Travelog for: nosyblue

This is my very first entry in a diary travellog. So what will I say first?

Today I decided to leave my save and cosy home and go on adventures. Usually I like to sit at the window and watch people passing by. But now the time has come to be one of them, going on a trip. So I told my Mom's room mate to take some pictures so Mom will remember me while I'm away.

Then I began to think what to do before travelling.
I talked to my big Brother, to the Cats and the other Toypets here and they gave me some good advices which I will follow the next days.

Mom's room mate has a lot of language dictionaries so I decided to learn some vocabulary so I can say a proper "hello" to my future hosts.

Missy the cat, helped me a bit pronouncing difficult words.

Yesterday I made a nice trip to Emmendingen, a beautiful town in the Black Forest. On the way there we had to drive thru the "Simonswäldertal" which is very popular for motorcyles drivers, because it's a street in serpentines down the hill with beautiful sightseeing spots.

Right now I will only show you some pictures of our trip. Later I will add some more of the town of Emmendingen.

I had so much fun on this trip!

I sat in a red telefone booth (can you see me on the picture?) This booth is a gift of a sister city in Great Britain. Actually it works with Euro-Coins.

We had yummie icecream in a Cafe. I had a banana split. After that we walked around and there was this statue. I coudn't resist on sitting in his strong hand.

Then we sat down at a little pond. An extraordinary fact is, there were some turtoises in this pond. But unfortunately they were to far away so I coudn't take a picture. But then there was a heron. These birds normaly fly away if people come too close but this one not.

When we came back the car had exactly 44.444 kilometres on its tachometer.

Since I still don't have a travel ticket I decided to have another trip in my home area.
The Mummelsee is in the northern Black Forest directly on the Black Forest High Road between Freudenstadt and Baden-Baden. It is the highest cirque lake in the Black Forest (app. 1000 m above sea level).
There is a natural path around the lake. On the right half some artists tryied to get the spirit of the lake and bring it into their special way of art.
Well most this art is not the kind of art I would prefere but at least I couldn't resist to climb on this one

Just a few steps further one can find lots of tiny caves sorrounded by moss and blueberries. Not difficult to think of mysterious creatures living in there.


Unfortunately I didn't have the best weather.


I found this little water fall.
Good bye Mummelsee......

Ooops I forgot those two pictures to show.
First one: I sit in the middle of an old big cockoo clock face which is used as decorative item at the souvenir shop.


Second one:
a prayer to thank for the beauty of the lake.

Today a big envelope arrived. I was a bit frightened about what would be inside so Felix the cat stood by my side while I opened it.


But, there was no reason to be afraid. A new friend was inside. Butch Flunky who will stay at my place for a while.


Now I can go on my trip Monday.

Hi Mum,

today I arrived at Bruchsal. My host welcomed me as a very special guest for Christmas. She is so happy to have me with her for the holidays. And I met many other toyvoyagers already. We had some fun exchanging our stories. I will post some photos of it soon.

Bye, nosyblue

It is Sunday, the fourth of advent. So nobody did think, that the doorbell would ring and the postman would come and bring a package. But suddenly we heard a bell ringing and we were shaken back and forth. Of course we were very excited, especially because it was the day before Holy Eve. So we all sat in our package and waited. In the meantime this happened outside the package:




What a big surprise for us! There were so many new toyvoyagers outside the package: Kari, Robby, Fiona, Hömpfmömpf, Madam Miff, Chalon, Kara and Mysterio. So the house got crowded








They told us to walk out of the package, so we could introduce each other and exchange adventures. We had a nice chat.

Our hosts received a present: An Anastatica. Anastatica is found in arid areas in the Middle East and Sahara Desert, including parts of North Africa and regions of Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, and Pakistan .

After the rainy season, the plant dries up, dropping leaves and curling branches into a tight ball, and "hibernates". Within the ball, the fruits remain attached and closed, protecting the seeds and preventing them from being dispersed prematurely. The seeds are very hardy and can remain dormant for years. Wetted again in a later rainy season, the ball uncurls and the plant wakes up from its dormant state, which causes the capsular fruits open (dehisce) to disperse the seeds.




Then we finished some other cookies called Staenglein. They are very yummy.




On Holy Eve we had the family's traditional dinner: chicken fricassee in pasty with lamb's lettuce.




Later we sat around the plate with cookies and sang Christmas carols under the Christmas tree.
sorry, it was so dark, so the photos aren't that good and somehow the flashlight didn't work.

It's the last day of the year and it's not raining. So we decided to go out on a sightseeing tour in Bruchsal.

At first we walked through the so called Bürgerpark, citizens' park. It was created in end of 1980something. There are two memorials of National Socialism victims and a third memorial as sign for understanding between different people of the world.




Here you see the medieval tower and a part of the community centre. The tower was built in 1358 and is the oldest building of Bruchsal. It belonged to the old castle.




