalt... Germany... Europe and the USA!
First I took a picture in front of the mountain Brocken. It's not so far away from here.
This is America! Mt. Rushmore looks a little bit different I think.
your impressed Troot
Posted Aug 1, 2013, 11:29 pm
today our host had to go to Halle/Saale. Sure, we were in the car, too.
Halle is a city in the Southern part of the German state Saxony-Anhalt and it is a very important economy and education-center in east Germany. The University of Halle-Wittenberg is the biggest university in Saxony-Anhalt and one of the oldest Universities in Germany. It has a population of about 250.000 inhabitants.
First we saw nothing...
But then... Halle!
We crossed the river Saale which had a big flood in June.
The city center is coming closer.
The church which you can see on the left is "Market Church of Our Dear Lady". It was built between 1529 and 1554 and is the most recent of its medieval churches.
And 2 more churches... (middle + right)
This white building is called Francke Foundations. It is famous for its baroque buildings (including Europe‘s largest surving half-timbered building) and historical collections.
Some newer buildings in Halle...
This is Riebeck square. About 10 years ago it was the most dangerous place in Halle to cross by car. Now there are more traffic lights, better paintings on the street and you don't have to check for the tram, because they also finally got traffic lights.
Yes, we got it!
Look, this is the "Water tower North". It's 54 meters high and it was built between 1897 - 1899. The high level tank got a capacity of 1500 m³!
Driving in the shadow is really nice at this temperatures!
We left Halle.
Then we passed a small city called Bitterfeld...
At the end of that small city we saw the famous lake Goitzsche. It is a former brown-coal open cast mine.
And we crossed the river Mulde, where Crawfish made a report about the flood in June.
There was a locomotive standing next to the street, but there was no station anywhere.
Just a few kilometers left till "home". Our butts already started hurting.
Trooooot
Posted Aug 8, 2013, 7:59 pm
I think today was the hottest day of the summer. Our therometer said 39,5°C.
But, who cares?! We jumped into the car and travelled for a few hours.
We were really surprised when we arrived. Lots of other plushies welcomed us!
Look, all of us are official registered as Toyvoygers.
And I completed one of my life missions: I met another Toyvoyager elephant: Jethro.
We are the "trunk gang".
Your Troot
Posted Aug 14, 2013, 9:36 pm
every time when we're having an overnight stay in Berlin we hear a noise around us. It rumbles and sometimes it tickles under our feet. It often feels like tiny earthquakes!
Most of the time it happens by night when we are in bed. This is scary!!!
So now we decided to ask Alex_Kitty what this noise is and he showed us!
It's the underground which is passing under our feet. The station close to our house is not so nice, so we went through the city to find one which is more beautiful for taking a picture.
Troot
Posted Aug 17, 2013, 9:34 pm
at the moment our host doesn't have so much time. So we decided to enjoy the day at a playground. It was not easy to find one. After a while we saw this slide. Hmm, looks like nobody was playing here for a while. We decided not to use it...
Troot
Posted Aug 17, 2013, 9:50 pm
guess what! We found a boat! It was standing around...
Little Toyvoyagers are very curious! Alex and I went to close to the boat when it keel over.
Luckily we have friends who rescued us!
So what to do with a boat...? We should use it!
We all jumped into the boat and paddled on the great ocean. Let's see where we will be stranding...
Your non-seasick Troot
Posted Aug 21, 2013, 10:10 am
our journey by boat took really long. After a while we fall asleep and when we woke up we were on a place we didn't know. It looks a little bit scary. There was nobody else except us. Is this an unknown planet? Who is living here? Will we get back home?
Does somebody know where our boat is?
Troot
Posted Sep 8, 2013, 6:19 pm
Our host found us lying on the ground with some bottles. Hmm, these drinks were delicious. She took the bottles away from us and said we should not wonder when we see spooky places which look like foreign planets...
