3*Euro, Óbidos, Portugal

Yosemite Posted Jan 27, 2012, 4:53 pm	Hello, world! I am a little monkey and my name is 3*Euro. Once I was designed as a keychain, but I asked my mum if she could free me. And she did it! So I thought about what to do with my freedom. Because I like everything you can get for 3 Euros I want to travel through the euro zone and go shopping in each country I stay. Now just a few photos for you to learn something about me 3*Euro loves the whole world!
Yosemite Posted Jan 27, 2012, 6:14 pm	Today it´s my first day as a toyvoyager and I had an important job to do. I welcomed a new TV! Herb the Hepp arrived! It is a giant microbe Never seen such thing before. But he is a nice guy! I think we will have a lot of fun together! 3*Euro
Yosemite Posted Jan 28, 2012, 2:54 pm	Hello, world! Today I saw my first snow! I asked Mummy if I am allowed to go out. She said yes  We had a ride in a small sleigh, exactly the right size for me and Kibblet Wow, I hope we´ll have more snow so that we can built a snowman tomorrow. I´ve heard that everybody does this when there is snow Yours, 3*Euro love the whole world!
Yosemite Posted Jan 28, 2012, 3:38 pm	Hello, world! It´s me again  I just want to tell you, that I have two invitations! At first I will travel to Dr.Kröbner. Mummy showed me where he lives. My second station will be Berlin. I am so glad to start! 3*Euro loves the world
Yosemite Posted Jan 29, 2012, 6:31 pm	Hey world! Tomorrow my adventure starts! I´ve packed my luggage. My own bed, a postcard of my hometown and a present for Dr.Kröbner. I tested the bed, it´s ok for a comfortable trip. Then I said byebye to all TVs. And to all my friends here. The cute bear Bierle gave me a hug. His girl friend Bärbel told me to be careful. Yeeeeeeeeeees, I will Knabber (the big mouse in the cool pink t-shirt) said to me, I should make everything possible  And the duck Trudi asked me to look for the best ponds in Germany. Then I hopped into my box and hopefully see Dr. Kröbner soon! Dear Mummy, I will miss you... a little bit  You know, your 3*Euro loves the world and YOU! KISS
Dr.Kröbner Posted Jan 31, 2012, 12:54 pm	Hi Mommy, brrrrr,brrrrr,brrrrr..... it was sooooo cold, brrrrr III aarrived, bbut it wwas sso cold on the way, as in a refrigerator, sssoorry, but I`m shaking...I asked my hostmum Andrea if she continues to write, yes.... . Thank God Dr.Kröbner has helped me very quickly . I'm crawling out of the pack and two pairs of eyes looked at me, Dr.Kröbner andBrunoAusTirol They have welcomed me very warmly  Mommy, did you know that Dr.Kröbner is so big? I got a shock, but he's so sweet and took me in his arm Bruno has also hugged me. Dr.Kröbner was very happy about the scarf and the postcard, thank you.... Then he has shown me the place where I can sleep very comfortably and  because I still was shaking he kept me warm  Mommy I wish you a wonderful day and many greetings to all my friends at home, I feel good....I love the world huggs and kisses your 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 1, 2012, 4:46 pm	Hello Mommy, I slept very well, next to Bruno, he snores a bit. Today, Andrea had a surprise for me, a pair of pants and a scarf. I hope you like it Later, I still have a little meditation bye, bye, huggs and kisses for you and my friends and daddy
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 2, 2012, 5:39 pm	Hi Mommy, I found the First pond for Trudi, but it`s frozen no way to swim, I've tried to talk to the fish, I placed my ear to the ice in order to hear better.....no answer Love you your 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 5, 2012, 6:19 pm	Hi Mommy, I made a nice walk to the Steinberg next to Delligsen, Andrea has put me in a hat because it is a very cold wind brrrr in the background ..Delligsen.. On weekend I go with Andrea to Fritzlar, where she was born a long time ago love you
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 7, 2012, 2:35 pm	Mommy, I spend the last weekend in Fritzlar, a little nice town in Hesse... In the background you can see the cathedral and in the half- timbered house hostmum Andrea grew up.... I want to tell you something about the Cathedral The Cathedral of Fritzlar measures 43 meters (from the basement to the top). He continues to shape the cityscape of the small town in the Schwalm-Eder-Kreis (formerly Circle Fritzlar-Homberg). The three-aisled basilica in Fritzlar is considered one of the most beautiful in Germany. Built and rebuilt several times, combines the Cathedral of St. Peter Roman and Gothic styles. In the oldest part of the Fritzlarer Domes are the crypts, which can also be viewed as the Cathedral, which, amongst other things, "Henry Cross" and some of the oldest monstrances the German-speaking. We could not go inside  It was so cold, but we took a walk  The " Grey Tower", The 37 meter high tower was mentioned in 1274 for the first time and is the highest municipal watchtower still standing in Germany. That's part of the old city wall and a beautiful view. a little rest... a nother view to the cathedral and on the left side you the the townhall The Town Hall in Fritzlar originated in Roman times (also called "bailiwick") and was first mentioned in documents in 1109 It is decorated with a stone relief from the 1441 Holy St. Martin, the patron saint of Fritzlar. and now an warm up brrrrr next day there was a great surprise for me....because....Carnival is celebrated in Fritzlar, not as in Cologne and Mainz, but there are also many carnival events and "I" was allowed  to participate with Andreas  granddaughter , she is a "Tanzmariechen", unfortunately there is no translation for this word  look at the colours , perfect, isn`t it  a very nice trip.... huggs and kisses to all my friends at home yours 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 10, 2012, 5:26 pm	Mommy, Today I had a special mission. I counted the plushies, Dr.Kröbner helped me ... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight ....... so many and what kind of funny characters. A pillow with eyes, a dragon ...... what can I say, a total of 32 plushies and 4 TV's and I know this is not the end of the story, Andrea told me that she can not resist plushies  a great group and all get along together... look "Napoleons" twin The bear is sleeping all the time, I've tried to frighten him, but nothing happens, I think he makes hibernation help...."Count garlic"... holds me tight Thank God...Paul helps me....good dog.... finished... We all together, wish you and all at home  a wonderful weekend huggs and kisses your 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 12, 2012, 4:32 pm	Hello Mommy, I heard it on the radio, the Maschsee is frozen. I've decided to take a look .....look Mommy....so many people on an ice surface... hopefully the ice is strong enough. in the background you see the "Leineschloss" (English: Leine Castle), situated on the Leine in Hanover, Germany, it is the former residence of the Hanoverian kings and the current seat of the Landtag of Lower Saxony. I've met  Cosyfuzz and Mr.Lemony, what a coincidence On the way back I've seen these wind turbines, with the sunset in the background....wow I love you all 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 15, 2012, 2:26 pm	Hello Mommy..... We made a TV teamwork and prepare a birthdaycake for hostmums daughter Sarah and because it is tradition, she gets a parrot cake Andrea has placed us all the ingredients and have kindly weighed the margarine and beat up the eggs, 250 grams of margarine 5 eggs 1 vanilla sugar 100 grams of sugar While BrunoAusTirol has swirled this mixture, Dr.Kröbner preheated the oven Then added with continued stirring, 250 g flour and 1 parcel  baking powder Then the dough is divided into three parts, Into one part comes vanilla powder, in the other part comes cocoa powder and in the third part comes the green jello powder... The dough is successively filled into a greased loaf pan and then baked 1 hour at 180 °. and wait..... wait... read a book and wait..... sitt and wait...  do nonsense and wait..... watch tv and wait done ... I did not know how long an hour can be   and the worst thing we cannot taste the cake,  because it is a birthdaycake,.....but it smells so yummy happy birthday Sarah huggis, love you and the world and daddy and trudi and knabber and.........
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 21, 2012, 11:51 am	Hello Mommy, as you see...the birthdaycake.. and of course I could taste the cake, it was delicious..hmmmm kisses and huggies 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 22, 2012, 10:25 am	Hi Mommy, I tell you a story....... The Main Building "Marienburg" or is there really dwarfs? There was once a queen who was the pain out of court life so she asked her husband to build her a small, rustic hunting lodge, in that they could escape the hustle and bustle in the capital city occasionally. The king, his wife joined in an intimate love, hence their desire to buy according to a small mountain just outside the city and as the queen celebrated  her 39th Birthday , the king give her this mountain and the castle to be built out yet. This mountain was named by then on the Marienberg. Then the king asked the country's best architects to build a castle. And because the king came from an old family, the castle was a castle to be modeled. Gewing to ten years until the castle was completed. And the castle was called Marienburg and was continued on the private property of Queen Marie The Marie Berg was a legendary place from time immemorial. They say today that dwarfs who inhabit it. You could build monuments to honor the queen, of course, within a reasonable size. And if you carefully look around the castle, they will also discover ... All just a myth? No, it's probably been there and the relevant certificates are the historians. Good luck Marie with her castle had not. In 1866 the castle is still under construction. In the course of June 1866, King George V and his troops lost in the Battle of Langensalza against the Kingdom of Prussia and had to go into exile. The queen was permitted to remain on her lap, but on condition that the Hanoverian court had to be replaced by a Prussian. This condition was not acceptable to the queen and her daughter, after which they Marienburg left on 24  July 1867 and followed the king into exile. From 1869 the castle stood empty for nearly 80 years.....Time for dwarfs After the Second World War, the Guelphs returned to the southern region of Hanover. Today, the castle that is situated between Pattensen-Schulenburg and Hildesheim, no longer inhabited. However, it houses a museum (15 can be visited by approximately 100 spaces), a catering establishment as well as rooms for festive occasions and representative..... There remains the question to be answered by the dwarves. With any degree of certainty they can not be answered, because who knows what is hidden in the depths of the rock or what happens when the castle gates were closed and the last visitors have left the mountain What a story....but a nicy building huggs and kisses your 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 23, 2012, 3:12 pm	Mommy, We made a trip to Hanover ... oops a curve I show you the Telemax...huhu.. ..sorry I´m blurry The Telemax is a telecommunication tower built from 1988 to 1992 in Hanover. The tower was designed by Hans U. Boeckler and is 272 metres (892 feet) high. The tower stands on a 10 metre high base building, which brings its overall height to 282 metres (925 feet). Deutsche Telekom operates the tower. Then we visited a Swedish furniture store and I bought something for 3 €..... I bought small bowls for us TVs.. love you kisses 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Feb 26, 2012, 3:22 pm	Hello Mommy, thank God no rain today, so we decided to made a nice trip to an old abbey from the Benedictine order in Lamspringe. But first we´ve must taken a walk through the forest, because Mr. Shaun´s sheepdog Paul we take care of at the moment, has to calm down a little bit. So we hiked to a very, very old tree, tried to climb on it while hostmom Andrea took nice pictures from us. my new bunnyfriend Hoppsi with Paul By sunshine we reached the monastery garden with many attractions: a small millpond with ducks, an old watermill, strange sculptures and funny bushes with red branches. The sun was wonderfull warm and we had a lot of fun there. I´m a very small monkey poor man  so headless.... many kisses yours 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Mar 1, 2012, 12:38 pm	Hello my Mommy... bad weather and Andrea has no time, so she allows me, to look around here a bit. Ping,  Hoppsi and Cosyfuzz coming with me, there is much to discover... At first we were looking in the window and play  hide and seek... hello where I am ... Ping found me... help... cosy.... bullriding...jipihh huhu.. without words.... This chair must be padded and the tool you needed spring is coming.... In the evening we cooked together for Dr.Kröbner...... pasta with tomatos, scampi, black olives and mozarellacheese... yummy... He's so happy and then we have even cleared the table and washed the dishes and Dr. Kröbner could read a book. huggs and kisses yours 3*Euro
Dr.Kröbner Posted Mar 1, 2012, 1:24 pm	Hello Mommy, Yesterday I was in Stuttgart on the sun safety fair. Mom if you ever need an awning or an umbrella ask me.... We flew to Stuttgart, the flight left at 6:40 from Hanover ..... yawn Unfortunately the weather was not so beautiful ..... and we have a window seat with no window.... First, I have read the safety precautions, better is better This bag I have not needed, your stomache like to check out....here is the emergency exit ... Have a good flight Arrival in Stuttgart and then .....Breakfast....it is 7.45 o`clock  I am the boss ... such a day at an exhibition may be quite long and boring.... Waiting for the return flight... Return flight and a window seat with a window and better weather. Wow so many lights and a great sunset .. looping... Arrival in Hanover... That was a long day and I am soo tired good night 3 * € loves the whole world
Dr.Kröbner Posted Mar 2, 2012, 9:23 am	Time to say goodbye....sing , I must say goodbye to my new friends in Delligsen , I will never forget my time here....but the journey goes on... next stop : Berlin big hugg with Dr.Kröbner, Bruno, Ping, Mr.Lemony, Cosyfuzz and Hoppsi, thank you hostmum Andrea , now I must jump in my little package......see you in Berlin 3*Euro loves the whole world and you Mommy+Dad and all my friends in Lichtenfels
orangesunshine Posted Mar 5, 2012, 12:30 pm	oooooooh ... there are so many nice things here with me in the travel box. but nobody thought of giving me a torch .... grumbl ... oh dear, hopefully i will be at my next target soon. this box is shaking and rumbling. hm ... i don't see anything. what can i do? what about singing a little bit? lah lah lalalalah lah lalalalalh lah lah lah ... the louder you sing the better you feel. LAH LALALALAH LAH LAH LAH LALALALALALAH LAH LAH ... ouch! somebody just kicked at my travel box!
