Travelog for: Big Bird

Hello,
My name is Big Bird and until now I've been sitting in Jacob and Chris's toy box, but I decided I want to go out to the world and teach the boys about it! Hopefully I can find some willing hosts. I want to teach them about anything and everything there is to learn. I just found out I'm off to Germany for my first trip...I can't wait to arrive!

Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
I arrived in Germany  today. It's really cold here and they have a lot of snow.

I was welcomed by my new host Katja and a some more ToyVoyagers. It seems to be a ToyVoyager hotel here.



It's funny, they have a basket ball on the working space. Sorry, it is a pomelo, a very large citrus fruit. Have you ever tasted a pomelo?



I'm going to play now with the other ToyVoyagers.

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
I helped Titch to plant some trees. Titch saved some tangerine pits yesterday. He now wants to take care that in twenty years tangerines are still available by planting a whole forrest of tangerine trees. I had to tell him that he had only eleven pits, that means that he could only plant a very small forrest. He seems to be a little bit sad.

Here you can see the hardworking gardeners.





By the way, the flower pot was suitable for only five seeds.

We covered them with soild and watered them.





Katja told us that the seeds would need warmth and light now to make them germinate. So we put the flower pot onto the window sill in the living room. Here it will stay warm because of the heating unterneath the window.



Now we have to wait for the germs to become visible. Maybe in a week or two the little plants will come out of the soil.

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
today we visited a christmas market in Cologne, in  Stadtgarten (a park area). You could buy nice things there.





We had raclette to eat. Raclette is melted cheese, served over boiled potatoes or rye bread with black pepper. This delicacy comes from France. The lady on the photo is scraping pieces from the hot cheese.



One of the town's landmarks is the telecommunication tower which was built in 1981. It's height is 266 m.



We did not visit the part of Colone where Cologne cathedral is located.

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
we tasted our pomelo today. It was a lot of work to remove the peel. These fruits seem to consist of only peel.





It tastes really good.

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,

we baked christmas cookies today! We made nut macaroons.



You need
100 g ground hazelnuts
250 g flour
200 g butter
125 g sugar
about 60 hazelnuts



First we had to mix ground nuts and flour. Then we had to stirr the butter foamily and add sugar. Flour and nut mix had to be worked into butter and sugar.





From the dough we had to made small balls. Those were put onto a baking tray. As a last step we had to place a nut into the middle of every little dough ball.



The cookies had to bake for about 20 minutes.





It's done! The cookies are delicious.

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
we had fantastic weather today. We already had planned a trip to the most interesting touristic highlights of this region. We wanted to visit Muengsten Bridge and Schloss Burg, a medieval castle with a christmas market.

Here you can see the river Wupper which marks the border between the towns Remscheid and Solingen.

In the background you can see a lookout pavillion. Later we came to another one similar to this one.



We reached Muengsten Bridge, the  highest railway bridge in Germany. It was completed in March 1897. It is 107 meters high and 465 meters long. It was built with about 5.000 tons of steel (5.000.000 kg). The bridge is overstretching the valley of the river Wupper. A few years ago a theme park was established. There are beautiful playgrounds for children, takeaways, lawns for relaxing, a miniature golf and souvenir shops. Katja told me that every year in summer a big festival is held underneath the bridge with fireworks.







We found a plate with some facts about Muengsten Bridge.



From here we walked to Schloss Burg. Along the path you can find artworks. On the surface of this table shaped rock  these impressions of hands are engraved. On other rocks poems are engraved or riddles. Most of them are not so easy to discover because they are partly covered with leafes and dirt from autumn and winter.



We had to cross the river Wupper here.

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.





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.







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.

I learned a lot about the Middle Ages today but I'm glad that I live nowadays. I love the heating because it is really cold  here in Germany.

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,

Katja showed me a little bit of the town centre today. Her working place is close to the town hall, so we started here.

This is the water tower. It is standing at the highest point of the town centre. Because the town centre is located on a hill this water tower, the tower of the town hall and two church towers are creating the typical silhouette of Remscheid which you can see from the surrounding towns.



Here you can see the town hall. On the place in front of it the christmas market is located. The tower is 48 m high. The tower is open for visitors twice a week. We hope that we can manage to go there one day in January.





This is one of the entrances of the shopping mall Allee-Center.



