Travelog for: mustang monkey

Hi, my name is Mustang the monkey.  I am from a sea side town.  My voyage and life missions are in honor of my mentors friend and co-worker that passed away on my birthday.  The place that she works thought that it would be a good idea to take a trip and fulfill some of his life long dreams.

His name was Dougie.  He was a nice and funny person.  My lifes missions are his dreams.  He wanted to visist Russia, Romania, Italy and where ever else he could.  He loved his red mustang, and I would like to ride in one.  Funny that is how I got my name from the love of his car.    He also loved the New York Yankees and he never got to go to New York to see a game.  I would love to see one in his honor.  I would like to send a postcard from every where I visit so that everyone at work can see where I have been.

I am looking for hosts right now...I may have one that will take me to start my journy over seas.  If you would like to host me so that I can do one of my life missions please contact my mentor, Kim.

If your need to send me home and don't know the address to send me, please let my mentor know.

I am on my way to Russia.  I am so happy to be on my way so that I can start seeing the world and setting out to do my life missions.

I hope that there are alot of people out there that will help me along the way.  I will miss my co-works and everyone that has come to see me while at work, but I must do this in memory of my friend Dougie.

Surprise, surprise! I'm in Germany. I just wanted to send you a note and tell you, that I'm fine.

Bye,

Mustang, the monkey

This evening we had a barbeque. You see me with Kari, Precious, Mustang Monkey, MuMu and Brinda sitting next to the grill and with a Paulaner wheat beer.

Today we went to the Bruchsal palace. It is colder again, but still we have sun. The weather phenomenon we have right now is called Schafskälte (sheeps cold). It is a cold spell around 11th June (between 4th and 20th June) in Middle Europe, which affects especially Germany. The Schafskälte doesn't occur each year. Due to cold and moist air from north west the temperature drops to 5 to 10 °C. So far about the weather


The palace of Bruchsal was residence of the prince bishop of Speyer. It was built on request of prince bishop Damian Hugo Philipp von Schönborn-Buchheim from 1720 on in baroque stile. It was destoyed on 1rst March 1945, when about 80% of Bruchsal was destroyed and many people lost their lives. It was reconstructed in the years around 1970, but the church part was created in modern stile

There are several interesting museums in the palace: City Museum, Stone Age Museum and the     
German Museum of Musical Automata


There are two long alleys with chestnut trees.





On the right side is the church part of the palace complex. You only see a small part of the shadow, but it looks like the opposite complex with the chamber music room.




Just turning around you see the main entrance of the palace.





At the same place we took a photo of the church part.




Here we are at the backside of the palace. There are three nice fountains.







Here's one of four guard statues with halberts.




There's a nice pond with many ducks





We have to hurry now, because we have to fetch our host's daughter from her choir. I hope, you enjoyed the photos.

We're baking white bread today. It is a recipe, which my host's grandfather wrote down a long long time ago.




You need 1 kilogram flour.




one sachet dried or half fresh yeast.




25gr salt






25gr margarine or one cooked potatoe, shredded.




If you use dried yeast you add all ingredients together, so you add all the water at once: 600 ml water






Knead the dough.




Then we had to wait and wait and wait. After a while our host put the dough in the oven: preheat 220°C, water in a dish on the bottom of the oven. Oh yes, she did the dough in a dish and cut the middle of the bread and brushed salt water on the loaf, but we didn't see that. It was in the oven for about three quarters of an hour.

My host took us for a little walk around the small animal park in Forst, while her daughter sang at her musical project choir. I especially loved to see the storks in the nest.

Forst is a town in the Rhine valley, is only 5km from Bruchsal and shares a border with Bruchsal. It was first named in 1161 A.D., but there were finds dating back to Stone and Bronze Age and also finds of Romans in this area.







There are some signs in the wood. This one says: Mind gate/bar (?) Free for forestry




Some ways in the forest have names. This one is called Heiden Richtweg.





On some trees there are signs.

It's such a beautiful weather today morning, that my host took us to see the Michaelsberg and Turmberg. The Michaelsberg is belongs to Untergrombach, which is one of the surburbs of Bruchsal. Here you see the nice chapel.




The houses in the far on the right side belong to Bruchsal and the quarry pond to Untergrombach. When my host was a teenager, she loved to swim there.




You see, that the left side shows a flat landscape, this is the Rhine Valley. Bruchsal and Untergrombach are located at the edge of the Rhine Valley to Kraichgau hill country.

You also see, that the grass is very dry. By the way: This grass is called Magerrasen, nitrogen-poor  sward/grassland or species rich sward.

If it wouldn't be so misty, you could see the Palatinate Mountains at the horizon.






The houses on the left side belong to Weingarten and those in the far on the left to Karlsruhe.





Here's the chapel again.





There are many vineyards in the Kraichgau.

Then we drove to Durlach, which is a city close to Karlsruhe. We drove to the Turmberg. We had a great view to the Rhine Valley, Black Forest and Kraichgau hill country.






Here's what you can read: This tower is the remain of the old castle, which was built in 11th century by the count von Hohenberg, extended in 12th century and 1279 destroyed by Konrad von Lichtenberg, bishop of Strasbourg. The keep was built between 1230 and 1250.

view over Durlach and Karlsruhe







Kraichgau hill country

It is Saturday before 1rst of Advent and we decided to start decorating the house. This is a Christmas Crib Scene for windows, which our host regularly sellotapes to the window of their dining room each year.

The puppy Christmas started in this house, so it is getting a bit uncomfortable for me. Thank God, there are so many other friendly toyvoyagers around me, who take care for me. So you can be sure, that I'm safe - I think.

Today the puppies cut and glued a wonderful star together.
They invited all the other toyvoyagers at our place to join them and see the star grow.










Chuckle shows you, how the finished star looks like. He is as proud as if he would have created it all alone.

Stars are really fascinating - so here comes star number three. This time all toyvoyager worked together, although on the photo it seems, that only one dog did the work.

Yesterday it was 1rst Advent and today we have a nice meeting with pastry and tea. Our host's singing teacher came to join us. It was her last singing lesson with this nice teacher, so she and her son invited her to visit them at home. She was also her son's and daughter's singing teacher.
We lighted the first candle and sat down in the middle of the table - our host was very delighted




This is a few out of the kitchen window. You see the snow? It's a pity, that our host still isn't well enough to go outside with us.




Our star also found a place at this kitchen window.

Maybe you know, that my host works as a teacher. Right now she is class teacher of 3rd graders. She loves her job and she loves her class. She always talks about her kids and she doesn't only mean her own children, but her pupils. A few days ago she went to a book shop in the inner city and stayed there for hours. We all wondered, why she didn't come back home again. Today she showed us, what she had done. She went there to search for books for the Advent Calendar for her pupils. She didn't buy the books from her own money, but recieved the money from their parents. But she bought the books and before she bought them, she thought and thought, which book would be good enough for which child. She and the female book seller really enjoyed it - that's what she said.

Take a look at all the books. There are 19 books for her 19 pupils.

The next day we had everything done, the packages were wrapped in Christmas papers and the pupils' names were in the little sacks. So our host could take the Advent calendar with her to the school. She told us, that she reads an Advent story each morning in the first school hour. At first they light the candles of the advent wreath. At last she asks one pupil to go to the Advent calendar and open the number for the day. The pupil, whose name was told there, gets up and draws out one of the packages out of the covered basket. The name on the package tells then, who will recieve it. This way three pupils have to do something each day.