orangesunshine Posted Mar 5, 2012, 8:12 pm	oh mommy! the shaking did not stop. it got worse. but hey, suddenly i heard voices. and then and felt better. the box must have been carried. it was like in a boat.  some time later i heard more voices. they were singing something like ooobedoo ... the box stopped shaking. i kept listening: "oh, oobee doo i wanna be like you i wanna walk like you talk like you, too you'll see it's true an ape like me can learn to be human too now i'm the king of the swingers oh, the jungle v.i.p. i've reached the top and had to stop and that's what botherin' me i wanna be a man, mancub and stroll right into town and be just like the other men i'm tired of monkeyin' around! oh, oobee doo i wanna be like you i wanna walk like you talk like you, too you'll see it's true an ape like me can learn to be human too" oh, what a cool rhythm. i liked it.  next moment i was shocked. the box was opened and 10 eyes stared at me. they opened the box completely ... ... and welcomed me very warm. they have had thousands of questions. i was allowed to sit on one of the big elephants - and we talked and talked and talked. later on i have seen a wooden giraffe. i was allowed to climb up its neck. then we have eaten all the sweets which i have brought along. mommy, i am sure, i will have a great time with all these guys! 3*euro loves the whole world
orangesunshine Posted Mar 6, 2012, 12:28 pm	good morning mommy. last night i have slept very good. and after all those black hours i have dreamt really colourful! "sweet dreams are made of this ..." my host told me to take me with him to his office. i had to dress properly. good, i have got these nice trousers. well, lots of meetings. i did not understand a single word. i was bored. then i discovered the photocopier. hush, don't tell anyone about what i have done with it ... this is me with a good snack. 3*euro loves you - and the world of course!
orangesunshine Posted Mar 7, 2012, 8:29 pm	hello mommy! today was a great day. my host took me with him to his external jobs. first stop: it was cold outside, but my host said, it would be warm, where we would go now. we went through one backyard of an old house ... ... and crossed another one. then we went downstairs into a really warm room - compared to the temperatures outside. my host wanted to check the heating system and ... ... the oiltank. one was empty, so he ordered some heating oil. expensive, but what would you do? then we went to another house. hihi, number 3 like 3*euro! there i helped my host to check the roof. it has been repaired lately. it was funny to shout down a chimney, mommy, really funny! also funny what people lose on a roof. and then i looked around me. spectacular views. behind me you can see the television tower at alexanderplatz. my host promissed to go there with me at another day. yippieh! funny how the city looks like from a roof. you can also look right into people's loft appartments, hihihi ... now it was time for a little snack. we went to a small café. since the sun was shining, we decided to eat outside in a park. hmnjamjnamjnamjnam. then i saw something strange and asked my host what it was. he said: a church. i said, no, i mean the yellow-orange thing in front of it. he explained, it was the underground. unbelievable! the underground goes overground. how crazy is this? we went nearer to a station called "girli"-something ... then a train came in. after this we walked back to the car. here is one of the colourful houses in this area. i wondered how they got up there to write those words on top of the house ... appropos. while walking along the streets, i have seen a lot of graffitis. my host said, he didn't like them. but i do. here you can see a very nice kiosk, an old doubledecker bus. funny idea! this really was a nice day between all the jobs my host had to do. and we have had really nice weather! 3*euro loves you and the whole world
orangesunshine Posted Mar 8, 2012, 5:07 pm	hello mommy. today i stayed at home with my friends. and this is what we have done. this is little teddy on the silver arrow, me on the red flash, and little bunny on black power. we made a very hot race! little bunny overtakes between us. then i was first. ouch. little teddy made a mistake and fell off. clumsy little thing! so it was me followed closely by little bunny. first round: i was first at the chocolate! some minutes later little teddy arrived. next round: me at pool position on silver arrow, wolfi on red flash, and i.c. bear on black power. peng! 3*euro started furiously. i.c. bear passed with an apish speed. and was first between the sweets. followed by me and wolfi. next round: i.c. bear and me and little bunny on red flash. this was much fun, we did it all day long. and ate all of the sweets and chocolate. this is the victor of the day. me on a silver arrow. and guess how much this car was: three euros! after this funny day i needed a rest and enjoyed the evening sun. 3*euro loves you mommy and the whole world also
orangesunshine Posted Mar 10, 2012, 5:23 pm	forenoon hello mommy. my host had a surprise for me. he said, come with me. so i made myself comfortable in his car. it was early in the morning, so still i was a bit spleepy. my host did his job first. then we had a small breakfast snack. then we moved towards home. on our way we passed alexanderplatz and its television tower, called tele-asparagus. "television" is greek and latin for "far looking". so this is a far looking tower. but today it is too foggy to go up the tower. we passed saint mary's church ... ... and the red townhall, where the senate of berlin sits. we crossed the river spree and had a nice view of the skyline: from left to right: the berlin cathedral, "humboldt-box" (an exhibition hall), tower of saint mary's church, high rise park inn hotel, far looking tower, and the tower of the red townhall. river spree this is the french church at gendarm market, north side. this church was built 300 years ago by the prussian king for the french huguenots, that had to flee to prussia because of their believe. they should have their own church, the king said. this is the famous concert hall at gendarm market. on the south side of the market is the german church, opposite to the french church. this market square is a very nice one. in summer you would find here many open air cafés. back in the car we were heading for potsdamer platz ... ...a very new quarter with cinemas, shopping malls, and theatres. next to it is the berlin philharmony building, called circus karajani. karajan was the conductor of the world famous orchestra when this house was build. hey, doesn't it look like a circus tent? then we passed brandenburg gate. if the weather will be better, my host promised to come back with me and take a closer look! this is reichstag building, the seat of the german federal parliament. what looks like a giant washing machine is the federal chancellor's office. behind it you see the old conference hall. it is called pregnant oyster. some people call it "smiling mouth of jimmy carter". that's right! the berliners always have funny names for their buildings. this is bellevue castle. normally the seat of the federal president. but there is no tenant in the moment. they will elect the new president in some weeks. this is victory column. later we entered the city west: here is the large department store kadewe, the largest on the european continent. only harrod's in london is bigger. we passed europa-center. next to it you normally see a ruined church tower. it stands there as a reminder of the last world war. it's called cupped tooth. now it is hidden behind scaffolds for refurbishment. i asked my host what this is there in the middle of the street. he said it is petrified tooth paste. i don't believe him. it is metal! then we entered kurfuerstendamm. west berlin's famous shopping street. let's see if i can come back here later. a very nice boulevard. so much to see in this city. i am a bit tired. it's time to drive home and have a nap. this was a very interesting tour. i like this big city. today i made one of my life missions! 3*euro loves you mommy - and the rest of the world of course
orangesunshine Posted Mar 10, 2012, 7:56 pm	afternoon hello mommy. it's me again! the wheather cleared up a bit, and so little bunny and little teddy said it would be nice to have a short walk though their favarite park. teddy said, it has a large lake in its centre. probably a pond for you, trudi?? little bunny said it would be good to take the rubber ducks with us to check the lake. but we decided not to schlep those ducks. it must be enough to have a closer look. when we entered the park we saw the first blooming flowers this year. aren't those flowers cute, mommy? then i saw swans. where swans are, a lake can't be far! what would you say, trudy? is this a nice pond for you? look what strange signs we found! do you know the meaning? we continued our walk in the park. i asked bunny what this is. he said it will be very nice flowers. but i had to wait until easter. mommy, am i allowed to stay here till easter to see these flowers? pleeeeeeease. *ding dong* bunny said those are called little snow bells. 3*euro loves the whole world and misses you a little bit, mommy
orangesunshine Posted Mar 11, 2012, 9:59 pm	hello mommy. today was sunday. yes, the sun was shining. so i asked my hst to have a sightseeing walk through the city centre. this is where we have been: we started at the brandenburg gate and ... ... pariser platz. brandenburg gate has five drive ways. the one in the middle used to be reserved for the prussian kings and german emperors. this one is the widest. they must have had big kings and emperors. here begins the world famous boulevard "unter den linden" (= under the linden trees). we walked along this street. in a souvenir shop i found this small cup for - yeeeees 3 euros! you are always observed in the government district. bebelplatz with state opera (left), saint hedwig's cathedral (left behind), hôtel de rome (right behind), and the old university library (right). humboldt university, named after the humboldt brothers. alexander von humboldt has travelled the world and wrote a book called "kosmos", where he included the whole knowledge of his time. state opera. new guard (now a memorial for peace and freedom) and the arsenal (zeughaus - now german historic museum). new guard (in the g.d.r. it was called memorial against fascism and militarism, guarded by two armoured soldiers). nice buildings for the crown princes. the berlin cathedral. the prussian kings wanted to be the lutheran counterpart of the pope in rome. therefore they built this church. me at a art market stand. old national gallery, built as a copy of a greek temple. saint mary's church and television tower at alexanderplatz. i really enjoyed this city walk. 3*euro loves you mommy and the world
orangesunshine Posted Mar 12, 2012, 8:47 pm	hello mommy. today we started at one of my hosts houses - yes, checking the roof after the winter. again: spectacular views of the city. and a loud shout into the chimney! hehehehe! later this afternoon we had some time to go to a large castle: charlottenburg castle. this king here built it as his summer residence. frederick the great let his wife live here, while he resided at sanssouci (without sorrow) in potsdam. he did not like women. oooops, why hasn't this guy any trousers? chilly ... the prussian eagle looks a bit angry, doesn't he? and this is frederick the second, a great king of prussia. in the late evening we picked up a friend of my host from the airport. mommy, what is ulan bator? tegel airport will be closed in june this year when the new international airport south of berlin will be opened. but now, you can fly to many many targets in germany, europe, and the whole world. hey, and this is where i would like to go. may i? 3*euro loves the whole world and you also, mommy
orangesunshine Posted Mar 14, 2012, 8:22 pm	hello mommy! today another toyvoyager arrived: joesy, a little monkey girl. eah, girls ...  the two strong big elephants brought in a yellow box. we opened it. hm, did they open my box with forks and knives too? me and little teddy had the a first look. "hellooooo? somebody in here?" i saw the big smile of a handsome girl. then we opened the box. everybody wanted to see who was coming in. and? she was complaining that she was given a lamp but nothing to read. hey! i told her i was given some sweets, but NO lamp at all. GIRLS!!!  anyway, we welcomed her very kindly and talked and talked the whole night and ate what was left of the sweets. mommy, have i told that i love the whole world and miss you (a little bit)?
orangesunshine Posted Mar 15, 2012, 6:45 pm	hello mommy. today i took a day off. i was sitting together with joesy the whole day discussing. girls are not thaaaaat odd.
orangesunshine Posted Mar 16, 2012, 6:54 pm	hello mommy. today we, joesy and i went to a borough of berlin called spandau. spandau has a nice old town. spandau is 7 years older than berlin. to move through the city we dicided to lend a shopping trolley. so we were able to take some snacks with us. we started at the market place ... ... moved on to saint nicolai's church. in front of it is a statue of marquis joachim, who converted with his people to the lutheran faith. view to the borough hall at the end of the main street. this is an old brewery. they serve tasty beer here. it has many ... ... old houses. river havel. the disadvantage of old cities the streets are humbling. back to saint nicolai's. berlin water works have funny gullies with pivtures of the city's sights. later we went to the citadel, europe's best preserved renaissance castle from the 16th century. albrecht the bear, the first german count in this area. julius tower. it burried the prussian state treasure. time for a snack. we decided to dash down this ramp. hahahaha ... at the end we turned over with the trolley. but it was really funny! mommy, i love you and the whole world of course
orangesunshine Posted Mar 18, 2012, 12:40 pm	huhu mommy. ey ... what's this? it is me and joesy sleeping on a very comfortable banana leaf. after waking up ... ... we have had a very healthy breakfast. hmmmm ... tasty strawberries. since the weather was very nice - with a smiling sun and warm temperatures - we drove our trolley to a park. hey trudy! wouldn't this be a nice point for you to swim on? you could talk to all the other ducks: "quak, quak, quak ..." do you see the royal bird on the lake? a building called belvedere, good view. it used to be the tea house of the kings and queens. now it has a porcellain exhibition. good we haven't brought the elephants with us! old buildings are not trolley accessible. nice flowers. a good place for a snack. charlottenburg castle. cobble stones on the yard. later we decided to go shopping. then we drove to the former airport in tempelhof, now a huge park. it was strange to move on former airport runways. this was a really nice day. mommy - 3*euro loves you and misses the whole world!
orangesunshine Posted Mar 20, 2012, 10:06 pm	huhu mommy. this is me an my friend joesy. today we tried something special. the count (one of the plushies here) told us we should fly. hea? fly? yes he said, with a flying cup. errr, it was not easy to fly with a coffee cup. everybody is able to fly a sorcer. but a cup? here we landed at a strange bridge: the old sewer system crosses a canal overground. they have built funny things a hundred years ago. modern architecture. the canal ("landwehrkanal" for insiders). more ... ... modern ... ... architecture. the tree behind us threw something at us ... ... but missed us. hehe. hey mommy! look at this funny house boat on the other side of the canal. today springtime has begun. some trees have got fresh leaves. see them? then we flew ... ... a little bit through the city. hey! what's this? some trees grow strange fruits: faces! unbelievable. look at those chimneys! behind us is a malt factory of a large beer brewery. flying around in a cup, was very funny. mommy, 3euro loves you and the world of course
orangesunshine Posted Mar 25, 2012, 8:05 pm	hello mommy. the last two days have been very surprising and exciting. after a quick and strong coffee early yesterday morning (i really MEAN early!) one of the elefants, joesy and me took place in a very comfortable travel bag. after some hours (we could sleep a little bit.) the three of us climbed out of the bag. mommy, where have we got to? let's go through this town and see where we have landed. must be a big city. Mommy, do you regognize this town? the weather was nice, warm and sunny. so we decided to visit a big park. look, here is a large tower. it was funny to slide down this sculpture. huuuuueeeee! the elephant found a nice lawn to have a break. we were waiting, but no train came along. we saw many nice flowers ... ... and strange sculptures. what tree is this? looks like summer is coming. this was a very nice visit to this park. we went back to the underground and returned ... ... to the city centre. yesterday evening we were very tired and fell asleep quite soon. today we had a good plan. right after breakfast ... ... we wanted to visit a coal mining site. yes we found some coal. it did not taste good ... ... so we went further without it. on the lawn we made a lunch break. then we returned back to the town. there we found out ... ... that they have a beer museum. see the bottling machine? at the end we were able to drink some beer out of a barrel. yummy, very yummy. mommy, did you find out, were we have been yesterday and today? bye bye, 3*euro loves the world and misses you  p.s.: thanks to the strong elephant who always helped us around!
