Travelog for: OleOrangescarf

Hi World,

this is Ole calling:-)

Thanks olgamaus that she found me in strunkis car and discovered my secret wish becoming a ToyVoyager from now on 

I want to meet and see as much other ToyVoyagers as possible and I´m sure that olgamaus will give me the best start in my new, adventurous life

See You soon, hungry and ready for every joke
Yours truly Ole

Today when Mummy was driving in the car with a forein woman, two teddy bears suddenly appeared. They were KoalaMimi and Rocky Raccoon, ToyVoyagers like some of my friends already are.

They told me about today's trip to Wuppertal and how exciting it was to take a ride with the suspension railway. They talked and talked and suddenly I realized that I also wanted to travel!



First I did not get out of the car because I do not know how to behave as a ToyVoyager, but later we drove through the city to visit the Lego-Bridge. Every child knows what Lego is, but a real Lego-Bridge?

Indeed! A Lego-Bridge! We all were really excited to visit it. My host Katja told us that this bridge belongs to a former railway track, now a lane for pedestrians and cyclists.









Later, at home in Katja's apartment, I met even more ToyVoyagers, Kirin from Chile and nosyblue from the Black Forest in Germany. They stayed at home today because they already visited Wuppertal.



We will go to bed now.

Good night!
OleOrangescarf

Dear Mummy,
Katja took me with her when she had to buy a few things. First we went to the city centre and to the shopping mall.









There is a fountain at the main entrance of the shopping mall. Katja told me that in summer often kids were playing in the shallow water.



We went along the shopping street until we reached the next fountain, a really colourful and funny one.



This is one of the churches in the city centre.



Than we walked downhill towards the station.





Uuuhhhh, I was a bit afraid because the bridge was rocking with the wind.



Katja told me that somewhere in the background was the place where you were living.



We went to the Route of Tools (Trasse des Werkzeugs) than which starts close to the statioin.



There are construction works going on along the track.







Here the Route of Tools starts.



The Route of Tools is a lane for pedestrians and cyclists which was built on a former, now closed track for freight trains. It was sponsoed by local companies, most of them producing tools. So it was called Route of Tools. Along the route you can find informations about the factories, prominent buildings and life in general in ancient times.

Close to the station you can find a lot of industrial complexes.



But not only industrial complexes or housing complexes - there is still room for nature.



I liked this mural.



Here is a resting area. We left the lane here to buy chicken intestines for the ferrets in a nearby supermarket.



Later we went back to the former track.





This is the former slaughterhouse, nowadays several offices and service companies settled here. The whole complex is under monument protection.





We left the lane here to walk to Katja's home. Here you can see the local court situated at a large intersection.



We went through a lovely quarter.



Back home I helped Katja to portion the chicken intestines - yuck!!!



Bye for today and greetings to my friends in the car.

OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
I met the ferrets today. When they are awake, they are running around everywhere, climbing onto chairs and trying to steal things from the table or trying to get into the waste bin. They love to play with rattling toys and cat teasers. Of course they like their treats

This is Shiva, a sable ferret.



They also love this vitamin-paste.



They even followed us to the living room to have more of this paste. The nearly white ferret is Brighty and the other one is Zaehnchen.









I was not afraid at all! (I remembered that I am the largest predator on earth!!!)

There is a garden behind the house, of course not like the one at our home, but it's good to see a few trees and a lawn.



Bye
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
we made a hiking tour today. There is  a hiking trail in the neighbour city Wuppertal, it is called "Rund um Wuppertal" (Around Wuppertal). It is surrounding the municipal area of the city and it is about 120 km long. Kirin and I accepted the challenge Of course we only did part of it.

We started our tour in Muengsten, here we crossed River Wupper.





From here we had to walk uphill (we always have to walk uphill, I believe). We saw a lot of cut  trees here, funny faces were painted where branches had been cut off.





We had to follow this trail marking. Our path was following the outer borders of the municipal area.



This sunlit area in the background is the neighbour city Solingen.



There were a few isolated houses in the forest. If these mushrooms were suitable for dinner? We better did not try it







We were walking along a valley with a motorway feeder road running through.



There were large amounts of these mushrooms, probably parasol mushrooms.



There was a hamlet in the valley where we found this mail box, nearly hidden between those vibrant red leafes.



In the middle of the forest we reached a tram station. This is a stop station of a historical tram which once connected several outskirts of Wuppertal. The main track is closed and a "museum-tram" is following a part of the former track on a few days in the year. There will be tours every Sunday until end of October, maybe we manage to take a ride with the tram than.





Here is the time table.



Also in the forest we saw this old industrial building, a historical grindery - Manuelskotten. It was built in the 1850 years and is the only still working grindery, which is run by water, in Wuppertal. Iron and steel were worked in this region along the many creeks and rivers since 15th century.











From a nearby outlook platform we had a great overwiev.





We rested here for a while.



We reached a part of the forest than which is an arboretum, a collection of trees. From the 1820 years "foreign" trees were planted here, from 1900 A.D. trees from other continents were planted. After WW II trees from Northern America were planted in search of fast growing trees.

The arboretum is divided into several parts (one for each continent) and our hiking trail was running through it.



Katja looked for sweet chestnuts, but we did not find any.



There are several hiking routes using this path.





I don't know exactly what sort of tree this is, but it certainly is not a local tree. Katja said it probably was one of those growing along the West coast of the USA.





Another interesting tree ...











We left the forest here to walk to Cronenberg, the nearby historical district.









We took the bus to get home - and fall into bed immediately (no party tonight).

Bye
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
I was going to visit you, dear Mummy



Almost home ...



I was so happy to see you! After showing Katja around the house we went to visit Eschbach dam (Eschbachtalsperre). Did you know that Eschbach dam was the first dam to be built in Germany for drinking water supply? It was opened in 1891. The lake is enclosed in a beautiful landscape.



