Travelog for: Mousy Mouse

It's rained... and rained.... and rained... and rained... and rained...

Travel Ted had to brave the weather and go out this morning because we had run out of chocolate biscuits. He brought back a rather curious object called a 'conker' to show me. In the autumn big spiky seed pods grow on trees called 'Horse Chestnuts' and inside them are one or more large, inedible brown nuts called conkers that English children like to collect. A traditional game is to drill holes through the conkers, thread them onto a piece of string, and have competitions where you swing your nut at your opponent's nut to see which one shatters first. How odd the English are!

At last the rain has stopped (for a little while) so I have been out exploring in the middle of London.

First I took the train to Waterloo where I saw the big wheel called the 'London Eye' which was erected to celebrate the millenium and gives great views of the London skyline. Unfortunately it was very expensive indeed so I had to admire it from the ground.

Underneath the 'Eye' were some very strange statues by the Spanish surrealist, Salvador Dali. I wasn't really sure what to make of them.

From the south bank of the River Thames I had a great view of Westminster: the famous Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. I walked across Westminster Bridge (see how far I walked from the 'London Eye'!) so that I could have a closer look. Just past Big Ben I reached Parliament Square, where people come to protest about government policies they are not happy with. Although you can't see it very well, in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo there are some tents and this is where a man called Brian Haw has been living since June 2001 in protest at Britain and America's war on Iraq and Afghanistan.

I had my picture taken with one of London's famous red phone boxes too. I'm such a standard tourist!

My delicate feet were starting to ache but my determination to explore London remained unabated. I continued my journey through Whitehall, along the fringes of St. James's Park. I passed some very impressive buildings; I'm not sure what they all were but they were something to do with the government so I'm sure they were extremely important. I passed a war memorial and finally ended up at the Admiralty Arch which links Trafalgar Square with The Mall (the long road that leads to Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives). By now it was starting to rain again so I decided it was time to take the train back to Travel Ted's house and listen to some more seventies disco music.

Today I went to a different bit of London - over in the City, which is the business district. It was early in the morning and there were lots of commuters on their way to work, hurrying around with gloomy faces.

At Liverpool Station I took a train 100 miles to Norwich but disappointingly Deborah didn't have time to take any pictures of me while we were there. I still had a nice time exploring while she worked though.

On my last night in London I had a nice surprise: Bestik had come to stay. While Travel Ted went to put the kettle on I showed Bestik some of my newly acquired dance moves before we all had our pictures taken together.

What a nice welcome! Two TVs say hello when I could finally leave the envelope. Cloudy and Stutz are very exciting to meet another TV.


The weather was great and we had a nice walk around the neighbourhood.

What a weekend! Stutz and I were travelling with Katrin to Hamburg on Friday. She is working there in an office a few hours per week to earn some money.


In the evening we met Katrin's boyfriend at the station and took the train to Schwerin. Many people wanted to go home with that train and we had to sit next to the bagguage rack.


On Saturday the weather was great and we had a walk trough Schwerin. See the colourful trees and the fancy houses!




The cathedral:


In the mall we met a blind mole


Today we went back home. In the train to Hamburg Katrin wrote a few postcards for postcrossing.


Hamburg central station! It was very busy and there were soooo many people walking around. Our train back home left on time and now we are looking for Cloudy to tell her about our weekend.

Katrin was too busy to take us with her today, so we decided to play cards until she is coming back home.


Finally we had great dinner. There was lasagne and a good book.  Katrin loves to read, even when she is eating!


After dinner Katrin took us outside. There was a full moon and after playing a bit with the camera Katrin managed to take this photo:


Then she told us good and bad news. The good news are that we are going to Hamburg again tomorrow. The bad news are that we have to say goodbye to Cloudy tomorrow, too. She will leave for England to visit her next host.

Katrin took the three of us to the library in the museum where she is working right now. This is the working place of the librarian.


The library is not very big but it's a nice place to be, specially when the sun is shining because there are so many windows.


These books are very old, they are from 1870 and older. They are about tabacco and cigarettes, you can smell it! They belonged to the cigarette company Reemtsma which is very known in Germany.


The old manuel catalogue. Luckily today you can find all the books online on the internet.


Encyclopedia Britannica


Doing librarian things. I'm pressing a sign into the card! Katrin promised to send it to you, mum, then you can see how hard I worked!


In the afternoon it was time to say goodbye to Cloudy. She is now on her way to her next host in England.

This weekend Katrin showed us her hometown. It's a small town, but there are some nice places to discover.

This is the harbour of Kellinghusen. It pretty small, it's mainly for canoes.


One of the grocery stores:


This is the church seen from the parking lot. We've been there later.


Kellinghusen is known for it's pottery, that's why there are these dishes on the market place. We climbed on it but it was to tall to go to the top. In the background is a great ice café.



The small street behind the ice café leads to the church. We saw some of the old colorful houses of Kellinghusen.




Here it is, the St. Cyriacus Church of Kellinghusen. We wanted to enter, but the door was closed.



The letters on the stones mean "peace".


The townhall, it's opposite of the church.


This is the building where Katrin's dad works.

Today the weather was fine and Katrin took us on a walk through the local park. We discovered this funny grown tree.


The leaves were making funny sounds when we walked over them and Stutz and I played with them for a while.


This is the small pond in the park. There were also some ducks but they ran away when they heard us.

Here were are again, but Katrin has changed her working place this week. Now she spending three months in the archives of the museum. The work is very intresting, there are old documents she is working with. She even has to wear gloves when she has to touch them to protect them. This is her working place where Katrin is scanning the documents.


The view out of the window: The "Zinnschmelze" is a restaurant / pub, a nice place to go after work or in the evening.


Finally we met this teddy. He's been living in the archivist's bureau for a long time and knows a lot about what's going on here. His storys were very exciting and Katrin decided that we should stay here and she takes us home tomorrow.

Katrin found me and Stutz this morning sleeping on her desk. The teddy told us stories all night long and we didn't sleep much...
These are the papers Katrin is working with. This are the documents of a woman who died a few years ago. Her letters and passports and working papers are now in the archives of the museum.


Homer's Odyssee, printed in the 1920's


Lunch break and the weather was fine. Katrin showed me some nice places in the yard of the museum while Stutz decided to discover the archivist's bureau.
This in one of the famous Tempo-cars from the 1950's. They have just three wheels!


One of the ad boxes with the Tempo-sign. In the background is the museum.


This funny car was in front of the exhibition hall.


A view over the yard of the museum.


This is me in front of TRUDE. TRUDE is the drill which was used to build a tunnel under the river Elbe for cars.


Fun with the sun