Travelog for: Günther

Hey Mommy,

today DuDette left.
We all cuddled her. May your journey be safe!






In the afternoon we found a treasure map. It was made by DuDette!


Pass the tree, meet the orange ball-flower, pass the pond and the sunflower, find the red vegetable and the red X...

Ok! We passed the tree...


...found the orange flower...


...passed the pond...


...and the sunflower...


...and finally found the tomato and the red X!


We started to dig and after a while we found the treasure!




We went to another place to open it.
There was a coin, a flower, some gems and a big piece of cheese inside!



Günther

Hello to all at home!

What an exciting day!

This morning we jumped into the big car.


First we passed Lake Goitzsche. Can you see it?


We already knew this way. We've been here when we went to Halle.



Hmm, no freeway today.














We finally parked the car and whoohooo we are in one of the two largest cities in Saxony! This city is called Leipzig and it has about 530.000 inhabitants.
First we did a walk through the city.
This beautiful building hosts the Cafe Riquet.


The St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) is a Lutheran church and most famous as the place where Johann Sebastian Bach worked as a cantor.


Mini St. Thomas Church


The New Town Hall is the seat of the Leipzig city administration since 1905.



In the 18th century, Leipzig became the centre for trade with Polish and English goods. It was called "the marketplace of all Europe". In 1678/87, this stock exchange was built. In German it is called "Alte Handelsbörse".


Auerbach's Cellar is the best known and second oldest restaurant in Leipzig. It was described in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Faust I, as the first place Mephistopheles takes Faust on their travels.



The St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche) has long been one of the most famous in Leipzig, and rose to national fame in 1989 with the Monday Demonstrations when it became the centre of peaceful revolt against communist rule. It was built around 1165.



Johann Sebastian Bach monument inside St. Nicholas Church.


The Gewandhaus is a concert hall and the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. It is the 3rd Gewandhaus and opened on 8 October 1981, 200 years after the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra moved into the original hall (Gewandhaus 1).


The Central Station is Europe's largest railway station when measured by floor area (83,460 m²). It has 24 platforms housed in six iron trainsheds, a multi-level concourse with towering stone arches and a 293 metre-long facade. It handles an average of 150,000 passengers per day.
The station was used in the film "Shining Through"  (1992).


Now it was time for some new buildings...like the City-Hochhaus. It is 36-storey skyscraper. With its 466 ft (142m) it is the tallest multistory building in the city as well as the tallest in the former East Germany.
The building is nicknamed "wisdom tooth" (Weisheitszahn) or "university giant" (Uniriese). Maybe it's a good idea to go upstairs.


Finally on the top of the city!








Time for some more history!
We visited the Monument to the Battle of the Nations (Völkerschlachtdenkmal). It is a monument to the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations. Paid for mostly by donations and by the city of Leipzig, it was completed in 1913 for the 100th anniversary of the battle, at a cost of 6,000,000 Goldmark.
The monument commemorates Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig.
The structure is 299 ft (91m) tall and it contains over 500 steps to a viewing platform at the top. The structure makes extensive use of concrete although the facings are of granite. The monument is widely regarded as one of the best examples of Wilhelmine architecture.



Inside the monument.




Finally arrived on the lower platform.



On the top of the monument!




On our way home we saw Lake Goitzsche again!


Look, this is an old East-German car called Wartburg. These are not produced anymore for about 20 years!


Günther

Hello Mommy & Daddy,

we did some sports today! This time we didn't use our skateboards, we borrowed one which we could use all together. We cruised along the Europe Bicycle Path "R1" for a few kilometers. It's a 3500km bicycle route through Europe, starting in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France) and finishing in Saint Petersburg (Russia).
We used the part around the lake Gremminer See, a lake created as a result of the redevelopment of the former brown coal strip mine of Golpa-Nord and on whose shore is found the Ferropolis ("the city of iron" ) industrial memorial, actually a museum dedicated to "industrial culture".




We passed a big field full of sunflowers!


After a while we found this red box! Alex told us it's called lunch box!


We climbed up the lunch box and enjoyed the view.




The lake is still not full. It will be flooded until the end of this year.
Around 30 years ago there was a village on this place instead of the lake!



Then we went on cruising. After 4km we found another lunch box! This one was yellow. Alex told us there's also a blue one somewhere...


As you can see there was nobody around the lake except us!





Yours
Günther

Hello Mommy & Daddy,

I went to the European championship of powerboats at Lake Goitzsche!

I don't know who won, but it was really interesting! Can you see the boats on the water?







Günther

Hello to my beloved ones at home!

Today we found a mystical box. There were nice pictures and strange symbols on it!


While we realized that the pictures were stamps we didn't notice that somebody was watching us!


It's little Sunny from China! Now we know that these strange symbols on the box were Chinese letters!


Mommy, do you speak Chinese?

Günther

Hello Mommy,

time for another road trip by car!



After traveling a while we noticed something big in front of us...


We stopped the car and started walking.


Wow, it was a big cow! We tried to talk to it, but it didn't notice us.


Hmm, Fiete is a cow, too! So he jumped on the big fat nose of that big cow and talked to it in cow language.


After a while Fiete told us that we are allowed to ride on the big cow.


