Travelog for: Meleleuca

Today we played Monopoly. Being so many toyvoyagers it wasn't that easy to receive many streets, that belong together. Here you see us right at the beginning of the game.







A bit later we bought our first streets. Petra wondered, why we all payed with the 10 000 DM - they all name it Euro now.

For afternoon tea we had some Strudel today, which was filled with apples and some red marmelade. It was not selfmade, so no recipe of this one.

Four grass parakeets live with my hosts' family:
Clowny, Fleckchen (both blue), Wolke (white) and Lilly - Lilius (thought it was a girl, but seems to be a boy , the green one)

It is time to bake some cakes now, because tomorrow it's Fabian's 18th birthday. Of  course we toyvoyagers helped Petra, because she still isn't allowed to walk so much or just stand on her feet for a too long time. And she still has to be careful with her back.

At first we helped to make a biscuit.



For lunch we had Käsespätzle (cheese spaetzle), because it was easy to cook.



Then I helped to cook the cherries for another cake.



Here you see the carrot cake and the one with the cherries.



Then I helped with the Chocolate-Mango-Coconut-Cake.

Today is Fabian's 18th birthday.

Then first thing that I saw, when I came into the kitchen in the morning, was the Quiche lorraine, which Fabian baked yesterday night for his birthday dinner.


Then I helped to prepare the table for breakfast. Petra loves to eat honey. They have many different selfmade marmelade too. Of course they don't eat bread rolls every morning. Usually they eat bread, but always with marmelade, honey or nut


Now I helped to prepare the cakes for the afternoon. Here is the Cherry-Amaretto-Cake


and here the Mango-Coconut-Cake

Bruchsal seems to be a really foggy place during November. Petra told me, that Bruchsal is located at the edge of the Rhine Valley to the Kraichgau. So maybe the Rhine causes this fog, that is all around during the last few days.

Petra told me, that usually you see a church, when you look out of this window.


Looking out of a window on the opposite side of the house, you see a walnut tree in Petra's neighbours garden.

About two weeks ago Petra and her family bought an ostrich egg. They were told, that they can keep it without a problem for about 4 weeks, but today was the day, that they decided to scrambled eggs. So we all had to help to empty this big ostrich egg. Wow, I can tell you, this was hard work

This morning we read the newspaper, because we wanted to know, who will be the new president of the USA. It is Barack Obama.








Then we took a look, whether we will find something, that we should buy at Aldi.

Today a new toyvoyager arrived here: Mousy Mouse. Here we sit all together at our place in the living room

While Petra was waiting for Ralf, she decided to show us a small part of this small city Bretten. She hasn't been here since years and at first she didn't find the right way, but then we arrived at the market place with its beautiful half-timbered houses.


This house shows the house of birth of Philipp Melanchton. It burned down in 1897 and was rebuilt.



The "Hundles Brunnen (doggie fountain) / Brettner Hundle" -  a pug is the town's landmark.

In the afternoon we waited for Sabrina, who sang in her musical project choir in Forst.

Then Sabrina and Petra showed us the palace of Bruchsal and some of the many buildings, which belong to the palace area. The palace was destroyed during the second world war, but was rebuilt in the 70th. Only the church doesn't look baroque inside anymore, which is a bit sad of course.

Here you see the backside of the palace. The church tower belongs to that church, in which Petra and her family go on Sundays.




Here you have a great view over the palace garden with the colourful leaves now.




On the other side of the palace you can see the Damianstor (gate). There are art exhibitions every now and then.




Here you see the entrance of the palace. The left wing of the building is the church.




Here we are on the backside of the palace again. One the wall of one building, which belongs to the palace, you see a sundial.




Then we drove to the Belvedere, but it started to get darker now and so it wasn't too easy to take good photos.
The Belvedere was a former hunting lodge. Now the park around it is used as a school yard for a grammar school, which is next to the Belvedere. During summer there is an open air theatre.






Here you see the St. Peterskirche (church), which is only a few hundred meters from Petra's home. It is a nice baroque church, located next to the graveyard.






In Petra's garden I asked her to take a last photo with me and one of the last flowers (Aster).

Today I saw the first snow in Bruchsal - only a little, of course. Bruchsal is located at the edge to the Rhine valley and during the last years it was much too warm for a lot of snow. So we were happy to see just this little bit of snow.

Today is Sankt Nikolaus Day. In the morning all kids got some sweets and nuts in some socks.




Later in the afternoon Petra did some handicrafts for her school. She created some lights with napkins and she was very happy, that we offered to help her.

It's the second Advent today and so Petra lit up two candles of the advent wreath