Bruchsal has about 42 000 inhabitants, if you also count those in the five suburbs, which are Heidelsheim, Helmsheim, Untergrombach, Obergrombach and Büchenau. It was first mentioned in 796 A.D., but there had been an older settlement. 80 % of Bruchsal had been destroyed during World War II. on 1rst of March 1945. So you hardly find really old places.

Schloss Bruchsal is one of the most beautiful Baroque palaces in Germany and the only episcopal Baroque residence on the Upper Rhine. The foundation stone was laid in 1722 by Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Speyer, who made the palace the centre of his absolutist dominion.
After being almost completely destroyed in the final days of World War II, the main tract was painstakingly reconstructed according to the original design and work was completed in 1975, including the magnificent dome, Marble Hall and Prince's Hall. The staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann is considered to be an architectural tour-de-force and has been described as the "finest staircase in the world".

We're now standing in front of one of the three entrances to the palace church called St. Damian and Hugo. From here you can see the county court, the Damian Gate and the tower of the jailhouse. The building on the left side,m which of course is the right part of the building,  houses the chamber music hall.




Inside the church you can see these plates, which show the palace during the years. In the top photo you can see, how it looked like after World War II. In the last photo we were standing just in the corner, which you see in the middle of this top photo, between main building and church.




The church wasn't rebuilt in baroque style. It is really modern. Somehow that's sad, but the costs were just too high. Here we are at the backside of the church. You see, that the tower isn't directly next to the church.




This is the backside of the palace. In summer there are weeks, when they play open air theatre and in winter there is a second Christmas market since a few years.




Next to the main way through the palace garden you find a lot of statues. At one crossing you see in each corner one statue of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. Here you see the statue earth.




The statues in the next crossing's corners show the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, autumn. Here you see winter.






At one small gate you come to this street with really old houses.




Here you see the mainbuilding of the palace.




Just turning around on our heels we saw the county court building and the Amalie fountain.






The Amalienbrunnen is called Schnecklesbrunnen ( in Bruchsal dialect), which means snail fountain.




This is the gate called Damianstor. It is the entrance to the palace area. In the Damian Gate you can visit art exhibitions.




We walked to the Stadtgarten, another park. This fountain is called Ferdinand Keller Brunnen. Behind the fountain you can see a part of a grammer school called Schönborn-Gymnasium.




The Belvedere on the edge of the "Stadtgarten" was built by Leonhard Stahl in 1756 as a hunting lodge for Prince Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten. The location was chosen so that the lodge would command an unspoiled view of the palace, town and Rhine rift valley beyond.

Especially worthy of note are the two towers, each of which has a viewing platform topped with a Chinese-style baldachin – an example of the fashion for chinoiserie prevalent at that time. Today, the Belvedere is used as a venue for concerts and theatre productions.




At top of the Andreasstaffel, high stairs, you have a great view over Bruchsal. The houses below belong to the oldest part of Bruchsal. You also can see the tower of the ancient castle and of two churches (from left). The houses, which are in one line right in front of us, belong to the Huttenstraße.








Here you see the baroque church St. Peter in the far. If you take a look right to the edge to the wood, you can see a big house. This house is called Sancta Maria. It is a school for social education and it is still home for Franciscan nuns.




The buildings right in front of us and the white building in the far on the left side are all part of the old people's home. The big grey building behind the white is another grammer school called St. Paulusheim.




We also walked a bit down the Andreasstaffel and had a few to the top from there. You see that small house. It is called Wingerthäusle. Maybe you can read about it in the next photo, it might be a bit small.






We saw a beautiful house next to the Stadtgarten. If you plan to stay in Bruchsal for a holiday, you can rent this house for a while. It belongs to a hotel and restaurant.




Finally we walked back home again. We came to the baroque church St. Peter, which is only a few hundred feet from our host's place. THe church is still baroque inside. It is located at the edge to the graveyard.[img]null[/img]

Finally it is time to welcome the New Year 2013. We watched the fireworks and our host's children made a special firework with sparklers for us. Then we went to bed, really tired.

On January 6th is Epiphany. Children go out as the three kings and collect money for church and special needs. Many people offer them sweets. That's why they also carry bags with them to put the sweets, chocolate and other things like apricots and appels in it. Here you see some of the sweets the sons and daughter of our host brought home on 5th January. (This year they went on 4th and 5th). Maybe they will share them with us, who knows.

Finally we have some snow, so we decided to go on a walk around the Kreuzbergsee in Tiefenbach. The lake was contured as recreational area in 1974 and it's magnitude is about 200.000 m². It is about 340 m long and 70 m broad.

The weather was so grey, that we had not really a chance to go out and see other places. It had snowed during the night - everything is white now. At least it isn't so dark outside now.