Travelog for: Polki

Medieval Market in Dreieichenhain

Hi Mommy,

today, Anja had visitors, and we all went to the medieval market in Dreieichenhain. This is Anja's hobby, and Terry has told me a lot about seeing all kinds of medieval markets with Anja.

First, we had a big breakfast





Then we drove to Dreieichenhain, which is only about 30 minutes drive.

There, we admired some lovely wall paintings in the castle restaurant








As this guy allowed us to share his table, but not his food



we ordered some food ourselves: a nice Haxe (grilled leg of pork) with Sauerkraut and bread



Aaaah, delicious!!!  No wonder this is the national dish of southern Germany 

Then we wandered around the old castle ruins





and we even went underground to the Trolls and Dragons market in the castle cellar



There, Anja found a lovely dragon that she carried around on her shoulder



Um, did I tell you that Anja loves dragons? 

We also bought some nice medieval music at a stall



and wandered around the market until it got dark



What a lovely day! 

Hugs
Polki

There be dragons! 

Hi Mommy,

today, a large package arrived for Anja.
Of course, we all crowded around it. Another TV?

We got out the scissors to help Anja cut it open.



"Please leave that alone!" Anja said, "you'll just cut yourselves!"

And then she cut her thumb with the scissors trying to cut open the package



My goodness, the curses that woman knows!  Unfortunately, she won't permit me to repeat them here 

She should just let us TVs open the package!

When the package was finally open, we all wanted to see what was in it. Another TV?



Yaaaaaah, dragons!!!! 



More and more dragons came out of that package



and we were quite afraid. Except for Terry, that is. But then, of course, he is a tiger.



What a dangerous place! 

Dragons and tigers and rats, oh my
dragons and tigers and rats, oh my 

The dragons were quite nice to us, though



and some of them just went perfectly with Ninni's coloring, don't you think?



Anja was all happy with these new additions to her dragon collection 

And as long as the dragons don't bite us, we don't mind them 

Hugs
Polki[/b

Percy arrives





Hi Mommy,



today, Percy arrived at Anja's house.

Anja said that he came all the way from Japan!



So, of course, we all crowded around him, to see what a Japanese Toy Voyager looks like and to welcome him.







We all admired the lovely postcard he brought from Japan (Japan! Wow! Even Anja was impressed!  ), and we all shared the Snickers bars that he brought.







Percy said that he likes to visit Haunted places.



Well, Anja had bought all kinds of weird stuff in the last few days.

And I mean: WEIRD!!!! 



Anja said to us that she will be hosting a big Halloween party for a lot of people on Saturday.



Then Percy looked all frightened. Tee hee hee, so much for being bold and liking to visit Haunted Places! 



Well, I am looking forward to the party! 



I LOVE haunted places! 



Snickering regards
Polki

Halloween Party at Anja's House!!!

Hi Mommy,

today, Anja had guests over for a big Halloween party.

Yes, I know, Halloween is in one week, but she always celebrates the October Meeting of the Frankfurt Pet Rat Owners Group with a big Halloween party at her house.

Halloween AND rat owners?  Sounds scary somehow.... 

First, we helped Anja decorate the house.

First, the front door



Then, the hallway





Look at this sticker of rats coming out of the floor! It looks so real!



Then, we hung up all kinds of ghastly stuff







the kitchen door



the doors







"the brain" of the family



the picture gallery





the cobwebs (even the picture of Anja looks quite scary here!)



the pumpkin candles



the witch



and this guy in the cage who hollers "let me out of here!!!" when you press his belly



When the guests arrived, we had to sit still in a corner, because the whole house was full of people.

But we still got a good luck at the yukky-looking Halloween food that was being served (Anja made some, and the guests brought some).

chopped off fingers



dead fingers with pus



blood pudding with eyes



toenail cake



rats



plague macaroni salad



blood punch



two rat cakes






But the very greatest surprise of the day was ... ta daaa...

the Puking Pumpkin!!!!



All of a sudden, we got a big scare! The Grim Reaper came in through the window!!!



But when we gave him a plate full of yukky-looking Halloween food, he decided not to kill us, after all! 



What a relief! 

So we could continue to have a good time. Which we certainly did! 



What a nice party!!!!
And the food LOOKED yukky, but it certainly tasted great! 

Hugs
Polki

Terry is leaving for Russia!!!

Hi Mommy,

today, Terry got all excited:

Anja said he is leaving for Russia! Moscow area to be exact! WOW!!!

So, Anja got a Russian doll for his going away picture



and she kept singing a song

"Moskau, Moskau,
wirf die Gläser an die Wand,
Russland ist ein schönes Land,
ha ha ha ha ha - hey!"

What the heck???? 

So she translated for us:

"Moscow, Moscow
throw the glasses at the wall
Russia is a nice place for all
ha ha ha ha ha - hey!"

Still: what the heck? 

So she played us an old song which was popular when she was a young girl:

Moskau Moskau

Ah, well, we are kinda glad we live today! 

So, we all waved goodbye to Terry, singing "Moskau, Moskau..."

Hugs
Polki

SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
Hi Mum,
I'm here in Germany with fam-united now. AnjaM had a really really bad time last year and she is so sorry, that she didn't get in contact with you and tell you about it and that she didn't send me home to you. I can tell you, that we tried everything to make her smile again, but until today she's still not all herself again.

