Travelog for: Theodore

Hi Mummy,
this week two more ToyVoyagers arrived, Womat and Louis the rat.

Katja brought delicious cookies for us, they are called Nuss-Schiffchen (nut boats).



Fluffytail and I pinched the nuts.



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

today a cute little teddy bear from Hungary, Peti, arrived with Harold from Australia.



Elston will leave tomorrow so he had planned to bake lamingtons, the "Australian national cake" for us as his farewell dinner.

The other two ToyVoyagers from Australia helped hin. The kitchen was a mess afterwards, but they represented delicious lamingtons.

Lamingtons are squares of sponge cake, dipped into chocolate icing and covered with dessicated coconut.

While the sponge cake had to cool down for further treatment Katja offered us a glass of sparkling wine, also very delicious.



I found some nuts and raisins, I enjoyed them with Fluffytail.


Have a look!



Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk today to the district Hasten and to the outskirts of Remscheid. Hasten is one of the oldest districts of the town, dwellings and mostly old factories close together. This district was not destroyed in World War II, so most of the old houses remained.







Hasten is surrounded by woodland.



We than went to pick up Katja's friend who wanted to walk with us. She is living in a district close to Hasten, it is called Rath, a housing area with mostly one-family-homes and terraced houses. From here you can see Hasten again, in the background.



From here we went into the forrest. First we had to cross a road in the valley, than we had to walk uphill again.



Katja told us that in summer many horses are grazing on these pastures. In the background you can see the hill with the town centre, unmistable the silhouette with the water tower and the tower of the town hall.





We were walking along the border of the neighbour town Wuppertal. Hidden in the forrest are a few more small hamlets like this.



We had so much fun in the snow!



On the way back it started to snow again. Can you see it?



Back home we all had to sit on the heating because our bums were wet

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
Katja told me that I am "Voyager of the week". I'm so happy and proud!

We thought that this was cause for having a party.

We went shopping some delicious things like cheese, olives and nachos with cheese dip.

In the evening the party started.



My friends even made a medal for me.







Have a look at our delicious food!















^

We were even allowed to drink a little bit beer.



We had a lot of fun until late evening.

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
I went to the muncipal park with Katja and lion Decker today. I'm felling frisky and I hoped to see ... *blush*

I was climbing through those climing aids in the rose garden. Katja told me that there would be roses blooming in spring and summer.





Suddenly she was there!



We had a lot of fun when we climbed through bushes and trees.



And than ....



we disappeared for a while.

We are very happy.



By the way, her name is Claire.

Katja said she hopes that I won't have to pay alimony soon.

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

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.





Finally we returned to the dam.



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
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
we'll travel to Munich tomorrow. I'm so excited!





Bye
Thedore

Hi Mummy,
we are at the airport now. Our flight to Munich will start at 10:00 a.m.









Theodore

Hi Mummy,
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. This church, Theatinerkirche, is situated here.



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.



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 and pretzel although.





Katja met Pandamao here. Harold Giraffe and Womat went with Pandamao, Berkeley and Bruni Lila came with us now.

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

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.



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).



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.





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 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.





That's enough for today, my little feet are aching.

Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
Katja had to join a meeting today, she returned to our hotel in the late afternoon.

In the afternoon we took a walk through the old town and along the river Isar.

This is Isartor, also a historic city gate.







Bye
Theodore

Hi Mummy,
we visited Tierpark Hellabrunn today.



We saw lots of interesting animals. Have a look at those giant turtles!







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
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

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
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

today we had the first sunshine day here since at least half a month. Katja took us to her working place 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



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
Theodore

Hi Mummy,

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

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.



A parking place for horses



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.



Bye for today
Theodore