Travelog for: Hueso

Hello !

Today I just want to show you the emblem of Essen.
We found this on the bus stop. Looks really nice, or?

I will travel on tomorrow ! Hope that I will arrive safety and in a good condition. Will tell you then !

Hueso

Hi Mummy,
I arrived in Remscheid today. I travelled with Lady to my new host. We had to stay at the post office over night. Our envelope did not fit into the mailbox of my new host, Katja.

We were welcomed by Fester and Lollipop.



Lady's mentor BlackCat made a little lottery and Katja was the winner. We brought the postcards and the magnet with us which she has won.



Look, the magnet is already placed where it should be - on the fridge!



Bye
Hueso

We took a walk in Gelpetal, a region between Remscheid and the neighbour town Wuppertal where you can see some historic industrial plants. In Remscheid you have metalworking industry since medieval times, partly because of the geographical situation. The city of Remscheid is located on a hill which is surrounded by valleys where you can find lots of creeks. In ancient times water power was used to run forges. At the beginning of the path that leads through the valley you can find severeal boards with informations about the valley.



You can also find fishing ponds here.



We reached a restaurant which is located here for more than 100 years.



The weather has gone bad in the meantime, it’s already raining a little bit.



These houses are typical for this region, half-timered houses with green shutters. The weather side is often covered with schist.



From this moment on it startet to rain heavily and we jumped into Katja’s bagpack.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,

today we took a walk in the outskirts of Remscheid. We started on the same path as on Friday.

Here you can see the sign at the entrance of the path and one of the historic buildings.







We walked through the forrest to the next district. Here we saw much grazing land, in the background you can see the silhouette of the town centre of Remscheid with the towers of the town hall and the water tower. Here you can see that the town centre is located on a hill.



Here you can see a photo of the district „Westen“. It’s funny that the district’s name means “West” although it is lying in the north of the muncipal area.



Katja made a flower chain for Bokkie, she was really looking beautiful with it.



We saw again pasture and harvested fields. In the background you can see the town’s silhouette again. We rested on a bank for a while.





On our way back we went to the apartment of Katja’s friend. We went through a meadow that had run wild with a creek running through it. The wild flowers are almost as high as an adult person.



Katja’s friend had coffee and muffins for us. We were sitting on the balcony. There were a lot of flowers, we were playing hide and seek between the flower pots.



We were all tired from the long walk then.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,
today I had cookies that were letter shaped. Katja wrote my name with them. Have a look:



The cookies are sort of meringue with chocolate. They are delicious.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy

today we took a walk in the afternoon through one of the valleys. Behind the bushes in the foreground a creek is running. Last year they had a horrible rainfall here in August, the whole valley was overflooded then.



We rested for a while between the roots of a large tree.



Without a doubt Remscheid does not only consist of forrests, fields and beautiful valleys. Remscheid is an idustrial town.

Here you can see one of the arterial roads and the building site of the new central station.





We walked back to our home along the "Werkzeugtrasse" (Route of tools). I'll tell you more about this special lane later.



Along this route you can find many artwork made of tools. This statue is made of varnished decay from punched parts. Can you see us?





Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,

today we visited Cologne. We went there by bus. We arrived in Cologne at 10:30 a.m.

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city. It is one of the oldest cities in Germany, having been founded by the Romans in the year 38 BC. Cologne lies on the river Rhine. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. It is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. In 1996 it was designated a World Heritage site.

Katja had a wonderful surprise for us. We met fam-united and her family in Cologne! She was also showing Cologne to a lot of happy ToyVoyagers.

Of course we started our tour at Cologne Cathedral.







We wanted to take a look inside the cathedral but there was still church services going on, so we decided to walk around and have lunch first.

We walked to the river Rhine first. The old town is close to the river. A few excursion boats were waiting for passengers.







We found the perfect place to take photos with all ToyVoyagers, both Katja's and Petra's. Have you ever seen so many ToyVoyagers all at once?





