Travelog for: C.K.

Welcome to Lanzarote, boy is it hot, we arrived quite late but great to be out of the bag all 3 of us.  It was about 80-90 degrees, that means hot.  We were at a place called Papagayo, Iberostar Papagayo hotel, very nice too and lots of food, we were all stuffed all week.... hot from first thing.

VOLCANO TIMANFAYA LANZAROTE

The Montañas del Fuego (Mountains of Fire), on the west side of Lanzarote, are the central feature of the Timanfaya National Park (area 5,107 hectares/20 sq.mi), which was established in 1974.

The Timanfaya National Park, in northwestern Lanzarote, is a center of volcanic activity. The lower part of the park consists of a large lava field out of which rise a series of cones and craters, like the Caldera Roja, near which is the only spring in this very hot and dry area, the Fuente de los Miraderos. These higher points, covered with volcanic ash, lapilli and "bombs", are a striking sight with their varied hues of black, yellow and red. Visitors can follow the Ruta de los Volcanes (14km/9mi) through the park. The inhospitable volcanic terrain is slow to recover a mantle of vegetation. The most resistant plants are the lichens, of which there are more than a dozen species. They are usually followed by succulents like Aeonium lancerotense Prager and various euphorbias (E. balsamifera Ait., E. obtusifolia Poir.); also common is aulaga maiorera (Zollikoferia spinosa Boiss.), which the local people set on fire for the benefit of tourists. A curious feature to be seen on the coast, where the lava has formed natural bridges, is the growth of rushes (Juncus acutus L.) in regular rows on the porous subsoil which stores up water. The only vertebrates are reptiles, the commonest and most interesting of which is the Atlantic lizard (Lacerta atlantica) or lagarto de haria, a species endemic in the Canaries.
The volcano is still live!!  and hot, if you pick up stones near the top just slightly a bit down they are very hot!! 

You will see the big spout of water, well a hole had been dug several metres down and then water poured on and only 3 seconds laters, this happened that is how alive it is.  We boys were so excited.l  WOW....

And we had a ride on a camel..... the man was laughing at us, we should be laughing at him, he is the one doing the walking with the camel not us!!!  ha ha ha

Hi, well we are back in Honiton.  My host has been in hospital for a small operation on her knee.  Next week she is hoping to be well enough to travel in the car to PADSTOW.... YEAH... thats near where i live, well sort of ... near where I live in Australia!!!!!  so that would be good another Padstow...

Got photo`s of snowy to download and I went into the local church so I have postcards of that too.  We are going to the Tram museum in Seaton, they still run the old looking trams so hopefully we 3 can take an adventure on that. 

Then it will be off to pastures new, us 3 boys have had a great adventure, all for one and one for all....


Well Lila bun arrived today and expecting another bunny soon Cotton Candy and what with a really bunny Snowy we are being overtaken by G I R L S....not sure I am too happy about that BUT  she is pretty and very much a lady, having a tea party lady... I think gone are our boys days... all the boys seem to be hanging around her now...

Well I have been reunited with my family, how wonderful, Cotton Candy has arrived, big hugs all round.  Now I feel homesick.  Soon I am going to Christina B in Vienna...

Well today us boys wanted to go out but Lila bunz (the posh lady) wanted a tea party on the lawn... very English I know and as she is a woman and bossy, we boys gave in for the quiet life as we do.  but it turn out to be fun fun fun

We sat there in the garden, the sun was out the birds were singing and the bunny hopping around.  We had chocolate biscuits with the tea in proper cups and saucers with tea with milk, strange idea but apparantly very English.

Then disaster struck, we were introduced to Snowy the lady bunny, very pretty for a girl, but oh no she did not want that she dived into our tea party for the biscuits, oh dear, in the rush she knocked down Taro, the I must have had heat stroke cos I passed out right in front of Lila bunz!!!  ha ha ha    and worse for her was I was right in front of her head when the picture was taken,  not a happy bunny, pardon the pun!!! 

