Travelog for: Decker

Hi,
I arrived at my new host's home today. I have already played with a lot of ToyVoyagers. It's like a zoo here: a chipmunk, a giraffe, a wombat, a tiny teddy bear, a toy rat and six REAL rats. Not to forget a little gingerbread man.



Outside it's raining and raining and raining. I hope Katja will show me around tomorrow!

Bye
Decker

Hi Mum, hi Dad,

today the weather was much better than yesterday. In the afternoon we took a walk to the muncipal park and to the town centre to do some shopping for the weekend.

But first I want to show you the front page of today's newspaper. There's an intrauterine photo of an unborn lion as a preview to a National Geographic Channel production on German TV tomorrow.



In the afternoon we went to the muncipal park. The next photos was taken in the vicinity of my current home. They are mostly showing pretty old houses which were not destroyed in World War II.





Sorry, no more pretty  houses.



In front of the police station there is a little park with a pillar dedicated to the town twinning of Remscheid and Quimper in Brittany, France. You can see the city arms of Remscheid here. It's showing a lion!



We went to the muncipal park than. Here is a pond with ducks and turtles. The ducks were coming to us because they hoped we would have fed them.







The next photo is showing the observatory, situated in the muncipal park.







This is the rose garden. In summer all of those  white climbing aids are full of  rambler roses, Katja told me. Now it's looking a little bit dismal. The pillar is dedicated to the deads of several wars before the world wars.





In the background you can see the outskirts af the neighbour town Wuppertal.



We left the muncipal park than and walked to the town centre. Here you can see the police station.



These are allotment gardens. Are there allotment gardens in the U.K. also? The town centre is situated on a hill. Nearly all of those steep slopes are filled with allotment gardens.



Here you can already see the tower of the town hall and the water tower.



The next photo is showing an old house where the local court once was situated.



Here you can see the back side of the town hall and the shopping mall.



Here is the water tower. The drinking water for the whole town centre is pumped from a dam in one of the valleys to this water tower.



We wanted to take a photo on the front side of the town hall, but unfortunately something like a beer tent was assembled there. So we took a photo which does not show the space in front of the town hall, but me, the tower and a pillar showing a lion.





We went shopping than and went back home.

Bye for today
Decker

Hi Mum, hi Dad,

it was raining like hell in the morning. In the afternoon a friend called Katja and asked if she'd like to take a walk. She was unsure because of the weather but we got onto her nerves until she finally said "yes".

The ladies decided to walk to Morsbachtal, one of the surrounding valleys where the creek Morsbach is running.

First we had to walk to the district Hasten than always downhill.
What you can see in the background belongs to the neighbour town Wuppertal.



The next photo is showing the church of Hasten.



They have lots of pretty old houses here, they are called "Bergische Houses" because this region is called "Bergisches Land".











Look, what happened to the weather within only 45 minutes!



Here you can see creek Morsbach.



They seem to like lions in Remscheid. Those two are  watching over the entrance.



There are some industrial plants along the creek, mostly companies which are existing for a long time already.



Here you can see trail markings for several hiking trails.
The R in the cirle is standing for "Röntgenweg", a hiking trail around the muncipal area of Remscheid, it is about 63 km long.

The second marking is standing for the project "Regionale 2006".

The encircled W is standing for a hiking trail around Wuppertal, the neighbour town. This hiking trail is even about 130 km long!
This valley is marking the border between Remscheid and Wuppertal, so both hiking trails are overlapping here.

The N means that is this a hiking trail which connects Friends-of-nature-houses.



The next photo is showing one of the old companies in the valley.



We left the valley than and had to walk uphill again to return to the town centre.



It's really exhausting to take a walk here: First you have to walk downhill for a long time only to walk uphill for more than three-quarters of an hour.



Although it was a really nice trip today.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mum, hi Dad,
since Monday we had really lousy weather. It was foggy, it was raining, simply horrible. Today ist was looking much better. Katja had to return some books to the public library, so she took off with me, Peti, Harold and her camera.

Here we are in front of the library.



From here we walked to the central bus station.



A music school is situated in this pretty house.



Katja decided to show us the district you can see in the left side of the next photo. It's situated on a hill like the town centre and is mostly adjoining  woodland and green space.



On the path along this road you can find a coal tub. It was a present from Wansbeck, Remscheid's twin town in the U.K.





We reached Hohenhagen than and we took some photos. From here you can see the town centre with the tower of the town hall and the water tower.



They have one-family houses here, multi-family houses and also multistorey buildings.



