Travelog for: Gian TheFrog

Hi, I was skiing at Lenzerheide. It was beautiful, the sun was shining and the snow was realy grat!
The skihelmet is a little bit big... but it was a funny Day with my friends an my Hostmom Ni! 

This time I stay at home.
Talk with our Cat and fight sometimes... :-D
Go out and enjoy the snow and climbing at trees.
Perhaps i go in the restaurant and drinking some Choclate... i like this so much!!!!
See you soon
bb Gian

Todsay I was with my mom and her boyfriend and a hungary friend at a little travel. We went to the Ahorn 1120m. over the sea.
There we made a walk to the mountainghost, enjoy the outlook and later we met the cows....
It was realy funny!!! 

Yeah I found a host. On Monday I go insaid this officebox.
I will trafel to Germany!
I'm soooo happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Gian has killed all his pathogenic agents now, and is ready for his travel to Germany.

Hello Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid in Germany today. My first host Katja and a whole ToyVoyagers family gave me a warm welcome. All of them were very delighted that I brought so delicious chocolate with me Katja is saying thank you.



My new friends are Easy, Tsukumo, Paula Hip and Brownbeard, a real pirate.

I already feel home here. It is cold, it is snowing a bit, pets with sharp teeth are running around ... even three of them! They are funny little furry and cheeky animals. Unfortunately they did not want to stand still for a photo today.

I'll go out on a short walk with my host later.

Bye
Gian TheFrog

Hi Mummy,
in the late afternoon we went out for a short walk. Brownbeard was also coming with us. First I will show you where I am living at the moment. There is a little park just opposite the houses, you can see a few trees on the photo.



There is a playground not far from my home, but no kid was playing here. Brownbeard said that they were all spoiled kids, sitting in front of their Play Stations instead of playing outside.



You can find lots of lovely old houses here.



Soon it was too dark to take more photos.

In the evening two ladies visited us, Katja's knitting friends. Brownbeard offered to mix cocktails for them. He made delicious mojitos. Cheers!



Katja told me that she is a knitting addict. She made a jumper for Paula recently. At the moment she is knitting socks for her son in law, in green and black - perfect colours for a frog

Bye for today
Gian TheFrog

Hi Mummy,

we took a walk today in the forest with Katja and her broter-in-law.

Remscheid is surrounded by forests, valleys and rural areas. Here you can see the city centre of Remscheid in the background, while we were walking through a district in the south of the municipal area.




Soon we reached a forest. We walked downhill until we reached the sole of the valley.



Of course a creek is running through the valley.



You can also find some fish ponds along the creek, they are all frozen now.



We had a lot of fun in the snow





Our walk took nearly two and a half hour

Bye
Gian TheFrog

Hi Mummy,
when Katja had her lunch break we took a walk in the city centre of Remscheid. Tsukumo accompanied us.

First she showed us the city hall. The original city hall was nearly destroyed in World War II and rebuilt afterwards, in a more modern style. Its  tower is 48 m high.





We went through the shopping mall ...





... towards the public library.



There we looked for some DVDs and books, mostly thriller.





We continued our city exploration. Here is the central bus station.





This place is called "Markt", yes, there was the farmers market taking place today . You can also see one of the churches in the city centre.



The shopping street ...





We reached the main entrance of the shopping mall than.



We had to buy a few things for dinner and return to "our" work place than

Bye
Gian

Hi Mummy,
although the weather was bad we took a long walk today in the outskirts of Remscheid. Even Katja's son accompanied us. We went to one of  the nearby valleys.



The first signs of spring were visible.





We reachend an interesting place, hiden in the forest - an historic hammer mill. Iron and steel were produced here since 15th century.



A large millwheel was lying on the ground. We rested here for a while.





Later we explored the estate.





This is the rear side of the house.



Katja told us that there was also a little pond with a weir. Currently the pond was nearly empty.





We left the valley than and walked uphill towards the city centre of Remscheid. The snow nearly melted away last week.





We walked through lovely hamlets.



We also crossed on of the largest valleys, the one where industrialisation began in middle ages. Still nowadays a lot of companies are working here.



From here we had to walk uphill for about half an hour to get back to the city centre on top of its hill.

Bye
Gian TheFrog

Hi Mummy,
we are so unhappy, it is snowing again. Last week we had the first spring days, but now winter is back.