This week she felt the stength to send me on to my new host in Bruchsal. I'm looking forward to some more updates with her before I will travel on to my next destination.

Greetings, Polki

Hi Mum,

after we arrived at Petra's host the other tvs were very happy to welcome us. Our first wish was to take a bath, so we all ran to the bathroom.

Here you see us from left to right:

Louis the rat, Nippy, Percy, Bree and me







Nippy thought, that it would be enough to clean one ear




But then she fell head over into the bath.




I loved to swim in the water.








We asked Petra, if she never needs a towel after having a bath and she ran to wrap us in the towel quickly.




Because it was warm and sunny, we asked our host, if she could bring us to the balcony. We lied down on a table in the sun - more or less.

Hi Mum,

today nothing really interesting happened, but this evening Petra's son called me to take a look out of the window and get some photos taken there. I'm sorry, but we had to zoom some views, so you can see more of the sky. We thought, we would get some rain, but nothing happened. It is still much too dry.

Hi Mum,

Petra and her husband will get spoiled by her children - it's mother and father day present. And of course we will get spoiled too
For breakfast we had bread rolls, jam, honey, chocolate plates and a special treat called Einäpfchen. It was made of ham cubes and egg. I also ate a croissant and drank some green tea and orange juice.

Let's see, what I will eat for lunch

Bye, Polki

Later we had lunch. The kids made some special appetizer and then noodles, salad, pork loin in lemon sauce. As dessert we had banana and vanilla ice cream.







You see, that the dessert was my favourite

Today we took a photo of nearly all tvs, which stay here right now. There are several tvs of our host: Aaron, Robinson, Schnuffi, Scotty, Cassiopeia and Simba Leon. Then there are the regular guests: BarryO, Bubo, Henry, Sanji, Tuffy, NiliHH, Jack, Chuckle, WillyW. All the others are tvs, which stayed with hosts, who had some problems and no chance to send them on to their owners or the next host, including me. It is the biggest amount of toyvoyagers I ever had around me

Today the weather is nice - finally. So we had a chance to go out and take a look at the sightseeing places of Bruchsal. Bruchsal was first named in 976, but there are places even older than that. Bruchsal is famous for its beautiful baroque palace, for asparagus and for traffic jams on the autobahn.

Here you see the Damian Gate, which is the entrance to the palace area. You can see art exhibitions there every now and then.




We crossed the street and walked to the fountain in front of the county court. Such a pity, that my host forgot to take a photo of the county court, but you can see it on another photo.




Here you can read a about the fountain:




We crossed the street again and walked into the palace front garden. At first we took a photo of a sign:




Here you can see from left to right: the building with the chamber music hall, the tower of Damian Gate, the little piece of the tower of the jailhouse, then the tree. At next there are two more buildings, which belong to the palace area, between both is the street, which we crossed before. Then the higher building on the right side is the county court. And you can see the little gate, through which we walked into the front garden.




We walked into the church to take a look at old photos. You can see, that the palace was destroyed during World War II. They rebuilt the area, but the church inside is modern nowadays.




In the second last photo you can see a little gate, which leads from the front part to the back part of the palace. We walked through it and took a photo of the backside of the church and the church tower.




There are some fountains on the backside of the palace. Each year there are open air concerts and it's a place for nice wedding photos. Around Christmas there is a second Christmas market at that place, too.




Four guards with halberts are at the line between the fountain part and the palace garden.




We walked to the little pond, where usually you can find many ducks.




At two crossings of the main way you can find a statue at each corner. This crossing shows the four elements water, fire, earth, air. Here you see the fire statue.




This crossing shows the four seasons winter, spring, summer, autumn. This statue is summer.




We left the palace area and drove to the backside of the hospital. There is a parking place and we stopped to take two photos: one shows the old hospital building with its nice little tower and the other shows the jailhouse.






Then we drove to the Belvedere, which was built as a hunting lodge for Prince Bishop Franz Christoph von Hutten.




Next to the Belvedere and Stadtgarten there is a place, where you have a great view over Bruchsal.




You can see the two towers of the baroque church St. Peter, which is close to my host's house. In the street right in front of me you can see some of the oldest houses of Bruchsal. 80 % of Bruchsal was destroyed during the war, so mostly you only see houses built from 1945 to today.




The buildings in front of me and the white one on the left side belong to the older people's house. Then there is the private catholic grammer school called St. Paulusheim - the big grey building in the far left side.




This nice house also is next to the Belvedere. Nowadays it belongs to a hotel.

Today we drove to Münzesheim to visit the Japanese Garden, which belongs to the therapy centre against alcohol and other dependencies. All buildings and works of art are made by patients of the therapy center based on antique models. The garden is about 5.000 m² large, it is open for patients and visitors. You will see a roof made of blue bottles, put into the concrete with there bottom to the outside - it's an interesting room, fascinating. Wall and floor are covered with blue tiles.
So now just enjoy the photos.












I hope, you like the group photos













Two more group photos in the blue room.















More group photos in the pavillon.

A thunderstorm is coming.

Today we bake a cake for a birthday party, where we will go later. It is an apple cake, bottom and cover with the same dough. It is really yummy, but we had to work a lot to get all these apples cut into small pieces.