Travelog for: Bernd The Bread

Hello you all!
Again Myrtle left her computer alone... So I can send you a conspirative message! I hope that I can go on the german TV-trail soon. Until that, I am learning more english for writing my TravelLog. And I´m thinking about my luggage... Do I need a backpack? And a sleeping bag? What to dress? I don´t want to be missfit and upset somebody... And I think I will take the dictionary with me... But it could be tight for me in the box...
I didn´t expect, that an outbreak needs so much planning. Mayby I need an accomplice!

I´ll be back! Bernd

FINALLY! I got an invitation for the german trail! So I prepared my box with my towl and some sweets for the journey. The box needs a coupon... What is my first destination...? R-E-M-S-C-H-E-I-D .... I had no opportunity to look in WikiPedia, so it will be a complete surprise! My elder brother assits me with my travelbox. He also will be so kind, to post the pictures. Maybe I will miss him a littlebit. 
BUT: I am on my way!!! 

Hello Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid today. It was so wonderful quiet in my parcel until it was opened. As soon as my host Katja opened it, I was beleagured by two hyperactive characters, Snuttig and Ceryni.



They pitched into the sweets that I brought with me immediately.

I think I'll have to recover from this exhausting meeting for a while.

Bye
Bernd the Bread 

Hello Mummy,
Katja took me to her workplace today because she thought I could learn something about German law and so on. German law is so boring that I preferred staring at the wall and learning the knobs of the ingrain wallpaper by heart. That's a really fascinating activity. Staring and counting.



Katja's colleage brought a ToyVoyager cow with her, Smooch. She took Smooch with her last weekend when she visited friends.

Smooch had the idea of playing with the copy machine.



Smooch liked the result.



When you are a cow, the result is looking good. When you are a cranky bread, the copy will look like .... a bread.

Katja took us out in her lunch break. Our first stop was a place in front of the city hall. There is a pillar with a lion on it. The heraldic animal of Remschied is a lion. It looks a bit cranky to me, too.





When we walked along the shopping mall I thought "What a great pattern on the wall, I should stop here and count the rectangles of the fassade.





This is the central bus station. I like it - the air is full of diesel smell.



I found an underbridge full of graffiti.







We walked back through the shopping street.





I have to tell you that travelling really is exhauting.

Bye
Bernd the Bread

Hi Mummy,
we are celebrating a really important commemoration day today: The Day of German Beer. Since 1984 the issuance of the "Reinheitsgebot"  (German Beer Purity Law) is celebrated by the German brewers.



We also did



Cheers!

Bermd The Bread

Bye

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today in the suburbs of Remscheid. We started in Remsched-Hasten, which is one of the oldest districts in the municipal area. In Hasten you can find lots of old houses (I'm sure they don't have a proper heating).







This is the creek "Morsbach", this valley is named after this creek.





Several creeks are running through this valley. This one is dammed to a fish pond here. Fish sounds good - for dinner.



We walked uphil through a shady forest than.



The shady forest changed into a sunny forest ...



From here you had a good look at the city centre in the distance.



Oh, the sunshine and this sapgreen is hurting my eyes.



We walked along a small hamlet.













That was a quite long walk, more than two hours.

Bye
Bernd The Bread

Hi Mum,
I went with Kajta's sister last week. She had planned to introduce me to a neighbour whose name is Bernd. Bernd is collecting .... I think you can guess what Bernd is collecting. But somehow Bernd was busy so I came back at the weekend.

When I had my morning coffee today something weird shocked me. I was reading in the newspaper about a guy who was born in Paderborn, it was "Mister Hallo-Erstmal", the German comedian Ruediger Hoffmann.



Football, banking crisis - horror in the early morning.



Suddenly ...



... and than ...



Oh dear, pink ears! There must be something wrong with my coffee.

A third one appeared!



Another one, this time with a Santa's hat. This is too much of a good thing.



Look at them - not for the life of me I would wear a red nose or bunny ears!!! I need a rest now.

Bye
Bernd

Hi Mum,
we took a walk in the afternoon. Although the sun was shining it was rather cold. We went to the municipal park first to have a look at the ducks. I don't think that is a good idea - ducks love bread.



Can you see them coming? I'd better get out of here!



Here I seemed to be in a safe place.



Did anyone tell Katja that I'm suffering from hay fever?



My nose kept running because of all this green stuff.



Pink flowers? Even worse than green leafes.



Katja asked me to stay quite about this memorial for the dead of some wars earlier than World War I. Okay. I am quiet.



We left the park than and walked to one of the oldest districts, to Hasten. You can find those typical old houses here, also old factories among dwellings.



My nose ... *sniff* ...







I was glad that we were on our way back home than. But walking home means walking uphill for ages ...



If you think it couldn't get worser ...



I'm looking to put my feet up.

Bye
Bernd

Hi Mummy,
we visited the neighbour city Wuppertal today. The first thing to see when you enter the city centre is the "Schwebebahn", a suspended monorail, the worldwide one and only of that kind.

The Schwebebahn is built above the river Wupper. It was opened in 1901 and it is still in use as a local transport system. It travels along a route 13.3 kilometres long, about 12 metres  above the surface of the river Wupper  and about 8 m above the city streets.





The Schwebebahn has 20 stations, each of it built in a different style, some in the original old-fashioned style, some in a modern style. This one is definitely one of the modern ones.



Here you can see me inside the station. We wanted to take a short ride with the Schwebebahn. I am so high above street leven - I hope they have barf bags on board.



We went with the Schwebebahn for three stations. They did not have barf bags on board. I am glad to be out of this rocking thing.



