Travelog for: BineHH

On our way to our holiday house, we took this photo of the landscape.




Then we drove to Czech Republic just to take a photo of the sign. Our car is in Czech Republic, while we are in Germany to take the photo - I think, it's a bit crazy.

Schöneck (also: Schöneck/Vogtl.) is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 18 km southeast of Plauen, and 35 km north of Cheb. Schöneck belongs to the so called "Musikwinkel", maybe translated music area, to which also belongs Klingenthal, Markneukirchen and Erlbach. Since 1962 it is a place for recreation and winter sports.

We stopped at the neobaroque city hall.




We only visited a place called "alter Söll", where you have a great view over the landscape, even with sight to Fichtelgebirge.

So this is the last day of October, time for us to say goodbye to Oelsnitz and our beautiful house. We needed some more diesel, so we drove to Czech Republic, because we were close to the border. There diesel is cheaper than in Germany. I think, more people had this idea to buy it there, because we had to wait more than half an hour before we were at the diesel fuel pump.




It had frost outside, so it was rather cold in the car too.

Today it was time to bake a cake for my host son's 19th birthday party. It is called Hansen Jensen Cake. Her son asked her for using gooseberries for stuffing.

Today two other toyvoyagers arrived at our place. So now there are: Galo, Little, Jennifer, Homer, Tilla Mook, Smooch, Spooky, Scotty, Pinkz, Mandy Sheep and me.

Here you see, how the cake looks like, when you cut it. I can tell you, it tastes delicious.

Today evening my hosts had a dinner called "Würstchen im Schlafrock" (kilted sausages). My host wanted some fresh vegetables in it, but there was only one small piece of a tomato. They also had a beer called Rauchbier, so it was a very special dinner.

It is a time for baking cakes it seems. My hosts will meet friends today, so here we are preparing a cake called Torta di Mandorle, a cake with many almonds.

Later we helped getting finished with decorating the house. There are so many nice little things to put up and maybe you will see more photos of everything later.

This is my hosts' favorite window decoration.




Here you see the advent calendar for our hosts' daughter. This year there are ships sailing on the sea.




There is a really frosty decoration in front of the entrance. I like it.








Finally here is the cake. It tastes great.





And here you see the decoration of the kitchen window.

It is the first day, that my host has time to bake some Christmas cookies. We were allowed to help her. Everyone had a special job to do. She put the Christmas CD into the CD player and we sang the songs together with her.

We start to prepare the dough for Husarenkrapferl and Vanillekipferl (crescent-shaped pastry or roll with vanilla) and Kokosmakronen (coconut macaroons) . I think, these are really funny names.

Today we have beautiful, but cold weather and we asked our host, if she would have time to show us some places in Bruchsal. She packed us in her rucksack. We still had about -12°C, what is rather cold in this region.


Bruchsal (orig. Bruohselle, Bruaselle) is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km Northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route.
Bruchsal is the largest city in the district of Karlsruhe and is known for being Europe's largest asparagus producer and one of the economic centers of the region of Karlsruhe


Bruchsal is located at the edge of the Upper Rhine River Plains and the Kraichgau along the Saalbach, which is a small tributary of the Rhine that joins it between Philippsburg and Oberhausen.
                                   
Ancient era and early Middle Ages
Excavations and artifacts that were discovered evidence a settlement existing on the Michelsberg (Untergrombach) as early as 4000 BC during the Neolithic. In the core of Bruchsal the oldest settlement discovered was dated back to 640 AD. It is located near the present Peterskirche, where I stay right now. The first mention of Bruchsal in official documents occurred in 976 when the King came to town. And during October of the year 980, Otto II and his Court stayed at the King's palace in Bruchsal for several days

1248 was the first time Bruchsal was referred to as a city and in 1278 St. Peters Church is mentioned for the first time. After extensive damage to both, the Palace and the Peterskirch were reconstructed in 1320. The Bergfried (an outlook and defensive tower bastion) was erected in 1358 and the city wall was completed in 1452. In 1460 the first coin was pressed in Bruchsal.


