Travelog for: BineHH

Merry Christmas to everyone at home.


For Holy Eve we have chicken fricassee for dinner. This is a traditional food in my hosts' family.




Later after singing Christmas songs and unwrapping presents we had time to eat some Christmas cookies.

I wish you all a happy new year. There is no big party at my hosts' home, so you only see a photo with me and a part of the Christmas tree.




We had raclette for dinner.

It is snowing

We thought we could go out today, but our host is ill. So she only took another photo out of an attic window.

The next day I helped my hosts' daughter to write her vocabulary cards in Latin.




After that work my host took me for a very short walk to the church, which we've seen, when we looked out of the attic window. It is the baroque church St. Peter.





Here you have a view to a narrow street with some of the oldest houses of Bruchsal.

Today we have sunny weather!! Such a sensation!!! So we decided to go out and have lunch at the restaurant on top of the Michaelsberg next to the Michaelskapelle (chapel), which belong to Untergrombach, one of Bruchsal's suburbs.


We had such a great view over the landscape. The houses you see on the right side in the foggy background belong to Bruchsal.




These houses belong to Untergrombach. You see the Rhine valley, but we are standing at the edge to the Kraichgau.




The chapel is beautiful, isn't it?




On our way back home we drove through Untergrombach.

This one had to be my farewell photo. It is snowing again and my host has some more health problems again. She is so sad, that she had had no chance to go out as much as she wanted to.

Hi Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid today. They have lots of melting snow here.

Bye
BineHH

Hi Mummy,

we went out in the early morning to buy bread rolls and a newpaper. So the following photos were taken in the vicinity of my Katja's  home. By the way, Katja is my new host.



What is looking like snow is more ice than snow. It's difficult to avoid falling on your buttom.



They have lots of pretty old houses here.





Later, back home, we prepared breakfast. There are three more ToyVoyagers here, but they were still asleep.

Yummy, coffee!





Katja's son prepared a bread roll for me with butter and cheese.



Bye
BineHH

Hi Mummy,
we went to Essen today to visit an exhibition and an art museum. Essen is a a city in the central part of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia. For the year 2010, Essen is the European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr Area.

We went there with Katja's friend Erika. We went to Essen by train.



First we went to a church in the district Frohnhausen. A friend of Erika has an exhibition here together with another artist. We had to take another train to get there. The train station is looking funny - like someone toppled the staircase.



Here we are.









This part of the church is a so called "Notkirche". I'm sorry but we did not find a translation for this word.

We went to the city centre afterwards to have lunch, so we took a walk though the shopping streets. Here you can see the cathedral in the middle of the city centre.







On a central space they have a skating rink and this downhill ramp. Here you can dash downhill with a large rubber tire.



Seems to be great fun





Than we took a bus to the Museum Folkwang, a major collection of 19th and 20th century art. Its new building was opened a few days ago.





As almost always it was not allowed to take photos inside the museum. We have seen paintings and photographs, space installation and placards in a special exhibition. It was very interesting.

Bye
BineHH

Hi Mummy,
we visited a friend today in another district of Remscheid, Luettringhausen, a district with a historical urban centre. On our way to the bus Katja showed me the local court.







We decided to take a walk with the dog in Luettringhausen. We had to walk through the city centre first to get to a nice valley.









Soon we reached the valley, with meadows and forrests.





We even saw some houses in the middle of nowhere.





I met some sheep here.



They have several jogging paths here, each one marked with a different colour.



It is still snowing.

Bye
BineHH

Hi Mummy,
today we took another walk in one of the valley which are surrounding the municipal area. We walked along the creed "Morsbach", which is marking the border between Remscheid and the neighbour city Wuppertal.





Here is a frozen pond.





We came through a small hamlet.



This is the creek "Morsbach".



Here you can see me with my host in a road traffic safety mirror.





Later the sun came out.





To get home we had to walk uphill for ages.



Bye
BineHH

Hi Mummy,
I watched the ferrets playing today. Ragamuffin is so afraid of all animals and she always thought that the ferrets might escape from their cage one day and eat her. I am not afraid of the ferrets because of my loricate.



They have a wonderful fur, Katja's son alway says that they would make a warm and soft pillow



Shiva turned me around but nothing happened to me.



Later Ragamuffin wasn't afraid of the ferrets any longer. She recognized their soft fur and really liked it.



Bye
BineHH

After playing with the ferrets we helped Katja to prepare a fruit salad.

First we prepared blood oranges.



Than we added banana, kiwi and apples ...





... than I cracked some walnuts.



I've done a great job, have a look!



We mixed everything in a glass bowl, it looked fantastic.



Yummy!

Bye
BineHH

Hi Mummy,
the snow is melting away now. We took a short walk in the city.

When we left Katja's workplace I've seen the city hall.



Take a look at the temperature! It seems that springtime is coming.



They have an exhibition here in the shopping street, energy saving, environmentally friendly heating and so on.



In this pretty house a store for house decorating items is situated.



Here you can see the public library.



This is the company building of the local newspaper, Remscheider GeneralAnzeiger.



The "Volkshochschule" (adult education center) is situated in this modern building.



Here you can see the central bus station ...



... and the end of the shopping street.





Bye
BineHH