You can see here that behind those houses there is nothing but grazing land and forrests.





Can you see the transmission tower in the background? Katja does not know its purpose, maybe for radio or television.











Those houses were built in the 1970s.



We rested in the late afternoon sun for a while. We are now close to the central station, or better, close to what is supposed to be the central station in about half a year. They are building a new one, like Katja told us.

You can see one of the most unattractive parts of the town here, the main traffic junction.





We than walked along the building site of the central station.





We found a dry place for another rest.



Really ugly!



We even made it home without getting too dirty.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

today we took a walk around Eschbachtalsperre, which is Germany's oldest drinking water dam. It was built since 1889 A.D. and was opened in 1891 A.D.

There are several walking paths around the dam and in the vicinity of the dam. We chose one which was about 8,5 km long, only a short walk because of the bad weather.

We started at the dam and walked than into the forrest.





Motorway A1 is close to the dam. Here you can see the motorway service area.





We were sitting comfortably in the fresh moss.



A part of the forrest was overflooded, propably by lots of rain we had last week. Can you see the dark spots in the foreground? It is frog spawn. Large parts of the tarn were full of it.



Our path leaded us away from the dam into the hinterland. Here we saw farms.



We saw an interesting weather vane on a roof. Usually they are showing a weathercock.





Finally we returned to the dam.



A large collecting box is standing in here!



We reached the masonry dam. In the background you can see a hotel.



Here you can read some informations about the dam, about the hold capacity, about height and lenght of the capstone.



This memorial is dedicated to the architect of the dam, Robert Boeker.



We took a last group photo, sitting on the masonry dam.



Although the weather was bad we had a lot of fun.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

we're going to  travel to Munich tomorrow, I'm so excited!





Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

we are at the Airport now. Our flight to Munich will start at 10:00 a.m.

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

we arrived in Munich soon. We went to our hotel and than immediately into town.

Here we are at Karlsplatz, also called Stachus.



Here you can see me at Promenadenplatz. In the background you can see one of the most exlusive hotels in Munich, hotel Bayerischer Hof.



This is Wittelsbacherplatz. The statue is showing elector Maximilian I, who lived from 1571 till 1651 A.D.



We walked through the old town and reached Odeonsplatz. On the right side you can see Theatinerkirche (Theatine Church St. Cajetan).



Katja wanted to meet another host of ToyVoyagers here, Pandamao, in the Englischen Garten. We still had some time and so Katja showed us Hofgarten (Court Garden).

The garden was built by Maximilian I, whose statue I already showed you. In the middle of the garden you can see Dianatempel, a pavilion dedicated to goddess Diana.





Here you can see the inside of the temple.





Facing the Hofgarten on the east side is the Bavarian Staatskanzlei ("State Chancellery"), housed in the former Army Museum. The glass wings were added to the orginal building.



From here it'n not far to the Englischen Garten.



Here we are!

With an area of 3.7 km² the Englischer Garten is one of the world's largest urban public parks. In the background you can see  Monopteros, a greek style temple built in 1836 A.D.



There are many creeks in the Englischen Garten.



We are now in the famous beer garden at the Chinese tower.



Almost no visitors were here but we had a delicious beer although.





Bye for today
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

on our second day here we planned to walk through the old town and than visit Westpark.

We started at Sendlinger Tor, which is a city gate at the southern extremity of the historic old town area of Munich.



From here we walked along Sedlinger Straße to do some shoppings.



This big friend was watching the street in front of an opticians.



Katja told me that the lion is the heraldic animal of the German state Bavaria, that's why they have so many lions here.

Of course we also visited Marienplatz with the famous new town hall.



On the next photo you can see the Mariensäule (Marian column) and also the towers of the Frauenkirche (Cathedral of our blessed lady).



We had lunch in a famous restaurant, Ratskeller (cellar of a town hall). Almost every town hall in Germany has such a restaurant in its cellar. Here I found the next lion, showing the way to the entrance.





From here we went to Westpark by metro.

Westpark is a large urban public park in Munich. It was completed in 1983. It hosted the fourth International Garden Show (IGA 83) that same year.





I saw a bush which seems to consist only of thorns.



They have an area here which is called Little Asia which consists of a Chinese garden, a Japanese garden, a Thai sala and a pagoda.

Unfortunately the part with the Chinese garden was closed for visitors at the moment.

So let me show you the Japanese garden.





This is the beautiful Thai sala.



We took a long walk in the park and went back to the town centre than.

