Travelog for: King Tut

For Valentine's day we went to castle Friedenstein in Gotha today to join a guided tour about love couples in history on paintings, sculptures... that can be seen at the castle museum.

The castle itself dates back to 1643 when it was built for the duke of Saxony-Coburg.












Inside the museum we were not allowed to take pictures of the paintings etc. But before entering we had to get into these shoes to conserve the floor from our dirty and wet shoes.

At the moment it is also carnival season in Germany. My host is not that fond of dressing up but we went to the carnival parade in the town nearby today. It was freezing cold while we had to wait for an hour until the first groups and cars arrived. But finally we had lots of fun and sweets.



The carnival prince and princess of the local carnival club:

Last Friday we went to a friend for dinner. She prepared a three course meal with delicious food.
I especially enjoyed the desert - yummy.



After dinner I played with this cute little bunny which also lives at the place.





I loved the soft fur.

Helly mommy!

For the weekend we went to Lübeck, a city in north Germany. Puh, the journey was very long with 5 hours travel time. Well, I was in this region before, right,  as my last host RikeH lives near here.

We went to Lübeck to help a friend move house, so the mini bus was fully loaded and not very fast.

After unloading we went to the town centre and visited some interesting places. As it was already dark at 7pm the pictures are not too good.

Anyway, here is me in front of the theatre:



An old building of the fishermen guilde:



Here I am in front of the Holsten Gate - THE landmark of Lübeck.
It was built in the 13th century and was part of the town wall back then.





We then found a nice jazz bar and enjoyed some cocktails and ordered a delicious cheese plate.



The next day we slept late before the long journey back home
and I spent some time with my new friend Jack.

Last night we met some of my host's friends
to chat and have some fun.
And guess what: There also was an Egyptian guy who now
lives in Germany.
So I took the chance to talk to him about our experiences
in Germany. It was great to speak Arabics again!







And we wrote some names in Arabics. Let's see....





Soon it is Easter so my host's friend already decorated
her house with bunnies. I said 'Hello' to this one.

Hello Mommy,

Today I got some company. A new TV arrived at our place: Mira.
She is from Australia and was in Canada last.
I gave her a warm welcome!



Feels like spring here.

We stayed overnight in Jena, probably the biggest town in Thuringia. It is about 80 kilometres away, an one hour drive. My host went to see some comedians and this morning we took  a stroll through the city centre and did a bit of shopping.

But first of all we had to strengthen ourselves and
went for breakfast at the restaurant STILBRUCH.
We found a nice place at this old table. Gorgeous!



Breakfast was delicious!



In the city we saw the old town wall and tower:





And this is the INTERSHOP tower which marks the modern middle (new centre)  of the city:





I guess these are two famous citizens of the Jena:

We took a day off today to renovate the house. That was lots of fun!

Look at that! A whole magazin just abot me! I took it from the library and read it yesterday.





Mh, very interesting!





Let's open the door to my tomb!



This is about my family.

Yesterday was a grant day out with a visit to Germany's biggest spring festival, the 'Sommergewinn' in Eisenach.

We watched the parade with all the cars decorated with paper flowers, the marching bands and and and....















There is a 'fight' between Winter and Summer and luckily the Summer wins in the end, that's why the festival is called 'Sommergewinn' - summer winning.





And here you can see the three symbols of the festival:
The cock, the egg and the pretzel. The Motto all the  people call is:  'Gut Ei, Gut Ei und Kickeriki' - good egg and cock-a-doodle-poo!



I went together with Mira, so if you visit her log you'll get some more impressions!

See you!

Hi Mum! I've finally arrived in Dublin 



I've met loads of new folks. I think most of them are Toy Voyager "wannabees" 



One of them "Rory" told me he's heading off to Moscow on Monday. They threw a party for my arrival and the leprechaun drank  Guinness, whilst we all had Coca Cola and cake!

Today we took a short trip to Howth. It's a pretty fishing village near Dublin City. Here's me beside a map of Howth, before  exploring the village.



I climbed the hill behind the village where I stumbled across an old churchyard. It's called St.Mary's Abbey and was founded in the 1200's. I liked hanging out in this old place 



Here's me taken in front of the old abbey. I like this picture!



Hey Mum! I thought they said it rained in Ireland???
The sun shone all day, and further up the hill of Howth, there was great views of the harbour and it's boats. 



We found  this great museum called"the Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio". Sadly it was closed but I got  my picture taken in front of the Martello Tower, which it's housed in.




I was very excited about seeing this pretty lighthouse and just managed to see it before the sun set!

Hi Mum. Sorry for not updating my blog sooner. My host has had to go into hospital for  a small operation, so she has not had  any time to get out since Sunday
She has promised that she will bring me into see Dublin City Centre over the next few days, as she now has some time off work 
  I'm really looking forward to that. I am keeping myself busy reading up on "The celts" and also some material on Dublin City. My host has a wonderful library off books!

I have also been introduced to yet another feline! This one is a breed called "Maine Coon" and the story goes that it originated from Queen Marie Antoinette who managed to have her cats  put on a ship to the USA. Sadly she didn't get on the ship herself and had her head cut off 

Me Reading up about "the Celts" and "Dublin"!




I hope to have some interesting stuff to tell you about over the coming days. Anyhow off to me bed to get some "King Tut Sleep".

Today I got to take a trip  into Dublin City as my host had business to do there. We took  a walk down around Grand Canal Dock which has seen a lot of developement in recent years.

I got to see this amazing new building called the  Grand Canal Theatre which was designed by the well known architect Daniel Libeskind . It just opened it's doors to the public this week!!! 



Here's me with the Grand Canal Theatre in the background!




I would love to see "Aida" there!

After leaving Grand Canal Dock I spotted this  really cute VW campervan and got my picture taken with it. I'd love to tour Ireland in it 

We stopped off in this  pretty  Georgian square. Dublin has many of these Georgian squares around the city.





Good job I didn't bring my football with me!



Look at this pretty bicycle I saw!