Travelog for: Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid today. I already met another little horse here.

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
the first ToyVoyager I met here is  Penny-Bo from Southern Germany,a little horse like me

The weather is rather bad today, so my host Katja had the idea to bake a cake. She talked to another member of ToyVyoagers about rhubarb cake with meringue topping, so she decided to bake such a cake. She bought rhubarb on her way home.



After washing it she began to cut it into pieces. It was obvious than that the rhubarb was of a really bad quality, completely dry and lingneous inside. What to do now? I saw an ananas and asked "What about the ananas?" Katja thought this was a great idea. We decided immediately to bake an

Ananas cake with meringue topping.

For the dough you need

750 g rhubarb 500 g prepared ananas
125 g butter
125 g sugar
1 pinch salt
1 package vanilla sugar
3 eggs
200 g flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tbspn. cream
butter for the baking pan

For the topping:

3 egg white
150 g sugar

Prepare the ananas and cut it into small pieces. Stirr butter with sugarm vanilla sugar and salt, add the eggs. Stirr it foamy. Mix flour and baking powder, stirr it under the butter-egg-mixture, add cream.

Put the dough into a greased baking pan (28 cm diameter, 26 cm are also ok). Put the ananas on top of the dough.

Baking: 175°C, about 30 minutes

Beat egg white and sugar to a stiff foam, put it on top of the cake after 30 minutes baking, put it back into the oven and bake it for 15 more minutes.

Enough ananas for the cake!



Here the dough is ready.



We put it into the springform pan and added the ananas pieces.



After baking for half an hour we had to put the meringe on top of the cake.



This meringue stuff is really sticky.



After baking for another 15 minutes the cake was ready.



We will taste it tomorrow, it's already too late.

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk along the Trasse des Werkzeugs (Route of Tools), which is a lane for pedestrians and cyclists which were built on a closed railway track. It was sponsored by local tool producing companies. Remscheid is famous for it's tool producing industry since medieval times. That's why this lane is called Trasse des Werkzeugs.

The weather was not good, we were in hope of not becoming wet.

From here you have an overview across the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal.



Behind me you can see allotment gardens. They have many garden areas here.



At an intersection some signs with the logos of some sponsors are installed (with a really beautiful container yard in the background ).



The first sign is showing the crest of Remscheid.



Here we had to cross a street.



You can find many industrial buildings along the lane, some of them already dilapidated.



You can also find rest areas here.



This lane is leading to the central station, we are close to it as you might guess.



Here is the instanteanous ending of the Trasse des Werkzeugs, it will be completed soon.



On our way back home it started to rain and we had to hurry home.

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk, to the municipal park and to a district called Rath, a housing area. First I want to show you where I am living at the moment. The attic storey of the house on the left side is Katja's home.



On our way to the park we walked along a linden alley.







After a few minutes walking we reached the municipal park.





We had a look at the beautiful flowers.





Here is a recently opened garden centre.



We walked downhill for a while. From here you can see the that  they have large green areas within the municipal area.





We went back home than, unfortunately this time we had to walk uphill for almost half an hour

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk in the afternoon, although it is really hot and humid. Katja told us that we should get used to a temperature like they have in Spain.

Spain?!

I don't know what she was talking about ...

We went to the district Hasten, which is one of the oldest districts of the municipal area. You can find many pretty old houses here.









Here you can see the German Tool Museum.



This Patrician house is also a museum, a museum of local history. It was built in the late 1700s.





You can often find dwelling houses and factory buldings close together.





We were on our way back home on the following picture. We had to walk uphilll almost for hours (at least it seemed so to me).





We were almost home than, look at those pretty old houses.



Bye for today
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
we went to the public library today.



The library has three levels: Specialised books, DVDs and audio books on the ground floor, novels and poetry on  the first floor and children's books in the basement.







Katja's favourite books!





Outside again the warmth was overwhelming, so we only took a short walk through the city centre back home.

Here you can see the theatre in the background as well as the shopping mall and the tower of the city hall.





Back in the shopping street ...



This is the main entrance of the shopping mall with a fountain in front of it.



From here you can see the green environment of Remscheid.





This is the water tower. From here the inhabitants of the city centre are supplied with drinking water which is pumped from a dam in one of the valleys to the highest point of the city centre.



Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
Katja told me that we wil travel to Spain tomorrow, to Barcelona.

That's great!



Unfortunately my new friend Penny-Bo is afraid of flying. She is already considering to stay here.



I promise to do everything to make her come with us. I'm looking foreward to see the Alps, France and the Mediterranean Sea from above.

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
we went to the railway station to go to Düsseldorf airport. We'll fly to Barcelona!

When we left the house, we found an envelope on the stairs with cute little mouse UrselHH inside. She arrived just in time to accompany us to Spain.

At the railway station we climbed out of Katja's bag to get a bit of fresh air.

We are at Duessldorf International Airport now. After the check-in Katja and her friend spent some time having a coffee. Here you can see me with Penny-Bo.



She needs a bit encouragement because she is suffering from fear of flying. Katja's friend also does not like flying, she had two glasses of sparkling wine to make it easier. I decided that it would be a good idea for Penny-Bo also, so I asked for a sparkling wine for Penny-Bo.