Whatever... I don't care what she said...I just want to sleep! ZzZzZzzzzz
Tröööööt Trootzzzzzzz
Posted Sep 14, 2013, 10:33 am
I really don't know what happened! When we woke up after a really long nap, Nathalie was missing. We were searching everywhere, but we couldn't find her. Maybe she doesn't want to hang out anymore with us crazy guys.
So today our host decided we could do some sports. A bike tour would be nice, so we did!
While biking through forests and over fields we saw a family of pheasants! We jumped off of the bike and waited to see them again. Look!
We couldn't find any more animals on the field.
Going by bike is really slow, so we decided to take the train back home. We waited for so long, but no train arrived. So we went on by bike.
We arrived at a big lake. As it was really hot today we wanted to go swimming, but our host told us that swimming is not allowed here.
Am I still drunk or do you see that ufo, too???
On our way back we met this lovely lady. She was surprised about our visit as she never saw Toyvoyagers before. Her hubby wasn't so nice to us...
He was looking really angry at us!
Your Troot
Posted Sep 18, 2013, 7:43 pm
it's time for a road trip. We just traveled through a town called Bitterfeld. Not really interesting at all...
Yours Troot
Posted Sep 18, 2013, 8:11 pm
the weather was ok so we did a short stopover at Lake Goitzsche. It's one of the biggest lakes in this area. It's size is about 24.000 hectar and it was formed of 3 former open-cast mines. And it was really windy!
Troot
Posted Sep 30, 2013, 11:52 am
guess what?! We made another road trip.
We crossed little villages like Dessau and Zerbst, and we didn't have time for sightseeing, but it was nice, too.
We drove over rivers and through tunnels. Funny trip.
Your Trööt
Posted Oct 1, 2013, 4:10 pm
today we found a box! We were really curious and hoped it would be full of sweets!
But then it opened and Gustav and Phog jumped out.
We welcomed them.
Troot
Posted Oct 2, 2013, 6:55 pm
We were playing outside, just like Toyvoyagers do. We had a lot of fun...
Anyway, they are going to send you the bill...
I hope you still love me!
Your little Troot
(Pictures taken "before" and "after" having fun!
)
Before:
After:
Posted Oct 6, 2013, 11:53 pm
I was just kidding, you won't get a bill... I hope!
Let me tell ya the whole story!
We jumped into the car for... guess what... a roadtrip!
But it was only a short one. We used the freeway just to come to the next exit, because lots of other streets were closed. Our destination for today was Vockerode, a small village with about 1500 inhabitants. And they own an old power station which is closed since 1998.
What do we want here? And what are all these people doing here? We did the same like all of them: taking pictures of the 2 last chimneys, each 100m tall.
At 11 o'clock sharp there were 2 really loud explosions, followed by 2 little earthquakes and LOTS of dust! After a few minutes we could see clearly what happened! The chimneys were gone!
Later we were informed that people used about 90kg explosive materials and 900 detonators.
This pic was taken by our host!
Everybody was a bit sad, because these 2 chimneys were some typical landmarks for the village. You could see them on the freeway long time before arrival. We couldn't take any pictures during the explosion, but a good video can be seen here.
After a while we were allowed to go to the chimneys and have a closer look.
On our way back we just had eyes for the power station and where everything happened. All of us still shocked from the explosions and the earthquakes!
...when we noticed we weren't driving on a street. Holy crap!
We never noticed before some tracks here.
Woah and what a tiny and beautiful train! And yes, the train isn't longer than you can see in the pic. Just a few cm of it cut off in the pic.
Your Troot
Posted Oct 9, 2013, 7:59 pm
Posted Oct 9, 2013, 8:08 pm
today we found some seeds. We decided to grow them!
First we needed a box with some soil.
We "cut" the soil into single pieces and gave them numbers. Then we placed lots of seeds in it. All seeds were cacti and succulents.
At least we placed the seed box in a plastic bag, filled it with some water and closed it. Now we have a tiny greenhouse for the seeds. Lets see if they are going to grow!
PS: We are going on holidays SOON!
Troot
Posted Oct 9, 2013, 8:52 pm
as I promised: we made a trip!