orangesunshine Posted Mar 25, 2012, 8:48 pm	hello mommy. today we started with a small trolley race! unbelievable how fast bears drive! unbelievable how slow wulfs drive! it really was fun ... ... to speed up an the parquet floor. hah hah! when we heard the braekfast call, the concentration of our drivers was gone: they hit frontally! after braekfast we visited potsdam. today we took the flying coffee cup. this brandenburg gate in potsdam. one of the old town gates, that you still can see. potsdam is, where king frederick the great built his residential castle on a vineyard. Yes: a vineyard in prussia! is it a myth that they used the wine from this yard instead of salad dressing? who knows? the castle really is a nice one: it is called sanssouci = without sorrow. what a good name for a nice castle like this! in the park of sanssouci there are a number of other castles. this is the orangerie, where they still store the orange trees (and others) during wintertime. and they also have a chinese tea house. what a nice idea! 3*euro loves the world ad you as well, mommy!!!
orangesunshine Posted Apr 1, 2012, 11:43 am	hello mommy. this morning we all were just trolling around our hosts' appartment. suddenly a strange noise came up: "queekqueekqueek...". we all came nearer to see who was coming. it was a funny car with a real BIG yellow pig and a small blue elephant. the resident plushies all were very excited: it was a new guest from switzerland: miggy and brought little napoleon back home ... we all were so happy to see napoleon back home. especially his brother hannibal. we wre also curious to see miggy the new guest. he piled up a lot of swiss chocolat he brought brought along. since it is my last day here, we have planned a farewell tea party. so we decided to make it a real big welcome and farewell tea party!  it was a bit sad. but some day you always have to move further. and the party was great! here i have found many good friends. mommy, 3*euros loves you - and the WHOLE WORLD! more pictures of the party?
orangesunshine Posted Apr 2, 2012, 6:37 am	hello mommy. this morning we had to go up early: it's departure time for me. everybody came to hug me and say good-bye ... it was soooo sad  then came joesy ... we have done so many things together ... ... she gave me a chocolat easter bunny ... then i stepped into my travelbox. bye bye everyone. it was great with you. thank you!!! joesy hugged me one last time ... and ... gave me a kiss! *blush* they have already closed my box when little bunny came: "hey, you forgot your new torch!" good boy! then they closed the box again and the two big elephants brought me to the post office. 3*euro loves the world and misses you, mommy!
orangesunshine Posted Apr 2, 2012, 8:59 pm	so! i am now on the way to my next host. boah! this box is shaking and rumbling. no, no, i will not sing. not, that anyone would kick against the box ... let's see, what i have got with me: some sweets? it's good to have a torch. 3*euro loves you mommy - and the whole world
Vernella Posted Apr 4, 2012, 11:09 am	Hey mommy. Just wanted to let you know, I arrived safely here in Seesen town, in the Harz mountains of germany. My host mom Verena, host brother Teddy-Albert and another TV named Pink Bear really welcomed me with their full heart. Here you can see us three Toyfriends with a few of my gifts. I was really shocked when I saw Albert at first, because he is so very big. But when I saw Pink Bear I was delighted. We are both not bigger then one of Alberts feet. Verena told me to not be afraid of Albert. He may be big and frightning but his heart is big as well. Guess I can believe her. Ohh by the way its cold here a little so I decided to put my trousers back. This is me and Albert. We both really laughed as we saw this picture. We both have suuuccchhhh big faces lol. This is me and Pink bear. I guess he was a little jealous, because Im still a bit bigger then he is lol. I gave this chocolate bunny to my hostfamily. It was hard for me, because it looked so delicious...I had to hug it one last time, before I gave it away. Verena made this picture as a memory for me. I didn't tell them how hard it was for me to not eat the bunny while I was in the package and on my way... Verena allowed us to eat some of the sweets, but we were very naughty, so we ate it all...Now we lay down like this here as our tummys hurt a bit....*ouch* Hope it will stop soon! I will never do that again I think.
Vernella Posted Apr 7, 2012, 6:52 pm	Hey Mommy My stay here is really nice. Today I escorted Verena my host my mom to her work as a nanny. And imagine. The kids there have a monkey as well. His name is monk and he is bigger then me but he is just as funny. Here is a picture of him, me and my other TV-friend Pink Bear. Verena went shopping with us and left us in the kids paradise for little monkeys lol. It was a funny day. Hope to see you soon with more updates.
Vernella Posted Apr 7, 2012, 7:03 pm	Hello mom Today we traveled to Belgium. This morning Verena and her mom Karina were sooooo busy to pack everything for the journey. *3Euro* and me really felt bored for long time. So I started some fun so the time will pass quickly. We entered the kitchen and played with Karinas Easter decoration. Don't worry, we didn't break down anything. I climbed the nice branches with the easter eggs...can you see me? We found this sheeps to ride on, that was funny. And we crawled into this easter egg. Aren't we the sweetest Easter present ever? Then.....the journey started. We were safely strapped into the car. Albert the big bear was with us as well. We stopped in the netherlands for a little sandwich snack. It was so delicious yummy. Oh by the way. I borrowed my shirt to Pink Bear. It was really a little cold outside and I felt sorry for him when he shaked so much. When we arrived in Belgium we were all so very tired from the 5 hours of travelling. Albert crawled beside Verena in bed. And Pink Bear and I shared my bed on the table beside Verenas bed. Pink Bear was a little scared at once in the darkness in the new house. But I cuddled him into sleep. Im feeling very well here mom and I enjoy the action and fun. Best wishes see you soon with a nice update. Yours *3Euro* xxx
Vernella Posted Apr 7, 2012, 7:09 pm	Hoi Mama. (That's dutch and means "Hello mom") Its nice here in Belgium. Today we were in a city called Lier. Its close to Antwerpen. Here you can see me and Pink Bear in front of the Townhall of Lier. They are doing some works here right now, thats why there is a fence. We went to a little cafe called "Bakker Thijs". Bakker means Baker and Thijs is the name of the owner. We tasted a little cake which is typical from Lier. Its called "Lierse Vlaaikes". It tastes sweet, a little like gingerbread. Verena was so nice to find the recipe for you if you maybe wanna try it once at home. Its really worth it. I loved it and Verena had to stop me from eating to get no tummy pain. Recipe for "Lierse Vlaaikes" Ingredients: 1 litre (4-1/8 cups) water 500 grams (18 ounces) butter 1700 grams (60 ounces) flour For the Filling: 2200 grams (78 ounces) breadcrumbs 1650 mls (3 cups) light corn syrup 4 litres (4-1/4 quarts) milk 400 grams (14 ounces) flour 200 grams (7 ounces) four spice powder Instructions: In the mixer combine butter, flour and water to make dough. Let rest and then roll out to 2.5mm (1/8 inch) thickness. Press in little forms (such as mini-muffin tins) and let rest again for 15 minutes pressing it a bit more. Mix the milk and syrup and stir well. Add the rest of the ingredients. Leave the filling for at least 3 hours; then place in a piping bag to fill the bottoms. Preheat oven to 190°C / 375°F. Bake until brown; let cool and invert. Notes: Four Spice Powder was usually equal quantities of powdered cinnamon, ground coriander, white pepper and nutmeg or cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper. On the French side of Belgium they might use 1 tablespoon white pepper, freshly ground, Rounded 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon ground ginger and 1 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated. The recipe for “Four Spice Powder” is really up to the individual baker. You do not have to use equal amounts of any spice; simply blend the spices in amounts to your liking. For sweetness this recipe uses corn syrup such as Karo brand. Some recipes us honey or combinations of sweetner. Water: If your tap water is not very good... use bottled water; it really makes a difference. Have a great Easter time mommy. A lots kussjes (kisses) from Belgium. Yours *3Euro* :-)
Vernella Posted Apr 29, 2012, 4:22 pm	Dear Mommy I am so very sorry that you didn't hear any word from me the last weeks. I am okay don't worry. Its just hostmommy Verena was not in a good mood as her hamster is sick. We all hope he is on a good way now. Friday was a nice day with no rain and Verena had a little walk with us round the city. She showed us the old castle of her hometown named "Burg Sehusa". Sehusa was the name of her city in the old time before they changed it into Seesen. Today the old castle is used as a court. The building looks nice and Pink Bear and I listened to Verena's words very interested. We took a photo of the castle text to share it with you. On saturday Verena and her mom always go to the supermarket, to buy some stuff for the week. This friday Verena brought a nice gift for me and Pink Bear. It was a big surprise! We got it because we were so understanding and patient the last weeks. Now your surely excited to know what it is hm? Its a stickeralbum for the European Championchip 2012. And the best is, to get the stickers, you have to eat chocolate hmmm yummy. We couldn't wait to test it This is our first sticker! The player looks really professional, hope I will be able to see him in a game this summer. It was not so easy to find the right place for the sticker as the album is sooooooooooooo big. But with teamwork we made it! We didn't eat the chocolate all at once, we would get tummy pain again! So its better to eat some every day! By the way im missing Joesy. I look at her picture on the laptop every day. I can't wait to see her again. I heard I will travel somewhere else soon...Im excited but also sad to leave Verena here with all the others. Read you soon. Best wishes from your funky monkey. Yours 3* Euro
Yosemite Posted Jun 2, 2012, 3:13 pm	3*Euro, WHERE ARE YOU??????? Yours in love, Mummy
Yosemite Posted Jun 4, 2012, 4:44 am	Has anyone seen a little monkey with a big heart and striped trousers? Please write to Yosemite
Vernella Posted Jun 5, 2012, 11:25 am	Hey sweet mom I know its been a long time since you saw and heard of me. Verena really feels so badly because she didn't have the time lately. Alot is happening in her life but you should know she did the best she could for me. And I always had a nice place and care. Im sad to leave her, and hope I can meet her anytime again, so we can have some more fun, when she feels better. Today I packed my stuff for traveling to Cordula. Pink bear helped me packing it inside the envelope that will bring me hopefully save to my next place to stay. I told her she can keep my shirt so she always has something that reminds her of me. Am I not a gentleman??? Then it was time to hug everyone for the last time. Then Verena came up with a present for me. As a thanks for my stay and fun I brought here and for being so patient with her. A photoalbum....with a picture of all of us toys together and also of my lovely Joesy. She knew how much I looked at her pictures, and now I have her with me all the time....Thats soooooo cool. There is also some more space so we can add some pictures...im happy happy happy... Thanks Verena muuahhh Soooo Goodbye everyone...we will see each other Cordula im coming.....
Noisy Posted Jun 8, 2012, 3:09 pm	Heyho! I have reached Noisy's home !!! Photos later!!!
Noisy Posted Jun 9, 2012, 5:12 pm	Hello world! After Noisy has welcomed me heartily she told me, that the boys were playing soccer. She called Mooky to pick me up. Some time later I heard something humming. Minimax and Jonny came with their Vespas. Minimax is looking like a twin of me! That is so cool. He told me, that he is the brother of ... you wouldn't believe it! Joesy! My Joesy! Jonny gave me a helmet, than we hared to the other boys. They are all so coooool! They have skateboards and Vespas and such stuff... All said Hello to me, but than they would play another match. And I played with them... 3*Euro loves the whole world and ♥Joesy♥ a little bit more
Noisy Posted Jun 9, 2012, 8:13 pm	It is cool to have so many new friends. We boys played soccer today again and when we came home, the girls invited us to a yummi pasta salad and sausages.
Noisy Posted Jun 20, 2012, 6:56 am	I stood up early in the morning and helped Noisy to hand out the newspaper. These people are a little bit confused, they still have their Christmas-angel in glowing in the window :-) ...Gaudernbach- Stonehenge... Noisy said, when the sun is shining, this is a nice view. But not so today :-( Mom! 3*Euro loves you and the whole world - even when it's raining...
Noisy Posted Jun 20, 2012, 7:13 am	Today I was allowed to visit a primary school. Each tuesday Noisy is helping some children with their homework. I looked around in the classroom and found a little teddy sitting there. He told me that the pupil sometimes are very loud and that he's glad when the school is over in the noon at 3:15 pm. But he told me, too, that he has learned a lot of interesting things since he lives in this classroom. There were posters at the wall showing what to eat in the break -but I think, they forgot the Nutella-glas-, what happens in the nature in June, and much more. And I looked at the nice pictures and the calender and the sculptures...
Noisy Posted Jun 20, 2012, 8:22 pm	Noisy took Josie, Lina and me to the stable for helping her with the work. But first she told us about a little guy called Däumling who was been eaten by a cow ---iiiiiiieeeeh---, so we stayed near Noisy's hand. Noisy was wondering, why there were only a few eggs in the chicken coop and looked where the chicken has lyed the eggs. We found them in the duck coop. All ducks of Noisy were stolen from the fox :-( the eggs are quite big, nearly as big as I am :-) We saw Gabriel's rooster We went to the cowshed - and stayed near Noisy! then we looked for the machines...the BIIIIIg machines... What a hard day! Now we will go to bed and maybe Noisy will tell us the whole story of the Däumling... sleep well....see you soon.
