Travelog for: alfie langer

alfie langer has packed his bag and is off to fly to Austria where he will stay with a very nice family.
Safe journey litle bear.

Hello!

I arrived in Vienna/Austria now after a quite fast journey! Only my arrival in Vienna was a bit exhausting because I was locked in the mailbox for more than 2 days since my hosts were in the countryside for the weekend. Luckily CK was in the same mailbox just in the envelope next to me so we had great fun chatting...

Our host took us out of our narrow prison this evening and we are both very curious to discover this city. We were told that we'll maybe also go to the countryside a bit so it seems to become a nice stay here in Austria. Will tell you more later!

Sleep well!

I'm having a great time here in Austria so far and I'm in good company of some other toyvoyagers here. At the beginning there were 5 of us (meanwhile only 4 are left) and we have alot of fun together! Except of me there is Pooh, an inofficial voyager (but a really nice one) from Taiwan, there is CK the Koala also from Australia, then there is Taro the little bear from Japan and Frida, the German frog who already had to say Good bye and continue her journey to the UK.

On Saturday we went to lake Neusiedlersee with our host. It's not far from Vienna and since it was a very hot day it was nice to spend the day at and in the water. In the evening there was a big thunderstorm - really impressing at the lake...

Oh, what a busy time I'm having here in Vienna! I hardly have any time to tell you about all my adventures... I've done ALOT of sightseeing - I saw almost all of these beautiful buildings here in real which I only knew from pictures so far. So my mates and I had a special guided tour through the center of Vienna. We saw St. Stephen's Cathedral and a beautiful Subway Station nearby, built in "Jugendstil". Then we had a walk around a street called "Ringstraße" where we passed by the house of Parliament, the City Hall, the Old Imperial Theatre and the Opera.

But there is much more to see in Vienna. My hosts showed me St. Charles' Church, the Big Wheel, the Danube Tower, the Building of the UNO here in Vienna, Belvedere Castle and the Hofburg, which was the former residence of the Habsburg family.

The previous weekend the other toyvoyagers and I went to lake Attersee (in Upper Austria, between Linz and Salzburg) with our hosts. Their grandparents own a flat at the lake there so we spent a wonderful time there swimming and hiking. One day we also went by boat which was very exciting for us! The scenery is so beautiful there with all the lakes, mountains (Alps) and forrests, so we reallya had a nice time there.

One day when it wasn't warm enough for swimming we made a little trip to Gmunden at lake Traunsee, not far from there but even a bit closer to the mountains. Imagine, they have a castle there IN the lake on a little island. Interesting, hm? And they have another nice thing: On the City Hall there are many bells and every hour they play a little melody! It was so nice!

A while ago we spent a nice day in the park of Schönbrunn Palace. It is such a LARGE park with many fountains, ruins a maze,... there is even a zoo there! So we were really busy to visit everything! Schönbrunn Palace was the summer residence of the Habsburg family and is nowadays an UNESCO site and Austria's # 1 tourist attraction I was told. I really believed it because there were soooo many people there! We even managed to go up a hill where we had a wonderful view from the "Gloriette" over the city.

Next year in June the European Soccer Championship will take place in Vienna. Already now the people are very excited about that and count the days until this event starts...

Yesterday my host also showed me the big soccer stadion. There is a big construction site next to it because they build a new subway station for the Games there.

We also went to see the house created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser yesterday. It is soooo colourful - I really liked it. I was told that there is nothing special inside, just normal flats. Wouldn't it be nice to live there? All the people there have the right to creat the wallls around their windows as they like - but only as far as they can reach with their arms. So the building changes a bit from time to time.

And then we went up a hill from where we had a wonderful view over the city. Vienna is really beautiful and I regret that I'll have to leave it soon...

Well, before leaving Austria (which will be tomorrow) I still had to complete some of my life missions (or at least post the photos, some of the missions I already fullfilled a few days ago...)

So my host took me to the park the family spends MANY afternoons at just hanging around on the playground. I had alot of fun trying all the different things there - thank you for that!

I also had the opportunity of riding in an Austrian train. We went to a village about 20 min away from Vienna where we visited some friends. Fortunately nobody came to check our tickets (because I didn't have one, ooopsss!). I also went by tramway several times here in Vienna and even took the subway, but we forgot to take some photos. Only a tramway picture exists (we quickly took one today

I met many of the other toyvoyagers here in Vienna. Frida and Pooh you already saw on the picture where we picked the cherries, Taro and CK as well. Meanwhile also Paz, the little crab from Brazil, Florence, the beautiful flamingo from the USA and Cute Knut the polar bear baby from Germany arrived. And of course there were also the toys who live here to play with, so I really had a nice time here in Vienna. Good bye!!![usr]

Today I arrived in Germany and do you believe, who I met again? C.K.!!! And I met a koala bear from Australia too coming from Busselton, maybe you know it. He always talks about travelling to Australia one day and visiting his former family before he came to Germany as a gift to a penfriend.

I hope to see more from Germany soon, but my host is ill and can't go out today and tomorrow. Let's see, what I find in the house.

Petra is so sad, because she forgot to take me with her on the trip to Heidelberg, but she promissed me to take me on some trips next week.

Today I had a lesson in how to bake Lorrainese Cheesecake for tomorrow evening, when we will have many guests. I think, that's a good meal for a football team!!

I also helped to prepare the meal for lunch: spinach, mashed potatoes and fried eggs.

Later we baked a Zebracake and Petra took many step by step photos, but then we saw, that no photo was on the camera. So you only can see the cake without  icing.

Finally I was allowed to travel to Heidelberg with the other toyvoyagers and our hosts to visit the zoo and the castle. The weather is fine, sunny and warm and so I believe, that we will come home dry today That was the only thing I found funny that other day, when they missed to take me with them: that I was dry at home, while all others got wet

Sabrina and her friend Linda took me on a walk in the city. They liked to take photos with me.

A new toyvoyager arrived: Tamalyn from Sydney, Australia. You can imagine, that we had a lot to talk about, especially because Tamalyn met C.K. again and Kari, who is from Busselton, Australia.



Later C.K. showed me, how to knit a pullover and Tamalyn came to us to take a look, but she was too tired and went back to the place for the toyvoyagers.




After we all had a rest, we played hide and seek in the garden behind the house. I found my place in the lavender. Mmmh, what an aroma.



Poor Bongo didn't feel fine, so when we came back on our place we all took care of him.