From this height we could see so much more than from the ground! In a short distance we saw another big animal! We wanted to get closer.


We jumped off the cow and walked to the other animal. It was a sheep.


We were allowed to sit on it, too! What a nice sheep!


We talked with both for a while and told them about our adventures.
Then we went back home. What a lovely day.


Günther

Hello Mommy,

it was really sunny today, so we decided to go to the lake. We went to Lake Goitzsche which is created as a result of the redevelopment of the former brown coal strip mine of Goitzsche. In 1998 they started to flood the old coal strip mine with the water of the river Mulde and they planned to finish this in 2006. But in 2002 during the big flood the dike of the river broke and the lake was full within 2 days! This is an area of 13,32 km²!


There's also a marina at the lake with so many yachts! We could rent one and sail over the lake and along the coast which is 66km in length!


The lake is also called Lake of amber...
But I couldn't find any amber, just these colored houses.


Oh, I forgot the suncream. I think I got a sunburn.

Yours
Günther

Mommy! Daddy! What the...!!!

Yesterday when we were at this lake I saw a corsair!
I didn't tell anything to the others but this ship will be MINE!

So I went back and had a look for the corsair. Look, isn't it beautiful?


And this beautiful blackjack on the mast!


Hmmm, they all will be terrifying pirates? Are they sure?


I sat down and watched them for a while. Non of them have sabers nor any other weapons. I think this will be easy for me to board the ship.


In this part of the ship I could create a room for lots of pirate parties!


They are all in the front part of the ship. So I will start to board from behind...


WHAT'S THIS??? WHO IS THIS??? Oh gosh! The captain is wearing a saber and other weapons which I don't have!



Mommy, visit me! I need your help!

Until you are here I start to board the hawser of the corsair!


Your little pirate
Günther

Hello Mommy!

Today we visited Bitterfeld, a small town with about 15.300 inhabitants. During the GDR years, it gained notoriety for its chemical industry complex which caused remarkably severe pollution, even by GDR standards.
Look, there was a movie filmed in this city!


There's not so much to see, esp. on Sunday when everything is closed.
At the market place you can see the protestant church St. Antonius. It was built from 1905–1910.



The city hall is also near the market place. It was built from 1863–1865. This is the back of the house without the trees in the pic.


Love you.
Günther

Hello family,

it was time for Fiete to leave us. We all cuddled him a lot.


Then he crawled into his envelope. His next stop is Switzerland.
Goodbye Fiete.


Günther

Mommy, Mommy, Moooommy!!!

I saw a volcanic eruption in the middle of Germany!!!

This is the volcano "Vesuv" (also called "Stone" ). It is an imitation of the original Vesuv in Italy and the onliest artificial volcano all over the world! This one was built from 1788–94 and it still works the same way like it did in the 18th century!


First there was an explosion. Whaaa it was so loud! You even could't here your own voice!


Ok, these days they have a little bit more pyrotechnics than 200 yrs. ago, but the way the red lava runs down is the same! Can you see it running down from the top along the red lights into the lake?


Your beloved
Günther

Hey Mommy,

today we had some cultures...

First we walked around the castle and the park. The Gardens had its origin in the 17th century, when the marriage of Leopold's great-grandfather Prince John George II of Anhalt-Dessau to the Dutch princess Henriette Catharina, in 1659 brought a team of engineers and architects from the Low Countries to lay out the town, the palace and a Baroque garden in the former settlement of Nischwitz, which was renamed Oranienbaum in 1673. The Dutch influence remained prevalent in the Principality of Anhalt-Dessau for many decades. Oranienbaum Palace was finished in 1683 as the summer residence of Henriette Catharina, where she retired after the death of her husband in 1693. From 1780 on Duke Leopold III had the palace and the park rebuilt in a Chinese style with several arch bridges, a tea house and a pagoda. In 1811, the orangery was built, with 175 m (574 ft) in length one of the largest in Europe, which still serves to protect a wide collection of citrus plants.

The front...


...the back.


The fruits (oranges and lemons) mellow.


We also went into the castle! We visited the Dutch Design exhibition which takes part for a few months. It was opened by the Queen of the Netherlands.

We bought some tickets where we didn't have to pay the full price and a permission for taking pictures inside!


It was really interesting and so much to see on 3 floors!
Some vases...


...and a lovely lamp.


It's time for dinner!


They had chicken in the cellar! Ok, no real ones...


I think I could need a new dress...


I really enjoyed the day!

Günther

Hello Mommy,

how are you? Here the weather isn't the best: sun - rain - sun - rain - hail...

Today when we came home we found 2 envelopes. Crawfish tried to read the address.


One was from Australia and one from you, Mom! When the others opened the big foreign envelope I tried to crawl into your envelope to find out what you sent.


There was somebody crawling out of the big envelope! It's Kevin, a little Kiwi from the other side of the world.


He told us about his journey. Then he went back into his envelope. We all thought he doesn't like us.


But he came back with a postcard and a keyring from his home.


Then he helped me to get out the stuff from your envelope.


I got my traveltag. I am so happy!


Your happy Günther

Just a little walk through the village...

Hello Mommy,

we jumped into the car and drove around a little bit. We saw lots of different houses and a water tower.
Sorry, at the moment we don't have time for so much more.










Günther