Noisy Posted Jun 21, 2012, 7:45 pm	Today I have written and drawn in mmm105's traveling notebook
Noisy Posted Jun 30, 2012, 1:00 pm	Heyho mom! I wanted to go to school again! There are only a few days until the holidays begins, so I hopped into Noisy's bag, when she was on the way to school today. I found another elefant who has to stand the whole time to hold the books. The poor was very dusty *hatschiee* 3*Euro loves you, Mommy, and the rest of the world, too! And since I have visited the school two times, I am a very wise little monkey!
agentsmith Posted Jul 31, 2012, 9:15 pm	Hey Mum after a long and hard journey I finally arrived in Eisingen. this is great and I'm happy, but there is something that makes me even more happy! Joesy is here!!!! finally we meet again! we both didn't know that we would, what a beautiful surprise! and the best thing is, we will both go to Mallorca tomorrow, I can't wait! I think I will talk with Joesy all night your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 10, 2012, 7:53 pm	Mum! today was the great day! we took our plane to Mallorca! Of course, all the TVs read the security instructions we sat down and used the belt.. we looked outside the window.. sorry, you can't see it so well, it was too sunny outside your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 11, 2012, 10:05 am	heeeeeeeeeeeey mum! finally we reached Mallorca and of course, Joesy and I spent our first day on the beach! we even had our own sunshade! ahhh.. hand in hand on the beach.. what could be nicer? then we went to the sea.. what a view! going back to our sunbeds.. that's the way we lay on the beach.. the big sunbeds of our hosts, and in between: us while our hosts were in the water, we could lie on the big sunbed! Joesy found a sea shell and put it on my head!  hihi.. chilling on the belly of our host the beach seen from above Olé! a day on the beach makes hungry... in this heat of 38°C, we also have to drink a lot! can you see us, Mum? we're in the palm tree! wooow.. yummi traditional Paella! and traditional Sangria! a great day on the beach! your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 11, 2012, 10:08 am	Hey Mum! On the evening I was walking along the beach together with Joesy... then we had an idea! we painted our names in the sand.. how romantic! doesn't it look cute? we were very happy now we can always look at the picture and remind us of our great holiday! your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 12, 2012, 5:24 pm	Hey Mum! today we went to Cala Millor, a famous touristic-place, you can find lots of entertainment there! we had a yummi pizza dinner! then we saw a huuuuge playground for kids! and some cool bars and shops and made a super funny picture together! Olé! your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 14, 2012, 9:09 am	Hey Mum! today we were in Capdepera, a small and cute village! we also visited the castle, very exciting! this is the church from the inside.. we had to be very quiet  a cute little street then we went to the castle there we are! your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 14, 2012, 9:25 am	this is our pool, but we weren't there, because we all prefer to go to the sea! your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 14, 2012, 7:14 pm	Hey Mum! today we were at another beach in Cala Agulla! hellooo after that we visited Cala Ratjada! this is the harbor: and a nice shop look what Joesy and I found in the shop: your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 14, 2012, 7:50 pm	Hey Mum! today Joesy fulfilled one of her life missions: she learned skateboarding! of course I helped her and learned it too first we looked at our skateboards: how do they work, what are the features? everything must be figured out, so that our trip will be safe! I helped Joesy to get on her board she's starting to drive oh noooooo.. she fell down! but nothing happened! I helped her up again now she knows how it works! I hopped on my board too we are reaching the goal yeeeees! we tried to slide.. and: it works! wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiiii now the most difficult thing skateboarders can do: a huuuuuuge jump! only a few seconds till the jump.. we made it!!!!  that was so cool! dear Mum, now you have seen all pictures of our holiday on Mallorca! we're back home now! your 3*Euro
agentsmith Posted Aug 22, 2012, 6:09 pm	Hey Mum! today Joesy and I traveled on to our next host, it will be mcdaniels in Paderborn! we are both very excited! Hugs to you, 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Aug 23, 2012, 6:35 pm	Hi Mummy, today morning Joesy and me reached Paderborn. We are so happy to travel together!! Sitting in the dark small parcel we listened to the voices outside and suddenly we saw the point of a knife right above us  But we had no time to scream, because a deep voice said "Don't be afraid, though I'm a pirate, I can be very careful", and a few seconds later the parcel was open. We watched into four expectant faces: Störte, Walt Duck, Knirrie and Konsta. After a very warm welcome we showed them all the little things we've collected on our journeys so far (I think they were very amazed). Then we sat together and talked about our experiences. Unfortunately Störte and Walt Duck will leave us the next days, but Knirrie and Konsta will stay. Now we are very tired, good night, Mummy, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Aug 25, 2012, 4:44 pm	Hi Mummy, yesterday we had to say good-bye to Störte who started to his next journey, a secret mission! And in the evening we went to hostmum's parents for watching football on TV: Dortmund against Bremen. After fortifying ourselves with pizza and ice cream the match began. Dortmund is hostmum's and her mother's native town, so we all shouted for Dortmund...and Dortmund won
mcdaniels Posted Aug 27, 2012, 7:50 pm	Imagine, Mummy, Joesy has learned how to drive a tractor! When hostmum got to know about Joesy's life mission she went together with us to some friends of her who have a farm. You should have seen Joesy on the tractors!! It was unbelievable! What a courageous and tough girl! I'm so proud! But have a look:
mcdaniels Posted Aug 27, 2012, 8:07 pm	Cause the farmers have attested Joesy that she can drive a tractor, the next day hostmum surprised her with a little blue tractor. Joesy started to drive and drove and drove and drove...and drove and drove...unfortunately it started to rain, but hostmum gave us raincoats, so Joesy continued driving and I continued watching her driving. After a few hours it became a bit boring, I must admit, but I stayed, because Joesy is my girl  Best wishes, yours proud 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Aug 27, 2012, 8:50 pm	Dear Mummy, now we had to say goodbye to Walt Duck who started to his next host. And in the evening Joesy, Konsta, Knirrie and me went to an open-air theatre, watching "The murderer of women"...it was very thrilling and I had to reassure Joesy... All the best, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Sep 1, 2012, 9:25 pm	Dear Mummy, yesterday it was hostmum's birthday. In the early morning Joesy, Knrrie, Konsta and me surprised her with a nice birthday song and I think she was very delighted at our quartet  Unfortunately she had to go to work, but in the afternoon we had a birthday teatime in the garden of hostmum's parents. We were allowed to eat as much cake as we could, wow! And in the evening we had a party at home with candlelight, chocolate for the TVs and a table fireworks: you had to light a fuse, then a fire fountain lighted eight candles and the melody "happy birthday" rang out...very special  Best wishes, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Sep 3, 2012, 5:46 pm	Hi Mummy, yesterday we drove to Paderborn city by bus. First Konsta showed us the cathedral and the "window of the three hares" (Tiffy explained it to you when she was here, didn't she?) After that we went to hostmum's favourite café for drinking coffee and tea together with some of her friends on the occasion of her birthday. We got to know Willibald the turtle who was given to hostmum as a present. Welcome, Willibald! Best wishes, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Sep 9, 2012, 9:02 pm	Hi Mum, yesterday we had a romantic evening watching a beautiful sunset  ...followed by a wonderful night... Best wishes, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Sep 16, 2012, 6:32 pm	Dear mummy, today afternoon we went on a bike ride to Altenbeken, that is to say Knirrie, Konsta and me drove by bike and Joesy drove by tractor! On the way there we watched the Beke river and the "Little viaduct" and took a rest at the bank of Beke river (a very small river, I think...) Then we reached Altenbeken with it's landmark, the "Big viaduct". Though Altenbeken is a small town, it is also a junction of German Railways. So in the middle of the town stands a very old steam engine. Wow! On the way back home we took a rest again, very comfortable  All the best, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Sep 21, 2012, 7:34 pm	Tomorrow we'll go away on holiday to the North Sea for two weeks! A journey together with Joesy again  Bye mum, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Sep 22, 2012, 6:43 am	HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUMMY!!!
mcdaniels Posted Oct 7, 2012, 5:20 pm	Hi mummy, today morning Joesy, Knirrie, Konsta, Mary,  hostmum, hostdad and the dogs started our holiday trip to Friedrichskoog, North Sea. Mary the sheep came with us, because she was born in Friedrichskoog and wants to be our tourist guide. We drove by car...and suddenly somebody had switched out the light! Mary calmed us down explaining that we were driving through the long tunnel underneath the river Elbe. When we arrived in Friedrichskoog we first went to the dyke that protects the dry land against the sea. Climbing up the dyke we saw a nice sunset. Good night, mum, I'm looking forward to our adventures! Yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Oct 8, 2012, 7:55 pm	Hi mummy, in the morning we went to a baker's shop by bike for buying some rolls. Joesy had taken the tractor with her on holiday, so she could drove on the way back. It was a sunny day, so we had a breakfast outside. Later we had a walk (Joesy of course drove by tractor) along the coast to the lighthouse of Friedrichskoog. Suddenly Joesy had an accident  ! Luckily Mary helped us pulling the tractor out of the hole! Near the lighthouse we explored the environment, especially the gaps between the stones, and suddenly a gigantic crab stood in front of us, but luckily it was a very peaceful crab! All the best, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Oct 8, 2012, 8:05 pm	Today it was a very rainy day, so hostmum and hostdad read almost whole the time... Reading is boring so we studied the television program and made ourselves comfortable in front of the television...
mcdaniels Posted Oct 10, 2012, 5:31 pm	Hi mum, today we drove to Meldorf, a little town near Friedrichskoog with a cathedral and nice street cafes and a shop with chairs costing 3 Euro! First we went into a bookshop (in front of the shop Konsta and me saw a nice poster, but Joesy and Knirrie weren't amused at all, we din't understand, why...) and while hostmum and hostdad were searching for books and calendars, Joesy, Knirrie, Konsta and me rummaged around a bit...and imagine, suddenly we heard somebody calling! Looking around we discovered a little elk who said his name was Soeren and he would be bored and wanted to experience adventures. We all had the same idea: "Come with us", we said, "and become a ToyVoyager!" And so he did! We four kept an eye on the entrance and Soeren came out carefully. When hostmum found us outside the bookshop and saw we suddenly were five she went back and bought Soeren, because it was love at first sight! In honour of the occasion we went into hostmum's favourite café...yummy! I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun together with Soeren! Kisses, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Oct 11, 2012, 11:10 am	Today hostmum and hostdad borrowed a bike on which two old dog ladies can be transported. On the way back we saw an old cannon and entered it...I asked myself whether it was a good idea to look INTO a cannon...
mcdaniels Posted Oct 11, 2012, 11:24 am	Today we saw a sign that explained the latitude 54th runs through Friedrichskoog. And we visited the North Sea through a pair of binoculars...fantastic! There is much water in the North Sea, I must admit.
mcdaniels Posted Oct 11, 2012, 8:35 pm	Today we got to know the "Trischendamm", a dam built of stones that goes above two kilometres into the Sea. You can walk on it with water all around. Joesy wanted to drive by tractor, but after a few metres it became very very windy so she couldn't drive on and hostmum had to hold us in her hands so that we didn't fly away. Hostmum said that our mums wouldn't be amused if they had to search us at the coast of England or somewhere else... Back at the start we played sea voyage on a little ship standing there for children. The ship was called "Hoppe Tosse" like the ship in the book "Pippi Langstrumpf".
mcdaniels Posted Oct 13, 2012, 7:31 pm	Today it's been hostparent's wedding anniversary. So they showed us the mill in which they married a few years ago. In front of the mill there is a big heart made of iron...perhaps some time I'll ask Joesy  In honour of the occasion hostmum and hostdad wanted to eat out...without us...but we four creeped behind into the restaurant...I'm sure they didn't discover us
mcdaniels Posted Oct 13, 2012, 9:06 pm	Today morning we drove to the dyke by bike together with the old dog ladies. Mary showed us some of her many cousins grazing there. Joesy found a big and long pipe and really wanted to cross it with the tractor...she drove in and dissapeared... I ran to the end of the pipe...and there she was
mcdaniels Posted Oct 13, 2012, 9:41 pm	Today we drove to Brunsbüttel, a town that is divided by the Kiel Canal. Every 10 minutes two ferries cross the canal transporting cars, bikes and persons free of charge. And so we cross. Though the crossing was short we were happy to have a lifeboat on the ferry. Then we visited  the lock and a very big ship leaving it. Wow!
mcdaniels Posted Oct 14, 2012, 4:40 pm	On the way to the little fishing port of Friedrichskoog we saw a worrying sign: a car flying into the water  We were glad to be on the way by bike  Unfortunately there was no fishing cutter in the harbour, only one in the shipyard.
mcdaniels Posted Oct 14, 2012, 5:09 pm	Look, what we experienced and SURVIVED in the seal station ( a station in which orphan seal pups are reared and later brought back into the North Sea) of Friedrichskoog:
mcdaniels Posted Oct 14, 2012, 5:10 pm	And a special greeting to Tiffy
mcdaniels Posted Oct 14, 2012, 5:37 pm	And of course we smuggled one of the seals out the station...
mcdaniels Posted Oct 15, 2012, 8:17 pm	Today we went to the Trischendamm again....and there was no water!!! We immediately wanted to run to the police for reporting that somebody had stolen the water...but Knirrie who knows a lot about the North Sea calmed us down by telling us about the tides. And she said that low tide is the best time for searching for shells. So we did and look, what we found:
mcdaniels Posted Oct 15, 2012, 9:25 pm	Today it's been our last day in Friedrichskoog. So we went to a café for having a goodbye teatime. While hostmum and hostdad were drinking their tea we four explored the café and found a nice old ship and a lighthouse. And outside we sat in a wicker beach chair with a hood...very comfortable. Goodbye, North Sea!
