Travelog for: Holiday Harry

Because the weather was much better than the days before, Petra took us to her school, where we had to wait for her in the car for hours. Then she drove to Untergrombach, which is one of the suburbs of Bruchsal. The Michaelsberg, a small hill - only 296m high, belongs to Untergrombach. You have a wonderful view over the Rhine valley and if the weather is very very good, you can see the Palatine Mountains in the far.
3500 - 2600 BC first signs of humans had been found on this place, the "Michelsberg culture".

You surely remember, that I had been there already.



Here you see so-called "Steinriegel" (field clearance cairn), made by people working on their fields a long long time ago. They threw the big stones from their fields to the border of the neighbour's field, so that in the middle all stones were accumulated. Many animals and flowers love this gaunt places and that's why a few weeks ago, people cleaned the Steinriegel from all the earth, that came between the stone during the many many years and from all the other plants, that love to grow in earh.



Another word I learned is "Magerrasen" (neglected grassland), which is typical for the Michaelsberg.



We all wanted to go into the chapel and take some photos there too. It is nice baroque, not too many paintings or golden things.

Today we had to say Goodbye to some of our friends:

Elle travels to Munich now and Lucky Bunny to India. Mocke, a really new toyvoyager, travels to England and Chocolate Moose will stay at the German border to the Netherlands.

I'm sure you remember this little Teddy. It's name is Mocke now. He just started his travel to Drakie and will go on a holiday trip with her. Mocke told me, that he is very very excited.

Hi mum
Today two new toyvoyagers arrived and Petra said, that they - AliG and Curly - brought sunny weather to Bruchsal. So maybe she will go out with us at once to get some nice photos with interesting places.





We already had some fun together. You know, it is springtime and we all are a bit hilarious. I'm not sure, how Petra will handle this








After we built this toyvoyager pyramid (have I every seen another here???), all other toyvoyagers sat down - yes, they really just sat down quietly- and listened to me, who told them many news about Bruchsal. It was kind of sitting in school and listening to a teacher.

First Petra told us everything and I jumped around behind the other toyvoyagers backs like crazy.
This photo shows the Damian's Gate. It's the northern entrance to the palace area.


This photo shows the palace and the rooms inside. The palace was destroyed during the second world war, 80% of Bruchsal's buildings had been destroyed. The palace was rebuilt during the 70th. In the south wing of the palace the parish of St.Damian and Hugo has its church with a modern interior.


We all thought, that it is silly to take photos, where everyone can see only us toyvoyagers and the real photos only while making a handstand, so we asked Petra to take the photos standing behind us and letting me explain everything. You know, that it was hard for me to sit there and I just couldn't sit quietly enough, so I had something to do now.


HolidayHarry told us, that there are concerts in the palace sometimes. And there is an exhibition of Mechanical Musical Instruments.


There are several events in front of the palace during spring and summer.


One of these events is the summerday procession in May, when they burn the snowman in front of the palace.


The carnival procession is especially interesting, because you can listen to the crazy music called "Guggemusik" - a music, which even Holiday Harry had been unable to explain. On the right page you see the baroque church St. Peter and the arm of Bruchsal. The flags of Bruchsal are in front of the old town hall.


Each Wednesday and Saturday there is a market in Bruchsal, where you can buy fresh fruit and vegetables and flowers. You can also buy plants for the garden.


On the left side you see the limestone building of the Pallottines' private grammar school St. Paulusheim, built in 1923.


The Belvedere, a former hunting lodge, was built in 1758. It serves a very fitting background for open-aur plays.


This left building is really interesting, but not easy to take a photo with it. It is the men's prison of Bruchsal, built in 1841 and called "Café Octagon".


The baroque church St. Peter: Cardinal Schönborn began the building in 1740 and Cardinal Hutten completed it and had the interior finished. The architect was Balthasar Neumann from Würzburg. The church holds the remains of the last prince-bishop in a cryp.


I hope, you are as proud as I am and as Petra is, that I already know so many things about Bruchsal.
Petra said, that she really wondered, how I - she called me " this crazy monkey" , remembered so much about this place.

Happy Easter to you!!!

Hi mum!

We all thought, that we maybe would have better weather now. It started to be so nice, when we arrived here in Bruchsal, but I think, that I have to travel to a far away place to stay in the warmth. It is only warm in the house, when Petra heats the oven in their livingroom. Yes, and today it was really warm in the kitchen, because we all helped to bake a biscuit. It was really crowded in the kitchen.

This was the place we had to sit down at first, because Petra had to get everything prepared.



Then everyone was allowed to hold the stirrer for a while. Wow, I think, if Petra wouldn't had been there to help me, it could have been really dangerous for me. I had been trembling from head to toe.


Then I wanted to help to stir the flour under the dough.


While we waited for the cake get ready in the oven, we wanted to walk into the garden to take a look at the flowers there.










This is the basket, in which Petra carries us around, when she takes us to other places in her house. She says, it is the only way to carry so many toyvoyagers. If you wonder about the amount of toyvoyagers, that are here right now: Petra just started to find several hosts in Asia, Africa and South America. And now she activated many toyvoyagers and of course she wants to make some updates, before they start their travels. It is really exciting to hear about the places, which they plan to visit soon.


Finally the cake was ready - ok, not really ready, I suppose. Petra talked something about butter cream and chocolate icing. So I will see, how the cake looks like later.