This is Karolinenplatz, an important intersection here.



From here we walked to Königsplatz. The square is framed with the "Ionic" Glyptothek and the "Doric" Propylaea (Propyläen) and the "Corinthian" State Museum of Classical Art.





Löwenbräu is a brewery in Munich that produces a traditional Munich-style beer. Like other premium German beers, it is brewed according to the German “Reinheitsgebot” (Purity Law) dating back to 1516. Löwenbräu means "lion's brew". Löwenbräu is one of the oldest breweries in Munich.

Have a look at the brewhouse on the right side.







Later, when we left the brewhouse, we could see that the lion was moving, roaring and toasting with his beer mug.

Inside we had a beer, of course. Katja's daughter Alex even ordered "a mass", which means one litre beer.



Of course we also had the traditional Bavarian pretzel, covered with coarsed salt. They are glazed with lye and salted.

Pretzel?! No, hearts!



That's enough for today, my paws are aching and I will have a hangover tomorrow (I helped Alex to empty her "mass")

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

today Katja joined a meeting of a rat keeper's association here in Munich, that't why we travelled to Munich. She only took Louis the rat with her - that's mean!

When she returned to our hotel we took a walk in the old town and along the river Isar.





Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Daddy,

we visited Tierpark Hellabrunn today.



We saw lots of interesting animals.

Here is a cheetah.



Have a look at those giant turtles!



I saw many ducks and goose



and a pretty lioness (unfortunately she is out of focus).





We also watched a show with raptors. They showed a barn owl, a peregrine falcon and a golden eagle.



The girl is showing the peregrine falcon here.



They let the birds fly and they came back after performing how to kill their prey.

This is the golden eagle.





We had to leave to zoo than to get back to the airport.

Here we are on our way back home.



I had a fantastic time in Munich!

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

we had very bad weather here this week. It was raining like hell and on Thursday we even had snow. But it melted away within the next day.

Today the sun came out, but only for a few minutes. We went out immediately to see if there are any signs that spring is coming.

We decided to walk to the municipal park.

We saw the first signs that spring certainly is coming in front of Katja's friend's house.



We found more signs in the park, have a look at this rhododendron.



The weather worsened again, it started to rain once more.



We are pacified now, it seems that spring will be here soon.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Daddy,

today we had the first sunshine day here since at least half a month. Katja took us to her working place in a law firm to show us a little bit more of the town centre after work.

First I'm going to show you the town hall, with a blue background today









This is the main entrance of the shopping mall.



In the shopping mall cute little gardens are shown an the moment. I liked this one with a pond and a water wheel.



These giant forceps are marking the entrance of the shopping street. They are meant as a symbol for the local tool producing industry.



Katja promised to take a walk with us in the afternoon.

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

in the afternoon Katja met a friend and the two ladies took a walk with us, like Katja has promised.

We started in Hasten, one of the oldest districts of Remscheid. Here you can see Haus Cleff, a beautiful patrician villa which was built in 1778/1779 A.D. Today a museum is situated here.





We walked downhill to the valley, here you can find an area called "Clemenshammer". "Hammer" means sledgehammer or blacksmith's hammer. Here you can find some of the oldest buildings in town.



We walked into the forrest here and soon we reached a fishing pond.



Not far from here you can find this pretty restaurant which is here for more than 100 years now.



Due to the heavy rainfalls last week every creek in the forrest is carrying lots of water at the moment.



From here we walked to a little dam which belongs to the neighbour town Wuppertal.



The concrete dam was renovated some years ago. They have information panels here where you can read a lot about the building of the dam and also about the renovation.





This house is a typical one for this region: Houses are often covered with slate, they have green shutters and often a green painted front door.



It's really exhausting to take walks with Katja. We had to walk for more than two hours, uphill and downhill. I'm so tired now ...

Bye
Decker

Hi Mummy, hi Dad,

today we took a walk with Katja's friend Kerstin and her family's dog, Pepe. We went to Wuppertal, Scharpenacken, which is a former army training area. This area was used for military purposes until 2004 A.D as a shooting range. Today there is a local recreation area with vast open areas.





Many people are coming with their dogs to let them play with others. There are also people flying model aircrafts or kites.





The complete area has a size of about 185 Hektar (or 457 acres). There are open ranges, trees, creeks, you can walk steep uphill or downhill.







Nothing but green and the blue sky!



We were resting here close to the creek while Pepe was playing with some dogs.





We are all hoping that the weather will stay like this.

Bye
Decker