Travelog for: Dottie Mouse

I have a little present for you mommy. I hope you like it.



I love you mommy!

Now i'm really gone.

Big hugs Dottie

dottie arrived safely in Rotterdam
log update will follow soon

Ahh.. an envelope arrived, the other 3 toys gathered around, curious as they are.. trying to find out what or who is inside... lets have a look:



CURIOUS!!!

Hello you guys! Im happy to be here, I am Dottie and I wanna get to know you all better!

WELCOME!!!

I am Adelina, I am a little sheep on a big adventure!

As you can see I am the biggest toy around here, not the bravest, that is for sure Squirrels, he is a pilot you know?!
They call me Veggies, cause I love them so much!

I am Squiggles, I am a squirrel pilot

Later that day...

I went with the other toys and Leonie (dandilion) to her parents for dinner.

Leonie her mother cooked: new potatoes, meatballs and green beans, It was a nice meal!

We finished eating and the leftovers were saved for the dog!
I meet with Skip the dog, border collie dog with a dot on her head!

My first 'dotted' animal I meet here!


After everyone was finished eating we all went snuggle up with Skip for a group hug, it was very comphy in her basket





The weather wasnt nice, so we decide to stay inside, well we sat outside under a tent so we stayed dry.
Leonie had some postcards to write and send out, I helped her a hand.
As I am an office mouse I like writing and also some of her writingsheets needed some organising so I helped her out there aswell.
 

I am quite tired of this first day in Rotterdam, Leonie told me I can relax and be as active as I would like to be! No hurry!!

Today was the day Leonie cleaned up the rabbits cages, she asked all the toys to help her.

Yalara and Pebbles were very excited about us little ones helping out.



The bunch of us were chatting about playing a game whilst Pebbles was running around the livingroom.
We had the cage all to ourselves. The idea came up to play hide and seek in the straw

Veggies was it, counted and counted so we could hide away.


We hide very well! veggies couldnt find us at ol!

Pebbles also tried helping out with finding us, but all she did was running around the house!

I saw veggies hanging out of the cage, what she really think we went hiding under the cage?? lol


Oh No! We better hide further away in the straw, Veggies is soo close by!!

Gotcha!!!!  oww We were found!


This was a very nice game we played and we all fell over of laughing!



hello Yalara! Im going to help out with cleaning up!
 
hello Pebbles! im here to help a hand!

Straw and hay for the rabbit keeps the doctor away!



Im a small mouse but a strong one!!!



As a treat I could eat as much as i liked from the rabbit food, Thanks for sharing with me Pebbles!

Lets have rest in the nice comphy hay ;-)

Oww dear Im so thirsty lets have some water


Today was fun to play with the others and to be with the rabbits.

The bags were packed and we were ready to set off for a weekend break. The destination was the province Friesland. And we went to the place called Workum:



Workum (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Country  Netherlands
Province  Friesland
Population
- Total c. 4,000

Workum (West Frisian: Warkum) is the largest town of Nijefurd in Friesland. It received city rights in 1374. It lies within the municipality of Nijefurd. Currently has around 4000 inhabitants.

Today, Workum is probably best known for having a museum dedicated to the very popular artist Jopie Huisman. Furthermore it is one of the eleven cities of the Elfstedentocht.

Here we are enjoying the Dutch scenery view from out the train.


We set off early friday morning and arrived about 2 o clock in the afternoon. The flag was hanging outside of the room we stayed at




Friesland  (taken from wikipedia)
(West Frisian: Fryslân, Dutch: Friesland) is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the bigger region known as Frisia. In order to distinguish it from the other Frisian regions, it is commonly specified as Westerlauwer Frisia, Westerlauwer Friesland, West Frisia or West Friesland. The latter two names may lead people to confuse the region with the neighbouring landscape called 'West-Friesland', in the North Holland province.

Up until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian endonym Fryslân.

