Travelog for: Pippi

Happy New Year mum!
We received a postcard from Katrin today who has spent New Year's Eve in Praha, the capital of the Czech Republic.

We are back home in Leipzig and today I got the news that I will travel to my next host tomorrow. Bubo gave me some tea bags for my journey because I don't know how could it will be in Wales.

Hi Mum,

I have just arrived in wet and windy Wales.

Are you ready for me to come out?

Here I am?

My name is Pippi, nice to meet you.

Hello!
What a nice day it is. The sun is shining. It is Sunday and we have gone for a nice Sunday.

This is Llyn Padarn or Lake Padarn in Snowdonia. The main village beside the lake is Llanberis, where there is a railway that links to the top of Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. You cannot see Llanberis in the picture and the top of Snowdon is hidden in the clouds.

This is the River Seiont that runs from Padarn to the sea (Menai Straits) at Caernarfon.

The was a lot of rain recently, but not as much as the rain that fell on parts of Brazil, Sri Lanka and Australia causing large areas to be flooded and loss of life. Here, the Seiont has flooded adjacent fields.

These swans like a bit extra paddling space.

You can see how much water is in the river - it looks high under the bridge.

The moon is almost round.

Hello!
It is a beautiful but cold day. My host went into town and had some time to spare before needing to get home to wait for her son to return from school.

We took a short walk half-way around the castle.

The castle was built in the 13th century

next to the River Seiont.

This river comes from Lake Padarn, where we were the other day. The river is tidal.

Near the castle, there is a bridge to cross the Seiont.

This photo showing part of the town wall was taken from the bridge.

Hello!
It is a beautiful but chilly day. We've come out to appreciate the winter sunshine.
This is Llanberis.

The hill/mountain to the left has a power station inside. The Glyders still has snow on.

I haven't got any food for these young swans on Llyn Padarn, but we are off for lunch.

We've returned from a lovely day out to go to the library. My host had a special treat instore.
The library has a Welsh copy of Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Hosan-Hir, but unfortunately, my host wasn't allowed to borrow the book.
Luckily, we were able to look at it in the library.

Pippi organises a picnic.

Pippi goes to a coffee party

Pippi celebrates her birthday

My host isn't sure of the translation of this story.

Today, we welcomed home one of my host's toyvoyagers. Welcome back Captain Caramel

Today, we went for a walk along the beach at Dinas Dinlle. It was a pleasant afternoon and there were other people around walking too.

The mountains are the Eifls.

The green hill was the site of an Iron Age fort mentioned in the Welsh legends, the Mabinogi.

This is a view from the top of the hill.

We caught a sunset.

Today, we welcomed a new guest, Regit Brown

Hello Mum!
Today, we've come to Ryton Gardens, headquarters of Garden Organic, an organisation founded to promote organic gardening, education and research.
It is Potato Day. Gardeners come here to buy seed potatoes of many different varieties to grow at home and/or the allotment.

Look at all these spuds.

There's over a hundred varieties here.

After my host bought their choices, we went on a tour of the Heritage Seed Library. These are sieves.

This is a display in the Vegetable Kingdom section, showing us the importance of various things.

We went for a walk afterwards in the gardens. They have a polytunnel with winter salads and things.

This is a compost tumbler.

In the Children's Garden, with a totem pole!

Hello Mum!
After the fresh air at Ryton Gardens, we went to a hands-on science museum near Ironbridge.

A water play thing.

They have various inventions on display. Old sewing machines.

It's a robot.

A look at what's inside a rollerskate.

How about building earthquake-proof buildings? Somehow, I don't think this will survive the shakes. A young girl was fascinated with us ToyVoyagers and assisted us with our photographs!

This is a tessellation jigsaw the nice girl is helping me with.

A big parcel arrived at my host's house.
Shall we take a look inside?

Wow, look at all that K'Nex!

My host's son likes building things with K'Nex.

Hello Mum!
My host took me to the town of Porthmadog. She wanted to rescue toys who wanted to go travelling round the world. But first, we spotted something strange going down the road.

A steam train leaving Porthmadog on the Welsh Highland Railway line. This line goes all the way to Caernarfon.

The line from Caernarfon has opened in sections before reaching all the way here. This is the first year that trains will be able to run the whole length.

Half-term is soon. Perhaps we'll be able to go on a train ride!

It isn't a very long train. There isn't much room on the platform for the trains to come this way.

There it goes. This is the Glaslyn river.

we went in search of toys.

Do you think one here wants to go travelling?

After all that shopping for toys needing rescue, we were in need of refreshments.

Regit Brown and I were telling Misty Rose and Luc Zeke about our travels.

Needless to say, they both want to see the world!