Hi mum
here is a big big toyvoyager meeting now. I had been very surprised, when I saw all these other toyvoyager crawl out of the package, that arrived today. Of course we knew, that some other toyvoyagers will arrive, so we were very excited, when the postman rang at the door.
Now we are 13 toyvoyagers:
Florence, Tilda, Mingus Moose, Josh, Chokito, Davy, Tortilla and Bullet arrived today and you surely remember, that Amara Anthea, (Playmo)Bill, Curly, AliG and I had been for a while already.
I think, it would be a good time to have a party now and I saw, that Petra baked some muffins today. Maybe we can ask her to throw a party for us tomorrow???

Hurray!!! Hurray!!!

We had a little party today!!!


We had some snacks and water to drink and a lot to laugh about, of course. Dogs became friends with cats, a turtle with a kangaroo, a monkey with a moose and more.

We played with a big and a small ball and we learned how to play the card game "Mau Mau".



Didn't the table look nice?



Mingus Moose prefered to sit on the ballon.



(Playmo)Bill decided to not eat anything, because he was afraid to be too thick for his hobby.



Bullet wanted all the peanuts for himself.


Coco first had been a bit sad, because there was no honey on the table, but she liked the gouda then.



How did (Playmo)Bill come to that peanut? Maybe he asked Mingus Moose???



I had been really thirsty after eating a lot of sweets.



Florence is very hungry and wants to try a chocolate banana muffin.



Pebbels thought, that the Harry Potter muffin looked nice. It was a muffin with blueberries. Curly took the chocolate banana muffin too.



Amara Anthea tried a muffin american style, just on with chocolate drops.



AliG seemed to play the detective. What did he expect to find out today???



Do you see how happy Tortilla and Josh look with this dish filled with gummi bears?



Chokito, Davy and Schnuffi shared another Harry Potter muffin.



Only Hasi prefered something healthy - she wanted to eat a carrot.



Tilda hadn't been sure, whether she should try a "nimm 2 " or whether it is better to eat a carrot too.



Then we started playing with balls. At first we choose the Australian ball, but it was so big, that the little toyvoyager among us had big problems.






Later we decided to use a table tennis ball, which of course is much easier to play with.










At last we learned how to play "Mau Mau".








Our first winner was: Chokito


Second place: Bullet


Third place: Hasi


Fourth place: Pebbels

Today it's time for baking cakes for my host's mum's birthday. She is 70 years now and Petra was asked to bake two cakes: Donauwellenkuchen (Danube waves cake) and Zebrakuchen (zebra cake). Petra decided to bake a surprise cake too, with a part of the Happy Birthday song.

We sat all together watching and helping Petra with preparing the dough.



So here are the photos with me. If you are interested in recipes, I can try to ask Petra to write them here or send them to you.


















Finally the cakes are ready

The nougat cream cake:

only the words "Happy birthday" have to be put on the cake now.

The Zebra-cake



Somehow we miss the last photo of the Danube waves cake, the one with the cherries.

Today Kari arrived at home again and he told us a lot about Australia. Now I know, that Kira1997 send him to my host family as a present for their daughter some years ago. He wanted to see them again, so he decided to go to Australia as a toyvoyager.

Maybe you heard about the Buran arriving in Speyer? The new home will be the technical museum in Speyer: http://www.museumspeyer.de/index.html

The Buran ( the only space shuttle of the Soviet Buran program)was only on one unmanned spaceflight in 1988. The shuttle program was cancelled in 1993. It was destroyed by a hangar collapse in 2003.
The Buran is the world's first genuine space shuttle to be exhibited to the general public.

Petra wanted to go there to watch the arrival, but the weather was too bad, so we only got the chance to read the newspaper

I had a really great day today. The sun was shining and it was really warm. Now I believe, that it is springtime.
Petra woke up early and told us to get ready to for a walk. We were very curious and excited of course. First we bought some bread rolls for breakfast (only a few bakeries or open on Sundays) and then we brought Ralf to work (normally he doesn't work on Sundays).

And then we drove in the car for about 15 minutes. We sat in the rucksack and you can believe me, it wasn't the best way to travel.

After we walked a little bit, we found this sign:



It told us the rules, how we had to behave at this place.

Oh, you surely want to know, where we were. There is a small Japanese Garden not far away from Bruchsal in Münzesheim, which Petra was told, that it is really pretty. She never had been there before, but now she wanted to go there together with us.

So now look at the photos and enjoy!











I saw a part of the Berlin Wall:




This building was very interesting, especielly the ceiling, which was made of white and blue bottles.

Phewwwww! Finally we are here. Man I'm so tired and dizzy now, but Petra thinks, that it is a good idea to take a few photos with us

on a table in our home for two weeks




and in front of the house. Do you see us???




and now???




We are sitting on the bench, a really lovely place.

In the early evening Petra packed the backpack again and we went to the beach. I really enjoyed it there.

Our first trip led us to Fur, which is a small Danish island in the Limfjord at the northern tip of the Salling peninsula. Fur has under 900 inhabitants and covers an area of 22 km².
We have to go there by a ferry, although the crossing takes only 3 to 4 minutes.
Fur is renowned for its deposits of diatomite, konwn in Danish as 'moler'. We want to go fossil hunting, but unhappily we have ho luck, because the woman at the museum shows us the wrong place. Anyway it is a nice small island.

We visited a small museum and then we walked in a small park close to the museum. It was warm and nice to sit on this big stone for a short time.



Then we tried to find some fossils, but we only got covered with a lot of white dust.

In the evening we just enjoyed the sunset at the beach. Don't you think, it was wonderful. Even I only sat there watching the sun.