We went back into town then to walk to the restaurant we had chosen for lunch. This restaurant belongs to a brewery, Mühlen Kölsch.



Of course we had a "Kölsch" there, a special beer which is only brewed in Cologne.



When we finished lunch we walked back to cathedral. Now we could view the inside.

Cologne Cathedral is one of the world's largest churches, being the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Construction, with interruptions, of the gothic church began in 1248 and took until 1880 to complete – a period of more than  six hundred years. It is 144.5 metres long, 86.5 m wide and its two towers are 157 m tall.



After viewing the cathedral we went back into town again because the ladies were in need of coffee.

We found a nice cafe.



Here you can see Katja, Petra and all ToyVoyagers who visited Cologne today.



Now we had to walk to the central station. We had to get home by train, Petra and her family went home by car.

We took a last photo of the cathedral, this time even with both towers on the photo.



Here you can see the central station.





We said good-bye to all the other TVs and of course Petra and her family.

Bye

Hi Mummy,
the travel tag that you made for me is really worn out. So I asked Katja if maybe we could make a new one for me.



She said we would try.

We took white paper, self adhesive foil and a grommet.

First we printed my name and my ID onto a sheet of paper.



Than we made a bone shaped pattern



and cut it out.



Then I had to draw the bone pattern around the inscription for my new travel tag



and to cut the bones out.



We fixed both paper bones with double faced adhesive tape and laminated them with three layers of transparent self adhesive foil.

Then Katja helped me to punch a hole into the travel tag. The last step was putting in a grommet. Katja has a special vario pliers for this.



Look at my new travel tag!





We put my old travel tag into an envelope and I will bring it back home as a souvenir.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,

Katja showed us the town hall today.

The town hall was built in 1906. In world war II it was nearly destroyed but rebuilt later. The tower is 48 m high!

The farmer's market is held on Wednesday and Saturday on the place in front of the town hall.

The lion on the pillar is the heraldic animal of Remscheid.







Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,

today we  visited Katja’s sister. She is living in Remscheid-Lennep. Lennep suburbanized to Remscheid in the year 1929. Lennep was founded in 12th century, receive its town charter in 1230 A.D. It’s one of the oldest towns in the region “Bergisches Land”. Its medieval city centre is mostly maintained, many houses are listed buildings.

We started a little sightseeing tour in a small park. You can see that autumn is coming.





This wall is part of the city's former fortification.



This weekend the annual city party is held, it's called "Altstadtfest". They have a flea market, live music and the shops are open even on Sunday. Unfotunately the weather was not good today.



We saw lots of pretty plushy guys who were looking for a new home. We rescued three of them. Katja took a funny little red guy with her and also two cute little bears. I will show them to you later.

Later we walked through the old town. Let me show you some nice places.







Many fences are overgrown, some of them with grape-vine.





Can you see me and my friends sitting in the plant?

We went to the apartment of Katja's sister then. On the balcony we made a group photo with the  three new possible ToyVoyagers.



Now we are all debating about names for those three new friends.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,

today the weather got better again. In the afternoon, when Katja came home from work, the sun was shining. She wanted to go outside with us but she had to pack the Teddy Bears for Threadbear first.

When the package was pasted and labeled we went to the post office first. The Teddy Bears are on their way to South Africa now!

The post office is located in one of the old districts of Remscheid, in Hasten.

Here you can find many of the old typical houses.



Katja wanted to show us  the muncipal park. We walked along the "Route of tools" (Trasse des Werkzeugs) to get there. This is a lane for pedestrians that was built on a closed railway line. It was sponsored by local industrial companies. Most of them are metalworking industry, they make all sorts of tools.

You can find many signs and artwork of local artists along this route.

This bank is made from a gigantic screw clamp.



Here you can see one of the tool symbols on the ground.



When we left this route we had to walk straight uphill to get to the muncipal park.



This is the observatory.



The next picture is made in the park.



In spring and summer many flowers are blooming in the park. Now there are only a few kinds of flowers blooming, these for example.