mcdaniels Posted Oct 15, 2012, 9:27 pm	On the way back to Paderborn...traffic jam...
mcdaniels Posted Oct 16, 2012, 7:17 pm	Today morning we had to say goodbye to Soeren who started to you, mummy! I told him that I'm sure, he'll have a very nice time with you! Bye bye Soeren, my friend, and special greetings to my mummy!!!
mcdaniels Posted Oct 22, 2012, 7:54 pm	Yesterday we went for a farewell walk, because Joesy, Konsta and me will travel to our next hosts... It was a very nice autumn day, and we said goodbye to the surroundings of Neuenbeken accompanied by sunshine and coloured trees... And tomorrow we'll make our things up into a parcel and then we have to say goodbye to each other  Best wishes, mummy, yours 3*Euro
mcdaniels Posted Oct 24, 2012, 4:07 pm	Time to say goodbye...  Goodbye Knirrie and Konsta, my friends! Take care and have a good journey! And goodbye Joesy, my love! See you soon when I'll come back home! Special greetings to my mummy! 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Oct 27, 2012, 8:29 pm	Hi Mummy, I arrived in Remscheid today. My new host Katja gave me a warm welcome. She told me that there were several ToyVoyagers, but it seemed they were asleep. I had a look out of the kitchen window - there is a little park just in front of the house! Katja promised that we would take a walk tomorrow. Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Oct 29, 2012, 9:00 pm	Hi Mummy, we took a walk in the afternoon. We are having fantastic weather, although it is rather cold outside, only about 3°C. The first photo was taken when we left the house. Most sidewalks are covered with leaves. We walked downhill to the district Hasten when you can find a lot of old traditional houses. You can find many of those houses which are covered with slate, they usually have green shutters. This is a Patrician villa, built in late 18th century. A museum is situated here. We went further downhill to the bottom of Morsbach valley, one of th oldest parts of the city. This is Morsbach creek, after which this valley was named. We decided to walk back home. Soon we reached a housing area. Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Nov 4, 2012, 5:26 pm	Hi Mummy, today we met a friend to take a walk in the late morning. The forests are muddy from the rainy weather we had before, so we mostly walked along the streets, this time to the Southern parts of Remscheid. First I'll show you the station area. In the background you can see the city centre. We reached a district with lovely old houses and villas. To get back to "our" part of the city we went into the forest to cross a valley. Hidden in the valley there is the home of a pathfinder group. Almost  home Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Nov 15, 2012, 11:06 am	Hi Mummy, the weather forecast promised great weather for today, so we decided to take a walk around Muengsten bridge, Germany's highest railway bridge. Muengsten bridge is connecting the cities of Remscheid and Solingen, crossing the valley of river Wupper. We walked through the forest, there are some playgrounds. Here we found those rocking sheep. It only took a short walk to reach the bridge, that means, one of the places where it is fixed to the slope of the valley. The bridge is 465 m long and 107 m tall at its highest point, built in late 19th century. Here you can see the bridge overspanning the valley, river Wupper underneath the bridge. The first houses of the district Burg came into sight. On the hill opposite of us Schloss Burg was visible, a medieval castle. This district was named after it. Burg is one of several historic districts of Solingen, also in the valley of river Wupper. To get back to the car we walked along the opposite bank of river Wupper, here was the last opportunity to cross the river. The path went uphill and downhill, sometimes with steep rocks along the way. We reached the bottom of the valley than. A leisure park was built under the bridge a few years ago. You can find a crazy golf course here, lawns with benches for relaxing, playgrounds for the kids and restaurants. This walk took us more than two hours, much more than we had expected Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Nov 15, 2012, 11:12 am	Hi Mummy, I went to the city centre with Katja today. We did not have much time, but nontheless she showed me some interesting places. This is the municipal music school, a very nice building. In the shopping street we found blankets which cost exactly EUR 3,00. We bought one for the ferrets. Here you can see the central bus station... ... and the public library. Here is one of the entrances of the shopping mall. Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Nov 20, 2012, 10:45 am	Hi Mummy, we are having fantastic weather today, so we took a walk to the municipal park in the afternoon. We came along a large playground. This is the police headquarter, close to the park. There is a pond with ducks and turtles in the park. DUCKS? Maybe this would be a pond for Trudi. Yes, I think, Trudi could like this place. There were ducks sitting on a small island in the pond. I asked them if they'd like to have Trudi living here. They said that Trudi would be welcome. The municipal park is more or less a landscape park with really old trees. An observatory is also situated in the park. This memorial is dedicated to the dead of several wars earlier than WW I. Is is placed in a rose garden. Of course there is not a single blooming rose left in November. A nursery is also situated in the park, a training company for young people with a poor school diploma or even without any diploma. I took a last look at Trudi's possible new home pond, from above this time. Now as it became darker it also became cold, so we hurried home. Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Dec 2, 2012, 9:04 pm	Hi Mummy, it snowed during the night! Katja promised that we would go out later. 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Dec 7, 2012, 4:17 pm	We went out about two hours later. Unfortunately it was not cold enough for the snow, it already was melting slowly when we went out. But nontheless we had a lot of fun in the snow. Soon I was wet and cold (hopefully I will not get a cold!) We walked along the so called "Route of Tools", a former track for freight trains. Many tracks were closed and were built to lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. Remscheid is an industrial city, famous for the tool producing industry here. Building the route was sponsored by local companies, so it was called "Route of Tools". The route is about 5 km long, following the former track from the central station to the district Hasten. You can find a lot of industrial complexes along the route, as well newer ones as historical ones. This complex was a slaughterhouse once. The closer we came to Hasten, the route was crossing more dwellings than industrial sites. Someone is collecting souvenirs from the former railway track You can also find signs with the logos of sponsoring companies here. Later we went home through the municipal park. Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Dec 8, 2012, 9:45 am	Hi Mummy, last weekend's snow melted away really soon, but today it started to snow again. Today it is about freezing point outside, so the snow will not melt too soon. We went to the municipal park. All those snow covered trees and bushes are looking beautiful. I played in the snow with Suny and Kevin Kiwi. Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Dec 8, 2012, 9:48 am	Hi Mummy, on Friday usually two or three friends are visiting us, Katja's knitting friends. Today I also met one of Katja's pets - she is keeping ferrets. Ferrets are cute little predators, really playful, curious and cheeky pets. This one is Zaehnchen, sitting on the lap of Katja's friend, enjoying liver sausage paste. Later Katja prepared eggnogg for her friends. Eggnogg is a popular winter drink in Germany, you can often get it on Christmas markets. To make it you need milk, cream, egg liqueur, rum, triple sec and amaretto. First you have to mix and heat milk, cream and egg liqueur - it must not boil! Than you add the spirits and fill it into glasses. Served hot with whipped cream on top it is perfect Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Dec 26, 2012, 11:35 am	Hi Mummy, we helped Katja to wrap the last presents. This is probably a present for a man ... yes, Katja's son. And those socks in reggae colors, size 46? Also for a man, for her future son-in-law. Later Katja told me that I even had my own present, sent by you, Mummy. A pretty necklace (or a sash as I am so tiny ) ! Thank you very much! I wish you a merry Christmas! Love 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Dec 31, 2012, 5:34 pm	Hi Mummy, today we met Katja's friend Kerstin and took a walk with her and her dog. We went to Wuppertal, to Scharpenacken, a former army training area. This area was used for military purposes until 2004 A.D as a shooting range. Today there is a local recreation area with vast open areas, but also woodland. The whole area will be renatured in the coming years. A lot of people come here with their dogs to let them run and play. Katja told me that Pepe, the dog, in summer usually is taking a bath in the creek which is running through the meadow. Bye for now 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Jan 3, 2013, 4:17 pm	Hi Mummy, today we made a trip to the neighbour city Wuppertal. One of the city’s greatest attractions is the suspended monorail (Schwebebahn), which was established in 1901. The tracks are 8 m above the streets and 12 m above the Wupper River. The Schwebebahn is crossing some streets and even a motorway! Here you can see one of 20 stations along the 13,3 km long route. This one is nearby the local court and district court.It was rebuilt last year in its original historic style. It's the one we just had left. We made a side trip to the Botanical garden because one of the TVs, Suny had a special wish which Katja tried to fulfill. The Botanical garden is situated high upon a hill called "Hardt" and we had to climb stairs after stairs for what felt like an eternity. You can find the former country house of a textile manufacturers named Eller, which contained a villa (built 1820), orangery, residential and farm buildings, and the Elise Tower (built 1838) which provides the garden's focal point. Katja showed me a special tree in the garden, this one. It looks more or less like a dangerous animal, but not like a tree. It is a monkey puzzle tree, (Araucaria araucana). It originally came from South America, from Chile and Western Argentinia. Due to similar climate conditions it can grow here. Because a Botanical garden is not so exciting in winter we walked back to the city centre because we had only about 90 minutes until it would get dark. Walking stairs downhill was much more fun In the city centre we recognized that Wuppertal is much larger than Remscheid. The pretty city hall was hidden behind a scaffolding. We saw the Schwebebahn again, next to a bank and a car park. Here you can see one of the other stations, a modern one this time. Later we met Katja's daughter here and we spend some hours in the shopping streets. Love 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Jan 4, 2013, 10:35 pm	Hi Mummy, when my host came home from work today she brought a large bag full of fruits. She is working in a law firm and a client brought those fruits for the staff  from his home in Greece in Southern Europe. He is doing this every year. He brought tangerines, kiwi fruits and lemons. Katja told us that there were so many fruits that we would have to eat nothing but kiwi and tangerine for at least four days. She had a better idea: Let's cook jam! First the tangerines were peeled an put into a sieve mill to press the juice out of them. The kiwis were cut into small pieces, lemon peel and lemon juice were added and also a vanilla bean. We had to weigh the mixture, than the same weight gelling sugar was added. This mixture had to boil for about four minutes. It was pureed and filled into jars. The jars were placed upside down for a few minutes to create a vacuum which helps to preserve the jam. Tomorrow we will try the jam for breakfast. Bye 3*Euro
olgamaus Posted Jan 7, 2013, 10:26 am	Hi Mummy, today in the early morning I sad good-bye to all my friends here. I packed all my souvenirs and will come home now. Katja told me that someone would be waiting desperately for me at home ... Love 3*Euro
Yosemite Posted Jan 10, 2013, 5:26 pm	Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I can´t believe it, I made it back home! The first face I saw after the parcel was opended was the face of my beloved Joesy! Joesy, I missed you so much! I will tell you and my friends here everything about my adventures as a TV. But that´s not all! I brought a present for my little girl. What do you say? It´s a pretty hat for the most pretty sweetheart in the world! Now I nearly fulfilled all of my life missions. Maybe we´ll spent our life together? 3*Euro loves you and Mummy and the whole world!
Yosemite Posted Jan 13, 2013, 10:16 am	Hello world! I just want to let you take part at our first romantical sunday breakfast. Joesy and me had the jelly I made at Olgamaus. I made some butter on the bun and on top my tangerine-kiwi-jelly. Joesy was overjoyed! I hope I can convince her, that I am a perfect man  3*Euro loves the world, Joesy and Mummy
Yosemite Posted Feb 10, 2013, 5:17 pm	Hello! Today Mummy and Daddy and Joesy and me and our guests made a trip to the famous Plassenburg and its museum for tin figurines. We saw a lot of pretty dioramas, e.g. of the christmas market in Nuremberg and of a billabong in the Serengeti with a lot of wild animals. We also looked through a telescope down to the city of Kulmbach. It was so romantic with Joesy by my side  3*Euro loves the whole world!
Yosemite Posted Mar 10, 2013, 9:46 am	Greetings from Bad Berleburg! We accompany hostmum at her regimen in the Rothaar-Clinic. Because there are no therpies today, we made walk through the city. There is a very nice castle and a park. We enjoyed this sunny day  Suddenly I saw a small house with a sign "Trauzimmer", in english Wedding-room on it. I asked Joesy, my love, if she wants to come in. She said Yes!  But then I noticed that the door was closed. Ok, not today, but some day we will go in, I am sure  3*Euro loves Joesy and the world
Yosemite Posted Mar 11, 2013, 9:41 am	What a wonderful day! Today we got a therapy lesson, too. Hostmum arranged a relaxing foam bath for Joesy and me. After relaxing a few minutes, hours?  I scrubbed Joesys back  and then we changed. After we had finished we toweled us  Everything makes fun with my love by my side  3*Euro loves Joesy and the whole world <3
Yosemite Posted Jun 9, 2013, 4:53 pm	Hello world! Here I am back from our holidays in Alto-Adige. Joesy and me escaped from the German rainy weather to the south. Together with hostmum and hostdad we visited the botanical garden of "Schloss Trautmannsdorf" near Meran. We enjoyed the evenings in the tavern called  Fischerkeller It was not so easy to decided what we should eat and drink. So we ordered the local red wine "Kalterer See" and a mixed plate for 2 persons or 10 TVs  I just liked the "Kalterer See" very much  I hope that we will come back some day!