Yesterday we traveled through whole Germany to Cologne, the biggest city at the river Rhine!
After that long journey we were too tired and just slept the whole evening.
But today...
We woke up really late, so the first we needed was something delicious to eat!
We started at the famous Hohenzollern Bridge, which is crossing the Rhine. It is the most heavily used railway bridge in Germany. People have placed love padlocks on the fence between the sidewalk and the tracks! Amazing!
Then it was time to see the most famous sight of the city: the Cologne Cathedral! It is a Roman Catholic church. It is also the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Construction of Cologne Cathedral commenced in 1248 and was halted in 1473, leaving it unfinished. Work restarted in the 19th century and was completed, to the original plan, in 1880. It is 144.5m (474 ft) long, 86.5m (284 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157m (515 ft) tall. The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest spires and largest façade of any church in the world.
We had a wonderful warm and sunny day, but we had to go back home in the evening.
Your Troot
Posted Oct 14, 2013, 7:25 pm
today we made a tour around the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) which is the colloquial name for the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin.
The Berlin Cathedral has never been a cathedral in the actual sense of that term since it has never been the seat of a bishop. It was built in the 15th century.
Isn't this a pretty view of the river Spree, the TV-tower and the Bode Museum at the Museum Island?!
Hugs
Troot
Posted Oct 14, 2013, 7:42 pm
Posted Oct 23, 2013, 9:18 pm
we used that beautiful day to enjoy our lives close to the water.
First we went to the Spandau Ship Canal.
Then we went to lake Plötzensee. Sad it was too cold to swim in it.
Your Troot
Posted Oct 25, 2013, 11:14 pm
guess what! We went to the forest to find some mushrooms. Gustav thinks he knows a lot about mushrooms, because he always reads his brother's best friend Murph's blog. He's famous for his knowledge about mushrooms.
We found some lovely mushrooms, but he told us not to eat them. He wasn't sure about the poison. So we just watched them.
The next mushroom was so beautiful. It had the same color like lovely cakes have. So we decided that it is eatable. It was delicious! I'd really like to tell you about that mushroom, but nobody knows the name. After our meal we all started smiling like Gustav...that explains a lot
Yours
Trooööööoot
Posted Oct 26, 2013, 8:31 pm
do you remember my update with all the seeds? Well, the seeds grow up!
Have a look!!!
Troot
Posted Oct 30, 2013, 10:16 pm
He got a big group hug.
Then we opened the window and Landroval spread his wings and flew away. I hope he knows the right way back home!
Troot
Posted Oct 30, 2013, 10:31 pm
we made a short trip to a nearby city called Lutherstadt Wittenberg. It is famous for Martin Luther who nailed his 95 theses on the doors of All Saints' Church ( "castle church" ) in 1517.
It was already getting dark when we arrived so we could only take a picture on the market place.
The white building on the left is the Town hall. In front of it you can see the Luther Memorial.
The church is the Town and Parish Church of St. Mary's. It is the civic church of the city. The reformers Martin Luther and Johannes Bugenhagen preached there and the building also saw the first celebration of the mass in German rather than Latin and the first ever distribution of the bread and wine to the congregation - it is thus considered the mother-church of the Protestant Reformation. Since 1996 it has been a World Heritage Site!
Your Troot
Posted Nov 14, 2013, 10:02 pm
Today it's Halloween! Whoohoooo...
We all were so excited
... until our host told us that we're not celebrating. Instead of eating too many sweets we could do some sports!
We jumped on the bike and started, but after 1km our butts started to hurt! We thought this could be our chance to go back and be able to celebrate, but... no mercy!
We passed forests, fields, lakes etc... Ok, the landscape was really beautiful, but after 30km we asked our host to go back!
I think I can't sit for the next few days. Damn you muscle ache!
Troot
Posted Nov 14, 2013, 10:13 pm
Can you image what the security wanted to do with us? They wanted to scan us! Hell! If they do they would see us naked! NOBODY wants to see a Toyvoyager naked!
