Travelog for: Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,

today we visited an arboretum in Wuppertal, the "Staatsforst Burgholz". An arboretum is a collection of trees, sort of a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study. We went to "Staatsforst Burgholz", a woodland area which is situated in both urban area of Wuppertal and also the urban area of Solingen, but only a small part of it.

When World War II was over, there were nearly all trees felled for rebuilding of destroyed city areas and also as firewood.

Searching for fast-growing forest species trees from foreign counties were planted than in this area to study their growth in local weather conditions. Plants from North America, South America, Asia and Europe were planted.

There are several walking paths through the arboretum, of course we chose the longest of them, about 6 km long, displaying a variety of trees from Europe, America and Asia. At the parking lot we found a map of the arboretum area.







We decided to walk along a path showing trees of Northern America.

In the background, along the slope different kinds of conifers were planted.



This is the sign we had to follow.



You can find informations about the foreign trees.



Of course I found lots of different delicious cones here







Our path is meandering through the forest. I found a feather and decided to be "Chief Curious Squirrel" today









More cones for the hungry Chief.







Finally we saw sequoia trees.





This was a very interesting trip.

Bye
Chief Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
the weather here is rather bad, so my host decided to decorate the walls in the living room. She moved to this apartment in July and did not finish all the painting works. Today was the perfect day to do it



With the help of o stencil we painted roses onto the wall.



Have a look at the result!



Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
today we made a fantastic trip to Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr area. We visited a zoo there, the ZOOM-Erlebniswelt.



This zoo is specialized in animals from Alaska, Africa and Asia. The whole area is divided into three parts. We started our adventure in Alaska.



I said hello to the snowy owls.



My host could have spent hours here with the raccoons They are extremely cute.







Nobody has to starve here.



We saw several bears here: Grizzly bears, Kodiak bears and polar bears.





The bear was separated from the visitors only by a thick glass panel.



We entered Africa  than!



It is so cold today that I prefer the comfort of a heated apartment to those huts



The lionesses were very lazy behind their glass panel.



Zebras and antilopes were much more agil than the dozing lion...



... as well the giraffes.



Those monkeys were living free on a small island.



We entered Asia than.



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Here we also found a typical hut.



They have a giant greenhouse here with several birds and turtles living free.



We had a lot of fun with those monkeys, gray langurs. They were playing endlessly in their enclosure, chasing each other and climbing and jumping from their ropes and nets.



What a fantastic trip!

Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
we took a short walk in the late afternoon in the surrounding forests, most of them are nature protection areas.



Summer is over now, have a look at the fruits of a plane tree.



The path was following a railway track for some time.





Once more we walked through a housing area with those lovely houses.



We had to hurry home than, it started to rain again.

Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
we had almost two weeks with really ugly weather. It was cold als also raining the whole day. Today it was a bit better, so we took a walk in the city centre when our host had her lunch break.

First stop was the city hall, originally built in 1906, than partly destroyed in WW II and rebuilt afterwards in a more modern style.



There is a pillar on the large place in front of it, showing a lion, the heraldic animal of Remscheid.





This is the theatre.



The shopping street ...



... and the central bus station.



A wall was coverd with those lovely leafes.



We went towards the central station, here several larger buildings were built in the last ten years.



The whole station area was rebuilt from 2007 until about 2010.





Back in the city centre Katja showed us this funny fountain.



This is the main entrance of the shopping mall with the tower of the city hall in the background.



At the end of the pedestrian area you can find this statue, two large forceps. They are a symbol for the tool producing industry here.



There is a water tower close to the city hall. The silhouette of Remscheid with those two towers close together is visible from all the surrounding cities.



On the right side of the next photo you can see the parking and loading zone of the shopping mall.



We had to return to the work place than.

Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
we are having lovely weather today - a good opportunity to take a walk in the surroundings of Remscheid.

There is a lot of green around, several outskirts are hidden there.





We met a flock of sheep.



We found the remains of a villa hidden in the forest. The house is no longere there, but those stairs.



We walked through a rural area than.





We enjoyed the sunshine



Back in the valley we found some old mill ponds.





This is the creek the valley was named after - Morsbach.



From here we had to walk uphill for some time to get back home. Why does my host  has to live on top of this  hill?

Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
today there is a national holiday in Germany - it's German reunification day! This means my host does not have to work, but to take a walk with the TVs instead We went to the neighbour city Solingen to take a walk in the outskirts.

First we walked through a forest for some time.





We reached a more rural district than.









A lovely medieval castle came into sight than.



Although it seemed to be rather close to us my host told me that we'd had to walk some minutes to get there. Time for a rest



Than we reached the castle. Katja told us that it was originally built in 12th century by one of the former reigns of this county. We took a look at the courtyard with many shops.

