Travelog for: FoxForce

Because the weather was much better than the days before, we drove to Untergrombach, which is one of the suburbs of Bruchsal. The Michaelsberg, a small hill - only 296m high, belongs to Untergrombach. You have a wonderful view over the Rhine valley and if the weather is very very good, you can see the Palatine Mountains in the far.
3500 - 2600 BC first signs of humans had been found on this place, the "Michelsberg culture".

This view shows a part of Bruchsal, which is at the border between Rhine Valley and Kraichgau. Kari shows the place for me, because I got stuck in the backpack.




The quarry pond belongs to Untergrombach, which you see on this photo. This is the best view to see the Palatine Mountains on the horizon, but today we had no luck.




You see another part of Untergrombach. You see, that it is also to the border of the Kraichgau.






This nice chapel is called Michaelskapelle and it is on top of the Michaelsberg. Petra told me, that there are many couples, that want to marry in this chapel. Don't be too surprised to see Kari on this photo. The one with me was just not nice enough




Here you see so-called "Steinriegel" (field clearance cairn), made by people working on their fields a long long time ago. They threw the big stones from their fields to the border of the neighbour's field, so that in the middle all stones were accumulated. Many animals and flowers love this gaunt places and that's why a few weeks ago, people cleaned the Steinriegel from all the earth, that came between the stone during the many many years and from all the other plants, that love to grow in earth.



Another word I learned is "Magerrasen" (neglected grassland), which is typical for the Michaelsberg. The town you see is Untergrombach.




The Michaelsberg is nature reserve area, I'm sure, you already realized this too. There are beautiful rare flowers and animals.

I had a really great day today. The sun was shining and it was really warm. Now I believe, that it is springtime.
Petra woke up early and told us to get ready to for a walk. We were very curious and excited of course. First we bought some bread rolls for breakfast (only a few bakeries or open on Sundays) and then we brought Ralf to work (normally he doesn't work on Sundays).

And then we drove in the car for about 15 minutes. We sat in the rucksack and you can believe me, it wasn't the best way to travel.

After we walked a little bit, we found this sign:



It told us the rules, how we had to behave at this place.

Oh, you surely want to know, where we were. There is a small Japanese Garden not far away from Bruchsal in Münzesheim, which Petra was told, that it is really pretty. She never had been there before, but now she wanted to go there together with us.

So now look at the photos and enjoy!















I saw a part of the Berlin Wall:



This building was very interesting, especielly the ceiling, which was made of white and blue bottles.

Today Petra and I took a look at the cherries in neighbour's garden. We saw, that they still need some more time to get their red colour.

Petra sat us on the balcony, where we stood the other day to take a look at the cherries.
Suddenly! What's this! There were huge drops falling from the sky. You can see them behind us. Why does Petra let us sit there and doesn't fetch us to go inside of the house? Petra!!!!Petra!!!



Petra asked us, whether we would like to sit at the window in the dining room and watch the rain there.

It's another rainy day!

Petra asked us to help her baking a biscuit. She makes a really easy one:
for each whole egg she takes 50g sugar and 50g flour. This time she made a big cake, so she needed 10 eggs and swirled them really long - and we helped her with this, of course. Then we added 500g sugar (yes, that's really a lot of sugar) and one small packet vanilla sugar and again swirled it until everything was foaming. At last we added 500g flour and 1 small packet baking powder, but we didn't swirl this but only folded it in carefully. Then we put it in the baking dish and gave it in the preheated oven (170°C/338°F to 180°C/356°F) for about half an hour.

We had to let it cool down then and Petra told us, that she wanted to the decoration the next day.
Somehow Petra missed to take a photo with me.

But then she needed our help for some handycrafts. She worked on some pages for an album for the headmaster of her school, who left the school. She said, that people, who are older than 63 to 65 years, go on pension. The headmaster will be 64 years old this year and so it was time for him to leave work behind.

This pages we created for those teachers, who take care for their young children at home and who are on parental leave. They thought, that Petra has enough time to do this page for them - crazy girls.

