Travelog for: Momo

Hello, mom and my other dears! 

Our last day in Portugal had arrived!
The UV radiation levels were creeping over five, and my host Henna had to flee from it back to Finland not to get ill.

I´m very happy the toyvoyagers can´t get the UV allergy! 



We started our day with a nice breakfast!

Funny word that, by the way!  How can I break a fast if I have been secretly eating sweets throughout the night?



Anyway, I was doing my best! 



We were debating how to spend our last day in Portugal.
There were three of us who wanted t visit the famous Belém area in Lisbon, and thus we shot down Zoe´s suggestion of worm hunting trip and Mr Casanova´s idea about a combined bone digging and girl-spotting excursion, and headed to Belém. 

We reached the area from East, and walked through the gardens towards the Belém monastery.



These gardens are very popular places to spend summer days.
The youngsters are sitting on the lawns, chatting and kissing, the older people are sitting on the benches, deprecating the morals of the youngsters, and the kids are running around, kicking balls or each other.

I think the youngsters are having the best time. 



We reached the monastery garden, which lies between the river Tejo and the monastery itself.




In middle of the garden, there is a big fountain, which spits a very high column of water towards the sky.

On windy days all people inside a radius of 200 meters get a free shower.

It was nice to watch innocent tourists run screaming away, their clothes dripping water. 



Behind the fountain we got our first glimpse of the monastery.
It was a huge glimpse, since it is a huge building!



After laughing enough on the account of the screaming people, we walked to see the monastery itself. 



Jerónimos monastery is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Its building started 1501, and an older church, built by Henry the Navigator, was demolished from the site.



The old church had been a place for the sailors, on the time of the sea expeditions, to spend the last night in prayers, before setting sail towards the unknown parts of the world.

The new monastery was built to celebrate the fact that Vasco da Gama had found the sea route to India.

The custom continued in the new monastery, and for example Christopher Columbus and his men spent here their last night, before they went and accidentally found America.



The construction of the monastery and church began on 6 January 1501, and was completed 100 years later.
Its building was funded by a tax given to the crown from all the spice trade.

So, as you see, this is a very historical spot indeed. Big (and maybe not so positive) events have started on these very stones we were hopping over.

We saw a tourist drop a chewing gum on the yard, and went and bit him on the leg.
While he was hopping on one leg and whining, we told him that
a) It is an insult to litter such a historical spot and
b) The birds who think the chewing gum is something eat, often die because the gum is stuck into their beak and they starve to death and
c) There seem to be an empty space inside his scull where other people have some porridge.

He was watching us horrified, his eyes bulging from his head.
I wish he corrected his behaviour after that.



The monastery was designed in a manner that later became known as Manueline: a richly ornate architectural style with complex sculptural themes incorporating maritime elements and objects discovered during naval expeditions, carved in limestone. 

This is the so called Axial portal, which is the most important door to the Jerónimos: in terms of its localization in front the main altar and because of its ornamentation.



Henna was reading from the tourist guide:
"In the tympanum there are scenes from the birth of Christ: from the left to right: the Annunciation (of the angel indicating to Maria that she would give birth); the Nativity (the birth of the Christ child); and the Epiphany (the adoration of the magi). Two angels, hold the arms of Portugal, close to the archivolt. The splays on each side of the portal are filled with statues, among them are statues of King Manuel I and Queen Maria of Aragón kneeling in a niche under a lavishly decorated baldachin, flanked by their patrons: Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist, respectively. The supporting corbels are decorated with little angels holding the coat-of-arms and, at the side of the king, an armillary sphere and, at the side of the queen, three blooming twigs. This doorway, completed by Nicolau Chanterene, introduces Renaissance elements: angels in Roman garb, cherubs, the detail and realism of the Kings and nude study of Saint Jerome.  Blaa blaa. 

If you would like to know (which I doubt) what are the tympanum, archivolt, splays and baldachin, you better check from a dictionary!
I have no idea! 

If you also find out why Saint Jerome has to be nude, tell me too! 



We stepped inside the huge monastery church, trying to listen to the swishing of the wings of history ("Herstory"! announced the female members of our company and lifted their noses up to the air.) 
But then they had to admit, that this place was reeking only-masculine-history of power and imperialism.



Half of the building was under restauration - the delicate slimestone ornaments need washing, and they had been removed from the walls and pillars.



The other half was still waiting its turn, and I met some interesting creatures there.
"Do you feel like having a bath, then?" I asked from this cherub.
"Weeell.." it answered, "it was just only five hundred years ago since I last took one, so I´m not in such a hurry!"

After that I kept a distance to the creatures living there. 



There were two huge sarcophaguses.
In one rests Vasco da Gama, and in the other Luís de Camões, who lived in the 16th century and is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet.
His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante.

I stand there, full of awe, and asked from Vasco if he was sleeping well.
"Yeah, I can steel feel the rocking of the ship", he answered. 






We greeted the shining Mary, and then we went out from the building, back to the sun. 



There was a horse on the yard waiting for customers.
We sneaked him some bits of apple. 



We walked a short distance to see another UNESCO site - the Belém Tower.
It is a fortified tower, whic was built simultaneously with the monastery, to guard the mouth of  river Tejo.



The tower was interesting enough, but we couldn´t quite concentrate to it, because there was an ice cream booth very near, calling us with a magnetical power! 

"All right, all right, go and get your ice creams then!" said Henna, seeing us turning towards it like sunflowers towards the sun. 