As it is already dark outside we didn't take any more pictures today...
Posted Nov 16, 2013, 9:57 pm
guess what! I made it to LONDON!
I heard when you go to London you have to use the underground, because the London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. So I did!
First I visited the famous Big Ben. This is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. The four clock dials are 180 feet (54.9 m) above ground. Wow!
And of course, we also saw the Palace of Westminster which is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The tower you can see in my picture is called Victoria Tower.
Then we went to a circus. We were so excited to see many animals and maybe a clown, but what we saw was something totally different!
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction.
And there were lots of illuminated signs, gosh!
From there we went to another close public space and tourist attraction: Trafalgar Square. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of contemporary art.
That's enough of rain for today! Let's see what we're going to see tomorrow...
Your little Troot
Posted Nov 20, 2013, 8:50 pm
we spent another day in London. And this time it didn't rain!
So we used the time to visit more famous sights!
First we visited "Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress", more commonly known as the Tower of London. It is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in the center of London. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The castle encloses an area of almost 12 acres (4.9 ha) with a further 6 acres (2.4 ha) around the Tower of London constituting the Tower Liberties – land under the direct influence of the castle and cleared for military reasons.
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom.
It's length is 346 km (215 mi).
The building on the left is called "The Shard". It is an 87-storey skyscraper. Standing approximately 306 metres (1,004 ft) high, the Shard is currently the tallest building in the European Union.
The Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London which crosses the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name, and has become an iconic symbol of London. It was built from 1886 to 1894. It's total length is 244 metres (801 ft).
We also visited St Paul's Cathedral. It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London. The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London, with its dome, framed by the spires of Wren's City churches, dominating the skyline for 300 years. At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world.
And of course we went to meet the Queen! This is Buckingham Palace. It is the official London residence and principal workplace of the British monarch. Unfortunately the Queen didn't have time for tea.
Tomorrow we're going back to Germany!
Troot
Posted Nov 27, 2013, 7:57 pm
just wanted to let you know that we're back to Berlin.
It's already cold outside, but our host decided that we need some fresh air. So we did a walk through the Tiergarten...
Brrr...
Troot
Posted Dec 1, 2013, 10:10 pm
today Gustav left for a new adventure, so we all hugged.
Then he went to the famous Berlin "magical black hole" where he's leaving through. Now you will say it is only a Christmas mug, but it isn't...
He sat down on that hole while we were singing a goodbye song.
...and... *kaboumbzzzzzztsch* There was a light and he was gone. It's magical!
Impressed
Troot
Posted Dec 13, 2013, 10:43 pm
today a new girl arrived! Her name is Freya and she's German.
Troot
Posted Dec 23, 2013, 1:49 pm
we spent the afternoon in the cinema watching a lovely movie called "Frozen".
Did you watch it yet?
Troot
Posted Dec 24, 2013, 8:27 pm
today we did a walk in an urban park near the station Gleisdreieck. This park is really new and not everything is opened yet.
Here we found an old watch tower from the time when Germany was divided.
We spent a lot of time watching the yellow metro... It's a great place where you can see it, because normally it's going underground.
Yours
Troot
Posted Dec 24, 2013, 8:37 pm
we spent this beautiful day walking along the old elevated dump. The sun was shining so bright!
Troot
Posted Dec 24, 2013, 8:43 pm
Posted Dec 24, 2013, 11:49 pm
we made a trip by train!
At this time of the year the countryside looks really boring.
We saw some interesting trains...
...lost stations...
...the river Mulde...
...and passed a small city named Bitterfeld.
Our destination was Halle/Saale. It's a very important economy and education-center in east Germany. The University of Halle-Wittenberg is the biggest university in Saxony-Anhalt and one of the oldest Universities in Germany.
As our host had something to do in the city we had a little bit time to walk around.
We noticed LOTS of all kind of towers everywhere!
This is the Leipzig Tower (Leipziger Turm). It was built in the 15th century and remains of the town wall in the south of the city centre.