Well it was a lovely weekend and we went to Padstow in Cornwall, thats the leggy bit at the end of South West England, well actually the leg of UK.  We firstly went to the market, our host could only hobble so did not stay their much. We then found this Pizie sanctuary, it was great we were nearly as tall as them!!  ha ha ha

Then we boys spotted the sign saying "Padstow", which is where I and Cotton Candy come from but in Australia, amazing luck so we stopped so they could have a picture taken.  Then we continued to Padstow, lovely place with a lovely harbour, we were at the sea-side!!! yippeeeeeee.  We then went to the tea rooms, us boys were not that bothered so Lila bunz went on her own so we went exploring.  Then we went home to a roast dinner, yum yum,

Then it was time to be packaged up and sent to my next host!!!  how sad.... hope I meet the others again along the trail.

Hello!

I arrived in Vienna/Austria now. To be honest, my first impression of this place isn't sooo good because I had to stay in a very narrow (and crowded) mailbox for more than 2 days since my hosts were in the countryside during the weekend. Luckily Alfie Langer was in the same box, too, so I at least had somebody to talk with during that time. What a surprise when we finally also got to see each other now that we are both out of our envelopes!!

Well, my host told me that she is going to show us some nice places here in Vienna so I hope to get some new impressions of this city soon!!

Sleep well!

Meanwhile I completely changed my first opinion of Austria: It's a great place here!! I'm really having a good time. My hosts already showed me alot and I'm in a great company with the other toyvoyagers. Last Wednesday also Alfie Langer joined us so we are a big group of funny characters.

Last Saturday we convienced our host to take us to lake Neusiedlersee which isn't far away from Vienna, only about half an hour. It was such a hot day so it was great to spend a refreshing day at the lake. Neusiedlersee is different to all the other lakes in Austria because it has no river bringing the water to the lake, it only gets it from rain. So it isn't deep, only 1,5 m at the deepest point and the water isn't as clear as in other lakes since there is hardly any movement in the lake. But it was nice and very warm!

Oh, what a busy time I'm having here in Austria! I really did a lot of sightseeing - so much that I didn't even find enough time to update my travellog. But now here there are some photos from last week when my host took me to the citycentre. You can see me in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral, St. Charles' Church, a very beautiful subway station and in front  of the opera.

But there was alot more to see: the Parliament, the Hofburg (that's the old castle where the Habsburg family lived in former times... are you surprised what I learnt about Austrian history, hm?), the City hall, Belvedere castle,... I had a looong walk through the city centre - and guess whom I met here?! Yeah - good old Mozart!!

I also saw the big Danube Tower (unfortunately we didn't go up; as you can see the weather wasn't very friendly so we thought that the view from the tower wouldn't be so nice...). When we entered the subway station nearby we also saw the building of the UNO. Interesting architecture, hm? Then my host took me to the Big wheel and we visited a very beautiful park full of roses.

Frida, Pooh, Taro, Alfie Langer and I were very helpful for our hosts - we really tried to show ourselves from our best sides!! One day it was time to pick the cherries from the tree. Oh, how much work we had!!! But it was very funny - and the cherries were really delicious!

I spent a beautiful day in the park of Schönbrunn palace here in Vienna. Schönbrunn was the former summer residence of the Habsburg family and it is nowadays one of Austria's most popular tourist attractions I was told. And I really believed it because there were sooo many people there. The park is really nice with all the flowers. We even went up the little hill to visit "Gloriette" where we had an impressing view over the city.

The previous weekend our hosts took me and the other toyvoyagers to lake Attersee in Upper Austria. That's situated between Linz and Salzburg very close to the Alps and it is very beautiful there. My host's grandparents own a flat there so we enjoyed some very nice days at the lake.

One day (it wasn't warm enough to go swimming) we also visited Gmunden a small town at lake "Traunsee", only about 30 km from there. Imagine that they have a castle there on a little island in the lake!!! That was nice! And the city hall of Gmunden has many, many bells and every hour they play a little melody! How nice!!!

CK left Vienna yesterday. He is on his way to Germany now and we hope he'll have a good journey. Take care, little koala. We'll miss you!

Your Austrian host family

I happily landed here in sunny hot Bruchsal in Germany. After a little rest I will explore the surrounding.

I was at my hosts school today. She showed me the silk paintings of her pupils. They had project days at school. I like these paintings, maybe I will try it myself one day. Can you believe, that those girls, who painted this pictures are only 10 or 11 years old?