Travelog for: Harold Giraffe

hey Mum!
You won't believe it, but in Hameln it is really cold outside. We have -15°C at night and it was -10°C at the day.. it is the coldest winter since 20 years my host mum said.. but it also snowed, so we went sledging. it is the last day for chris here in Hameln and tomorrow he'll leave for England, but we enjoyed our day:

Today another toyvoyager arrived here. It is Dottie Mouse. She is coming from Germany, but was in Teneriffe before. It must be a shock to be in this cold weather now. She wants to see rats in Hameln. It must be great to see a town full of his relatives.

3 days ago we celebrated the birthday of my hosts son. He got 7 years old. And today they made a childrens birthday party with 6 other children. They made a little pirate party out of it, with a pirate cake and treasure hunt. Here you can see us with the pirate cake, doesn't it look great and delicious?

This weekend wasn't so nice. The weather was good, but my host mum was ill and my host dad had to write for his diploma. That's why we walked through the flat and wanted to look what we should do.
Here I am with the big map and the postcrossing cards in the living in room:

I also found a card from Australia:

Then we found all the crystals which my host mum collects, they should help with different health problems:

And we didn't know what we should watch, Mumu wanted to see a Horror movie, Peti wanted to see Gilmore girls, Dottie wanted to see LotR and I wanted to see Star Trek:

so we decided to play a game, but there where so many games again, that we didn't know which we should take, it seems our host mum is board game addict:

so we looked for a book:

and the we read all our own books, I took a crime book of Minette Walters:

And later we thought of making decos, those are little booklets which are sent through the world:

This is a full booklet:

And here we are decorating one:

It was a nice weekend finally as we had a lot to do..

Hi Mummy,
I arrived at my new host's home today. I travelled with Peti so the journey was not so boring.

It's snowing here. After a warm welcome from my host Katja and many ToyVoyagers we all were sitting in the kitchen window to look outside.



In the afternoon I helped two ToyVoyagers from Australia, Womat and Elston, to bake lamingtons. They are Elston's farewell dinner, he is leaving tomorrow. So I arrived just in time!

We even made the sponge cake,

Here it is before going into the oven.



Half an hour later is was ready.



Than it had to be taken from the baking tray to cool down.



The waiting time was sweetened by a glass of sparkling wine.



Here is our sponge cake, already cut into squares.



We prepared the chocolate icing ...



... and the dessicated coconut. Then we dipped the cake squares into the icing and rolled it in the coconut.



Doesn't they look fantastic?



Now the whole kitchen is a mess but all ToyVoyagers are happy.



I hope we don't have to clean up the kitchen

Bye
Harold

Hi Mummy,
today the weather was sunny and of course we wanted to go outside. Katja wanted to meet a friend who is living in one of the other districts of Remscheid, in Luettringhausen.

Luettringhausen is a really old district, with a lot of woodland around. We went there by bus. We went to the bus station in front of the central train station. On the next photo we already reached it.



This is the bus station, in the background you can see the building site of the new central station.





The next photo is showing the town hall of Luettringhausen.



Katja's friend was already outside with the family dog, Pepe. Pepe is a four month old puppy.

We took a walk in the forrest.





When we came home we played in the garden. They have a hanging basket-chair here!





Sweetsy and Louis built a snow man! Katja got a piece of carrot from the kitchen and soon the snow man was ready.



We were chilled to the bone than and went inside. Katja and her friend already made coffee. They also had sweets for us.



Bye
Harold Giraffe

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today to the district Hasten and to the outskirts of Remscheid. Hasten is one of the oldest districts of the town, dwellings and mostly old factories close together. This district was not destroyed in World War II, so most of the old houses remained.



What an amazing colour for a pub





Hasten is surrounded by woodland.



We saw a hedge of holly, covered with snow. I liked it very much.



We than went to pick up Katja's friend who wanted to walk with us. She is living in a district close to Hasten, it is called Rath, a housing area with mostly one-family-homes and terraced houses. From here you can see Hasten again, in the background.





From here we went into the forrest. First we had to cross a road in the valley, than we had to walk uphill again.



Katja told us that in summer many horses are grazing on these pastures. In the background you can see the hill with the town centre, unmistable the silhouette with the water tower and the tower of the town hall.





We were walking along the border of the neighbour town Wuppertal. Hidden in the forrest are a few more small hamlets like this.



We had so much fun in the snow!



On the way back it started to snow again. Can you see it?



Back home we all had to sit on the heating because our bums were wet

Bye
Harold

Hello Mummy,

we had a party tonight!

Do you know why?

Theodore is Voyager of the week, so he had a reason to celebrate. Fluffytail and Louis even made a medal for him.





We had delicious food: cheese, olives,  tiny tomatoes, sweet pepper and nachos with cheese dip.













I shared a delicious fruit juice with Peti.



Maybe I will also become VOTW. Than I'll throw a party, too.

Bye

Hi Mummy,
we visited the carnival procession in Lennep today. Lennep is one of the oldest districts of Remscheid. Katja's partens are living here and it's the only carnival processioin in town.