Here you can see the train leaving into the other direction.



Katja told us that we would visit the Botanical Garden than, high upon the hillside. The city of Wuppertal is situated in the valley of the river Wupper, the slopes of the valley are really steep, so in Wuppertal about 500 stairs were built  along the slopes. Most of them were built in 19th century when the housing areas grew. Here is one of them - I am completely fed up with stairs and walking uphill. I am glad that my next host is living in Northern Germany where the steepest slope is the drive-up in a car park.



We reached the Botanical Garden than. It was originally built in 1890 as a school garden in the place which is now the rose garden. Between 1908-1910 it relocated to today's site, the Villa Eller'schen, a former country house of textile manufacturers named Eller, which contained a villa , orangery, residential and farm buildings, and the Elise Tower (built 1838) which provides the garden's focal point.



First we had a look at the greenhouses.



A real rainforest! It is  not good for a bread to stay in such a humid atmosphere - I could molder!

Katja decided to climb onto the tower - does anyone ask what I want?



The outlook made me seasick.





On this zoomed photo you can see the city centre.



Here you can see the greenhouses.



This is part of the villa, in the former orangery nowadays a café is situated.



We saw lots of  flowers.





Of course we posed for a group photograph.



It was time than to leave.

Bye
Bernd

Hi Mummy,
I met Katja's pets today. I was already wondering about the cat.  Here is a scratching post and a scratching ton, a litter pan, but no cat.

This is ferret lady Brighty. She is a furry, cheeky and hoggish thing. I'm glad that Katja told me that ferrets wouldn't like bread. They eat raw flesh from chicken, beef, turkey and other birds.

YUCK!



There is also another ferret, Shiva. She looks like a raccoon. She was busy hunting a plush mouse with an inserted bell.

Both are  extremely playful, even worse than kitten and toddlers. They are running around, chasing each other, climbing into drawers, onto the sofa, underneath the blanket on the sofa - they are EVERYWHERE.

Bye
Bernd the Bread

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today in the neighbour city Solingen, in the valley and hills of the river Wupper. We started our trip in Solingen-Widdert. From here we walked downhill to reach the Wupper valley. In those rural districts you can often find the traditional old houses, called "Bergische Häuser".

By the way, walking downhill means trouble ... it means walking UPHILL if you ever want to return to your car.





This is the river Wupper which I already saw last weekend in Wuppertal. About 20 km from here the Wupper will flow into river Rhine close to Leverkusen.



We followed our path uphill until we were about 120 m above the valley. 30 m would have been more than enough for me. I'm on the brink of a heart attack!



We walked through the forest, over hill and dale. Sometimes we had to cross smaller creeks.



We took a group photograph ...



... at the foot of this impressive rock.



We had to cross another creek. This is the bridge that was once leading across it. I knew that taking a walk with Katja would mean mortal danger.



We had to balance over a few stones instead. Thankfully Katja did not drop us into the cold water.

Finally we reached the river Wupper again.





We walked through a hamlet with lots of old houses.





One of the local farmers is selling potatoes, eggs and honey here in this booth. Nobody is watching over the goods here, you can take what you want to buy and put the money into the savings box. We bought potatoes and eggs.



Bye
Bernd

Hi Mummy,
we went to Remscheid- Lennep today. Lennep is the oldest district of the municipal area, with own municipal law since the 1260's years. This district belongs to Remscheid as part of the city since 1929 A.D.

Lennep still has its medieval  city core. Many of the old houses are under monument protection.









Here the farmer's market is held twice a week.



Some of the old lanes are really narrow. If you are not careful you will bang your head against those walls.



This is the "Roentgen-Museum". Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, the founder of the x-rays, was born in Lennep in 1845 A.D.





Now everybody knows what the photocopy of a loaf of bread looks like - but what about an x-ray photograph?

This is the school which Katja attended until 1982.



I saw a really funny sticker on a car:



I'll try to translate it into English: Getaway dwarf? Häää? Katja told me that "Fluchtzwerg" is a wordplay which certainly cannot be translated into any language.

Bye
Bernd

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk in the city in Katja's lunch break. She told us that we would know the whole surroundings of Remscheid, but not the city itself.

The first photo was taken in a street close to my current home. All around are houses, built around the 1900's.



Here are allotment gardens. Katja told us that you can find lots of allotment gardens here because of the city's topography. You cannot build houses everywhere, but it's great for gardens.



In the background you can see Wuppertal.







We reached a housing area, a former working-class quarter. Some of the houses are really small (too small to my taste).



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All around it is green.





Back in the city centre ... the city hall in the background.





In 30 minutes we'll have to return to Katja's workplace. That's not half as exhausting as walking with Katja ....



This is the water tower. The drinking water is pumped uphill from a dam in a valley. You can see the towers of the city hall and this water tower from everywhere around.



Than let's go back to work.

Bye
Bernd

Hi Mummy,

the sun was shining, so my friends and Katja could not wait to go out. We took a walk in the early evening, of course in the forest, far away from home, of course.

The first photo was taken in Hasten, here you can also find lots of old houses.



We picked up Katja's friend Erika and walked along Morsbachtal. We saw a flock of sheep, they had a lot of recently born lambs - gigot of a lamb, lamb loin, lamb chop - yummy!



It seems we are at least 10 km away from home!



We crossed the road which follows the valley.







Soon we reached another forest.



Finally we took the bus back home. We would have had to walk uphill for at least another 40 minutes, so taking the bus the best idea Katja had today.



Bye
Bernd

Hellohooo! I want to get out of that parcel ... anybody hear me?