Travelog for: Penny-Bo

I made a trip with Silke and her baby Julian through the landscape. We sat down onto a bench, Julian was sleeping and Silke and I were reading.

I finally took a ride on my crocodile, ate some Gummibärchen (yumm-yumm) and then I got packed and sent for the very first time in my life.
I'm soooo excited how my adventures will start!!

Hi Mummy,
I arrived at my host Katja's home today. It was such a short trip that I even brought all three packages of jelly bears with me.



Katja told me that some more ToyVoyagers are here, but they were still asleep.

So went to into town to do some shoppings. We also brought Chance and Ewan E. Ewok to the post office. Katja told me that Ewan E. Ewok is on his way to you, Mummy. That's funny.

We took a short walk through the city centre than. Here you can see the shopping street.





A classic car exhibition is taking place here. The cars belong to a classic car race through the vicinity of Remscheid.









I saw this funny fountain. It is motley and you can see lots of different water wheels and spraying fountains.





A music school is situated in this pretty old building.



In this modern building the Volkshochschule (Adult Education Centre) is situated.



Here you can see the central bus terminal.





This is the public library. Katja told me that the interior was refurbished recently. It was already closed but Katja has to return some books and DVDs next week. Than we'll see the new interior.



On the next photo you can see the theatre on the left side and one of the entrances of the shopping mall with the tower of the city hall in the background.



Can you see the light grey pillars on the lawn? There are 16 of them, one for each of the 16 German states. Each pillar is showing the emblem of this particular state and a typical tree is planted behind each pillar.



This is the one for Baden-Wurttemberg, my home state. As a typical tree a black forrest fir is planted.





We went back to the shopping street than.



This is the main entrance of the shopping mall with another fountain in front of it.



We went to the farmers market, which is held on a space in front of the city hall, than. Here you can see the city hall. It was built in 1906, was destroyed than in World War II and rebuilt in a more modern style later. Its tower is 48 m high.







We bought vegetables, strawberries and a grilled chicken for Katja's son. Katja is a veggie like me 

We went home than. I'm already anxious to meet the other ToyVoyagers.

Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,

in the late afternoon we took a walk to the municipal park. Now I can show where I am living at the moment. It's the house on the left side, our apartment is in the attic storey.



We had to walk for only a few minutes to reach a really pretty little park, the one in front of the police station.



I saw a lot of flowers here, roses and lavender for example.





We went to the municipal park than. Here you can see a pond with ducks and turtles. Katja told me that the turtles former pets, abandoned here by people who did not want to take care for  them any longer.





This memorial is dedicated to the dead of several earlier wars before World War I.



From here you have a great overview across some outskirts of Remscheid and those of the neighbour city Wuppertal. Katja told me that they have the worldwide only Schwebebahn (Suspended Monorail) there, I hope we'll go there one day.



We went to the house of Katja's sister-in-law than to have a talk. Sportie, Hugo and me were playing in the garden in the meantime. Can you spot us?



I met Bertie, the friendly Entlebucher Mountain Dog.



We had delicious strawberries here - yummy!



Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
today a new Toyvoyager arrived, it's Carlisle from the USA, a horse like me

The weather is rather bad today, so Katja had the idea to bake a cake. She talked to another member of ToyVyoagers about rhubarb cake with meringue topping, so she decided to bake such a cake. She bought rhubarb on her way home.



After washing it she began to cut it into pieces. It was obvious than that the rhubarb was of a really bad quality, completely dry and lingneous inside. What to do now? I saw an ananas and asked "What about the ananas?" Katja thought this was a great idea. We decided immediately to bake a

Ananas cake with meringue topping.

For the dough you need

750 g rhubarb 500 g prepared ananas
125 g butter
125 g sugar
1 pinch salt
1 package vanilla sugar
3 eggs
200 g flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tbspn. cream
butter for the baking pan

For the topping:

3 egg white
150 g sugar

Prepare the ananas and cut it into small pieces. Stirr butter with sugarm vanilla sugar and salt, add the eggs. Stirr it foamy. Mix flour and baking powder, stirr it under the butter-egg-mixture, add cream.

Put the dough into a greased baking pan (28 cm diameter, 26 cm are also ok). Put the ananas on top of the dough.

Baking: 175°C, about 30 minutes

Beat egg white and sugar to a stiff foam, put it on top of the cake after 30 minutes baking, put it back into the oven and bake it for 15 more minutes.

Enough ananas for the cake!



Here the dough is ready.



We put it into the springform pan and added the ananas pieces.



After baking for half an hour we had to put the meringe on top of the cake.



This meringue stuff is really sticky.



After baking for another 15 minutes the cake was ready.



