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Remscheid, Germany - 3rd December 2008
By: olgamaus
Hi Mummy,
today I went with Katja's colleague, Elke, to Leverkusen. Elke is playing at skittles there. The skittling ladies met on the christmas market before.
Elke's husband is collecting us from the office where Katja and Elke are working. He was waiting in the car in front of the office building.
Elke prepared a surprise for her friends. Each of them received a little bag filled with froebel stars (Froebelsterne in German). These are paper stars, folded in a very special way. Elke has made all those paper stars by herself.
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Posted Dec 5, 2008, 4:16 pm Last edited Dec 5, 2008, 4:25 pm by olgamaus
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Remscheid, Germany - 7th December 2008
By: olgamaus
Hi Mummy,
we tasted our pomelo today. It was a lot of work to remove the peel. A pomelo seems to consist of peel only.
It tasts really good, not as sour as a grapefruit.
Bye
SaruMaru
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Posted Dec 11, 2008, 5:46 pm
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Solingen, Schloss Burg, Germany - 14th December 2008
By: olgamaus
We walked along an old cemetary. It was built here in 1732. The tombstones were all made of a special sort of sandstone in a similar style.
From here we saw Schloss Burg for the first time, located on a hill.
We reached Solingen-Unterburg then. Here you can see many old houses, covered with schist or half-timbered houses.
Solingen-Unterburg is located at the river Wupper. Here you can see the chair lift which goes uphill to Schloss Burg. We were not lazy and walked there through the forrest.
We than reached the lookout pavilion. From here you have a good view across the valley with the river Wupper and Unterburg.
The ceiling of the pavilion is painted with the crests of the surrounding towns, the city arms of Remscheid among them.
We reached the castle then. It is the largest reconstructed castle in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and one of the most popular tourist attraction. Its early history is closely connected to the growth of the Duchy of Berg.
In the beginning of the 12th century (after 1133) count Adolf II von Berg built Schloss Burg on a mountain over the river Wupper.
In 1632 the castle was under siege by Swedish soldiers. After the Thirty years war, in 1648, Imperial troops destroyed the fortifications of the castle including the keep, walls, and gates. In 1700, the main building was partially reconstructed and thereafter used for administrative purposes. 1849, the castle was sold to be scrapped, decayed, and became a ruin.
Today’s appearance is not exactly the original castle was. The reconstructed castle of today is a major public attraction. It also contains the Museum of the Bergische Land.
Katja and her friend tasted a punch made of fruit wine here. Of course nobody could keep me from tasting it although in Katja's opinion I had enough alcohol for at least six months now.
We went inside the castle courtyard to visit the medieval christmas market.
We had a coffee here.
On the market you could buy many handcrafted things like jewelry, leather bags, ceramic pots and figurines.
We had to rest here for a while.
We than had to walk back to the car for at least another hour. We reached the parking lot just in time before it was getting too dark outside.
We are all tired now.
Bye
SaruMaru
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Posted Dec 14, 2008, 9:08 pm
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