The Red Tower (Roter Turm) in front of me was originally built as campanile of the older St. Mary's Church between 1418 and 1503 and is a famous landmark of Halle. I hope you can see it as I'm standing next to the church.
The Market Church of St. Mary (Marktkirche) was built in 1529–1554 while using elements of two medieval churches: St. Gertrude's Church dating back to the 11th century and the older St. Mary's Church from the 12th Century. The church has four steeples, the two western octagonal ones are called Blue Towers because of their dark blue slate roofing. The other two Hausmannstürme are connected by a bridge and on this bridge was the fire watch. The church owns as well the original death-mask of Martin Luther.
The Marktkirche's four towers and the city's nearby Roter Turm (Red Tower) are a landmark symbol of the city and marking the city’s silhouette.
We also stopped at the Christmas market which is placed around the Red Tower, directly on the market square.
Your little
Troot
Posted Dec 26, 2013, 6:55 pm
Troot
Posted Dec 30, 2013, 9:41 pm
there's so much to do during the days before Christmas!
We jumped into the car to go shopping... all the stuff we needed, like food...
Troot
Posted Jan 9, 2014, 11:31 pm
it's just 1 day left until Christmas!
So we jumped in the car, enjoyed the beautiful sky and went shopping...just something to eat for the next days!
Troot
Posted Jan 11, 2014, 9:56 pm
In the evening we heard some "HOHOHO"... Who is it?!
Santa!!! He arrived with his sleigh and Rudolph (the reindeer). We were so excited! His sleigh was full of presents.
He gave all of us a present! And Rudolph started to eat Santa's birch. Little hungry reindeer...
Look at our presents... handbags!
When Santa saw that we were happy Toyvoyagers he and Rudolph left. There were some more Toyvoyagers waiting for him.
We are a pretty gang!
Troot
Posted Jan 22, 2014, 10:09 pm
We didn't really celebrate last night because our host had to work, but we got some lovely drinks.
Anyway, today we did a small tour by car again and saw the sun going down. Nice!
Posted Jan 22, 2014, 10:37 pm
today we found some stuff from Australia on the floor: souvenirs and sweets. Somebody left a present for us.
Then we heard a voice, turned around and saw Squab who's back from his journey to Sydney and Melbourne.
We hugged him a lot. It's also the goodbye-hug for Big foot and me.
Troot
Posted Jan 29, 2014, 9:24 am
I arrived in Delligsen, a smal town in lower saxony, I traveled with Big foot and told me something about his hometown and his friends and brothers and sisters and hostmum Andrea....and what can I say... it was a big "HELLO"
They all welcomed me so warmly and we talked the whole night
I`m the little grey spot under Big foot
Troot
Posted Feb 8, 2014, 2:02 pm
last sunday Phog and I made a walk in a deep Hessian forest
It was muted, cold and mystic
Look, what funny tall trees, crazy forest
After a while we came to a crossway and suddenly …. Recognized a colorful dressed conifer
What has happened? Did we step into a time warp? A cold shiver run down my neck…..
We started to run and it seems, we lost the right way…. ^
Here betwee the deep fir trees it was extraordinary quiet. It was not so easy to look about in this long gras.
We climbed on a tree for a better orientation….hmmm not so easy……
AHH… a sunbeam….
And look there, the vegitation changes from coniferious woodland to broad-leaved forest.
After a short walk we discovered a way.
Puhhh, it was the right one, that brought us back home…
bye,bye
Troot
Posted Feb 24, 2014, 2:00 pm
last wintersunday was a boring day without winter
…. So Phog and I decided to make a geographical reconnaissance. We start to discover Delligsen
At First we pass the community hall with lot of special stones with badges, ivy, stupid holes…..
Oh look, a map from Delligsen and the surrounding area…..
We hike uphill for a better view….
Ahhh what lovely look-out…Voila- Delligsen…
Suddenly we hear a sound like muhhhh….realy cows in the middle of the city….
and chicken, … lucky, curios chicken, not forced to live in cages.