Penny-Bo was feeling much better than, of course a little bit tipsy

Afterwards we took a walk through the Airport. We also went to the visitor's platform.







When we entered the plane I was happy that we had a window seat. So I'd be able to look out of the window. Penny-Bo was giggling all the time, feeling really confident.



We were ready for take-off than.

It was late evening when we had reached Barcelona, went to our hotel by bus and went out to the promenade. We walked to the harbour and had dinner.





Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk along the beach promenade. Our hotel is close to the coastline, so we only had to cross the street to get there.







These high-rasers were built for the Olympic Village of the 1992 Summer Olympics.



This is a fish fixation, created by the architekt Frank Gehry, manifested by a 35 metre x 54 metre fish made of steel lattice. The fish marks the start of the Olympic Port area and is placed at the base of the two landmark towers.





A look behind ...



We walked through the old district Barceloneta, also with an own beach sector.



This is the tower of an aerial ropeway to Montjuic, a mountain in the municipal area.



You can find artwork here at the beaches, for example this statue in front of the ropeway tower.



We went to Port Vell than, the old harbour.



Here you can see the statue "El Cap de Barcelona" by the American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.



We were in Port Vell than.



We also visited Ramla de Mar, a prolongation of the world famous boulevard Las Ramblas, leading to the Christopher Columbus Monument.





We also walked to the newer part of the harbour.

This fantastic steel construction is overspanning an intersection.





We walked to the old town to have lunch in a cava-bar. Cava is the Catalanian Champagne. You eat tapas and drink cava here. Really delicious! I tasted the local cheese, Katja and her friend had fish.



We went to the old town, built in medieval times with narrow lanes.



This is the church Santa Maria del Mar, we wanted to have a look inside, but it was closed until afternoon.







In the background you can see one of the historic markets. It is under construction at the moment.



Instead we visited Parc de la Ciutadella, the city's main central park.



Originally here was a citadel, after it was torn in 19th century, this park was built here. It contains a pond, a fantastic fountain (which is also under construction at the moment) and the Barcelona Zoo.





This is the fountain.









We went to Montjuic by bus. Here you can find the Olympic arena.





Montjuïc is a broad shallow hill with a relatively flat top overlooking the harbour, to the southeast of the city centre. The top of the hill (height: 173 metres) was the site of several fortifications, the latest of which (the Castell de Montjuïc) remains today. The fortress largely dates from the 17th century, with 18th century additions. We visited the remains of the fortress.





This is the view across the city. Georgeous, isn't it?







From here you are also overlooking the harbour.







We went downhill and reached Placa d'Espanya, one of the central squares of Barcelona.



We went back to the city centre by bus, reaching Placa Catalunya. It was already dark and we took some photos with the illuminated fountains.



On their way to the hotel Katja and her friend had one or two drinks in a nearby beach bar. Tomorrow we will return home, what a pity!

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
Katja bought a new camera yesterday. Today we took a photo from the roof light. We saw the water tower and the tower of the city hall.



Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
we have baked bread today. It was really easy. All you need is

750 g wheat flour
about 400 ml warm water
1 1/2 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil

Baking: 35 - 40 minutes, 220°C



First we mixed flour and yeast, than we added the other ingredients and kneaded the dough for about 5 minutes.



The dough was covered than with a cloth. It had to rise for about 30 minutes.



We shaped two loafs of bread.



The loafs of bread had to rise once more for half an hour under a cloth.



Than we brushed them with a mixture of water and olive oil. We put rosemary on one loaf of bread.



They were ready for the oven than. The breads had to bake for 35 minutes.
Finished!



Our selfmade bread was really delicious!

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
we took a long walk today. We went to Muengsten Bridge, Germany's highest railway bridge.

We walked along a railway track for a while.





We went through a small district than with pretty houses, partly old houses, partly new houses.



That's looking great!



We came a little bit closer than ...



Here is our taxi



We walked downhill for a while and reached River Wupper.





Do you know this board game? It's Nine Men's Morris, engraved into a rock.



We crossed River Wupper here.



We walked through a forrest again, uphill and downhill.



Finally we reached Muengsten Bridge.



Muengsten Bridge is made of steel. It is 107 m high and spans the valley of river Wupper, which is marking the border between Remscheid and the neighbour town Solingen.

The bridge is 465 m long and was completed in 1897 A.D.

A leisure park was built underneath the bridge a few years ago. You can relax on the lawns, play in the water and they have playgrounds for the kids. You can cross River Wupper with a ferry here.





I must admit that we went home by bus. We were all tired.

Bye
Carlisle

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today, Katja, her friend Karin, Roo and me. The weather was not good, we took an umbrella with in case we should need. Outside it looked like we would need it. And indeed ....

We walked along a valley between Remscheid and Wuppertal, along the creek Gelpe. First we saw a really old house, close to an old mill.



The house is decorated with mill stones and carriage wheels.



Here the creek is dammed to a fishing pond.





This restaurant is more than 100 years old, it is situated in the valley.



They have a lot of bridle paths here, so this restaurant has its own parking site for horses



We went deeper into the forrest than and .... needed our umbrella than! Such a pity. We were rather wet when we returned to the car.

Bye
Carlisle