It is helt for about 30 years on Carnival Monday. There were about 25 floats and marching bands.

First we went to Katja's parents. They are living in the seventh floor, the top floor, of a multi-storey building in Lennep. From here you can overlook the whole old town. Many of those old houses are older than 250 years.





The carnival procession started on a fairground and made its way through the town. It came around the street where Katja's parents are living, so we only had to go down to the street to see it.

It was a rather small procession. In other regions of Germany, in Cologne, Duesseldorf and many parts more in the south of Germany, hell is breaking loose at carnival time, from  Thursday, called „Altweiber“ (insuffiently translated to Woman's Carnival Day) until Tuesday. Almost nobody is working than, schools are closed and the almost complete population is celebrating and drinking gallons of beer.

Still waiting for the procession ...



They were coming than!



This is a childrens  marching band, the youngest seemed not to be older than six years.



They were throwing sweets into the crowd, that's tradition.



We collected some sweets and had a lot of fun.

Bye
Harold

Hello,
Katja showed me the town hall today, there's a pillar in front of it, showing a lion which is the heraldic animal of Remscheid.





This picture was taken on our way home, not too far from where we are living.



Bye
Harold

Hi Mummy,
we went to the post office today to buy stamps. We walked along the shopping street, the pedestrian area, to get there.





Katja showed us a fountain in the vicinity of the post office. She told us that mostly children love this fountain because  there are many funny things integrated. Some parts are rotating than with the flowing water, some parts are salivating water into different directions and there are sounds caused by the water.



From here we walked into the direction of the central train station to walk along the route of tools.

But where is the train station?

Oh dear, this building site is the central train station, or better, it will be there in about half a year.





Here we are at the entrance to the route of tools, which is a lane for pedestrians and cyclists through the town, made on a closed railway route. It was financed by many local industrial firms, most of them they produce tools. Along the lane you can find signs of those producers, also artwork made of tools or parts of them. The closer you are to the central station the more industrial areas you have, some still working, other only ruins.



Katja forgot to change the camera settings from "close" to the normal setting, so the backdrops of the following photos are a little bit blurred (while I am looking especially sharp and pretty ).

In summer you can sit here to rest for a while.




Here you can see some of the signs of the sponsoring companies.



This bench is made of the axis of an old water wheel and an original sleeper.



This is part of the former slaughterhouse. This complex is under preservation order. Nowadays these buildings are used by different companies.





Here we are close to our home again. Nom ore ruins but pretty old houses and a church.



Opposite of the church you can find a playground. Nobody is playing outside, maybe because it's lunch time.



Enough for today!
Bye
Harold

Hi Mummy,

we had to walk to the post office today. Fluffytail and Kelly Bear were leaving today.

We did not walk to the post office in the town centre but to the post office in the district Hasten. So Katja could show us more
of the route of tools.

We started exactly where we left the route of tools last week.
Here are more of those rusty looking signs, this one showing the city arms.







Here you can see wrench patters, stamped into the tarmac of the lane.





This is a bench, made of a giant screw clamp.





You can also see patters showing tools on the ground.





On the right side you can see a kindergarten. It is called "Villa Kunterbunt" (Villa Villekulla). Do you know Pippi Longstocking?



We than accompanied Kelly and Fluffytail to the post office and walked back to the town centre through the muncipal park. They have several sports facilities here in the park.



The next photo was taken in the vicinity of my current home.



Bye
Harold

Hi Mummy,

since Monday we had really lousy weather. It was raining, it was foggy, simply horrible. Today ist was looking much better. Katja had to return some books to the public library, so she took off with me, Peti, Harold and her camera.

Here we are in front of the library.



From here we walked to the central bus station.



Katja decided to show us the district you can see in the left side of the next photo's background. It's situated on a hill like the town centre and is mostly adjoining  woodland and green space.



On the path along this road you can find a coal tub. It was a present from Wansbeck, Remscheid's twin town in the U.K.





We reached Hohenhagen than and we took some photos. From here you can see the town centre with the tower of the town hall and the water tower.



They have one-family houses here, multi-family houses and also multistorey buildings.



You can see here that behind those houses there is nothing but grazing land and forrests.



Can you see the transmission tower in the background? Katja does not know its purpose, maybe for radio or television.











Those houses were built in the 1970s.



We rested in the late afternoon sun for a while. We are now close to the central station, or better, close to what is supposed to be the central station in about half a year. They are building a new one, like Katja told us.

You can see one of the most unattractive parts of the town here, the main traffic junction.





We than walked along the building site of the central station.



We found a dry place for another rest.



Really ugly!



We  made it home even without getting too dirty.

Bye
Harold

Hi Mummy,
we're going to Munich tomorrow!





Katja told us that Munich is a wonderful town and that I will go to my nex host, Pandamao, than.

Bye
Harold

Hi Mummy,
we are at Duesseldorf Airport now. We'll fly to Munic at 10:00 a.m.







We are sitting in the plane now.



Harold