Yosemite Posted Sep 8, 2013, 12:49 pm	Hello world! This is 3*Euro speaking! After a really nice summer we decided to celebrate one of the last nice evenings in the garden. Hostdad allowed us to make a campfire. We had some apple juice (it was beer, but no one had to know this  ) Our guest mouse from Stuttgart, Fritzle played some romantic songs on the guitar. Joesy and me dreamed away  While the other TVs stolled through the garden, looking for monsters and other nonsense, Joesy and me tested the new tent. When it was time to go to sleep Mum said that it is important, that the girls sleep on the right and the boys on the left. We did it. But when she was gone, I changed my position  There was really not enough space on the boys´side... 3*Euro loves Joesy, Mummy and of course the whole world <3
Yosemite Posted Nov 22, 2013, 8:36 pm	Hello world! Finally I will continue my journey! I got an invitation from Eohippus. I am very excited, it will be my first flight! I never left Germany, so it will be a premiere But it also means that I must say Goodbye to my beloved Joesy. But don´t worry, darling, when I come back, I´ll surprise you! Petunia gave me the order to hug her Mummie, certalinly I will do  So, world, 3*Euro is travelling again!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Dec 3, 2013, 7:24 pm	Boa tarde, querida mãe!  This is my first update outside Germany, I have arrived to Portugal! I was sleeping almost troughout the whole journey. When I woke up every now and then, I could feel my envelope being pulled and tugged from trucks to trains to aeroplanes, and the languages spoken outside changing from familiar to odd and interesting.  I was getting impatient to get out! At last I heard small, highpitched voices nearing my envelope and my heart jumped when little paws started to open it! A row of heads were pushed in, and they said "Hello!" "Kukkuu!" "Is there anybody in there?"  Toyvoyagers!  So I answered "Hello to you too!" and roamed out to meet my new friends. There was five of them: from left to right - Zoe who originates from California, Mr Shaun from Germany, Tuli from Finland, Matcha from  Japan and Mr Casanova, whom I already know! I was happy to meet him again! They all looked nice!  They all gave me a wellcome hug, and I also gave a hug to my new host Henna, like I promised to Petunia.  I was showing them the beautiful postcard from Lichtenfels, and they were admiring the basket and the Teppichhlopfer I brought with me!  But when Henna saw them SHE started to speak a bit too enthusiastically about how we toyvoyagers could clean the whole house and do lots of shopping! So we thought it to be best to hide for awhile, and the cat Emilia friendly hid us behind her back. She is not a big fan of cleaning either!  I´ll soon write my first impression on the capital city of Lisbon! Many kisses from 3*Euro (To Joesy too!!)!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Dec 12, 2013, 2:57 pm	Bom dia, mamã!  (Good day, mom!) How are you? It is your little monkey again writing from Portugal!  The first morning here in Portugal I ate a very portuguese pequeno almoço (breakfast) of orange juice, grapes and pear slices.  There was also a banana who asked to be eaten, and of course I had to help it.  So we kinda emptied the larder, and Henna told us to go and buy more stuff unles we wanted to starve on the becoming mornings..  We went to the local farmers market where they sell delicious fruit and vegetables grown locally, fresh baked bread and fish from the river Tejo, and in cheap prices too!  The glossy chestnuts wanted to be bought.  And so wanted many tomatoes, apples, oranges, peaches and onions.  We were happy to do them a favor. The pumpkins were hinting something like that too, but we had no means of transporting them home, sadly. The other customers were slightly unused to see a monkey, a sheep, a dog, a frog and a kiwi bird buying vegetables, and we soon became the center of their attention, which is very natural for toyvoyagers, of course.  After dragging all the happy flora home we went for a walk to the city of Lisbon, to do sorts of first main- attraction roundabout.  Here is where we started our round: The Lisbon Town Hall and Square. The portuguese flag flying on the roof aroused Zoe to sing the national anthem, but since the only line of lyrics she could remember was "Às armas! Às armas!" it happily ended shortly.  We walked along and came onto a special spot on the Tejo riverfront, where two old pillars are left to remind people of Portugals great past as a seafaring nation. This spot is the place where the ships arrived from overseas, laden with treasures, gold and spices and valuable raw materials.  We sat there for sometime and had a somewhat fierce debate about the seafaring past, because Zoe said that it would have been better if the europeans had stayed in Europe and left the other continents alone, so the kiwi birds and many other animals would not be in the edge of extinction, and of course that is true, but what about bananas then, asked I. "What do you mean - what about bananas, huh?" asked Zoe. "Well, there would not be any bananas in Europe without the Europeans bringing them here!" said I, and that is true too!  "Usch, you bimbos!", said Mr Casanova, "Don´t you realise that without european seatravel there would be no kiwi birds nor monkeys in Europe either!?" And that made us a bit silent. For some seconds.  We turned round 180 degrees and watched over Praça do Comércio. It is a square with long history - the royal palace was once situated there, and it worked as the place for public hangings. Later it was the commercial center center of Lisbon. The guy in the top of the statue is King José I. "The King on his horse is symbolically crushing snakes on his path" says Wikipedia. Certainly not a nice thing to do!  I´ve met many friendly snakes! This is Arco da Rua Augusta - the triumphal arch of Rua Augusta, which was built to commemorate the city's reconstruction after the 1755 earthquake.  Pretty pompous thing. We walked trough the pompous arch and soon we came to the Elevador da Santa Justa, which is this huge lift connecting one of the hills with the lower regions of the city. (Lisbon was  built over seven hills.) The elevator was inaugurated 1902, and at first it was powered by steam, and by electricity since 1907. Gee, it must have been quite an experience for the people over hundred years ago!  We took the ride up in it, and then we started serious landscape watching.  This is the view towards the river Tejo. And here I´m watching to the other direction, towards the Castelo São Jorge ruins up there. (We have to go there too some day!)  We walked along the bridge which leads from the elevator to the town part called Carmo, and hopped in to see the ruins of the Carmo monastery. The monastery was totally ruined in the 1775 earthquake, and because it was the first of November, The All Saints Day, the monastery church was full of people, and almost all of them died. Nowadays the ruins serve as an archaeological museum. We saw there some interesting items saved from the earthquake, like this money-collecting box, into which you should put a coin, if you want to shorten the time in purgatory for the people buried under the church, like the custom was.  Then we met a sailing ship, who had been waiting for a crew to arrive for five hundred years. We felt pity on her, and so we climbed in and sailed with her up and down the River Tejo until she was content.  Then we met a medieval gargoyle, who was so amazed to see us, that I think he has not shut his mouth since then.  We left the ruins and dived back to the streets and modern times. We walked to a nice viewpoint, where there is a small garden and a pergola. The pergola was decorated with blue and white tiles, which is very typical for portuguese architecture.  Sadly many of the tiles were broken and the whole place was in need of some reparation works. But I think it was beautiful even in its decadence.  Next we arrived onto a third important square. This is called Rossio. No idea what it means.  The square has been one of the main squares since the Middle Ages. It has been the setting of popular revolts and celebrations, bullfights and executions, and is now a preferred meeting place. Here we met another king of Portugal, Pedro IV. He, at least, wasn´t crushing any animals.  This is one of the beautiful fountains in Rossio. Very popular swimming pool in summer nights, I was told.  Well, why not, although it seems to me to be a bit populated even as it is, with all the naked ladies and such. We realised there was so many things to see in Lisbon, that we had to leave rest of them for the next walking trips. So we spent rest of the daylight time watching the view over the city and planning the next trips, about which I´m soon going to write about!  Many kisses from 3*Euro!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Dec 27, 2013, 12:12 pm	Hello, dear mom! Feliz Natal para ti!  We´ve been pretty busy here and I´ve many updates to write, but this time I just want to show you some pics of our Christmas eve. It didn´t start in so promising way, I must say! Henna made us to sweep the floors for Christmas! Christmas cleaning, said Henna, is important, and told us to sweep the floors carefully! Hmph!  But she promised us gifts when the whole house would be clean.. and so we cleaned!  We were even cleaning one carpet. The others we hid behind a bookcase.. After sweeping the floors we lit some candles and brought in the hyasints from the balcony. What a wonderful smell! It started to feel like Christmas right away!  Henna gave us our promised gifts - a pile of Portuguese christmas chocolates! Njam njam!  We took (what was left after 10 seconds) our chocolates and went to the livingroom, where Henna was calling us to go. She had been decorating the Christmas tree! That also explained the cursing we heard - the horrible every-year tangle of the christmastree lights! Hah!  We sneaked under the tree and started to climb!  Soon we were all up there, adventuring on the branches, watching all the decorations, balls, elves, snowmen and the lights of different colours!  Ha haa! We all went a bit wild with it all! It was like a giant Christmas disco for us, and we were all soon singing and dancing and chasing each other trough the tree and hanging from it on our knees.  And then we were hiding and giggling near the trunk when Henna came ask "What´s happening here?" after some balls had dropped onto the floor.. "Must be the cats!" she said, and we were making faces under the branches.  Then we went to rob the table! There was a fantastic portuguese christmas cake called Bolo Rei (King Cake), and also a Christmas log with chocolate topping, and almonds and nuts and cookies..  We ate so much that we couldn´t move for some hours. We had to lay down on the table and guess what! Henna was tickling us!  So we had a very enjoyable Christmas eve!  Feliz Natal! Hyvää Joulua! Merry Christmas to all of you!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Jan 3, 2014, 2:31 pm	Bom dia, querida mãe!  Bom Novo Ano para ti!  I´m here to tell you about our trip to a place called Cabo da Roca. Cabo da Roca is the westernmost spot of the European mainland (yes, just forgot the islands exist. Sorry, British Isles! Ha haa! )  We loitered to see the lighthouse of Cabo da Roca. It is haunted! Huu!  It is hard to believe, watching it in such a gorgeous day, but when the night comes and the moon is veiled by heavy clouds and the wind is rising and making the sea turn restless, the ghost of the lighthouse gets restless too, and he can be seen running over the rocks, trying to warn a ghostship about the rocks near the shore..  ..or at least that is what Zoe was telling us!  We went to the official viewpoint and whatched the nice landscape for a minute. Then we left the official path and diwed into the landscape.  We walked downwards along the edge of the ridge, and watching towards east and inlands we saw this beautiful, green valley.  There was growing many interesting plants, but even Zoe didn´t recognice most of them. The spiky bush with yellow flowers is called "maias" by the locals.  Watching towards the west there was the Atlantic ocean. I didn´t see any traces of the ghost ship, phew!  I found an empty shell of a snail and tryid if it would work the same way as I had heard the seashells to work - to bring the sound of the ocean into our ears. I put in on my ear and oh yes, it worked! But then my fellow toyvoyager mates gently reminded me that it´s not a big deal to hear the sound of the ocean, sitting some meters away from the shore.  The seashore down there looked so interesting that we decided to go down - easier said than done!  It was almost a straight wall to climb down, but we helped each other.  When we got lower down we found a rope other climbers had friendly left there and it was a great help!  Soon we were on the shore. It was full of wonderful, smooth rocks, polished round by the sea.  Henna told us Cabo da Roca was a holy place both in the Roman period and much earlier in the Neolithic age. There has been interesting items found here related to the lunar cult.  No wonder, the place is so beautiful, and certainly it must feel like being nearer to the moon on a moonlit night. The sea beating against the rocks and swirling back and forth between the rounded stones on the shore made a hypnotizing sound, which made us to run and hop and shout like maniacs. (And how does that be different from your normal behaviour? Asked Henna)  Wouldn´t you like to be here with us?  We spent there some hours playing, and then we climbed back up, because the sun was starting to set. Here we are up again. Surprisingly it was easier to climb up than down!  See you soon again, dear mom! Kisses from 3* Euro!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Jan 14, 2014, 12:00 pm	Muito bom dia para ti, mamã amada!  Como está? É o seu pequeno macaco que tá a escrever de Portugal novamente. Não é apenas incrível o quão rápido eu estou em aprender novas línguas?  One day we took a train and went to a small town called Sintra, not far away from Lisbon. Here I´m at the Rossio railway station. When we got nearer Sintra the landscapes turned greener, which was fantastic. Here I´m missing the nature - the country is so densely populated there isn´t much left.  So when we got to Sintra, we just run trough the town (sorry mami, no town photos this time!) until we reached the edge of the forest, and then we dived in.  Sintra area is one of the last forested areas in Portugal, and a real paradise for people (or monkeys) feeling suffocated by the urbanism.  There is also few little pools, like this. Henna and Tuli, who are from Finland, love this area, because it reminds them of home - forest and lakes.  Of course even here part of the land is prvately owned and the owners are restricting people from walking trough their lands by erecting fences and putting up this kind of signs. It is good my portuguese is not SO very good yet, so I didn´t understand what was written there. Zoe said she suffered from a sudden loss of memory, and Henna said she had never even bothered to learn so stupid words. So we just walked happily forward.  We saw many beautiful flowers. These are for you, mom!  We walked some kilometers trough the forest, climbing some fences every now and then, until we reached these stairs and a plaque which told us we had come to the Capuchos Cork Convent.  An admirable filosophy, think I!  We followed the stairs, admiring the cork oaks along our path.  There was little cross signalling us that we were now entering an area dedicated to the worship of god. We reached the small front yard of the convent, where there was couple of stone tables where the monks could sit near to the nature eating their meals.  This is where they washed their hands. This is the main entrance to the convent. This sanctuary was  inspiration of the former fourth Viceroy of India, D. João de Castro (1500 - 1548). According to a legend, João de Castro was hunting in the mountains of Sintra, and chasing a deer, he found himself lost. Tired from his search, he fell asleep against a rock, and in a dream, he received a divine revelation to erect a Christian temple on the site.  There was originally eight monks living here, and amongst them was a real celebrity -  Friar Honório, who, according to the book "Mirror of Penitents", lived to be 100 years old, despite which he lived his last three decades in a small cave next to the convent.  We entered the monks humble recidings, which consisted of tiny cells in which they lived and a bit bigger common areas for worshipping and eating and such. As you can see, many surfaces - walls, ceilings, doors and benches are coated with cork to make the space at least a BIT warmer. That´s why it is called "Cork Convent". The convent didn´t have any kind of heating system besides the hearth  in the kitchen. It must have been freezing cold in the wintertime inside the stone walls!  