Travelog for: Berkeley

Today we visited the Zollverein coking plant in Essen. It is one part of the World heritage Zollverein.

I first would like to tell you something about it:

The Zollverein coking plant in the Essen suburb of Stoppenberg was built between 1958 and 1961 as a working link with shaft 12 at the Zollverein Pit next door. The coking plant took huge amounts of coal from the pit, as well as from other collieries in the region, and processed them into coke. Soon the maximum daily production of 5000 tons of coke was insufficient to meet demand. For this reason the plant was extended in the 1970s, when it became one of the largest and most modern coking plants in Europe. The Zollverein coking plant employed 1000 persons and produced amounts of coke well in excess of 7000 tons per day. Because coke ovens should never be allowed to get cold, production continued non-stop around the clock for 365 days a year. During the 1980s and 1990s demand for coke steadily declined as a result of the crisis in the steel industry, and on the 30th June 1993 the Zollverein coking plant was finally closed down.

It was really interested to see how such a coking plant looks like. I will show you the photos now and I will try to tell you, what you can see on the photos and what it was for.


That's the shaft 12 at the Zollverein Pit from behind. We went through a forrest when we made this picture.


That is a hoist. It can be moved on trails. It is so big, you can't believe it until you see it.


You can see a part of the coke oven batteries on this picture and behind it you can see the "Sonnenrad". It is a big wheel where you can see the coking plant from above and you can drive in it with this big wheel. It wasn't opened.
This photo was made in front of the ice skating parkour. It is always in front of the oven batteries in winter. It will be close again on the 11th January. There were a lot people skating.




Again two photos in front of the oven batteries. I am sitting on the coping of the conveyor band.


That's a machine which brought the coal into the oven batteries. It is really big for a little one like me.

I hope you like the pictures and the informations about the coking plant. Maybe we will go there again and show you some other areas of it. But now we have to get warm again.

Greetings,
Berkeley

Hello !

This night it snowed a lot and now there is so much snow outside. We have made some photos of it for you. BlackCat said, that there are 10cm new snow. Wow, or?

Berkeley

Today we went with BlackCat into the city centre. She had to go to the doctor and we went with her. As we had not much time she just showed us the church in the city. I really like this little church !

Today I had to say goodbye. I wasn't the only Toy that has to travel on. Margarida is on her next travel, too.
So we said Goodbye to Tilda and Thiele!

I have arrived - let's see what Munich will look like!

We went for an early morning walk with the dog. The sun was not yet fully out and in the dim light we crossed the brigdge alongside the German Museum and went down to the Isar river. When we arrived we saw that all was covered with ice.

We walked over the ice - very carefully because it is easy to slip and fall. On some areas the ice cracked when we crossed over.

Then we took a rest on a tree and in the Rosengarten, sitting on a bench in the morning sun 

Sometimes we take Maggy, our host's dog, for a walk close to the European Patent Office. We are wondering why all those straw bales are tied around the trees? 

We passed by the Königsplatz today. We saw the Lenbachhaus (museum for art - they are showing Kandinsky right now) and the Propylaeum.

The weather has changed and it snowed a lot. Now all the ice along the Isar river is covered with snow.

I passed the European Patent Office again and guess what the bales of straw are for - they're used as bumpers for the kids of the neighborhood going down the little slopes with their toboggans so they do not get hurt (if bumping into a tree)

Today the weather was cold and rainy - so I refused to get out of the nice and comfy backpack and get a photo taken at the Stachus (Karlsplatz).

As usual I went for a walk with Maggy, our host's dog. We were very surprised when the meadows along the Isar river was suddenly dug up. Later we heard that this part of the Isar close to the German Museum is "under renaturation". In the seventies many rivers were put straigth, now they are put back into the previous natural state.

I accompanied my host to her home town. Sulzbach-Rosenberg is a small town in the North-East of Bavaria. Pandamao showed me the town centre, a former cloister, the castle and town-hall.