We will taste it tomorrow, it's already too late.

Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk along the Trasse des Werkzeugs (Route of Tools), which is a lane for pedestrians and cyclists which were built on a closed railway track. It was sponsored by local tool producing companies. Remscheid is famous for it's tool producing industry since medieval times. That's why this lane is called Trasse des Werkzeugs.

The weather was not good, we were in hope of not becoming wet.

From here you have an overview across the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal.



Behind us you can see allotment gardens.



At an intersection some signs with the logos of some sponsors are installed (with a really beautiful container yard in the background ).



The first sign is showing the crest of Remscheid.



At this intersection you can find the only traffic light in the municipal area which is showing the Ampelmännchen (the green man) of the former German Democratic Republic.



Here we had to cross a street.



You can find many industrial buildings along the lane, some of them already dilapidated.



You can also find rest areas here.



This lane is leading to the central station, we are close to it as you might guess.



Here is the instanteanous ending of the Trasse des Werkzeugs, it will be completed soon.



On our way back home it started to rain and we had to hurry home.

Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
we visited Katja's friend Kerstin today. She is living in Lüttringhausen, a district of Remscheid. Lüttringhausen is one of the old districts with a histiorical city centre. We went there by bus in the early evening. The weather is not good, Katja and her friend had planned to take a walk with Kerstin's dog Pepe anyway. Dogs usually don't ask for good weather.

Here we are in the city centre with lots of old houses and narrow streets.









We walked to Kerstin's house than. It started to rain really heavily when we arrived her home. An hour later the rain nearly stopped an we went walking with Pepe.

From the city centre of Lüttringhausen you only have to walk for a few minutes to reach this pretty scenery.







This road was still steaming from the recent rain. It was very warm today. This dog is Pepe.





There were three houses in the middle of the green, this is one of them.



Close to these houses I met relatives.





It started to rain again but we were almost home than.

Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
we took a walk in the afternoon, although it is really hot and humid. Katja told us that we should get used to a temperature like they have in Spain.

Spain?!

I don't know what she was talking about ...

We went to the district Hasten, which is one of the oldest districts of the municipal area. You can find many pretty old houses here.









Here you can see the German Tool Museum.



This Patrician house is also a museum, a museum of local history. It was built in the late 1700s.





Those buildings in the background also belong to the Tool Museum.



You often have dwelling houses and factory buldings close together.





We were on our way back home on the following picture. We had to walk uphilll almost for hours (at least it seemed so to me).





We were almost home than, look at those pretty old houses.



Bye for today
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,

Katja told us that we will travel to Spain tomorrow, to Barcelona.



I would really like to go there and see all the wonderful Gaudi buildings, but when I asked her how we will get there she told me that we will fly to Barcelona.

Oh no! I am afraid of flying!

I was hiding behind the pillow than and hoped to hear nothing more about planes and flying.



Carlisle tried to becalm me and told me that it would be fun to fly. Carlisle came to Europe by plane. He said it was fun to see the world from above. I don't think he is right. Maybe I'll stay here.

Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
we went to the railway station to go to Düsseldorf airport. As I already told you, I'm not sure if I want to enter a plane.

When we left the house, we found an envelope on the stairs with cute little mouse UrselHH inside. She arrived just in time to accompany us to Spain.

At the railway station we climbed out of Katja's bag to get a bit of fresh air.

We are at Duessldorf International Airport now. After the check-in Katja and her friend spent some time having a coffee. Here you can see me with Carlisle.



Carlisle knew that I was in need of some encouragement because I am is suffering from fear of flying. Katja's friend also does not like flying, she had two glasses of sparkling wine to make it easier. Carlisle decided that it would be a good idea for me also, so he asked for a sparkling wine for me.



I was feeling much better than, maybe a little bit tipsy

Afterwards we took a walk through the Airport. We also went to the visitor's platform.







We even saw some planes taking off. Carlisle told me it would be fun, just like riding a carrousel.



When we entered the plane Katja told me it would be good to have a window seat, so I'd be able to look out of the window. Everything was so funny that I was giggling all the time. Katja had a look at the air sickness bag, because she thought that maybe ... the sparkling wine ... you'll know what she was thinking about.



We were ready for take-off than.

I'm pretty sure I am no longer afraid of flying. Everything looks so beautiful from high above ...

This was my first look to Barcelona ...



Our hotel is approximately where the green arrow is pointing.

It was late evening when we had reached Barcelona, went to our hotel by bus and went out to the promenade. We walked to the harbour and had dinner.





Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
today I went out with Katja and her friend Kerstin, Misty Mouse, Migui+Gui, Herbie and Nijntje. We had planned to watch some of the touristic highlights. First we went to the promenade again and walked to the old town along the coastline.



