Travelog for: Voi Nam

Dear Mommy!

Today I arrvived at my new host in the ETVT.

When I crawled out of my envelope I was welcomed my SunnyHH, another TV staying her for the Big German RR.

Dear mommy,

I want to show you where I am right now.

Mechterstädt is a village in Thuringia. Thuringia is the center state
of Germany. I checked out some facts on the internet.



By size Thuringia is the sixth smallest state. The capital is Erfurt.
This is the coat of arms:



Mechterstädt is in the middle of Eisenach and Gotha. Can you see
where I point with my trunk? Here I am now.





Today we took a little walk through the village. There is not very
much to see though  Only about 1000 people live here.









There is a huge construction site at the moment blocking the way
through the village for cars. They are building a tunnel for cars so
that we can get rid of the railway crossing.



We might go to Eisenach on Tuesday and then I will show and tell
you a little bit more!

CU!

Hello mommy!

As I told you , we visited Eisenach today.

The town is about 15 km from the village so it is not a long drive.
Today we did not go by car but we took the train. I twas only 10
minutes to go!



Eisenach  is the town of Luther and Bach.

Luther's statue was the first that I saw.



Before we went to the Luther house we came to the market square.





with the old city castle



And here I am in front of the Luther house where Martin Luther
lived as a child.





We moved on to the Bach house.



The old part is the house where Bach supposedly was born.
The new part was added as a museum some years ago.



We also came across the 'Wandelhalle'.



And this is the narrowest house in Eisenach. It has a width of only
2.05 m! People live in it and so it is maybe the smalles half timbered
house in Germany that people live in.



On the way back to the train station we went through the 'Karlstor'.



Today we did not go to the Wartburg castle because we did not
have a car. But we will go there later - promised!

Weekend! And so it is time for baking a cake.
I decided on a rhubarb cake with fresh rhubarb - yummy!

First I cook the rhubarb.



Then I prepare the filling with custard.



Then the dough:





And finally the cake is ready to go into the oven.



After 40 minutes it is ready and smells soooo good!

We went on a short trip to the Castle Wilhelmsthal near Eisenach.







The castle was built in the 17th century as a resicence for hunting.













Unfortunately today the castle is run down but there is some
construction work going on.

Today a new TV arrived here. It is Claire Tamias, the chipmunk.

Hello mommy!

Today I went  on another  sightseeing trip here in Thuringia. We visited
Wartburg castle. We - that is Claire Tamias and SunnyHH and me.



It is very famous because it is a UNESCO world heritag site.



But before we could see the castle we had to climb the steep hill.
Which was not a problem for me! Claire Tamias also had no
problems with the way but poor little SunnyHH was really
slow and it was hard for her to jump all the way. So Claire Tamias 
offered her to climb on her back and she carried SunnyHH to the top.





When we arrived we had a beautiful view on the castle. The
evening sun came out and all these purple lilac blossoms were so
nice in the background!











After we entered the main gate I read some information about the castle.

Wartburg Castle was founded in the 11th century. The buildings
that you can see today were mainly built in the 19th century with
some older remaining parts.









Then I took a walk through the castle grounds, the inner gate and saw the palace.







On our way back down we took a rest in the sunshine and enjoyed the view over Eisenach.







CU, mommy!

Today was a sunny day and so Claire Tamias and I decided to enjoy
the sun on the balcony.

But first we had to get onto. Thank God there is the cat flap, I
thought, and started to get up there. But for me as an elephant it
was difficult to get through it. Claire Tamias helped me and finally I 
managed to get onto the balcony. For Claire as a chipmunk it was
easier of course!
















The view was amazing. Everything is so green and I even saw the
Inselsberg mountain in the background. With about 900metres it is
the second highest mountain in Thuringia.





Later on I read the newspaper. The weatherforecast isn't too good. There will be rain and the temperatures will cool down a little. Let's see how I will spend my time then.

My next excursion brought me to Gotha, a town about 15 kilomters from Mechterstädt.

Gotha is very old and its history dates back to the 8th century.

I saw the castle Friedenstein which was built by Ernst I of
Saxe-Gotha (later Altenburg), "The Pious",  in the 17th century.



Down castle  hill towards the city center I saw these beautiful wells ('Wasserkunst').







And the red town hall looks very nice too. It used to be a department store.



And then I came across this Pyramide. I thought that it is strange to
find a pyramide here in Thuringia. The secret is that it is a tomb for
Marshall Studnitz who had it built in his garden.

Today a big package arrived and Claire Tamias and I were curious to open it!





There were many things inside but then we saw him in the corner: the little bear!







He crawled out of his box and introduced himself as  Bärndt. He is a
TV travelling on the Big German RR and he will stay with us this month.

I miss you  mom!

We took a short trip to my host mom's parents. We had tea time with cakes.



The garden is very green and you can see the town church in the backgound.

Today we went to Erfurt (which is the state capital of Thuringia) for a marching band contest.



It took place at the Erfurt Fair.





Bands from all over Germany took part in this contest.
I looked at the map to see where they are all from.





And then we lisented to and watched the bands play, all afternoon long.
Great music!

A new addition to my host family:

This kitten moved in today. He is sooooo cute, don't you think?!

I tried something special for dinner today - a recipe from a South African cook book: Peanut soup with coconut.





Here are all the ingredients I need to cook it.






First I need to chop the carrots and leek and  dice the onion.







Everything goes into the pot.



Next it's 75ml of dry white wine.



Now it already looks like a soup. I have to add the peanuts and the coconut though.









After some more time for simmering the soup is ready. Yummy!
Enjoy your meal!