Today we helped to make the filling and decoration of the cake.

For the filling we needed cream, nougat and hazelnut. I have to look, whether I will find the recipe. Petra's headmaster loves to play the saxophone, so she thought it would be a good idea to draw it on the cake.










When we were ready, we had to do some more handicrafts. This time we had to cut out some water lilies for the windows of the school doors.

So this is the last day before Petra's headmaster receives the special album included all classes of the school as well as all other people, who work there.

Here is the front of the album. Sorry, but we can't show the pages, because there are many photos with children.

Hi everyone, you maybe know, that I'm still here in Bruchsal, waiting for a chance to travel home again some day. So if you read this, please send your addy to Petra.

Today we woke up and didn't believe, what we saw: during the last night we got some snow. Everything looks so beautiful, that Petra decided to take photos with us instead cleaning the bath.

Petra thought, that she could try to drive to the parking place next to the chapel on top of the Michaelsberg, but the road was too icy under the snow. So we only took some photos on the way.




The houses you see on this photo, belong to Obergrombach, a suburb of Bruchsal.

There was still some time left before Petra had to go to school, so she decided to take us with her for some photos in Bruchsal.

At first we took a view over the roofs of Bruchsal:

The churchs: the tower of the old palace, the church Our Holy Mother (Unsere Liebe Frau, Stadtkirche) and Lutherkirche (from left to right).


A view to the baroque church St. Peter and the house St. Maria, both really close to the house, where we live.


Here you see the building of the houses for older people on the left.





Then we crossed the road and walked into the park to see the Belvedere.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey friends, let's have some fun in the snow. Come on, I show you our backyard. There is a swing, do you know?

L e t ' s    h a v e    a    c a r n i v a l   
p a r t y


Cassiopeia invited Mousy Mouse, Galo, Surprise Bear, Khetiwe, Mumble and me.

The first guests, who arrived by car, were Mousy Mouse and Galo. I helped Cassiopeia to welcome the guests, because she still wasn't ready to dress herself up - she is a turtle.









Surprise Bear arrived too. He wore a crazy frog face.





Finally Cassiopeia arrived too with her hat on her back, because she had to run - do you know, how fast turtles are able to run, if they have to?





Of course she put her hat on as soon as she arrived there.





Galo saw the sofa and ran there to sit down. He knows, where is the best place





Mousy Mouse, the beauty!





I'm wearing high heels, very high heels





Emmh, you know, this is Surprise Bear - the frog faced.





Cassiopeia had a special seat. They found something round for her, because she just sits perfectly on something like that. She have some kind of problems, if it comes to sitting on a chair or something like that - She's a turtle, you know.




Emmh, why are we sitting so far away from each other?????



Did you see, that there are still some empty chairs? We miss Khetiwe and Mumble. Where are they? Did they forget, that they have to go to a party today?




It's time to dance now! Does anyone want to join?




Something is falling down from the ceiling, but it seems, that Petra's photo only works, when the thing is too high or too low. Hehehe, you should learn to take photos like this.





Do you see that little something on the top?




Hmm, Sabrina and Petra! We want to dance or play now, don't wait too long to take this photo.







Hehehe. Finally the "thing" fell down on Galo.





Let's dance Samba - what else should we dance, if it is carnival.






Uuuups, Mousy Mouse! Be careful! Of course I helped her to stand up again.





Finally, while Cassiopeia and Galo danced too, Khetiwe and Mumble arrived. Better late than never.




At once they started to dance with Surprise Bear.




Lalala  lala laaaa lala, lalala lala laaa lala, Samba

Later we played some games. We played spin the bottle and really had a lot of fun.



At first it was Mumble, who had to spin the bottle.












Galo had to spin the bottle at next.



It's Mousy Mouse.




Cassiopeia had to do a hind feet stand.


We all were very thirsty, so Sabrina mixed us an alcohol free cocktail.











Petra showed us the time and told us to get ready for bed as soon as possible.