Travelog for: Carlino

I am a little toy keen on traveling. So I joined the worldwide release week-end of www.toyvoyagers.com

I hope some nice people will find me and help me with my travels

Ah, last year I chickened out and did not leave during the wild release. I was a bit anxious but now there is a chance to leave and safely join the German RR. What a great way to get used to travelling.

Today started like most of the other days - a walk along the Isar with the dog. Future guest should bring their walking shoes 

First we pass a bridge over the river and have a look at the German Museum (Science Museum) then we walk along the river.

Today finally winter has arrived and everything is covered with snow. The kids love it and use every small hill with their toboggans.

Then later I went shopping and did a bit of sight-seeing: Isartor, Hofbräuhaus, Marienplatz. Everything is in walking distance.

My owner is plant crazy - so if you come to Munich, beware! You will be dragged into the litte garden that we rented and do some weeding, hi, hi, hi 
The apartment is full with plants, too. Now it is winter, not many blooming plants, but here I can show you one of the few African violets in bloom. This sort is called Dolores' Chantilly Lace from the hybridizer D. Harrington.

Yippiiiiiieee! This is it, I'm leaving today on the first stop of the German Round Robin.

I finally arrived at my new host's place.
Somehow my host had difficulties to read my name and do you know what? She didn't try to find the name here or ask you or Rike. No! Nothing like that. Only today she realized, that she could take a look at this thread and search for my name here. Of course she could have asked me at first - I'm here and I should know my name

Talk to you later again.

Bye, Carlino

Karlsruhe is the third largest city of Baden-Württemberg. It is the main city of the Baden part. It is located close to the German - French border, only about 25 km from Bruchsal. We arrived at Karlsruhe after a drive of about 25 minutes.

We first tried to find a parking place and then crawled out of the car. Wow, was it cold outside. We all didn't have the right clothes for a walk, so we had to hurry.

Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states. The town surrounding the Palace became the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Bundesverfassungsgericht) whose decisions have the force of a law in many cases, and the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof), the highest court of appeals in matters of civil law and criminal law. It therefore considers itself the home of justice in Germany, a role taken over from Leipzig after 1945.

Due to similarities to the United States capital city, it has been speculated that Karlsruhe was a model city for the cityscape of Washington, D.C.[4] Both cities have a center — in Karlsruhe the palace and in D.C. the Capitol Building — from which the streets radiate outward. L'Enfant, Washington's city planner, had been given the plans of Karlsruhe (among numerous other European cities) as an inspiration. (you can read this and more on wikipedia)


In 1715, Charles III William, Margrave of Baden-Durlach established Karlsruhe (Charles' repose), where he built his residence.






The city was planned with the palace tower (Schloss) at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, or the ribs of a folding fan, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the "fan city" (Fächerstadt). Here's a photo of the palace.




We really wanted to see more, but it was so cold, that we hurried back to our car. When we looked out of the car window, we could see the State Art Gallery.




On the left you see the Volksbank building.




And this building belongs to EnBW. Without EnBW it would be really cold at my hosts home and they would have no electricity.

We decided to drive to Durlach to climb the Turmberg. Our hosts told us, that the view from Turmberg would be just perfect. So we are really excited. You can see the top of the Turmberg just straight ahead

Durlach is a borough of the German city of Karlsruhe with a population of roughly 30,000.
It was chosen by the margrave Charles II in 1565 as residence of the rulers of Baden-Durlach, and retained this distinction though it was almost totally destroyed by the French in 1689.

Margrave Charles III William decided that he needed more space which led to the foundation of Karlsruhe, which in 1715 became the new capital until the state was merged into the grand-duchy of Baden.

We only drove through some narrow streets, because it wasn't far from sunset.

The Turmberg ('tower hill') is a vineyard-covered hill of the northern most part of the Black Forest. A castle ruin with watch-tower are located on top of the Turmberg. The watch-tower in particular offers fine views of Karlsruhe towards the west and the Rhine River valley. On very clear days even farther west the Vosges in France can be seen. The Rhine River is the border between Germany and Alsace area of France. The South and East offer nice views of the Black Forest, and since the Turmberg is the northern most tip of the Black Forest you have hills more than actual mountains.


















Here you see, that we are in Baden

Today I visited my host's school class. Petra likes, when her pupils read a lot. Here we sit on some book, which were put on her desk for some more kids to read.




Her pupils also worked on book presentations and created a poster for each book.




Here are more posters of book presentations and a large world map - really interesting for the pupils.




The windows are decorated with some funny clowns.

Today we met some members of our hosts' family group of their church. We walked from Bruchsal to Unteroewisheim and drink some coffee and eat cake. I think, that the landscape is really lovely.




The way leads along vineyards to the 221 m high "Eisenhut", a historic significant hill. It was named after Anton Eisenhut, who was executed after participating in the German Peasants' War in 1525. This stele reminds us of Anton Eisenhut.






Then we walked through this loess hollow-way.

Then we arrived in Unteroewisheim. After having coffee and cake we took a photo with the church. It was built in 1825. Unteroewisheim is a town in the Kraichgau.