A few weeks ago roses were blooming here.



This pillar is a memorial place for citizens of Remscheid which died as soldiers in previous wars before world war I.



Large parts of the park appear more like a forrest than a park. Here you can see that autumn is coming soon!



On our way back home we walked through another little park. Here you can find a pillar that's showing the crest of Remscheid and the names of the partner towns.



Katja's daughter cooked pasta with tuna sauce for us. We'll go to bed soon.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,
I met a real today!

We visited Katja's sister-in-law. She has a dog, an Entlebuch mountain dog. His name is Bertie.





Bertie is soooo big - I'm a little bit afraid.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,
we went into the town centre today to buy some things for our dinner. This time we saw the town hall from the rear side.



The building site on the left side belongs to the shopping mall which will be enlarged.

Here you can see the water tower. From here the households in the town centre are supplied with water.



The next picture is taken in the shopping mall.



It started to rain again. Such a pity.

Bye
Hueso

Hi Mummy,
we made a fantastic trip today. Katja met her friend Erika at 10:00 a.m. The two ladies had something really special in their minds.

Today it is the "Tag des offenen Denkmals". In english it is called European Heritage Days.

European Heritage Days is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission involving all 49 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto, Europe: a common heritage. The annual programme offers opportunities to visit buildings, monuments and sites, many of which are not normally accessible to the public. It aims to widen access and foster care for architectural and environmental heritage. This years’s motto is "Archaelogy and building research".

We decided to visit an ancient mine today. In this region ore mining started in 16th century.

There were three different periods of mining: The first one was before Thirty-Years War (1618 - 1648), the second one from 1758 – 1765 and the third one in 1853. Traces of the second period are difficult to find today.

Mining stopped after the first two periods because there was no possibility for smelting in this region. Actually they had watercraft, but the owners of the lot where smelting would have been possible had no interest in building a smelting works. They even were disappropriated. During this time the slag heaps had become so large that it was impossible to smelt the iron core.

Then in 1853 there was a last effort to revive the mines. In World War I parts of the large slag heaps were assimilated.

In a wooded area a local construction engineer excavated a gallery on his own ground. He found the mouth and built a new pit. Today we were able to see the pit. Before photos of the building site were shown. The engineer startet his work in 2002 and in about two or three years the mine should be ready for visitors.

Now I will show you some photos.

Here we are on our way to the forrest where the mine is located. We are standing on a railway bridge here.



This time we walked underneath the railway track, close to our destination.



Suneshine in the forrest ...



A view from above to the pit ...



This is the emblem of the association that arranged this meeting.



This is  the entrance to the pit, hanging above is the closing.



The pit goes down 6 metres and meets the gallery then. It is revetted with concrete.



Here you can see the mouth, unfortunately one of the outside walls crashed so it was not possible to go inside.



We walked then through the forrest to Schloss Burg, an medieval castle in the neighbour town Solingen.
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We reached Solingen-Unterburg. On our way through the forrest we saw many mushrooms. We had a lot of rain here last week, that makes mushrooms grow.



We had to walk downhill really steep to get there. You can see many old houses here.



I saw a cute cat that was lounging in the sun.



Here the Burger Pretzels are made and sold. Burger Pretzels are a local speciality, they are sweet pretzels. This is the "Pretzel bakery".



This is the creek "Eschbach", it's flowing into the river Wupper in this district.



We then walked uphill to the castle. It is located above the river Wupper. Those who don't want to walk take the chair lift.



Schloss Burg, located in Burg an der Wupper (Solingen), 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. The surroundings offer hiking trails to the forests and to Unterburg, that is where the village is located, at the foot of the mountain.













When we walked back downhill we took another photo. Here you can see the distance to the other part of this district.



Here we saw an ancient cementary. It was sided here in 18th century with 105 similar looking tombstones. About 50 of them are preserved until today. They are all made of a special sort of sandstone.





I saw this sign on a garden fence. Do you think they don't like dogs here?



From here we walked to Muengsten Bridge.