Travelog for: Muri the Cat

Hello !

I am Muri the cat and I always wanted to see the world. I found a solution !!! I became a ToyVoyager  ! If you ever want to host me, please PM my owner.

                                                            Kind regards,
                                                                                  Muri

My travelist:

olgamous - Germany
RockVixen07 - U.S.A. *** now ***
susana - Portugal

Hello David,
I arrived in Remscheid today. My first host's son had to sign something when the postman brought me in my envelope. He was not able to read where the signature had to  be made because noone speaks slowenian here.



Everything is fine here, I met a lot of ToyVoyagers:, a mole, a monkey, something like E.T., a cheeky white bunny, a duck with giant feet, a chipmunk and a bee.

Bye for today
Muri

Hi David,
Katja showed me the town hall of Remscheid in her lunch break. It was built in 1906 A.D., partly destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in a more modern style afterwards. The tower is 48 m high.



In front of the town hall you can find a large place where the farmers market is held twice a week. Here you can also find a large pillar with the heraldic animal of Remscheid, the lion.



Close to the town hall, on top of the hill where the town centre is located, we also have a water tower here. From here the town centre is supplied with drinking water.



The next photo is showing one of the streets in the vicinity of my current home. Here a lot of old houses remained.



Now we are back in the law firm where Katja is working.

Bye
Muri

Hi David,
today we took a walk along the "Route of Tools", a lane for pedestrians and cyclers which was built on a closed railway track.

But before let me show you where I live at the moment. i live in this street in one of those nice old houses, in the attic storey.



Close to my current home you can find this large intersection. The large building is the local court. Katja told me that there is the coat of arms of the German state Northrhine-Westphalia above the entrance, in an abstract, fifties style.







We then walked downhill to reach the route of tools.



Many of the old houses have door knockers in the shape of a lion.





Now I will show you the famous "Ampelmaennchen" (the little lamp man of the old East German crossing signal) In the former  German Democratic Republic they had these lamp men, they attained cult status. By the way, this is the only traffic lamp in Remscheid showing the GDR  "Ampelmaennchen".



We reached the route of tools then. Here some metal signs are installed, showing the crest of Remscheid and the company logos of some tool producing companies. This lane was sponsered by local tool fabricants.





You can find distance data on the ground.







We rested on a bench that was made of a giant screw clamp.





I found another sign showing the NRW's coat of arms, it is fixed to houses which are under monument protection.



Later we took a short walk through the forrest, it was already getting dark so we did not make many photos then. Here you can see the sign for a landscape conservation area.





Bye for today
Muri

Hi David,
today I found the perfect sign showing the NRW's coat of arms. It is located at the main entrance of the town hall.



The word "Denkmal" on top of it means that this building is under monument protection.

Bye
Muri

Hi David,
Katja is knitting socks, or maybe a cap for me.



Bye
Muri

Hello David,

today we helped Katja to make christmas decoration. We made paper stars, they are called "Froebelstern" in German. These stars were created by the German educator Friedrich Froebel who lived from 1782 until 1852 A.D.

These stars are made of paper stripes. They are only folded, you don't need any glue.

You begin with four long stripes, each folded in the middle.









In the end you have to cut off the remains of the stripes.



We also made two coloured stars.





Ready!



Bye
Muri

Hi David,

we visited a museum in Ratingen today. We met three friends in Wuppertal to go to Ratingen by train.

Katja's friend made a mistake when she wrote an e-mail with the time of the train departure. We were there an hour earlier than the two other friends which we wanted to meet in Wuppertal. But that did not matter - we went into the town centre and bought a few postcards.

Here we are at the central train station.



Close to the train station there is a building with two large lions statues at the main entrance.





I saw the Schwebebahn, a suspended monorail. It travels along a route of about 13 km through Wuppertal, mostly along the river Wupper. It's running about 12 m above the river wupper and 8 m above the streets.





Then it was time to go to the train.

We visited an exhibition showing handbags in the Rheinisches Industriemuseum (Rhineland Museum of the Industry) which is a decentralized museum with six locations in Rhineland. We visited the Textilfabrik Cromford (Cromford spinning mill) in Ratingen.





Unfortunately it was not allowed to take photos there unless you assured that you would not sell or publish them. It was too dark to take photos anyway. This was important because they showed many really old handbags and also suitcases.

Handbags are great for women and cute little Odette but for me it was a little bit boring. But now I know why many women are carrying a backpack instead of a handbag. You won't believe what they put into their handbags: keys, mobile phones, biros, books, toys, hankies, lipsticks and ....

We had a cup of coffee in the museum's café.



After visiting the museum we took the bus into the town centre of Ratingen. They have a really nice old town there.





We had pizza here!



On a fountain in front of the town hall they had nice symbols for the different districts of Ratingen. I liked this horse.

.

At another fountain I saw this cat figure with a flexible tail.



It was a pity that the weather was so bad.

We went home by train than.

Bye
Muri

Hi David,

today Katja's new computer arrived! Now she do our updates at home. She made them at her working place for about three weeks.





Bye
Muri

Hi David,
in our lunch break we took a short walk through the town centre although the weather was really bad.

On the space in front of the town hall this year's christmas market will take place. They started to build the little houses in which nice things will be sold. The large white thing will be a skating rink.





This is one of the entrances to the shopping mall.



Here you can see the theatre. It was restaured a few years ago in its original fifty-years-style.



The public library ...



... the shopping street ...



... and one more entrance of the shopping mall. Can you see the pillar in the foreground? A large roof made of little lamps is installed there. When it's dark it must look beautiful.



These giant forceps are marking the entrance to the shopping street. The forceps are a symbol for the local tool industry.



And here again the town hall. Our lunch break will end soon and we'll have to return to the office.



Bye
Muri

Hi David,
yesterday it started snowing. We had a bad storm yesterday which destroyed some of the booths on the christmas market. Now the whole space in front of the town hall is roped in by the police.

We had a look out of the kitchen window in the morning. It's looking good outside.I hope we will go out later. I'm the only TV which is wearing shoes so I propably will be the only TV with warm and dry feet.

When Katja went shopping yesterday she picked up a letter from the post office. SaruMaru, a monkey from Florida, arrived.





Bye
Muri

Hi David,
in the afternoon we took a walk to the muncipal park.

First we saw the pond with turtles and ducks.



The sun was shining after at least ten days of bad weather.



This is the observatory.



We rested on a bench, enjoying the sun.





I even climbed onto a tree!



I love snow!

Bye
Muri

Hi David,
the snow is melting already and we have fog and drizzle now. It's really nasty outside. We only took one photo to show you that it is better to stay in a warm and dry place.



Bye
Muri

Hi David,
I'm on my way to Texas now. I'm going to become a cowboy!

I packed my envelope and Katja helped me to write a christmas card for my next host.



I also found a little souvenir for you. It's in its way to you.

Bye
Muri