Here you can see the rear side of the concrete dam.



First we followed the path which is leading around the lake.





Soon we left the main path to walk uphill into the forest where we found this momorial, a conciliation cross. These memorial crosses where placed in medieval times where an accident or murder happended, the information board is telling about this special incident.





We reached a rural area than with meadows and horses, close to the A1 motorway.





We found rosehip here and also hawthorn. Both Katja and you like to use fruits from local trees and bushes to cook jam.







We found several mushrooms, most impressing was this one.



I found a jaybird's feather. Now I looked like an Indian



Later we returned to the main walking path along the lake.





This was a teddy bear tour today



Later we took some home grown chili pepper with us.

Bye
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
we thought what to do with this load of chili peppers and decided to prepare a hot chili paste. Katja found some garlic, sea salt and olive oil, this should have been enough.



First we removed the cores from the chili husks.



Garlic and husks were minced ...



... and given into the mixer with sea salt and olive oil.



Perfect!



The red paste was filled into tiny jars. Let's see if it good!



Bye
OleOrangescarf

After working so hard in the kitchen we took a walk afterwards. We went to a nearby valley, Lobach valley. KoalaMimi accompanied us.





We walked through the forest and enjoyed the lovely weather.









There were many apple trees on this estate.



Next we walked through a pretty hamlet.



I liked these Chinese lanterns.





Katja told us that this lovely place was only a few meters apart from a main road.





Here is a large allotment area.



When we wallked uphill towards my current home we crossed the Route of Tools. Here Katja showed me those signs. One of them is showing the coat of arms of Remscheid and others are logos from sponsoring companies.







Taking walks with Katja is really exhausting !

Love
OlafOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
when Katja came home from work she told us that she would meet you later to pick more wild fruits. This time she did not want to cook jam, but she wanted to prepare a fruit liqueur with wild black cherries.

When she came back later she brought lots of wild black cherries. In the morning she already bought brandy and vanilla beans.



500 g cherries, 1 liter brandy and a vanilla bean had to be filled into a large jar or a bottle. This mixture has to rest in a warm and sunny place for at least six weeks. Than the brandy will have to be filtered, sugar will have to be added and than it will have to rest for another six weeks before being served.



We prepared more than 4 liters of this mixture. It will make perfect christmas presents



BYe
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
today I had perfect lunch for a polar bear - soused herring in a bread roll. Yummy!



Bye
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk to the municpal park today Tsukumo, our newest guest, accompanied us.

From my current home it is only a few minutes walk to get there.





Katja told us that you can often find allotment areas at the steep slopes of the city centre hill.



This is not the municpaö park, but a small park which is situated opposite of the police headquarter.





I told Tsukumko that we are having these flowers in our garden at home.







We reached the municipal park than with the observatory and a reservoir in the entrance area.





There is a pond in the park, ducks and turtles are living here.



The municpal park is mostly a landscape park with old trees.









There is also a more open area with this momorial dedicated to the dead of several wars in 18th and 19th century.





There were still a few flowers blooming.





Behind the fence there is another allotment area. In the background you can see the district Hasten lying in the sun.



What a lovely sunny day!

Bye
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
we were invited to join a birthday party in Lennep, one of the historic districts of Remscheid.





We walked through this park to get to the old town.





Lennep is the second largest district of Remscheid with about 25.000 inhabitants. Lennep once was one of the most important cities of the region Bergisches Land.

Lennep has an historical city core based on a medieval structure. There were several large city fires, the last one in the year 1746 which destroyed most of the city. It was rebuilt afterwards. Lennep received its town charter between the years 1259 and 1276- In 1929 Lennep was annexated to Remscheid.





This is the market place with lots of bars and restaurants.







Most of the streets are rather narrow.



There is an elementary school in the background of the next photo - Katja went to this school when she was a kid.





Than we were having a lot of delicous chocolate cake.

Bye
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
on Friday Katja usually is meeting friends for a knitting night. Three, sometimes four friends are meeting than, having a beer or two or maybe some sparkling wine and are knitting, chatting and whatever women like to do. Today the meeting was taking place at the home of a friend who is living in the district Luettringhausen. We were not in a hurry to get there, so we went there on foot.

First Katja showed me the district Steinberg.



Here you can find another large allotment area and also a great overview to the outskirts of Remscheid.







We walked along a lovely valley, Leyerbachtal. A large flock of sheep was grazing here.









We found a fantastic place in the forest - a hammer mill.







This water wheel was not turning.





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Iron and steel was produced here since 15th century.



A large millwheel was lying on the ground.







There is a small storage lake.





We followed the path and crossed a road. From here it was a short walk through another forest.





After leaving the forest we reached Klausen, a housing area.



Do you know what there is behind the wall? A prison!!!



Soon we reached our friend's home.



Look, Katja was knitting mittens.



Bye
OleOrangescarf

Hi Mummy,
Katja told me that we  were invited to visit you today, there would even be mcdaniels joining us with all her guests.

Everyone was welcomed by you



This was the whole TV gang There were , nosyblue,Tsukumo, Rocky Raccoon, KoalaMimi , Laika,Gozer,Hase,Charlotte,HelmutBluepant, The WotWots, Elmar and I.





Later we had a fantastic party

Bye
OleOrangescarf

And during this great party  The WotWots asked me whether I wanted to accompany them to their hostmum mcdaniels. Of course I wanted and of course you allowed it, mummy 
So after a while I had to say goodbye to HelmutBluepant, Charlotte and all the others, jumped into new hostmum's bag and drove to Paderborn.
There we sat together drinking some more Killepitsch...

Love you, mummy
yours OleOrangescarf