Friesland has 643,000 inhabitants (2005) and its capital is Leeuwarden (Ljouwert), with 91,817 inhabitants, in the center of the province.
Friesland distinguishes itself from the other eleven provinces through having its own language, West Frisian, which is also spoken in a minor part of the province of Groningen, to the east. Closely related languages, East Frisian ("Seeltersk", which is different from "East Frisian (Ostfriesisch)", a collection of Low German dialects of East Frisia) and North Frisian, are spoken in the Saterland and in North Friesland areas in Germany, respectively. Friesland was a part of the German empire until 1680 when it separated and joined the Netherlands. Part of Friesland is still considered part of Germany (Ostfriesland)



The English language is also closely related to West Frisian. There is a saying about it: "As milk is to cheese, are English and Fries." Another version of this saying reads (in West Frisian): "Bûter, brea, en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries", which in English reads: "Butter, bread, and green cheese, whoever can't say that is no upright Fries" (According to legend, the 16th century Frisian freedom fighter Pier Gerlofs Donia forced his captives to repeat this shibboleth to distinguish Frisians from Dutch and Low Germans). The saying plays on the sound differences between the Dutch and Frisian words for "butter, bread, and green cheese", which in Frisian are pronounced almost identically to their English counterparts (showing the original closeness between the two languages), while in Dutch ("Boter, brood, en groene kaas"), these words sound quite different.



Friesland is mainly an agricultural province. The famous black and white Friesian cattle and the well known black Friesian horse originated here. Tourism, mainly on the lakes in the south west of the province, and on the islands in the Wadden Sea in the north, is an important source of income, too. Technology companies such as Asset Control have also set up base in Friesland.

The province is famous for its speed skaters, with mass participation in cross-country skating when weather conditions permit. In winters that are cold enough to allow the freshwater canals to freeze hard, the province is the focus of the Elfstedentocht (Eleven cities tour), a 200 kilometers ice skating tour. In the warmer months, many Frisians practice wadlopen, the traditional art of wading across designated sections of the Wadden Sea at low tide. Another Frisian practice is fierljeppen, a sport with some similarities to pole vaulting. A jump consists of an intense sprint to the pole (polsstok), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top while trying to control the pole's forward and lateral movements over a body of water and finishing with a graceful landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point. Because of all the diverse skills required in fierljeppen, fierljeppers are considered to be very complete athletes with superbly developed strength and coordination.



Another interesting feature are the many windmills. There are 195 windmills in the province of Friesland, from a total of about 1200 in the entire country.





We rented bicycles to explore the area of Workum and the nearby places of interest. Such as Hindeloopen.










In Hindeloopen there was a sailing contest, but due to the lack of wind they just sailed around.
There was a small market with some stands, look at the delicious Friese kaas  Frysian cheese


After we walked around we sat down for a short break, in the back you can see the masts of the boats in the harbour of Hindeloopen.
 

We cycled back and this is the map we used for the routes:


On our way back we came across only farm land, either with cattles (cows) or sheep. Also we saw horses, and only one special Frysian big horse, too bad it was too far for a picture and we were not allowed on the farms premisise.






We came back very tired so we went straight to bed:


The next day a new adventure.....

I've arrived at my next host's home! Her name is Jayme. She has two very active little boys, so our first stop was the playground. That was fine by me, I got a chance to stretch a bit!


Hmm... the monkey bars were a bit big.


I did find some pretty flowers. Jayme said it had been very rainy the last few days and that was probably why they were blooming now.


And wow! I'm going to live all the way up on the 8th floor for awhile!


And here's the Shisa for this side of the building. Most buildings have them and they're always found in pairs. They're guardian dog/lions.


Write more soon!
Dottie

Today we got to take a quick trip to the library. The kid's section of course...

We did get to see lots of books though.

And even did some reading!


Write more soon,
Dottie

Today we got to learn a lot more about Okinawa. Though Okinawa used to be an independent nation it has been conquered by many different people. The latest in the early 1900's by Japan. Since then it has remained a Japanese prefecture. Today Jayme said we're taking a very special trip to learn about the island's history, but we have to prepare our meals first.

So we made bento boxes, these are toddler sized ones for her two children.


You can see they stack up to be carried easily.


I also had to do some that were larger for the adults.




Traditionally bentos has rice in them instead of crackers, but Jayme said we were in a bit of a hurry and she didn't have any cooked rice. Darn. But our preparations done, we were able to get on our way..

This very beautiful coast line is found at the edge of the Okinawa Peace Memorial Park.


Okinawa was caught in the middle of World War II's Battle of Okinawa.  During the battle Okinawa's large civilian population could not escape. Because of this they suffered many, many casualties. As a remembrance of this battle and the loss suffered, the Peace Memorial Park was put into place. There are many smaller memorials throughout the grounds as well as a cemetary, but you are not to take pictures of Okinawan tombs without the permission of the family.  We could take pictures of some of the Memorials though.