By April 24, 1711 Bruchsal had recovered sufficiently to play host to Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Habsburg Court in Vienna. Then in 1716 the Bishop of Speyer, Heinrich von Rollingen, moved his residence into the Bruchsal Palace. This move elevated the city's status to that of an official residence of the Diocese of Speyer. At the same time, Bruchsal became the seat of the "Vizedomamt", the most important office held by the Diocese on the West bank of the Rhine. In 1719 Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn became the new Bishop and after settling in he commissioned in (1722), among others, the new baroque château and the new Peters Church (from 1742). Both were built and, in part, designed by Balthasar Neumann. In the Bishop's honor, the Southern gate out of the château grounds is referred to as Damian's Gate to this day.


In the afternoon of March 1, 1945, Bruchsal was bombed. In addition to the 1,000 lives that perished that day, the entire inner city and the baroque château were destroyed. The baroque palace was rebuilt in the 70th.
   

That's enough of history now. I'm not sure, whether you want to read everything, but I thought, Petra should write a bit about Bruchsal's history. She used wikipedia and you will find more history and information there.

We went to see the palace. You see some small houses in front of the palace, which belong to the soon opened Christmas market. It is the back side of the palace.

   




The tower on the right side belongs to the catholic church St. Damian and Hugo.







There's a nice pond in the park, which is frozen right now.





There are statues, which show the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. And there are four statues showing the four elements water, fire, earth and wind.





There are some of the most beautiful and oldest houses of Bruchsal in Franz-Bläsi-Straße.

The Belvedere (Bruchsal) was originally designed as a Manor for fun and games, to which a shooting house was added for use in the shooting competitions often held by the Court. As time went by, the Manor was nicknamed Belvedere by the city's residents, as it enjoyed the best view of the city. The Belvedere is part of the City Gardens.



view out of a window:

Snow! How nice and beautiful, even when it is only a whiff of snow.

Here is a view out of a window, where my hosts live. You see the top of the tower of the city church and next to it, you see cranes where they build a new shopping center.





Looking to the other side you see this beautiful building, which is called Santa Maria. I hope, to have a closer view soon.




The large building is the music school. The part of the red tower belongs to the Bergfried, the tower of the old castle, and the small small part of the tower to its left is the tower of St. Damian and Hugo.




Then we closed the window, because it still is really cold outside. My hosts love to decorate the windows with paper crafts.




Then we went downstairs to warm up next to the oven in the livingroom.




I asked my host, whether she would like to take a photo with me and the Adventskranz (advent wreath) and she did.

My host said, that now it would be more than urgent to bake some more cookies or we only would have four sorts. You see, that Sweetsy arrived at our home today and also Princess Sarah. Sweetsy brought some wonderful gingerbread cookies with him. But four sorts of cookies aren't enough for all of us, so we told her, that we all would help together and get some more done.

Here we read the recipe for our host's favorite gingerbread recipe. Sweetsy was so happy, that at his first day he had the chance to try another gingerbread recipe: Zigeunerschnitten. The recipe is handwritten in our host's book, because it is a family recipe from her grandparents. She said, that she never found this recipe somewhere else, but maybe someone knows this recipe too?




At first Pinkz helped to weigh the butter.






Then I helped to add the sugar for the dough.






Galo said, that if it comes to eggs, it would be his turn. We all were a bit nervous, because we didn't know, if he could stand it.









Hey, Galo! What's the matter!





Wake up! We knew it! It was too hard for him!





After a while Galo felt better and we all went back to our places.





Now Jennifer added almonds.




Sweetsy added raisins.




We had to have a break in preparing the dough for Zigeunerschnitten, because we forgot to buy some necessary ingredients. So we went on with preparing other cookies.


Jimmy_D helped to prick out the Spitzbuben cookies.




Smooch and Scotty helped to roll the dough for Zimtsterne (star-shaped cinnamon cookies).




Ceryni tried to help to form Nougatkipfert.




Finally one other family member bought the missing ingredients for Zigeunerschnitten and we had been able to finish the dough.

Scotty added candied lemon peel and candied orange peel to the dough.




Spooky used the spoon to add cacao powder to the dough.




Then it was time to add the cinnamon.




At last it was time to add the flour.




Pinkz stirred the dough.




The result is a really heavy brown dough.




Smooch and Galo rolled the dough on the baking plate. It is hard work.






After baking the air smelled of gingerbread, yummy. Nevertheless we still had to decorate the Zigeunerschnitten.






After the Zigeunerschnitten were cold enough we cut them into smaller pieces and put them in a box.




We also decorated the Nougatkipferl




and Husarenkrapferl

Here you have another view out of a window in the attic. It shows the view to the church St. Peter, which is next to the graveyard.