These highrisers were built as the olympic village for the 1992 summer olympics. The left one is cointaining a famous hotel nowadays, the right one is an office building. In the background you can see the fish fixation, created by the architekt Frank Gehry, manifested by a 35 metre x 54 metre fish made of steel lattice. The fish marks the start of the Olympic Port area and is placed at the base of the two landmark towers.







Barcelona has about 7 km coastline with several beaches.



We reached the old harbour, called "Port Vell" than, situated opposite of the old town.





Here you can see the statue "El Cap de Barcelona" by the American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.



We walked to the beginning of "Las Ramblas" than. Underneath is path a two-lane motorway is running, you don't see it nor can you hear it.



I took a look to the newer part of the harbour.



We walked through the wonderful old town than. It was built in medieval times.



These are the famous "Ramblas".



Next to "Las Ramblas" we found one of the Gaudi buildings - Palau Güell. It was not easy to take photos because this building is crammed between others in a narrow street.



It is the building with the colourful chimneys on the roof.



We also had a look at the old market "La Boqueria", coverd with a cast-iron construction.



Here I am standing in front of the cathedral, which is under construction at the moment, hidden under a scaffolding.



Here I am at Placa de Catalunya, the central traffic point of Barcelona, where the old town and the newer parts of the city meet. The plaza is surrounded by walls, statues and fountains to keep the traffic noise away.





We went along "Passeig de Gràcia" than, a famous shopping street.



Here we saw one of the famous buildings, designed by Antoni Gaudi, "Casa Milà", also called "La Pedrera". This building was built during the years 1906 - 1910.





We took a bus than and went to Park Güell.



Park Güell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of el Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona. It was designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. It was built in the years 1900 to 1914. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Works of Antoni Gaudí". We did not use the main entrance, but the entrance at the top height of the park.





You have a fantastic overview across the city from here.









We reached the central part of the park than, the main terrace, surrounded by a long bench in the form of a sea serpent.





You can find this fountain in the main entrance area. Nearly effery surface is tiled with colourful fragments of tiles.



This is the probably most famous statue in this park is this mosaic dragon.



This is one of the entrance buildings, decorated very original and remarkable with fantastically shaped roofs with unusual pinnacles.



Here you can see the "heart" of Park Güell.



We left the park than and walked to another masterpiece of Antoni Gaudi, Sagrada Família (its original name is Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família), a massive, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction in Barcelona since 1882. It is supposed to be completed not before 2026.



This is the Passion faccade, facing to the West.





Here you can see the Navity faccade, pointing to the East.





In the late evening we returned to our hotel, after having dinner and a few drinks in a nearby beach bar.



Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
today it was our last day in Barcelona - what a pity! An even worse case was the weather today. It was raining cats and dogs, to make it even worse nearly the whole city centre were closed today because of the Tour de France, which will arrive here today. So Katja and Kerstin had to look how to get to the airport.

We went to the city centre despite of the rain to see one more Gaudi building, "Casa Batlló", also situated at Passeig de Graciá. This house was built in 1877 and remodelled from 1905 - 1907.



Have a look at the shapes of the balconies and pillars - they look like masks and bones. The local name of this building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones).



We all became completely wet and had to drive to the airport with a taxi, because nearly all the traffic in the city centre was stopped.

I had a great time here in Barcelona.

Bye
Penny-Bo

Hi Mummy,
we went to Wuppertal today. Katja had to buy a few things at Hornbach, her favourite DIY-store. She had to make a new interior for her large rat cage.

Afterwards we went to the Botanical Garden. Wuppertal is situated, like the name already says, at the river Wupper, along a deep valley with the city centre in the valley itself, large parts on the steep slopes of the valley.

You can find the Botanical Garden on a very high point, overlooking the city centre in the valley. In 1890 it was a school garden first. Later, in 1908 a textile industrialist built his country house here, the "Eller'sche Villa". Later the Elisenturm Elisen Tower) was also built here, which is now the focal point of the garden. Since 1929 it is a municipal garden, open daily.



This is the Elisenturm.



First we entered the tower and enjoyed the fantastic overview.



Here you can see the new greenhouses, they were built in 2006.



We went to the greenhouses than. Here you can see plants from the warmer parts of the world, like palms.







We went into the garden than. I saw lots of pretty flowers and interesting trees, also the former country house.









This bed is showing typical plants of a moor area, also insect-eating plants.



I also saw a plant with vast leafs. The leafs were swinging with the wind



Back home we helped to install the new things to the rat cage. I will show it to you soon.

Bye
Penny-Bo