The most beautiful and sad part of the park is over this small bridge here.


In here are walls... so many rows of walls! With over 200,000 names inscribed into them of those who lost their lives during the Battle of Okinawa. Most of them were civilians, but there are also military from Japan, the United States, and Great Britain inscribed here. It is a very sad and amazingly beautiful site.


What an amazing place to visit and learn about! After our visit we headed home, but the children had been so well that we decided to stop half way to let them play a bit.


What an exhausting day... time to head home and take a little break!

Write more soon,
Dottie

Today Jayme said we needed to swing by the airbase. There really isn't much to see there, just many homes, businesses, and offices as well as the airport, but there is one neat park. There are many retired planes here from the 1950's onward.




Write more soon,
Dottie Mouse

Today we went to a neat place that's supposed to teach us more about Okinawan heritage. Its called Murasaki Mura. Here we are outside the front entrance.


Inside all the streets were old stone roads.


There were many things to see. Do you see how small we are next to this whale shark?


And here's a traditional Okinawan Building.


Here's another building


The lion/dogs you saw us with at the entrance are called Shisa. They always come in a pair, male and female. The male has its mouth closed to catch any bad spirits and the female has her mouth open to let the good spirits through. There were lots and lots of neat Shisa's here.







You could even paint your own! We didn't paint, but we watched Jayme's son paint.


And on the way out we found this neat prism thing were you could take your picture.


Write more soon,
Dottie

Today we decided to take a break and do something fun instead of educational To that end, we headed to Comprehensive Park. Comprehensive Park is near where Jayme lives and is the biggest park on the island! There's lots to do there. Our goal today was the fish pond. Once we got there, we paid for our tickets and got into the paddle boat! They didn't have life jackets to fit us, so we had to hold on tight...


Here's a better view of the bridge from this side.


Ohh and here's a box of fish food!


The fish followed our boat all through the water.


And we got to see some ducks too!


We headed back under the bridge towards the boat docking area.


And a little turtle came to visit


Finally we docked the boat then went to the playground for a bit to run off some energy.


And then headed home! Write about our next adventure soon,
Dottie Mouse

Today we had to start off with running some errands.  First we had to check the mail.




Then we had to go to one of the small stores on base


While we were on base, we looked up and saw a helocopter overhead!


From there we went back to a different area of Comprehensive Park.


There was a different playground here


And we played ball with the kids for awhile


There was a neat statue over near where we were playing ball


After we were done playing ball we walked over to these benches underneath some giant seashells to take a break


Jayme said the tide was out, when its in it covers all the rocks.


Write more soon!
Dottie Mouse

Well we were sitting around the house being a little bored so we did a puzzle (okay, Jayme's husband helped some!)


Then did some Halloween Decorating


And then found out we were going to a place called the Nakamura House. It was built in the 1400's and is a traditional home from that era on Okinawa.
Here I am in front of one of the sleeping rooms. There were many sleeping rooms, and one family slept in each.


And here's the storage room


This is a family room


You can kind of see the ceiling in this photo


Here's the kitchen area


And the horse stables


As well as pigpens


This used to be a well, but it was filled up and flowers were planted


And here's some of the many stairs around


And finally here's one of a few Shisa in the home


It was a very neat, though very small for so many families!

Write more soon,
Dottie

Today we took a very neat trip to a place called Okinawa World. Our trip started off in a cave, where we were supposed to be quiet...






This is a waterfall







It was a long walk! When it was all through we stopped for lunch and a walk through the village area. They had an area where glass was being made


We also got to look down at a brewery


Finally we got to the exit and the Eisa Dancers. Eisa is a traditional dance to Okinawa. It was a very neat show to see!




You can see a video example of Eisa Dancing here: Eisa

More adventures soon!

Love,
Dottie

Today we went to a neat place called the Pineapple Park. After we paid for our tickets we went to get inside the pineapple carts.


Here I am inside the cart


Behind me you can see tiny pineapples growing!


And here's some other plants related to pineapples.




When we were all done in the pineapple cart we went into a small seashell museum


After that we went into a store that had all sort of pineapple sweets. They even had some pineapple wine!


After leaving the store we took some wine to relax on the beach. What a fun day!

Write more soon,
Dottie