Here you can buy wine and several spirits. One of them is called "Hexenschuss" -  German colloquial  speech for low back pain.



This memorial is showing Adolf IV, count of Berg who originally built this castle in early 12th century. In the following centuries it was enlarged, destroyed an rebuilt until nowaday'Äs appearance.





You have a stunning view to the surrounding valleys and forests.





Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
the weather has gone crazy - we are having sunshine and about 20°C. This was a good reason to make an excursioin to one of the touristic highlights of this reason. Because my host does not have a car, we took a long walk through lovely rural areas and forests to get there. Katja's son accompanied us.

We walked to a distrcit in the West of Remscheid and reached this lovely point soon.





We went into the forest than. Oh, what a lovely view, all those golden leafes!



We rested on a bench for a moment.



This is an extremely large beech - Katja loves this tree.



This tree is showing several route markings. The encircled "R" means Roentgenweg. It is following the border of the municipal area of Remscheid, about 62 km long. It is named after the founder of the X-rays who was born in Lennep, one of the historic districts of Remscheid.



We simply had to follow our path downhill to the bottom of the valley.





River Wupper is flowing in the valley.



I saw a cute little outlook pavilion at the opposite side of the valley. Katja told me that you had a spectacular view to our destination from there. We were visiting Muengsten Bridge, Germany's highest railway bridge. It is connecting Remscheid and the neighbour city Solingen, overspanning the valley of the river Wupper.



Here it came into sight.



The bridge was built of steel in late 19th century, it is 465 m long and 107 m high. You can find more information here, in German.

The bridge is so wide that it is nearly impossible to take a proper photo of the whole bridge. Of course our host knows the location where she could take a halfway proper picture. On our way there we had a look at the leisure park which was built under the bridge some years ago. You can find large lawns with benches for relaxing, playgrounds for the kids, a crazy golf course and riddles. We preferred sitting on a bench, enjoying the lovely surrondings and the sunshine.



This is river Wupper.





Isn't it looking fantastic?





It is was time to walk back home than, this time straight uphill.



We came along a stadium, construction works were taking place there.



Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
we are already having late fall now, the trees lost almost all of their leafes.





At the shopping mall the christmas decoration is already mounted.







Bye
Emma Squirrel

Hi Mummy,
I'm coming home now!

Today it was time to say good-bye to Remscheid and all my friends here.



Katja helped me to write a postcard and I even got a poster print!

Although the trip will probably not take too much time I decided to take some supplies with me.

Walnuts - my favourite food





See you soon!

Love
Emma Squirrel

Hi mum! These are my arrival pictures I heard some excited discussion outside my envelope and two voices commenting 'the envelope says there's a TV inside!' Well, I'm glad they didn't spend too long discussing my envelope as I wanted to get out!

I emptied out my walnuts from my travels with Olgamaus, thanks for sending them with me mum! Sienna the monkey greeted me me and introduced me to the others; Midori Rabbit, Edelweiss, Patka and Jala. One of the nuts had sadly broken, but Patka and Edelweiss thought it would be funny to wear the shell as hats Hehehe.

Edelweiss was also very happy with the stamps on my envelope, since they are flowers and she loves flowers

I will be updating again soon!

Love Emma

Helloo mum!

We went along with our host for a walk around Durham on the way to the last day of lectures. We went along what is called 'The Bailey' and then stopped off at the cathedral. It was a very cold day but the mist was pretty. On the 8th picture down I am sat outside Castle college. I then decided to take a silhouette picture of myself and the cathedral. Don't I look cool?

We walked back into the centre of the city to market square, then across the bridge where the sky and river looked lovely. However we made an error in uploading so that picture is now at the end, sorry!

Next we went to the science site where the lectures are and took a picture of the new statue in front of the library. The statue is so depressing it is actually quite funny. My host thinks that the statue accurately represents how students feel when entering the library  People start crying and screaming 'Nooo!' Haha, that is a joke... I hope

The next picture shows a multicoloured round lecture building, which is quite a contrast compared to the very old buildings in the middle of the city. Then we faced the hill up to the psychology department which was our destination. Apparently there are often squirrels in the trees either side! But it was so cold they were nowhere to be seen Except me of course, I'm a hard core squirrel who doesn't need to hibernate Can you spot me in the leaves? I am pretty camouflaged!

When we went back it had gone dark so we went back through the centre to see the lights. Our camera isn't that good in the dark though. I saw santa's grotto and had a little rest watching the little train go round

We have now travelled back to the north west for christmas, so I will explore this new place soon!

Emma

I arrived well at home.