Travelog for: Womat

Hi Mummy,

we went to the town centre today because we had to pick up a letter at the post office.

This is the shopping street.









A farmers market is taking place here on Fridays.





In this pretty house a music school is located.



Here you can see the central bus station.



This is the corporate building of the local newspaper.



Now I'll show you the public library.



This is one of the entrances of the shopping mall.




In front of the shopping mall you can see sixteen pillars showing the crests of all sixteen German states. This one is the crest of Bavaria. My hometown Munich is the capital city of Bavaria.





Here I am are in the shopping mall.



One exit is ledading directly to the place in front of the town hall.



The pillar on the place is showing a lion, the heraldic animal of Remscheid.



When we came back home an envelope with a ToyVoyager was waiting for us.

Louis the rat arrived.



Katja brought some delicious cookies for us, they are called Nuss-Schiffchen (nut boats).



They are really delicious!



Bye
Womy

Hi Mummy,
it started snowing yesterday in the evening. Because it is not cold enough most of it already melted away.

We went to the muncipal park in the afternoon. We have to walk only a few minutes to get there.

This is the observatory, situated in the muncipal park.



We rested in front of the memorial for victims of several wars before World War I.



This is one of the walking paths in the park.



This is a pond where lots of ducks and turtles are living. It is still frozen.



The weather is not very good, but we had fun anyway.

Bye
Womat

Hi Mummy,
today we went with Katja to her working place in the afternoon. She took one of the chocolate bars with her. Maybe she was afraid that the ToyVoyagers which stayed at home could eat them.

First we took a photo in front of the front door of our house.



Later we took a look out of the window. From here you are looking to the space in front of the town hall.



Than we helped to eat the delicious chocolate.



Bye
Womy

Hi Mummy,

we are two more ToyVoyages since today. The new ones are Peti from Hungary and Harold Giraffe from ... no, not from Africa, but from Australia!




We Australians are forming the absolute majority now: Me, Elston and now Harold.

Elston had planned to bake lamintons for as his farewell dinner. He's going to leave tomorrow. Of course Harold and I helped.

First we made the sponge dake. 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 them 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
Womy

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.









Hasten is surrounded by woodland. 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
Womy

Hi Mummy,

we had a party tonight!

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.











We were even allowed to taste Katja's beer.



We had a lot of fun tonight.

Bye
Womy

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 almost the complete population is celebrating and drinking gallons of beer (that's the part Katja also loves )

Here we were waiting for the procession ...



It was coming than ...





These people were throwing sweets and confetti.









We had lots of fun today.

Bye
Womy

Hi Mummy,
we went to the post office today to buy stamps. Katja showed us a fountain close to 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.

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.



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



Enough for today!
Bye
Womy

Hi Mummy,

today it was much warmer than this week and the sun was shining. So Katja took me, Louis, Kelly, Fluffytail and Sweetsy out for a walk. When the weather is good Katja seems to be unstoppable

She decided to show us Germany's highest railway bridge, Muengsten Bridge. Of course we walked there through the forrest.

We walked through a really pastoral area.



Doesn't it look nice here? Only a few kilometres apart from the town centre.



We went into the forrest than.



On the next photo you can see how steep it's going downhill here.



We saw a collection of nest boxes for several sorts of birds.





This is an information board which is showing local plants, mostly herbs.



We reached a viewpoint and saw Muengsten Bridge for the first time, at least a little piece of it.



We rested here on a bench, enjoying the sun.



At the next viewpoint we could see the 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.

Katja knows a not very common path which is leading through the bricked pillars . From here you have an fantastic view.



... and here the other side.



Just above my heads were the railway tracks.

We walked downhill than, heading for the valley. We walked under the bridge, this time clearly lower than before.



Here you can see the River Wupper, running underneath the bridge, which is almost invisible because of back light.



We reached the valley than and took the following photo on a small bridge.



Half an hour ago we walked along the cute pavilion you can see in the background.



Underneath the bridge a leisure park was established. You can find restaurants here, lawns for relaxing, playgrounds for the kids and more.



After more than two and a half hour walking we decided to go home by bus. Otherwise we would have had to walk uphill for rmore than an hour.



Bye
Womy

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 Katja's favourite piece of artwork here: a bench made of a giant screw clamp.



You can also see patters showing tools on the ground.





Here you can see distance data. The route of tools is about 5 km long.



The house in the middle of the photo is a kindergarten, it's called "Villa Kunterbunt".



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
Womy

Hi Mummy,
it was raining like hell in the morning. In the afternoon a friend called Katja and asked if she'd like to take a walk. She was unsure because of the weather but we nagged until she finally said "yes".

The ladies decided to walk to Morsbachtal, one of the surrounding valleys where the creek Morsbach is running.

First we had to walk to the district Hasten than always downhill.
What you can see in the background belongs to the neighbour town Wuppertal.







We saw the first blooming crocus in a garden.



Here you can see creek Morsbach.



There are some industrial plants along the creek, mostly companies which are existing for a long time already.



Here you can see trail markings for several hiking trails.
The R in the cirle is standing for "Röntgenweg", a hiking trail around the muncipal area of Remscheid, it is about 63 km long.

The second marking is standing for the project "Regionale 2006".

The encircled W is standing for a hiking trail around Wuppertal, the neighbour town. This hiking trail is even about 130 km long!
This valley is marking the border between Remscheid and Wuppertal, so both hiking trails are overlapping here.

The N means that this is a hiking trail which connects Friends-of-nature-houses.



The next photo is showing one of the old companies in the valley.



We left the valley than and had to walk uphill again to reach the town centre.



Look what happened to the weather! When we started we were afraid to become wet by rain.



It was a really nice trip today.

Bye
Womy

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk around Eschbachtalsperre, which is Germany's oldest drinking water dam. It was built since 1889 A.D. and was opened in 1891 A.D.

There are several walking paths around the dam and in the vicinity of the dam. We chose one which was about 8,5 km long, only a short walk because of the bad weather.

We started at the dam and walked than into the forrest.





Motorway A1 is close to the dam. Here you can see the motorway service area.



We were sitting comfortably in the fresh moss.



A part of the forrest was overflooded, propably by lots of rain we had last week. Can you see the dark spots in the foreground? It is frog spawn. Large parts of the tarn were full of it.



Our path leaded us away from the dam into the hinterland. Here we saw farms.





We saw an interesting weather vane on a roof.



Finally we returned to the dam.



We reached the masonry dam. In the background you can see a hotel.



Here you can read some informations about the dam.


This memorial is dedicated to the architect of the dam, Robert Boeker.



We took a last group photo, sitting on the masonry dam.



Although the weather was bad we had a lot of fun.

Bye
Womat

Hi Mummy,

we'll travel to Munich tomorrow. I will come home to you than.





See you soon!
Womy

Hi Mummy,
we are at the airport now.







See you soon!

Womy

Hi Mummy,

I'm waiting for you in the Englischen Garten, in the beer garden.



Womy