Travelog for: TobiHH

As the second part of my birthday celebrations Ren took me to a park called Hemlock Ravine Park. This park is perfect for me because it contains something that will help me fulfil one of my life missions.

A heart shaped pond!



Here's it's story:



Almost there!



There it is!





We woke up the ducks!



They wished me a belated Happy Birthday!



Here I am at the hearts "point"



Once we passed the pond, we decided to take the Prince Edward path.



Here are some pictures from our walk:







Look! A baby deer!



Here's a better look. It's mother was hiding behind a bush.



Here's some more pictures of the path. It's much prettier in person!







We ended up at the heart pond again!



Cross another heart off of my list!



Bye for now!

-TobiHH  

Hooray!
I was finally able to go into Halifax while a cruise ship was docked here! It was massive! We could see it from a long ways away! Here it is:



It's called the Caribbean Princess

Here I am down buy the buildings. Here you can see the... um... fin thingy (=P) from another cruise ship that was in the harbour. I couldn't get a good picture of it though because the buildings were in the way. It just shows how huge the other ship was!



(P.S. Pier 21 is a national historic site because it is the pier where so many immigrants to Canada arrived in the old days.)

We took a quick walk along the boardwalk. So pretty!



Here is the Caribbean Princess again!



There were lots of interesting boats in the harbour today. (That little cruise ship on the other side of the harbour is in for repairs.)



Theodore Tugboat was also out and about giving tours today. Theodore is a character from a children's television show.



On our way back home we passed The Old Town Clock. It was commissioned by Prince Edward in 1803. (The same man that made the heart shaped pond!)



I'm so happy that I was able to see a cruise ship here before I have to leave!

Bye for now!

TobiHH

Today a TV arrived from Czech Republic, a frog named Ferda



"Hello!"



He shared sweets with me and told me about his country!



I wonder if I will ever visit there?

-TobiHH

Hi!

Today we went on a walk in Bedford to look at the changing leaves. We took a trail that winds around the Sackville River.



The trees weren't quite as red as Ren thought they would be. It was still pretty though. Here are some pictures we took:









There were lots of bridges!





Ferda and I sat and relaxed on this one for a while.





Then the trail came out by the highway.



Then it went along a firing range. What a strange trail!



It's on the other side of this fence. Ren promised that I wouldn't get shot at as long as I stayed on this side. Yikes!



Down by the water the bubbles were making interesting patturns in the water.



We had to go under the highway here. I hope those beams hold!



Then we left the river behind and made our way back to the car.



There are the shooting targets way off in the distance. They are really far away from the fence! I don't think I was ever in any danger!



When were were all done we came out at the shopping mall!



We finished just in time. As soon as we were done it started to rain!

Bye bye!

TobiHH

Hello!

I can't believe how fast summer changed into fall here! Not long ago all of these leaves were green!



Anyway, it's time for me to move on to my next host now so I took one last walk around the yard and said goodbye to Ferda



I don't know where I'm headed next, Ren won't tell me! The only hint she gave was that it's somewhere south of here. Hmm... that could be almost anywhere!



Time to go back into the bag again! I'll see you on the other side!

-TobiHH

Janella,

please send me home!!!!

TobiHH

Hello from home again!

I am so happy - I have been lost in the USA for over 3 months- it was horrible. But now I am back home again.

Dicker Kumpel gave me a big hug!

I am not sure about travelling at the moment - it was so scary to be alone far away from home - with no hope to see my Mum ever again.

Now I will spend some time here - maybe I will find a very nice and established host to start my travels again.

yours TobiHH

Hello Mum,

a new guest arrived two days ago. She is called Agatha and came from Canada.

We talked a lot – and she showed a viewcard from her country.



Today we decided to drive to a nice small town. It is called Bad Oldesloe.
RikeH went to school there – many many years ago.

They have a nice river there. I liked it – and saw some funny ducks in the water and on the ice.





This is the townhall. It was not so easy to take this photo, because the ground was very icy.



Another nice place in Bad Oldesloe.



Greetings
TobiHH

Hi Mum,

I arrived savely in Essen today. Puff the dragon opened my envelope for me.

Love
TobiHH

Puff offered to get to know each other over a cup of tea. I agreed of course and told him about Ostfriesentee from the north of Germany. We worked quite well together:
The first step is setting water to boil.

Then we pick a tea, there are many choices, we decided on a nice Darjeeling.

We pre-warm the pot with a bit of water

and add out chosen tea leaves.

Then comes the nearly-boiling water

and after letting it steep for a few minutes we fill the finished tea into a thermos.

Then we sit down to get to know each other.

It's Saturday and we went to a farmers market this morning. Essen is a ciy that grew together from many villages and small towns, each with a marketplace, on which there is a market with vegetables, fruit, eggs, meat, cheese, fish clothes or household articles once or twice a week.

The booths are surrounded by plastic curtains because its cold and snowing.

Look at how many different kinds of potatoes they have here, and this is less than half of their offer.


Most people go grocery shopping on Saturday because shops aren't open on Sundays and its also a bit traditional by now. Until not so long ago the shops all closed around 4 to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, so for all those working from 8 to 5, the only time to reasonably go shopping was Saturday morning. Now things have changed, the laws have been relaxed and most shops are open until 8 p.m. 5 days a week.

Hey Mum,
It's "Rosenmontag". Translating that word for word it would mean rose-monday, but it probably has little to do with roses and more with the old word "rhosen" (to frolic).
It's the height of Karneval and there are long parades (Züge) through many cities, but the most famous ones are in Köln (Cologne) since 1823, Düsseldorf since 1825 and Mainz since 1836. Over one million people go to Cologne every year to celebrate and many more watch the parades on tv.
We first saw the parade in Mainz:




Many different clubs participate. They prepare new costumes, choreographies and songs all year long. They usually carry identifying flags or banners.




There are big wagons to different themes here the zoo and people throw candy and little gifts into the crowd.








There are also the princes of the different clubs in their places of honor.






We switched programs to watch the parade in Cologne.
There are also politically themed wagons, esp. in Düsseldorf but also here. This one is supposed to show Fr. Merkel the German chancellor teaching 1 grade students maths by example of the national debt and how much they can(not) expect to get as pensions.


Traditionally there are also different horse guards.







Afterwards we watched the German figure skating pair at the Olympics, they also have a carnival theme:




Unfortunately they didn't perform as well as they should have and only got the bronze medal. They seemed very dissapointed.

Your TobiHH

Hi Mum,
We went shopping today. Here's just a normal residential road. You can see the postman behind us with his yellow cart.
Love,
TobiHH

Hello again!
It has been raining since last night, which I don't mind so much as I like it wet. We went to Steele today. The pictures are a bit distorted due to the rain, but that has its own charm I think.
Here's the protestant church seen form the market place.


The Kaiser(=emperor)-Otto-Platz:

Some rain pictures form the road:





Your TobiHH

Hi Mum!

You know that my goal was to visit a host who kept fish as pets. Well, guess what I found: a fish tank. It really has to be cleaned, though. I asked for some equipment and went to work:

I took out the filter and CO2,

cleaned and replaced them,

and took out a lot of the water.


One little neon fish came out through the hose, but I put him back in with help of the net.


I added new water together with bacteria and vitamins. The water wasn't very clear in the beginning but that chnged again quickly as the filter did its work.
For being such a good help I might even get to go and pick out new fish tomorrow. I really hope so!
Your TobiHH