Travelog for: Franz-Ferdinand

I just met a lot of toys that are curious to start their journey. I learned that they all will meet their hosts on Christmas eve 
What a nice idea...

Today a new buddy arrived - it's raaawww
WELCOME!!
We chilled a bit together with Kibblet

Hi Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid today. They are having ugly weather here, let's see if it will be better tomorrow.

I already met more ToyVoyagers here, Clyde and Jellybean from the USA and Krystal from Canada.



There should be a little sheep, but it was playing somewhere else.

My host Katja also introduced me to her pets - three ferrets. They are curious as hell.





Bye for today
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
today we went to Hueckeswagen, a small town in the "Oberbergischer Kreis" embedded in a rural area. First we had a look at the riding stable, where Katja's friend is spending her free time.

We went to the meadows to have a look at the horses. They were all outside.



This is Teddy, a young Australian shepherd.





Lots of animals are living here, also two calfes.









Katja and her friend wanted to walk to the city centre of Hueckeswagen, maybe 30 minutes to walk. We walked along an upstream dam, part of the large "Wuppersperre" (Wupper dam).







In Hueckeswagen you can find an old castle, situated on a hill, with a part of the city centre. Stairs are leading to the castle.





They have lovely old houses here, mostly half-timbered ones like in Remscheid.



Of course we had to walk all the way back to the riding stable. Katja's friend had to care for two horses and than we went back home.

Bye
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
after a week with ugly weather there was a surprise today - it started snowing in the afternoon!



When we came home we need to warm up



Bye
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
today we visited the neighbour city Wuppertal.

Wuppertal is the biggest city of the hilly region Bergisches Land. One of the city’s greatest attractions is the suspended monorail (Schwebebahn), which was established in 1901. The tracks are 8 m above the streets and 12 m above the Wupper River.





The whole route of the Schwebebahn is about 13 km long, following the river and crossing streets at some points, it even crosses the A46 motorway.

We went to the shopping streets than, we also had planned to visit the Christmas market.



The Christmas market is situated in the main shopping streets. We saw lots of lovely things, for example those candle holders.



Katja bought vanilla honey and honey soap here.







We enjoyed eggnog here.



We also went into one of the shopping malls, also lovely decorated.



Katja told us that maybe tomorrow we go to Wuppetal again, to see a place which Clyde would love. Let's see ....

Bye
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mum,
today we went to Wuppertal again. First we took a walk along the "Sambatrasse", a former now closed railway track, rebuilt to a lane for pedestrians and cyclists. It is following the original track through the forest, meeting some interesting points.

First stop was an open air pool which is heated by waste heat from the nearby incinerator. You can go swimming here the whole year. Katja told me that it would be covered when there would be extremely deep temperatures outside.



This is the incinerator.



We walked along allotment gardens, many gardens are decorated with memorabilia from the former railway track.



The lane is running next to the A 46 motorway for a while.



Than the most interesting part followed: The Sambatrasse is crossing the zoo. Can you see the lawn in the background? It's the tiger enclosure! (By the way, the girl in the white coat is Katja's daughter.)





We saw the tigers.







We reached the end of the Sambatrasse than and went through the zoo quarter, a villa quarter with lots of interesting houses.



Soon we reached the Schwebebahn station.





Here you can see me inside the station, about 8 m above street level.



And this is the view into the opposite direction.



Our train was coming in!



Oh dear, the train was swaying.



When we got out of the train we had to walk another five minutes and than we reached the Wuppertaler Brauhaus (Wuppertaler Brewhouse).



We had a look at the menu and ordered Christmas beer and something to eat. Salad and potatoe wedges for Katja, burgers with french fries for her daughter and her boyfriend.

Our beer was served in large glasses





We all were really hungry

Bye
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
we were busy in the kitchen today. The weather is really ugly, so nobody wanted to go outside. We made delicious cookies today, they are called "Hausfreunde"in German, whichs means "paramours". Who knows why they are called like this ....

We prepared the ingredients: Eggs, sugar, flour and baking soda, raisins, nuts, chocolate - that's all.



Nuts and chocolate had to be chopped ...





... eggs were mixed with sugar until the mass was quite stiff ...



... than nuts, raisins and chocolate had to be kneaded into the mass. We formed three bread-shaped things.





They were coated with egg yolk.



Than they had to be baked and cut into slices antil they were still hot.



Yummy!

Bye

Hi Mummy,
the weather was still ugly today, although we tried to walk around in Katja's lunch break. First she showed us the water tower which is visible even from a larger distance, because the city centre of Remscheid is situated on a hill.





The public library is situated in the brown building on the left side, an art gallery in the house on the right side.



Here you can see the central bus station - and the first raindrops.



It was raining more and we hurried back to "our" work place along the shopping street.



Bye for now
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
it's the fourth Advent Sunday!



It snowed a bit during the night.



Have a pleasant Sunday
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
we went to buy the Christmas tree today. We went with Katja's brother-in-law, like every year, she told me.

We drove to a farm in one of the rural outskirts of Remscheid. Here you can drive into the forest and look vor your tree in a tree farm. You can even fell it on your own.





Those trees were too large, at least 2 m high.





You can go here with your own car here or you can go with the farmer, on the trailer of his tractor.



We took a short walk around.



To pay for the tree we had to drive back to the farm. In the meantime the sun came out, but only for a short moment.



It was time than to disappear into Katja's bag. I was a bit wet and afraid to get a cold.

Bye
Franz-Ferdinand

H Mummy,
today we helped to decorate the Christmas tree.



Bye
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
today is Christmas Eve! First we had a fantastic dinner with fish, homemade hash brown and savoy cabbage with porcini. Yummy!

Afterwards we helped to open the Christmas presents.



Bye for now
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
we went to Katja's sister-in-law's family today to celebrate the last day of the year. When we arrived, there already was everything prepared for Raclette.

There were lots of vegetables like sweet pepper, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, than there was beef and chicken meat, salmon, bread, potatoes and much more. Of course there was a lot of cheese



Later we called a card game called "Dominion".



At midnight we all had a glass of sparkling wine.



Happy New Year!



Bye
Franz-Ferdinand

Hi Mummy,
after having horrible weather all the time since before Christmas I went out with Katja today to buy some things. It was not raining today until we went out in our lunch break, but in the afternoon it started to rain again.

This is one of the churches in the city centre. A farmers market is taking place here on Tuesday and Friday.





A new train station was built and opened about two years ago. This year in autumn a bridge for pedestrians was finally finsihed, it is crossing a multilane, now you don't have to wait at pedestrian lights for ages.



We nearly reached the shopping mall at the train station. From here you can look towards the city centre.



When we finished our shopping we had to hurry back to the law firm.

Bye
Franz-Ferdinand