So, we were devouring our ice creams, and a second and third and fourth ice creams, and Henna was telling us exciting things about the tower - how it had cannons and how it had been firing enemy ships and how it had been serving as a prison etc.

But the ice cream was the main thing! 



After some more ice cream we were ready to be rolled home.
"Why rolled?" I hear you asking. 
It is simple, our feet didn´t reach the ground. 



In the evening we watched a procession of some sort from our balcony.
They were carrying some saint round the streets.






Next morning we were early as hell on the airport. I was so very sleepy!
It´s not a time for little cows be dragged into airports!



But.. it was nice to watch the planes come and go.
Our plane is the one behind our backs. We were waiting for it to take its morning shower and get refreshed before the long flight to Finland. 



On the plane I was watching the towns and rivers and lakes running under the plane´s belly.
I´m sure I spotted my home when we flew over Germany!
I was wawing to you, mom, did you see me? 



A straight flight from Lisbon to Helsinki takes four and half hours.
Can you imagine that throughout those hours we couldn´t spot even one UFO, although the skies should be full of them! 



We were served quite a good meal!
It was a very nice interlude, but I´m sure that all the ufo:s flew past our window while we were targeting our attention to eating. 

I asked a stewardess if she had ever spotted one, but she said that if she had, she would not remember it because of all those men in black coming to her door once a month. 



After the meal we slept.
Henna only woke me up when we were already inside the little cottage, which is our home here in Finland.

Crying out loud, where have I come into? 
Zoe, Racko and Mr Casanova had warned me about the exotic residence, but still I was surprised! 
The cottage is really small, but looks cosy and.. free of many rules!

I´m sure it´s going to be fun to live here.
See you soon again! Kisses from Momo! 

Hello everybody,

I arrived in Essen on the 19th May, but I didn't had the chance to write something before today.
I was adopted by Fabi from Delenna and I am happy to be in Essen now ! The postman was really nice and woke up Fabi with the bell, so that she could help me out of the envelope.
HERE can you read my story, before I got to Fabi's house.
We have made some photos until now and I am thinking of some life missions for me. When I have found some, I will began to search for people who wants to host me. Before that I will travel with Fabi, Wauzi and at the moment Chocolate Moose!
Chocolate Moose welcomed me very warm. I really like him !

Have a nice day,
Momo

Hello !

Today Chocolate Moose and I made a puzzle together. I was responsible for the frame and Chocolate Moose made the core with the motive.
We had a lot of fun and I really like the result. The picture is nice, isn't it?!
Maybe we will hang it up on the wall. We will see.
Enjoy the pictures,

Momo

On Saturday Hueso arrived, but we hadn't the time to update our travelogs (Fabi doesn't feel good), so we will do this today !
He is a cute little dog and I like him !

Today we played a little bit Nintendo 64. We played Banjo and Kazooie. It was a real fun. Hueso was too small to play alone, so I helped him and at the end we all played together !

Today we visited the Hundertwasserhaus here in Essen. It is a really colourful house. It was built for the parents of children, that have to get a chemotherapy in the hospital here. There are living people from all over the world.

Hello !

We visited the castle ruin 'Altendorf' today. We didn't go in, but it was a nice view from outside, too.
Maybe we will go there again one day and I can take photos from inside !

Have a nice day,
Momo

Hello everybody,

today we visited the Villa Hügel. You can find out more about it on the homepage: www.villahuegel.de/english/ .
It was really nice to go around there and see the nice park and so.
We also have a new friend here. Burrimul Memu arrived here ! He is really nice.

Hope you like my pictures,

Momo

Hello !

Today we met olgamaus and her ToyVoyager for a walk in Essen. She came here the long way from Remscheid to see the Zeche Zollverein and to go into the Gruga Park.
I don't know the reason but BlackCat didn't make a photo of us in the Gruga Park, but we will go there again, soon.
But we made a photo at the Zeche Zollverein for you.

The coal mine Zollverein is an UNESCO world heritage site. You can learn more about it at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeche_Zollverein

Have a nice day,
Momo






A group picture (from left): Burrimul Memu, Aquila, Wauzi, BertieTheDuck, Brownie (who isn't at ToyVoyagers), Hueso, Percy, Me, Desmond and Chocolate Moose

Hello everybody,

today we went into the forest. It isn't far away from home, so we decided to go out for some hours. It was really nice there and we had a lot of fun climbing around.

Momo

It rained a lot the last days, so we decided to stay inside. I hope the weather will turn better again, because it is really sad to sit inside the room all the day.

Today the weather turned better, so we went into the park. It was really nice there and we had a lot of fun watching the children playing. We were really happy to see the sun again !

GO!!!!!!!!!
GERMANY
GO!!!!!!!!!

Today is the European Championship finale.

GERMANY against SPAIN...

I am totally for Germany and BlackCat is already rouged for the game. I am so excited.
We saved us a pillow for sitting there and watching the game. Hopefully Germany will win against Spain!

GERMANY GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello ,

today Chocolate Moose left us. He is on his way to Russia now and I am missing him. He was the first TV I have met and he is such a friendly guy. I hope, he will have a good travel and maybe we will meet again somewhere.

Have a good travel, buddy,

Momo

Hello everybody,

today a new ToyVoyager arrived. A nice rabbit called Hoppity. She is a nice girl and I like her allready.
We welcomed her really nice and I hope she will have a nice time here !

Momo