Münzesheim, Germany - 22nd August 2008
By: fam-united
The weather is rather nice this morning. So Petra asked her son Fabian and us, whether we would like to go to a place for a little walk.
When we arrived there, we first had to read the rules, how to behave in the park:
- parents are liable for their children (Are we children???? - No!)
- entry at your own's risk (Okay.)
- walk a dog on a lead (We have no dogs with us, have we?)
- cycling and scooters forbidden (Okay, we will let our car on the parking place, because we think, that's forbidden too, isn't it?)
- don't cut plants - poisonous ( )
- no alcohol (Okay, we know and we never drink alcohol anyway. Petra told us, that there is a clinic for those, who are addicted to alcohol, so of course nobody should drink there)
Petra, will you really translate everything at first before we can go into the park??? Don't you know, that we all will behave like always? Ok, we will behave even better than we do normally. So please let us walk into the park now. We know, that we are in an Asian Garden, so you don't have to explain anything, okay?
This ceiling is built with blue bottles.
Petra, do you think, that's funny?!?!
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Posted Aug 25, 2008, 2:32 pm
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Cologne, Germany - 31st August 2008
By: fam-united
Petra, her family and we drove to Cologne today. We met olgamaus and several other toyvoyagers there and had a great day together.
First I want to tell you a bit about Cologne:
Cologne is the fourth-largest city of Germany with about 1 Million inhabitants. It had been founded by Romans in the year 38BC and became the status of a Roman city in 50AD.
Cologne lies on the Rhine River. It is famous for the Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom), which is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. The University of Cologne is one of Europe’s oldest universities. Cologne is also famous for the Cologne Carnival. Within Germany it is important as a media center, because many radio and television stations are based here.
I'm in front of the cathedral. Do you see the nice ornaments?
It isn't easy to take a photo of the whole cathedral, because everywhere you go, you run against walls.
Here you see a side of the Cologne Cathedral. We were surprised, that there was only a small scaffold, because they always have to repair parts of the Cathedral.
We still had some time left, before we met Ralf, Petra's husband again, who had to go to the garden exhibition, so we decided to walk down to the River Rhine and take some photos there. Here you see the railway bridge and a cruise vessel.
Just turning around on our heels we saw a part of Cologne's historic city.
We tried to find a place for a group photo and found this dry fountain, which just seemed to be the right place. Katja, Petra and Sabrina helped us to sit at the right place.
Then we walked back to the Cologne Cathedral to meet Ralf and go to have lunch together.
We walked to a typical Cologne restaurant, which also has a small brewery (Brauerei).
Of course it was a must to order "Köllsch" and a Malzbier, both typical beers of Cologne.
After lunch we walked back to the cathedral, because we had no chance to go inside in the morning. There still had been church service in it. Now it was open and we went into this big church with its beautiful windows. I'm sorry, but the photos aren't that great.
The cathedral is a World Heritage Site. It is one of the world's largest churches, the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. It has the scecond-tallest church spires and presents the largest facade of any church in the world. The construction began in 1248 and took until 1880 to complete. It is 144,5 metres long, 86,5 metres wide and its two towers are 157 metres tall.
Finally Katja and Petra were in need of a cup of coffee and the kids needed something to drink too. So we decided to walk to one of the nice cafes in Cologne and sit down there. We asked Katja and Petra for another group photos- - this time they should be on the photo too. After a short discussion they said "Yes".
On our way back to the cathedral we took another photo, this time with both towers.
The Cologne railway station is next to the cathedral. We went there to say "goodbye" to Katja, who got home by trail.
Then we walked back to the car and drove home too. We needed about 3 hours to arrive at Bruchsal again.
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Posted Sep 1, 2008, 1:31 pm
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Bruchsal, Germany - 21st September 2008
By: fam-united
It's a busy Sunday morning, because Petra has to prepare the batter for many many buttermilk waffles.
Each year they celebrate a feast at their church. It is the feast of the patrons St.Damian and Hugo. Since many years it is tradition for the family club, in which Petra and her family are members, to bake and sell waffles. Each family brings batter for about 70 waffles.
This morning we helped her to get ready with everything, before she had to run to the parish hall, where they always sell the waffles in a tent. We asked, whether we could join her, but this time she had to say no
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Posted Sep 27, 2008, 11:30 pm
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Helmsheim, Germany - 4th October 2008
By: fam-united
Petra's husband bought something for dinner at Aldi, while we sat in the car waiting for him.
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Posted Oct 12, 2008, 9:59 am
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Arras, France - 16th October 2008
By: Fleurdunord
Bonjour!
I arrived in France !! I was very happy to meet a new friend : Gus the girafe... I can't wait to start my new trip ...
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Posted Nov 9, 2008, 8:50 pm
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Wardrecques, France - 19th October 2008
By: Fleurdunord
I travelled to the countryside, at Wardrecques. Gus and I got a part of this cake brought by Fleur's grand-father. It was very yummy! Then we went back to Arras by train.
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Posted Nov 9, 2008, 8:58 pm
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Arras, France - 22nd October 2008
By: Fleurdunord
And another friend : Squiggles, joined us. He's the smallest toyvoyager we ever met ...
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Posted Nov 9, 2008, 9:08 pm
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St Pol sur Ternoise, France - 31st October 2008
By: Fleurdunord
We all went on holidays. We first visited Fleur's grand-father's place. We had lot of fun picking apples. The garden was nice : ienjoyed the autumn.
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Posted Nov 9, 2008, 9:16 pm
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