This is the theatre ...



and here you can see the public library.



There's a statue in front of the building. We had a little rest here.



Later it started to rain again. We stayed inside for the rest of the day.

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
today we helped Katja to decorate the christmas tree. Yesterday her son went with his uncle to a farm where you can cut down your christmas tree. He found a really nice little spruce.





First we had to attach the christmas lights. It's not as easy as it seems.



Hanging up the christmas  tree ornaments was more fun.



I had to be careful because the ornaments are made of glass.

I like our christmas tree.





In Germany we are celebrating christmas eve. Katja invited her family. Her parents, her sister with her husband and her son and Katja's aunt will come.

I'm so exited!

Bye
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
it's christmas eve today. Most people in Germany are celebrating christmas today and the following two days.

Here we were sitting with the christmas presents, watching over them.





In the afternoon we had coffee and self made cookies.



Later we were sitting next to the christmas tree. Katja put all the christmas cards onto the dresser.





For dinner we had a fantastic meal: Savoy cabbage with several sorts of fish and pasta. Katja's daughter had cooked the whole meal on her own.

After dinner the presents were changed. What an exciting day!

Bye
BigBird

Hi Mummy,

after eating too many sweets during the last days we decided to take a long walk today. Katja's daughter had to go to work, her son had planned to visit his Dad and Grandmother so nobody was missing her. The sun was shining although it was really cold.

The following photos were taken in the vicinity of my current home. You can find many old houses here.





We met Katja's friend Erika, she also likes to take walks through the forrests and surroundings of Remscheid. To meet Erika we had to walk to the district Hasten, one of the oldest districts of Remscheid. We walked through the muncipal park to get there. Here you can find sports fields for soccer and more ball games.



From here we already could see Hasten.



In Hasten you can see many old houses.





This is the church in Hasten.



These trees in front of the church were decorated by children.



We than walked to Katja's friend to pick her up. On our way to her we could already see some of the surrounding areas. Here you can see that Remscheid is surrounded by woodland areas although it is an industrial town.





From here we left the streets and walked into a woodland area.





I don't want to overwork you two little boys with too much nature so I took a picture of some trucks. Katja told me that her son had an eye only for cars and  trucks when he was a little boy, he was interested in almost nothing else.



Here you can find grazing land and cropland.



Later we had a rest on a tree trunk.



This is also one of the outskirts. Only here you can see overhead lines, usually you have underground cables. (You cannot see the cables on my photo - what a pity!)



We walked for about three and a  half hour. We had a last rest when the sun already began to go down, catching the last sun rays.





Greetings from
Big Bird

Hi Mummy,
today we met Katja's friend Erika again. The ladies had planned to go to Wuppertal by bus. Wuppertal is one of the neighbour towns of Remscheid. But when they reached Wuppertal they spontaneoulsy decided to go to Bochum by train. Erika wanted to visit an exhibition there. Before we went to the train station Katja showed us the concert hall which is a masterpiece of turn-of-the-century architecture.







From here you have a good overlook across the city centre.



We than went to Bochum by train. German trains are not so nice.

Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. It is about 45 km apart from Remscheid.

When we reached Bochum the ladies went to the museum first. It was not allowed to take photos there.

They visited an exhibition which is showing original stage settings which are used by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch company, based in Wuppertal in Germany. Pina Bausch is famous for extraordinary stage settings like a stage completely filled with free standing cloves or a stage filled with soil or lawn. Katja told us that for her the most impressing stage setting was a winterly birch forrest. The whole ground was covered with white sand and birch trunks, about 4 m long, were installed to the ground. You felt as if you were walking through a real forrest. All settings were decorated with photos of those pieces in which the settings were used.

Katja showed us a booklet with informations about the exhibition. It really seemed to be impressive.









Because our bus came when we left the museum we even could not take any photo of the museum!

We went back to the town centre to go shopping.

Here you can see the town hall with a gigantic bell in front of it.



This is one of the central places in the town centre.



We went back by train later. We had to wait at the central station for a while.

I am celebrating my eighth birthday!

I had eight candles and we were allowed to taste a sip of sparkling wine. Of course SaruMaru took a larger sip.





We had a lot of fun and went to bed early because the sparkling wine really made us tired.

Bye
Big Bird