Later we passed the primaryschool…… and the secondary school…
We continued our walk to the lovely river "Wispe" with ducks and a view to the protestant Church….
Oh mum, can I stay til middle of May?…. a ABBA party take place here in the Delligser Festival Room…..funny creatures at the poster
In the neighborhood we find the Roman Catholic church…. And a few minutes later we are back home at hostmums house…
love you mum
Troot
Posted Mar 10, 2014, 9:54 am
the postman rings and brought an envelope.
And it was fidgeting. Hm...... Günther meens: There could be something inside alive! So we decided to open the couvert carefully and quick. What could be in there? …
. HAAASEE!!!! Hase arrives back home!
Such a little bunny need such a large traveling suite?….
Oh Look, all the nice souvenirs: sweeties, liquor postcards, sticker….. We had a long hugging celebration and all TV´s survey all the smal presents
yours
Troot
Posted Apr 1, 2014, 5:37 am
again flutter through the air……
Hey mum,
by warm weather outside we decided to make an excursion in hostmums garden…
enjoying lovely smelling snowdrop, crocus and other spring flowering plants…
we welcomed the garden statues
…
lazing in a deckchair while warming by the sunbeams…
made a boattrip with Gummischnulli…
taste lemoncake
..….. enter a daisycrown….
Saying welcome warm season
a big hug for you mum
Troot
Posted Apr 27, 2014, 3:48 pm
I accompanied host mum and dad to a special anniversary at Lake Steinhude in lower Saxony,
The Steinhuder Meer or Lake Steinhude is a lake in Lower Saxony, Germany located 30 kilometres northwest of Hanover. It is named after the nearby village of Steinhude. It has an area of about 30 square kilometres , making it the largest lake of northwestern Germany, but it is very shallow, with an average depth of only 1.35 metres and a maximum depth of less than 3 metres . It lies within a region known as the Hanoverian Moor Geest.
Morningmood on the motorway
50 year sailing in the boat class Flying Dutchman. Many friends of the persons celebrating the jubilee, come to party and made short races round the island and fortress Wilhelmsstein with the Flying Dutchmans . While there were more guests than space on the sailing boats it was necessary to charter one of the typical touristboats of Lake Steinhude, the" Emigrants”.
the name "Emigrants" goes back to the early days of tourism on Steinhude: The sailboats drove from Schaumburg-Lippe Steinhude into the Prussian-Hanoverian "abroad" and "emigrated"
the Flaggmast at the Clubhabour
View at Lake Steinhude
our "Emigrants"
The weather with good wind and sunshine was very nice and the 10 teams, mixed from amateurs, champions up to olympicmedalists, fought exciting races with lots of fun.
Fortress Wilhelmstein, here we come!
Wildlife at the clubground
kisses for you mum
Troot
Posted Jun 6, 2014, 7:13 pm
finally the time has come, that we start our holiday trip northward in our motorhome
After 3 hours driving we pass Schleswig-Holstein with a golden Sundown.
Additional 3 hours later we pass Denmarks highes Point ( the Store Bealt Bridge Pylones with 254m above sealevel) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Belt_Fixed_Link
…and one hour later we pass Kopenhavn , the tunnel and Öresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%98resund_Bridge
bad weather
From here we drove directly northward, following the E20 (European Highway no. 20)
First overnight stop on a motorway service area near Helsingborg (in the far we can see the Baltic Sea and the coast from Denmark)
After a catlik and a promise and 3 hours we reached Göteborg and changed from the E20…..
…. to the E45 until Karesuando at the border between Sweden and Finland.
We ride and ride and ride, landscapes are passing by and what a pity, it started to rain….. not realy, but isolated raindrops on the windscreen beclouded our excellent view …. At last we pass Mora and found a place for the night in Orsa.
Next morning starts with rain, more rain, and much more rain…… so we escape northward … and we pass Stornuman with a giant moose. …
..the rain slow down and when he stopped finally, we stopped too, on an campsite north of Wilhelmina
(the owner must be a fan for Salmonfishing, as you can see in the background)
more soon
yours
Troot