Travelog for: snakey

Hi Mummy,
we are still having ugly weather here in Germany. In the morning we went to buy a newspaper and bread rolls. We took the chance to take two photos in the vicinity of my current home.

I am living in a quarter which was not destroyed in World War II, so here are still a lot of lovely houses which were built in early 20th century and earlier.



A lot of houses are covered with slate, they usually have green shutters.



Later it began to rain again

In the afternoon Katja decided that she would like to make some Christmas cookies. Tatanka suggested to try an old secret family receipe (now it in not a secret receipe any longer )

We needed a lot of dark couverture, butter, nuts and marshmallows. Everything was on hand.



I decided to help him. You should never leave a male alone in the kitchen, they will probably cause a terrible mess.

We melted butter and couverture and added chopped nuts. In the meantime we cut the marshmallow into small pieces.



The chocolate mass had to cool down, we placed it close to the open window to cool it down faster.



We added the marshmallows and filled the whole mass into a cake setting frame.



We decorated the chocolate mass with white couverture and brought the it to the really cold attic. Hopefully tomorrow everything is set and we will be able to cut in into pieces.



I can't wait to taste it!

Bye
Snakey

Good morning Mummy,
it's the fourth Advent Sunday!



We tasted the wonderful chocolate stuff we made yesterday. It is simply wonderful!



It snowed a bit during the night.



Have a pleasant Sunday
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
today is Christmas Eve! First we had a fantastic dinner with fish, homemade hash brown and savoy cabbage with porcini. Yummy!

Afterwards we helped to open the Christmas presents.



Bye for now
Snakey

Hi Mummy,

Merry Christmas to you!

Today we went to Katja's sister to meet the family, Katja's parents, an aunt and her sister's family. Only the three smallest TV guests were invited to come with her, Krystal, Muggel Rainbow and I.



Now there is a new plushy family member, a little fennec







Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
today we thought we had to go for a walk, although the weather is still horrible. There is fog and drizzling rain, but nontheless we went outside.

We went to the municipal park to the district Hasten.



Hasten is one of the oldest districts of the city, with a lot of lovely old houses. You can find those typical houses which are covered with slate, also half-timbered houses.





The German Tool Museum is situated in Remscheid-Hasten. Its outdoor facility with large machines is freely accessible.









This is "Haus Cleff", also a museum. It is a Patrician Villa, built in late 18th century.



We were glad when Katja told that we had suffered enough rain than On our way home ...



Bye

Hi Mummy,
after work we went to Katja's friend Kerstin today, to take a walk with her dog in Scharpenacken, a former army training area. This area was used for military purposes until 2004 A.D as a shooting range. Today there is a local recreation area with vast open areas.
In the background you can see a housing area in Wuppertal, famous for its exquisite villas built by factory owners.







Not long since we started our walk it began to rain again.



In the middle of the forest you can find a lovely landscape park, built by the former owner of the Vorwerk Company. Katja told us that this would be a lovely place in spring time, summer and autumn, but now it is a only muddy place.



When we went back to the car on a more rarely frequented path we found one of the old warning signs



No need to be afraid nowadays, you only might drown here today.

Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
we visited friends in Wuppertal today, Katja is knowing them for ages. They also have ferrets as pets. Although the weather is still really bad we took a short walk in the city centre before we went to the friend's apartment.

Here you can see the "Schwebebahn", a suspension railway. It travels along a route of 13.3 kilometres (8.3 mi), at a height of about 12 metres (39 ft 4 in) above the river Wupper. At some places it is crossing streets, even the motorway A 46.

Due to the not ending rain the river Wupper is carrying much more water than usual.



One of the shopping malls is overspanning the street.



In the background you can see the historical city hall of Wuppertal.









A train was leaving the station.



This is the station you could already see on the last picture.



Each of the 20 stations is built in a different style, this one in a modern style.





We hurried to visit the friends than, we already sere soaking wet and were afraid that we might catch a cold.

Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
this is my first day here with fantastic weather, a great reason to take a hiking trip, so we took a long walk along the river Wupper today, in Solingen, the neighbour city. We started our trip in Balkhausen, a small hamlet in this rural area. Here we saw a lot of those typical half-timbered houses.







We also saw cattle, I don't know which sort of them.





Finally we reached river Wupper, it is flowing towards river Rhine.





We reached a hamlet with a funny name: It is called "Rüden" because of the tale of one of the formerly reigns of this region (eventually in middle ages) who met with a riding accident and was saved by his dog.
("Rüde" is the German word for a male dog.)





We decided to walk back.

We found an old machine.



Unfortunately we had no more sunshine on the other side of the valley.

We crossed the river here.



Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
when Katja came home from work we decided to take a walk - who knows how long we'd have such great weather.

We went to the municipal park first, only a few minutes to walk.



There is a pond in the park, ducks and turtles are living here.





The observatory is situated in the municipal park.



We walked to the district Hasten than.







Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
the weather is still ugly (again ugly) here with lots of rain. Nontheless my host Katja decided that we would take a walk. We went to a woodland area. There is a creek in the valley, usually a really narrow one.  It is carrying much more water than usual.



