Travelog for: Frida

I've been soo busy here in Austria that I didn't find any time to update this travellog before... But now I gonna show you some more pictures of me doing sightseeing in Vienna.

So you can see me in front of St.Charle's church, at a subway station built in "Jugendstil", watching Danube tower and the Big Wheel and visiting the museum of nature history and the Belvedere castle.

It was really funny in Austria because I was in such a good company. Pooh from Taiwain (he's an inofficial toyvoyager, but a really nice one) was there almost the same time than I. Then Taro from Japan, CK, the cheerful koala from Australia and Alfie Langer, the sportive one among us joined us. We really had a great time!

Here you can see us picking he cherries in our host's garden. Hmmm, they were yummy, we ate ALOT of them!!!

My hosts also showed me lake Attersee where their grandparents own a house. Wow, that was wonderful there!!! The scenery was really beautiful with the lake and all the mountains. One evening we even grilled some sausages at a bonfire (unfortunately the photos didn't come out...). The water was still a bit freezy so I decided not to have a swim. But I loved to watch all the fish and ducks inside!

One day the 5 of us decided to go to lake Neusiedlersee. It wasn't difficult to convience our hosts to take us there since they like Neusiedlersee alot.

This lake was pretty different to Attersee. Since it only gets water through rain and doesn't have any rivers bringing water inside it isn't as clear as Attersee - but it was very, very warm! Since I couldn't see the ground (it's only 1,5 m at the deepest point but there is alot of sludge in the lake) I was a bit scared. But I'm a real frog, am not I?? We all had a great time there!!

Well, I did sooo many things here in Austria and I saw alot but it is time now to say goodbye and continue my trip to the UK!

Tschüß Austria!! Auf Wiedersehen!

After a long, long and very tiring journey trough Europe, I finally arrived in England. I will take a rest for a few days, relax, enjoy the weather (ah, well, not really, it's cloudy, cold and not very friendly) and then explore the place. My host promised me some English food tonight....yummy!

....uhhh, what a day! I mean, everybody knows that England is rainy and wet...but in July??? For the last week, it was impossible to leave the house, even if you are a frog. Therefore, I stayed at home, rested and studied a map of Cambridge to be prepared should a day of sunshine come...perhaps...

Then, this morning, as the sun was shining through some beautiful white clouds, I had a huge breakfast, including Marmite, an English specialty that you either love or hate. My host loves it and as you can see on the picture, I love it tooo! Unfortunately, all the jars are sooo big, I won't be able to fit one in my modest travel luggage...

...and off we went....on an exciting day trip around Cambridge...

At this time of the year there are tourists all over the place, but fortunately, my tour guide knew some hidden places and small lanes that we took on our way into town...

...as you might know, Cambridge is famous for its University and all its Colleges. Now, the colleges are not the University, but they are closely related. Basically, the University provides the students with most of the teaching they need for their degrees and it hosts all the labs where the research is done. The colleges are more responsible for the social side of life - the students live in college, eat in college, meet people there...there are more than 30 different colleges in Cambridge, and obviously, we only managed to see a few...

The first one we went to was Selwyn College. It's beautiful!!! But have a look yourself...
...the first picture shows me in front of Selwyn, then in the main court, and on the last picture I adore the most beautiful gardens....(there's something good about rain!!!)

I was really excited to see that there are not only old buildings in Cambridge, but also a few really nice modern ones (we ignored the ugly modern ones). Here I am in front of the library of the Law Faculty. Beautiful, isn't it? And look at the blue sky!

And of course, there are many libraries in Cambridge...all these students and researchers need their books....the biggest library in Cambridge is the University library. It's huge! We only saw it from far, but it's a very tall building, and deeply impressive! My host told me that most of the books in there are in shelves where you have to pick them up yourself. It's the largest "pick it up yourself" library in Europe (usually, the librarians would do it for you). In Cambridge, you get a code for a book at the computer which says something like: South Wing, 5th floor, and then a long number. If you don't know that the books are sorted by size (!) you can search for a very long time!!!

On the way, I had to take a rest, and I had a short meditation on my travel and all the post boxes I have been in since I left and where I will go next...and I wondered whether I will ever enter such a beautiful red post box...(my host suggested to take me to Germany by plane)....ohhh, this makes me sad and happy at the same time....

But, there was not time to be sad and think to much, because within minutes, our trip was really exciting. I saw the most famous Cambridge building - Kings' Chapel. This is the chapel of Kings' College, and it's definitely more a cathedral than a chapel!!! Between me and the chapel are the backs, a strip of green land and the River Cam (we saw it later!). In former times (possibly still nowadays) students who did really well in their exams were allowed to have their cow live on this strip of land...I guess this was quite useful in former times...you got lots to eat in the winter then...I wondered whether I would be allowed have my flies on the green if I got a good result...

We then went to the most spectacular gardens in Cambridge, the Clare College gardens. Most convenienently, they put up some art in the garden, where I could take a rest (puhh, all this jumping around is quite exhausting!). These flower beds you see in the back were unbelievable! And the garden is huge! Funny enough, I also found out that this piece of art makes a perfect slide for a frog 

And finally, we came to the river...I saw many people punting, which seems to be great fun. You move the boat with a long pole, and many tourists look quite ridiculous trying it! I haven't seen anybody falling in, but I was told it happens from time to time. Anyway, it was lots of fun watching people.

At the same time, I was watched as well. For some reason, people didn't really seem to be used to frogs on sightseeing tours here in Cambridge...odd!

I had another rest on a bridge. It was a very comfortable bridge indeed (my host started complaining that I had to sit down so often, but then, my legs are really short, I mean, I don't even have any legs, no wonder all this jumping is really energy-consuming...).

There's a funny story about that bridge (there are many, many funny stories about Cambridge) - when it was build, the architect wasn't paid properly. Therefore, he left the bridge unfinished by cutting a quarter from one of the stone balls you see on the bridge. Obviously, he was never really paid the final bill as this piece of the bridge is still missing.

Another story goes that some students took a polystyrene ball and painted it like the stone balls. Then, they positioned it on the bridge, and when a punt with tourists came along, they dropped it into the boat. It is said that all the people from the punt jumped into the river . Well, I don't know whether it's true, but it's funny...