This is looking like spring ...



... while outside it does not.



My host is knitting socks again



I got some German coins today but unfortunately I do not know where to put them. So I asked Katja if she could make a purse for me, or a bag, or a backpack.



She thought this was a good idea and started immediately knitting something for me.



While she was knitting I played with the pets, or better, I watched them playing. Playing with those predators might come to a bad ending

There is a white bum. A bum does not bite



Another plushy back and bum, more furry this time.



This is Zaehnchen, a tiny ferret lady.



This is Brighty. She loves to hide unter the blanket on the sofa.



And this is Shiva, a sable ferret, looking like a real wild thing.



There is even a fourth one, Manfred, a male ferret who moved in on Saturday. He is still a bit shy.

Soon Katja finished my backpack. Have a look at it.





Later we will go out, I will take my backpack with me than.

Love
Gian

In the afternoon I went with Tsukumo and Katja out later to buy a few things.



In this quarter many lovely old houses survived World War II.







Can you see the yellow house with the slate covered roof? It is the local court, there is also a large new annex .





We went through an area with some historical industrial sites.



This is the former slaughterhouse, situated at the "Route of  Tools" (Trasse des Werkzeugs), a closed railway track which is now a lane for pedestrians and cyclists, following the old track for about 5 km.



There is even interesting artwork along the track, but many of it is now covered by the snow.



Bye for today
Gian TheFrog

Hi Mummy,
there is still snow, but at least it is a wonderful day with sunshine.

We went to the district Luettringhausen to pick up Katja's daughter for a longer walk. Luettringhausen is one of the historic districts of Remscheid.



Soon we went into the forest. We were planning to walk to Lennep, also an historic district.



We reached a valley with a creek running through.



Here in the valley we found an estate with lots of animals, also sheep. They are cameroon sheep.



The sheep were curious if we brought food, but we did not have any.



We found the remains of an old weir.



We followed the path through the valley.



There are even a few houses in the valley.



When we left the valley and walked towards Lennep we saw the inner city of Luettringhausen in the background.



To get to Lennep we followed a main road for some time until we reached the historical inner city. Here you can find lovely narrow lanes and those typical houses.



This is the market place.





Later we went home by bus.

Bye
Gian TheFrog

Hi Mummy,
today Katja went on a walk with her parents. Because they are not the youngest people we chose a short route in the neighbour city Wuppertal. There you can find an arboretum.

An arboretum is a collection of trees, sort of a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study. We went to "Staatsforst Burgholz", a woodland area which is situated in both urban area of Wuppertal and also the urban area of Solingen. When World War II was over, there were nearly all trees felled for rebuilding of destroyed city areas and also as firewood.

Searching for fast-growing forest species trees from foreign counties were planted than in this area to study their growth in local weather conditions. Plants from North America, South America, Asia and Europe were planted.



There are several walking paths through the arboretum. We decided to walk along a path showing trees of Europe and Mideast.





We had to follow those green signs.





This is a tree which is the favourite Christmas tree for many Germans, a Causasian fir. The German word for it, "Nordmanntanne", is making most people consider that this tree is originated in Scandinavia, not in Russia, Georgia or Eastern Turkey



On the way back to the car we came along an area with trees from North America.



Indeed, it looks reddish!



Bye for today
Gian TheFrog

Hi Mummy,
this week most of the snow melted away. We all hope that spring will come soon! We took a walk to Germany's highest railway bridge, Muengsten Bridge. This railway bridge is connecting Remscheid and the neighbour city Solingen, overspanning the valley of river Wupper.

It took us a 40 minutes walk until we could have a first look at the bridge.



We followed a hiking trail which is coming close to the bridge, but we intended to cross the river and walk on the other side of the valley.



Very obviously we are still having winter



We crossed the river and followed the hiking path, like the river meandering along the steep slope of the valely.



Muengsten Bridge was built of steel, completed in 1907. It is about 480 m long and 107 m tall. There are extensive repair works going on in the last few years, and there will be more this year from April till at least October.



Some years ago a leisure park was created under the bridge. You can find lawns here for relaxing, a crazy golf course, a restaurant, snack bars, a kiosk and playgrounds for kids.



When we get home, we will have to wash our trousers and clean the shoes - the paths in the forest were incredibly muddy

Bye
Gian TheFrog