These rain detention basins are usually empty, now they are filled. (It is raining for about six weeks now.)



We were happy when we reached our home.



Later we watched Katja's daughter prepare a torte. Her boyfriend is celebrating his birthday today, she is going to take it to the birthday party. She made a torte with cream, chocolate cream and strawberries.



She prepared the chocolate cream with egg yolk, butter and melted chocolate.



First the layers of the torte were filled with strawberry jam, than there is a layer of whipped cream and finally the chocolate cream.





Than the torte was decorated with more cream, strawberries and chocolate hearts.



It's looking good, isn't it?



Maybe I will manage to hide in her bag, so I could also go to the birthday party and taste the torte.

Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
we visited Katja's sister today. She is living in one of the historic districts of Remscheid, in Lennep. It is extremely cold.

We took a walk in the late morning, through the suburbs towards a restaurant for lunch.





You can find lots of woodland areas and rural areas in Remscheid.



The A1 motorway is crossing the valley.



All puddles and little creeks in the roadside ditches are frozen.







We reached our lunch destination in an industrial park close to the A1 motorway.



Afterwards we took a walk in the old town of Lennep.



Most of the houses were built after 1746 A.D., when there was the last great fire which destroyed nearly the complete old town. Many houses are under monument protection.



The area around the market place was refurbished in 1989 A.D.



You can find extremely narrow lanes here, no car can pass through.







The founder of the X-rays, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, was born in Lennep in 1845 A.D. The German Roentgen Museum is situated here, the house of his birth is also still existing.





We went back to Katja's sister than, nearly frozen to death.



Bye for now
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
it is extremely cold in Germany - have a look at the thermometer.
- 12°C means 10.4°F. We all need warm clothings now. Katja suggested a warm scarf for me.



... a  little bit later ...





Now we are prepared for the cold outside.

Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
we went to Solingen today, the neighbour city. Katja's daughter had to settle something at work. In the meantime we had a look at the "Südpark" (Southern Park) which was built on a former railway track for freight trains. The buildings are the old goods depots, now you can find artist shops, galleries and bars there, also artwork.







We went to the station than to get back, not home yet, but to Muengsten Bridge to take a walk.





We got out of the train just before Muengsten Bridge.  We walked downhill to the valley of the river Wupper. On our way we found some playgrounds, like those rocking sheep







There are "normal" walking paths, meandering down the steep slope, but you can also take the straight way down, with the help of those ropes.



Back on the Remscheid side of the valley ....

There are lots of little creeks running down the slopes, they are all frozen now.





We found an extremely large old beech in the forest, too large to take a photo of it



There is a cemetary nearly in the forest, you can find a memorial for the dead of World War I here.



You can see the city centre of Remscheid in the background. Can you see the church tower? We are living really close to it.



Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk in the late afternoon in the city centre. We walked along the "Route of Tools" (Trasse des Werkzeugs), a former railway track, now built to a lane for pedestrians and cyclists. This lane is following the former freight train track from the central station to the district Hasten, many industrial companies were situated along this track, some are still nowadays.







We found a resting area, you can find some seats here (it was too cold to sit longer than 30 seconds on the metal bench).



The lane was sponsored by local companies, mostly tool producing companies - that's why it is called "Route of Tools". Remscheid is famous for its tool producing industry for centuries. You can find large signs with the logos of the sponsoring companies.







This is the former slaughterhouse, the whole complex is under monument protection nowadays.





The closer we came towards Hasten, the more the lane seemed to be a park or a walking path in a forest.



I found those funny wrench patterns, stamped into the tarmac.



We left the Route of Tools and went home through the municipal park.



This monument is dedicated to the dead of several wars which took place before WW I.



Bye
Snakey

Hi Mummy,
today we met friends to take a longer hiking tour to the neighbour town Wuppetal. We planned to visit the Wuppertal Brewhouse.

First we had to walk towards the valley between Remscheid and Wuppertal, it is called "Morsbachtal", like the creek (Morsbach) running through it. It seems that all the water on earth's surface was frozen.



This is the Morsbach (Morsbach creek).



This pond in front of an historic industrial site is also frozen.



This cute little house was restored in the last years, Katja told me.



Than we had to climb from the bottom of the valley towards Wuppertal-Cronenberg. Can you see the city centre of Remscheid on the hill in background? We started our trip there



This is a typical German garden



From now we walked along the "Sambatrasse", also a former railway track, following a route though the forest from Wuppertal-Cronenberg to the zoo quarter in Wuppertal.



This historic train is placed here.





An incinerator is also situated at the Sambatrasse.



This is an access road to the A46 motorway.



We left the Sambatrasse in the zoo quarter. You can find lots of beautiful mansions here.



In the background you can see the Schwebebahn.





Inside a station ...



Here you can see the city hall of the district Wuppertal-Barmen.



The brewhouse is situated close to the city hall, just behind it.



We were really thirsty, so we ordered large beers immediately.



The brewhouse is a former public swimming bath which was in use from 1882 until it was closed in 1993. The brewhouse was opened in the the rebuilt complex in 1997. You can find photos of the former swimming bath here, you have to click the "Historie"-button in the top row.



Yummy!



We went home than by train.

Bye
Snakey