Of course the winters here are not so very cold, but at winternights the temperature can drop under zero. The doors inside the convent were so small that even Henna, who is not a big woman, had to bend almost double to get trough them. Either the friars were very tiny, or the doors were planned so that they had to almost roam trough them to grow their humility.  This is one of the cells, and it is one of the biggest - meant for very old monks, who couldn´t walk outside anymore.It has a window too, so that the monk could see the nature trough it.  Here we are sitting on the monk´s window. And then we climbed to the roof. I wonder if the monks ever did that.  While we were sitting on the roof Henna told us more about friar Honório. So, this 70 years old monk was once walking on the road carrying a basquet of apples, when a naughty young village girl, whom he encountered on the road, wanted to have some fun and teased the poor monk, asking "Could I taste your appless?", besides which she was smiling seductively for the old guy, who undoubtedly almost got a heart attack.  The monk then decided to retreat into a cave to rest of his life, to avoid further encounters with horrible maidens.  Anyway, he became a real superstar of his age - even the king was once visiting his cave. So, not much peace, after all. We climbed back in trough the window and walked trough every corridor and peeped into every little cell in the building. We tried one of the cork covered benches, and it felt quite warm under our bottoms.  Then we went to investigate the yards and sidebuildings of the convent. This is the inner yard of the convent, round which the buildings are organized. It had a small fountain and a shrine.  Well, living in the convent building doesn´t much appeal to me, but living in these surroundins does! Add, let´s say, some light and heating and carpets and nice beds to the cells, and it would be all right!  I entered a small sidebuilding, and guess what it was!  The monks´s toilet!  There gould be three of them at the same time. How.. ..fraternal.  Then I entered another sidebuilding, and there was the monks´s kitchen!  There was a big hearth. I´m happy the monks could feel some warmth at least when cooking. I just wander what they ate. Probably not much. The cauldron was really stylish, like straight from the fire of Hamlet´s witches.  There was still a bowl on a shelf, totally empty except us. We didn´t stay there long, in case any hungry friars could lurk near by.  This is the table round which the monks ate at winter or when it was raining like hell (all but friar Honório who ate only dry bread the other monks were taking him).  What if they gave him too fresh bread? Maybe he put it aside for couple´ of weeks to get nicely hard and dry?  That girl really made a big impact on him! We returned to our yard-investigations, and started to follow a path up to nearby rocks. We passed the owen in which the monks baked their bread.  The path led us on a small platform on top of the rocks, where the monks climbed to admire the landscape.  This is the cave in which our friend Honório lived 30 years. In very cold nights, they say, he covered himself with dry leafs.  I´m not sure if I would like to meet the guy.. We returned to the convent yard and started our walk back trough the forest.  It was an interesting visit, don´t you think? Many many kisses from 3*Euro! See you soon!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Feb 3, 2014, 5:41 pm	Hip hei, mom!  How are you? I´m going to show you some photos we took in Cristo Rei.  On April 20, 1940, the Portuguese Bishops, gathered in Fatima for their annual retreat, made the following vow: “If Portugal is spared from the War, a Monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus will be erected facing Lisbon, as a visible sign of how God, through Love, desires to conquer for Himself all mankind”. Portugal stayed neutral troughout the Second world war, and the giant statue of Cristo Rei was inaugurated 1959. Took some time to raise the money. I have to mention that in the dictatorial regime where 70 % of the nation was unable to read or write, the little kids troughout the country were collecting coins in their piggybanks to support the building of the statue.  The kids´s collection produced a sum, which nowadays would be 7500 euros. A huge sum, considering that there were people ekeing out their living in the edge of starvation. Sorry, but I think the nice guy Jeesus would have been more happy if the kiddies had bought bread with their pennies.  There is a lift inside the base of the statue, and we took it up to see landscapes. Besides, I wanted to talk a bit with Jeesus. "Hello, Jeesus!" said I. "Oh, but do I see right?" said Jeesus, "Are there some toyvoyagers again coming to meet me? Gee, that´s great! The more the better!" "Ha ha, yes!" answered I, "We tought you would value our merry company, instead of the ever-so-pious pilgrimers!" "You´re so right, little monkey! said Jeesus, and laughed a bit, causing a giant wave in the river Tejo, so that some Casilheiras (the ferries) made couple of extra loops. "I´ve got kinda fed up with the fervent adoring.. don´t they have anything better to do, oh my!" Then we were watching the views from up there. This photo is taken to the direction of Laranjeiro where we live here.  "In that case we´re just the right companion for you, since we´re not specially pious!" said I. "I have kinda noticed!" said him, "And that´s just great! Pious brats make me sick." "And what about the money used on building churches and temples, instead of feeding hungry folks?" asked I. "Am I right thinking that you´re not very happy with it?" "Certainly you are, little monkey!" said he, "and you can tell that to others too!" So, now I am. Not that I thought there to be many temple builders here!  In this photo you can see the both banks of the river - Almada and Lisbon. While we were admiring the views Cristo Rei was asking about our adventures, and we were asking about his life up there.  Here is the city of Lisbon on the other shore. I asked if it isn´t unendurably hot in summertime, up there. Cristo Rei answered: "Well, don´t you tell this outside the toyvoyaging circles, but sometimes when it is very hot, I I dive into the river at night!" "Uhm, hey.. do you have any other clothing under your gaberdine?"asked I. "Yes, I do, and don´t you try to peek, you little brat! I have swimming trunks!" "Really? What color?" asked I. "Red, with a pic of Donald Duck" said he!  Here you see Ponte 25 de Abril, which is connecting Almada to Lisbon, or Lisbon to Almada, depending on the viewpoint. "Good point", said Jeesus.  Then we said good by to him, and he told us to keep our tails up and ourselves spirited. I guess we will!  Yours, as ever 3*Euro
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Feb 11, 2014, 12:26 pm	Hullo, hullo, hullo! Do you  have snow there, mom?  We have just rain and more rain, and fog, for a change, when the clouds need to rest for a day and collect more water in their innards to be able to puke it over us the next day.  It was a very foggy day when we went again to Sintra, to climb the ruins of a mediaeval castle. In Sintra we walked trough a park called Parque da Liberdade. It had some odd inhabitants, and they were staring at us while we passed. We were heading upwards, since the castle ruins are on top of a hill.  After the park we followed some secret paths, always upwards. It started to rain, and we were hiding inside a cave for some time, but it was too humid for the camera to take pics. After climbing the wet and slippery, rocky hillside, we reached the castle walls. (without paying the tickets.  I´m not sure what the stay here with this gang is going to do to my morale! ) The castle was built on the Sintra hills by the moors in the 8th and 9th century, during the arab occupation of the Iberian peninsula.  There is many legends connected to the castle. According to one there was a moorish princess who fell in love with a christian boy. Her father got so angry with her, that he cast a spell over both, unhappy lovers, and they are still living on the hill, a ghostlike, neverending existence, unable to leave the spot, in which the spell fixed them.  Zoe told me that on a sunny weather there is great views from the castle over the landscape around, but we couldn´t see absolutely anything! But the fog gave the place a slightly unreal atmosphere. I was almost ready to believe enchanted moorish princesses appearing from the midsts of it.  After the conquest of Lisbon (1147), the castle surrendered voluntarily to Christian forces. The king then shared the Sintra lands to some highborn bimbos, with the responsibility to militarily secure the area. I rather think that for the poor, common people it was about all the same who was on power - muslims or christians. Their life was always as hard, the lands they were tilling gifted away in front of their noces.  The legends about the enchanted moors weren´t fairytales for people, though. For centuries people told stories about enchanted mooresses, left to Portugal by their fathers, when escaping the christian forces, to guard over hidden treasures. According to the stories the treasures would feel into the hands of the person who managed to break the enchantment of the moors. And people were trying! Using different grimoires - especially the "book of st. Cyprian", they climbed to certain caves and hilltops to utter odd magical formulas in hope of getting rich.. Pretty sad, actually.  The fog was getting even thicker! I could hardly see my hind paws (and that has nothing to do with the size of my belly!)  We sat on one of the walls, discussing the wonderful atmosphere on the place, and how it would serve as a scenery for a great film with ghosts and mysterious happenings. Don´t you agree?  Then we left back home, because, umm, it was somewhat chilly up there.  I wish you keep warm! A hug from Your little monkey  ;-)
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Feb 28, 2014, 7:03 pm	Hello again, mom!  We´ve all been a bit lazy to make updates lately, read: Henna has been. Well, actually she is just so deep in her studies that she hardly knows on which planet she is on. But today we just gagged her and dragged her to the toilet, and while the joined toyvoyager forces are pushing their legs against its door, we can write our updates here, one voyager at a time. You should hear how Henna is kicking the toilet door. He he!  We´ll open the door when it is time to go to bed - today it is our turn to use the comp! So - I´m now going to put here some pics of Pena palace garden.  This is the Pena palace itself. Looks like a fairytale castle, doesn´t it? Well, no wonder - it was built in the romantic period of Portuguese history, according to the mental images people of those days had about how a royal palace should look like.  We didn´t go in, because Henna already knows it is not allowed to take photos inside, and what´s the joy of going in if we can´t share our experiences with other toyvoyagers?  Instead we went for a walk in the palace gardens. it is a quite big area, divided into different kind of sections. This is the Garden of Camellias.  It was quite amazing - all those colourfull flowers shining against the dark green shades behind.  We were imagining the royal family ladies promenading in the gardens with their parasols, carefully not to step on mud with their dainty silk slippers.. And then we put on suitable headwear and played to be such promanaders ourselves too!  We found a pergola. It must look wonderfull when the visteria climbing on it wakes alive, with all it´s purple flowers. But now it was just dry and brown. I´m sure the 19'th century royals would be quite amazed if they could saw us sitting in their pergola. Maybe they did.  I wish they don´t come to kling any ghostly chains for us at nighttime! There was some interesting looking little buildings appearing trough the heavy foliage. And a fountain, but there was no water in it. (Which was good, because after our friend Tuli plunged into the river Henna has been quite hysterical about us being near any water at all. What a drag!  Like any of us others would be interested into froggish love calls!  We monkeys certainly don´t have our love nests in any slimy waters! We walked under an arch and came into what was called "The Fern Valley of the Queen". It seems that the queen whateverhernamewas was very fond of ferns, and wanted a lot of different species be planted into the garden.  They were really gracefull things. But guess what? I got the first mosquito bites of this year under them! And it is only February!  We saw a small building which pretends to be some kind of moorish temple. It was made for the people to shit in shade on very hot days, sipping their humble tea. Why on earth is tea called humble, mom?  We were debating about that for a long time, wondering what if all things we drink and eat have somekinda characteristics. Well, like nervous buttermilk or nasty rye bread, not to mention the loony beetroot. Not that anyone of us would ever drink buttermilk anyway, yaiks!  We saw very fantastical looking trees! Sadly I´ve forgotten their name..  And then we climbed a hill, where they have erected a cross called Cruz Alta. It is a habit here, to erect crosses on top of hills, kinda sanctifying them. As you can see, the garden is a really big one, because we were still inside it, and the palace was so far away we could hardly see it.  Then we came down again and admired the ivy covered trees. It makes them look like they had clothes on.  Then we found a series of artificial lakes. There was small brooks running between them and small waterfalls too. Can you hear Henna shouting? "Don´t you go a step nearer of that water, or I put you all on a leash!"  Thanks, Tuli. Classically, it started to became a bit dark, and we headed back home.  Your enthusiastic traveller, 3*Euros
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Mar 2, 2014, 11:30 am	Hello, mom! I just wanted to tell you I was yesterday in a TV meeting.  I met there some old friends and some new friends, some of them very famous celebrities, like Dicker Kumpel.  It was rainy as hell and windy too, so our meeting didn´t take place in the best possible circumstances, but we had fun anyway, only Henna was so stupid she forgot to put the battery back to her camera, can you imagine?  Must be some early stages of dementia. Many kisses from 3*Euros!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Mar 5, 2014, 12:44 pm	Hyvää iltapäivää, rakas äiti!  As you might have guessed we´re all here rather late with our updates. So don´t feel too surprised in seeing persons, who are not anymore in our midst, appearing in them.  With this I´m hinting to Tuli, who eloped into a frog orgy, and to Poschti, who is now on the cruise ship with Rike H.  Anyway, in this update you´ll see nothing but landscapes and nature.  That´s were we spend the time when Henna goes crazy with her studies. We recognice the signs - she starts to spend more time upside down standing on her head than on her feet, and then we know it is time to drag her out to the nature.  Here we are following a small path somewhere on the Serra da Sintra. That is an area where it is possible to walk about 15 kilometers to different directions between the towns of Sintra and Cascais, without meeting too many people, just some similarly odd hikers and bikers.  There is many little brooks and rivers running trough the area, from the hills towards the Atlantic ocean in the west and the lower lands of Mafra in the east. Yes, it was one of the bigger rivers into which our friend Tuli hopped.  Here she is still with us. I hope she sees these updates somewhere and giggles her wits off (if she has any).  Here we are following a small brook, called Ribeira da Mula, which leads onto a water reservoir. As you can imagine, the lack of fresh water has always been one of the biggest troubles in Portugal. So in earlier times they tried to collect all the rainwater of the winter to be used later in the dry summer. They built all sorts of reservoirs and aqueducts and channels to lead the waters to fountains or onto fields.  I love the sound of running water! Don´t you, mom?  I always spend some time near the specially delicious sounds.  Here we are coming near to the reservoir lake. Here! We reached it! This one is quite big - it could almost be a small Finnish lake.  Here you can see the dam built to prevent the water from running towards the sea. The lake has also real little sandy beaches, but it is not allowed to swim here, because the water is meant to be consumed. I think some people do, anyway.  Here we are following a bit bigger road, surrounded by eucalyptus trees. No koalas, sadly.  We passed a ruined farmhouse. And an old lime owen. The mimosas were in full bloom! If you walk trough a bush like that, you´re quite yellow when coming out!  And then the road took us onto a totally different landscape.  Onto open hills, grass and flowers!  It feels good to breath in this kind of landscape. Even Henna calms down and forgets her studies for some hours. For us the flowers and grass is like a different kind of forest.  Between the flowers hang spider webs decorated with raindrops. Beautiful! It started to rain, and Henna collected us into her backback, where we next couple of hours singing encouraging songs to her, while she walked  ten more kilometers trough rain and mud.  It is good to be a toyvoyager!  After our twenty third encouraging song the rain stopped (Henna says it juct couldn´t take it any more) and Henna digged us out from her backbag again. The landscape was totally different again - we had reached the shore of the Atlantic.  The sun came out a bit, and we were stretching ourselves in it, enjoying the warmth. The flowers were strecthing too!  I swear I saw them doing it! I even heard one of the flowers making a sound most people do while stretching, like "eeeaaaaahh!". We saw a small waterfall, born by the rain.  We followed narrow paths up and down the hills, admiring the views. I found a parasol mushroom, but I didn´t use it as a parasol, because I like the sun, but as a chair, to see the views better.  Soon it was, unsurprisingly, time to go home. I have to think about different ways to end an update. Many kisses from 3*Euros! Have a great week!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted May 1, 2014, 11:02 am	Hello, dear mom!  At last we've got our internet connection back! Phew! We are now in Finland. We arrived here almost a month ago. I have still some updates I should make from Portugal, but it feels a bit stupid now after such a long time. So I will just hop here into Finland.  Hey! This certainly is not Finland! We´re still in the Portuguese "winter" here. Hah! We were celebrating our last day in Portugal by stuffing ourselves!  We started with wonderful spenach pies in a street café. Then we continued into a pizzeria and started the serious eating with this salad.  And then we attacked the pizza itself! I´m here having my fift slice, but there´s still some room!  So we filled the corners with good coffee. And then we rolled out, because our feet couldn´t reach the floor from under our bellies.  Then we rolled onto a meadow to say our farewells to the Portuguese nature, we have all got friends with.  And then we had a little snack in midst of yellow wood sorrels.  In the evening we were singing fados.  The next morning we were horribly early on the airport! Luckily we didn´t need to wait our flight. Oddly enough, it was on time!  I loved the getting up into the air! It was wonderfull to go trough the clouds and see the river Tejo and other places now known to me from the bird perspective.  I was watching the wonderfull landscapes until I fell into sleep. And so did the others too! Henna just pocketed as all and tried to look nonchalant when the other people were staring at her wondering the awful snoring coming seemingly from her person!  We only woke next morning and roamed to see our whereabouts and soon found ourselves in a pile of snow and ice.  Well.. actually there was snow left only in the deepest shadows and ditches and such, and our hopping there was quite voluntary!  There wasn´t yet anything growing, the earth was still empty, grey and brown. But at least the sky was blue!  We all put on some more clothes, because it was still rather cool. In spite of the clothes we were feeling cold! We had just arrived from the Portuguese warmth. So we lit up a fire and put a pot of coffee to boil.  We gathered round the fire and it warmed us up wonderfully. And so did the hot coffee! Never does coffee taste as good as in nature on a cold day!  But anyway, we wanted the spring to come a bit faster! So, we knew we had to perform the Spring calling.  "How is it done?" I hear you asking. Well, it is simply done by shouting and asking and coaxing the spring to come, and by singing spring songs, mentioning flowers, sun, birdsing, green foliages and other such things. So we walked along and shouted and sang so that the forest was ringing. "Lalalalalaa, the sun shines, the forest is full of flowers nad the squirrels are hopping on the trees and cleaning their nests for the summer" we sang on the shore of a lake. "Anemones, clovers, bluebells, lillies of the valley, come!" we shouted on a high hill and performed a little dance. And it worked!  They came! They came!  Suddenly, in front of our noses, wonderfull crocuses popped up from the earth and opened! "Wellcome, wellcome, spring beauties!" we greeted them and danced around them.  The Sun started to shine too and we greeted her joyoysly! Suddenly the air felt warm and it smelled of growing things and we realised the spring had really come!  A bunch of blue anemones run along the path towards us, and we run to meet them and their radiant beauty almost blinded us. "Wellcome, miracles!" we shouted. "Good springtime, little voyagers!" they andswered!  See you soon again, mom! Kisses from your happy 3* Euros!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted May 11, 2014, 10:08 am	Hello, dear mom!  One morning we woke up the winter had come back!  The fields and forests were totally white, and it was raining fleet and little ice balls whole day, but happily it only lasted one day and the next morning the spring came back and everything started to grow.  The birches started push out tiny, tender new leafs.  Oooh they are so cute!  Henna told us to go and find wild vextables to make soup with! I found soon young nettles. They have to be picked in a certain way to avoid burning your paws! Then I found deer droppings! I didn´t pick them!  We found many many different vegetables,and Zoe helped us recognizing them if we weren´t quite sure of the species. Luckily Tuli was teaching her well before plunging into the frog orgies.  Here are the soup vegetables we picked: - Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) - Sheep´s sorrel (Rumex acetosella) - Common wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella ) - Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria ) - Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea ) - Velvet Lady´s mantle (Alchemilla monticola ) - Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale ) - Nettle (Urtiga dioica ) - Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris ) Can this be eaten? Do I pick these too? - Oh no, let them be! They´re Kingcups (Caltha palustris) and they´re poisonous! It´s good to have Zoe around, although it is a bit irritating, her snobbing around with the Latin names of the plants..  Can you imagine, mom, when we are eating cucumber-cheese sanwiches, Zoe tells us to "enjoy the bread made of Secale cereale and covered with Cucumis sativus and milk given to us by a female Bos taurus!"  Of course we then tell her to go and spend some quality time with a swarm of Culicidae.  We found the remnants of a lost civilization from the forest. It must be a relic of that period when people were black and white and moved around jerkily and in odd clothes. I have seen that in some old films they left behind before they disappeared.  We sat resting for awhile in the shore of lake Sahajärvi, and then we absconded into a café to have some buns, because we had some doubts about the quality of the soup Henna was going to make with the stuff we had just picked.  Mums mums, we ate approximately six and half buns each.  After thus strengthening ourselves, we returned to the little cottage with our vegetables. We put all the vegetables into a big kettle. Henna added there some potatoes, carrots, garlic, water and spices and we put it to boil over the fire on the yard. In summertime (when it is not raining) we make often food outside over the fire - it is fun and gives the food a bit different taste than when it is done on a electric stove. Here is our ready soup! Believe me or not - it was simply delicious!  I wish you could have tasted it! Kisses from your little monkey!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Jan 6, 2015, 3:41 pm	Kukkuu, mom and all other toyvoyagerists too!  I'm so happy to be here again! Now we have witnesses again around us, you, I mean, and Henna can't continue violating our toyvoyager rights in such a ruthless way as she has been doing during these eight months, by forcing us to clean and wash dishes and to do practically everything here!  We even wrote to Amnesty International but didn't get any response!  The amount of our sufferings!  Oh! Ha ha haa! Just fooling! Did you get worried?  No need! The cottage is as dirty as ever and we are as lazy and happy as ever!  Instead of cleaning, we have been having fun in the snow. Here we are in a sleighing hill.  We ride down the hill at least hundred times  - alone and together, forwards and backwards, sitting and laying and shrieking all the time so that the squirrels run horrified up onto the treetops and tried to hit us with pinecones..  We have been walking a lot in the forest and fields, wondering the landscapes. It all looks so different than in the summertime! It is hard to even recognize the places!  It is beautiful now too, just in a very different way. Everything being covered with ice and snow the nature looks like it had lost most colors - just the whites, blacks and greys left.  Here I am sitting on the ice of a small pool. Funny tricks the ice does! The surface here looks like it had small feathers all over!  All vertical rocks are decorated with icicles.  Here is the lake Sahajärvi, sleeping under the ice blanket. I wonder what kind of dreams it sees.  Over the ice there is a winter road, kept clean from most snow. People go there for walks, and the youngsters drive along it with their mopeds.  The little Sahaoja brook is still open. Later in the winter it will freeze. Here is our ice lantern, into which we lit candles in the evenings. Isn't it beautiful?  See you soon again! Yours, 3*Euros
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Jan 20, 2015, 1:41 pm	Olá, mom! Like I told you we were dragged back to Portugal. I love Portugal, and usually I would have been delighted, but we were just having so much fun in the snow, that we would have wanted to stay a bit longer in Finland. We tried to hide, but it didn´t help at all. We found ourselves in the plane again. Henna tried to sooth our feelings by talking about the sun and the sea and the wonderful Portuguese food, but we were anyway all rather pissed off.  Soon after arriving we decided with Zoe and Misters Casanova and Shaun to run away from home, well, just to show Henna !  So we turned our backs to the civilization and moved into the forest!  We walked through the Portuguese midwintery forest, searching for a perfect place to build a little hut. The new grass was smelling, little streams were running, birds were singing and the sun was shining.. .. suddenly a joy filled our hearts and it didn´t actually feel at all bad to be back in Portugal!  I don´t know when and why we started to sing, but the truth is, that I found us walking through the forest, singing "Yl kasteisten vuorten me kuljemme" (We´re hiking over hazy hills) and my feet felt so light!  I filled my lungs with the wonderful fresh air in a young eucalyptus growth.  We pushed through mimosa bushes, and then we found the perfect place to build a hut, and then we built it!  Here it is!  Oooh, we stayed in our forest hut for a week, not anymore because we were sulking, but because we enjoyed every minute!  And because it was right for Henna, hah!  See you soon again, mom! Kisses from your little monkey!
Eohippus pikkuaasi@gmail.com Posted Jan 27, 2015, 6:58 pm	Hello, mom!  How are you? Is the spring time already there? Here it is typical early spring - the weather is changing every ten minutes from rainy to sunny and back again.  Last weekend we took a bus from Lisbon to a small town hundred kilometers towards North called Óbidos. The trip took about an hour. I saw many electricity producing windmills along the route. I think they´re a bit creepy! They always remind me of the horrible Tripods in the War of the Worlds by Wells!  Luckily though the windmills were behaving, (although I think one of them was staring us!) and we got peacefully to Óbidos. This is one of the many gate towers into the town.  Óbidos is a very old town, and it is encircled by a wall. It's name, Óbidos, comes from the Latin "Oppidum", which means a fortified town. We, of course, climbed immediately on the wall. From there we saw that the wall really continued round the whole little town - so we decided to walk a full circle around it.  "Why not five full circles?" asked Henna. "We could also run and shout and wave our hands like wings?" I think there was some sarcasm there..  There is about 3000 inhabitants in the town. We were watching into their yards and living rooms from the bird perspective while passing by. It felt a bit funny, but I guess they must be used to it, because there is always many tourists populating the walls, especially during the summer months.  There has been some kind of fortified town here on the same spot since the Bronze Age.  A settlement was constructed by early Celt tribes, that was later a centre of trade for the Phoenicians. After them the Romans, Visigoths and Moors continued the construction on their turn, and so did the early Portuguese kings, starting 1148. It´s like some kind of mania! Didn´t they have anything better to do?  It was a nice view from the top of the wall over the surrounding countryside. The fields formed a very beautiful picture of different shades of greens, yellows and browns.  We sat down on a tower to rest both our legs and our minds and souls. We saw an old white windmill on a hill.  (Much friendlier than those modern ones. ) We then continued our circle. The wall was rather high on some parts, and narrow for people to walk, but for us toyvoyagers it was wide and comfortable as a boulevard.  We saw a tourist woman creeping along the wall, keeping her both hands pushed tight against the wall, legs wobbling. Poor thing! I guess she must have been afraid of hights. Rather brave of her to be walking there anyway!  There were large thickets of blooming aloes growing in the holes of the old wall. I think they were really wonderful!  On the other end of the town there is a small castle, which was built in the 14th century, by King Fernando. Sadly it is now turned into a hotel, so it is not open for visitors, without staying overnight. I also doubt if there would be much to see in the modernized hotel rooms.  The little town itself looked quite cute. We wanted to go and investigate it's narrow streets and alleys. So we climbed down the wall again. We landed near the castle wall, and saw many more wonderful aloe bushes.  Look! They're almost reaching the sky!  In front of the castle was a telescope with which we could see even more of our surroundings. There was hole in which we should have put an euro coin for the telescope to work, but Zoe knew a handy trick to do with a safety pin.  I can show it to you too some time.  We started to investigate the streets, walking where our noses were pointing. It was a very typical little Portuguese town. It had lots of stairs everywhere, and all the houses where whitewashed, with their corners and windowsills painted either blue, yellow or brown.  There was lots of plants everywhere, planted to grow next to the white walls or stairs or into flowerpots, to make the stony streets more beautiful.  There was also a nice little garden.   We saw very juicy oranges on a tree, and climbing over the fence we were just and just able to reach them.. .. but then the owner of the yard was also able to see us reaching them, so we had to do a tactical retreat into a flowerpot and try to look like chrysanthemums.  We must have been convincing enough, because the owner just darted by, uttering some words I again had to write into my little notebook. Instead we found some nice grapes somewhere, and went into a little park outside the wall to enjoy them in peace.  And then we played to be invading Visigoths, or whatever.  Back inside the walls again, we walked past some nice looking little bars. (Yeah, walked past, because Henna made us to!  ) We saw a nice looking old church. Henna told us the church is famous because some Portuguese king got married in it with his cousin in the 15th century. The king gave the town of Óbidos as a wedding present for his new queen. Can you imagine?  How is it possible to give a town for a present to somebody? What about the people living there?  I peeped into the church. It looked quite a nice spot to get married. If any cute monkey, who wants to marry me and gift me a town, happens to read this: I am ready!    After the church we had really seen everything there was to be see in the town, and so we took the bus back to Lisbon again, and escaped the Tripods luckily on our way back too, phew! Kisses from 3*Euros!

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