Travelog for: Kirin

I visited an old church, a National Monument







Very very nice

This was the last day of my adventures in the south... not that home isn't in the south, but now we are even farther south...

I love the architecture around here...





...and the colorful and beautiful nature!



Bye bye,
Kirin

First day of summer!

I really enjoyed the summer!
I saw beautiful landscapes, relaxed and met new friends







Now I'm ready to start a new year!

Now that we live in the south we have beautiful lakes not far from home, so on the weekend we drove around one of them, this is Llanquihue lake, home for giant black necked swans



Around the lake there are hundreds of farms, apparently not only us giraffes like it here but cows do too 







Beautiful autumn is all around now, and what beautiful colors it brings!





But Im not staying home for long, soon I will start another adventure - where to? - Germany!

Bye bye for now

Autumn is taking over the south and all the trees look beautiful!



We found this beautiful church in the middle of nowhere, it was really beautiful!

I am almost ready to go on my next adventure, I'm very exited!
In the last days I've been taking care of the last preparations to start my journey, one of them and a very important one, take a bath



Still in Chile but leaving soon!
Kirin

Before leaving I met the new pets of the house They will take care of the house while im gone

This is McGregor



A very friendly male guinea pig



And this is his wife, Onix



She's a bit more shy than Mc Gregor, but she's very cute!



They're so nice!

Hello Mummy,
I arrived at Katja's home today. I was not sure if the postman took me to the right address because every was so strange.

After a warm welcome Katja told me that she moved to another flat last summer. The kids have their own flats now.

There are two other guests, Lamikins and Freya. They told me that there was also a little sheep, nosyblue but she went on a vacation trip to Ireland.



We sticked the fridge magnet immediately to the fridge, where already some more souvenirs could be found.



Later we took a walk to the municpal park, photos will follow tomorrow. I am so tired that I will fall into bed now.

Love
Kirin

Hi Mummy,
like I already told you, we took a walk to the municipal park in the late afternoon, Katja, Freya and I. The first photo was taken close to Katja's former flat.



There is also a small park in front of the police headquarter.



Soon we reached the municipal park.







Lots of flowers are blooming here.









In the distance you can see the outskirts of the neighbour city Wuppertal. Katja told me that we would visit Wuppertal von Friday.



Bye
Kirin

Hi Mummy,
today we visted the neighbour city Wuppertal. After finishing work at 1:00 a.m. Katja's daughter met us and we went to Wuppertal by bus.

After having lunch we took a short walk through the city centre.

This is the market place in front of the city hall...



and one of the nearby shopping streets.



Our host suggested to visit "Hardt", a large landscape park in Wuppertal-Elberfeld. The botanical garden also would be situated there. That sounds great



On our way to Hardt Katja showed us a funny bridge. A funny bridge?

Yes, have a look - a Lego-Bridge! (Errr... is Lego known at home in Chile?



This bridge is a concrete beam bridge which crosses over the Schwesterstraße. This bridge belongs to a former railway track was repainted as this Lego-Bridge in 2011. It even won a prize!





From here it was a short walk to Hardt, along a large allotment area.





Soon we reached the parkway. Those greenhouses belong to the Botanical garden. You can already see the greenhouses and Elise Tower, which was built in 1838 as the garden's focal point.



We strolled around the fantastic park, enjoying the sunshine.





In the Botanical garden you can find all kinds of plants, both trees and flowers, bushes and different kinds of grass, also herbs.







This is a bog garden with carnivorous plants.





Here you can see the former country house of a textile manufacturers named Eller, which contained a villa (built 1820), orangery, residential and farm buildings.







When I saw this large tree coming into sight I jumped for joy - a tree from my home country, an araucaria!











We found this insect hotel, built as a miniature of Elise tower.



We also visited the greenhouses. Katja told us that today it was the first time that the temperature outside was even higher than inside the greenhouses. I found a banana plant.







We left the park than to walk back to the city centre. We walked along river Wupper where Katja showed us the district court and of course the famous Schwebebahn (suspension railway). Unfortunaltely it is out of order currently due to repair works.





The Schwebebahn was established in 1901. The tracks are 8 m above the streets and 12 m above the Wupper River. There are 20 stations along the track which is about 13 km long, crossing some streets and even the A1 motorway.





The stations are built in different styles, this one is a modern one. Ther are also some stations which were kept or restored in their original historical style.



We went to Luisenviertel than, an old quarter, well known for lots of bars and restaurants, boutiques and small stores with jeweily, toys, home decoration and much more.





Did I already mention that it was incredibly hot today? After strolling through the city for more than 5 hours we enjoyed a large beer and small dinner in Luisenviertel.



Love
Kirin

Hi Mummy,

we took a walk today in the district Hasten, one of the historic districts. You can find lots of lovely old traditional houses here.





In the background the outskirts of Wuppertal are situated.



A museum is situated in this Patrician villa, built in late 18th century.







The "German Tool Museum" is situated on the the same estate. There are also outdoor facilities, some historic workshops and different machines.











Katja showed us more beautiful houses.



Here in Hasten you can often find factory buildings close to dwellings, mostly the factories were here at first.



Hasten is situated in the North of Remscheid, with a lot of woodland and rural areas around.









More factory buildings ...



Than Katja took us to a narrow lane.





From here we went back home, walking uphill for some time.

Bye
Kirin

Hi Mummy,
today we took a walk in a woodland area around Hohenhagen, a housing area surrounded by woodland. We followed a forest track for some time.



There are four tracks for nordic walking created, with different lenghts. These signs are showing where to walk.



We had some rain during the last nights, so mushrooms are growing.









We went down to the nearby valley, here some houses are hidden.



These are dragon flowers, growing on a meadow. Are they known in my home country as well? Many kinds of dragon flowers are existing, these are not much larger than I am.



Raspberries! Katja is looking foreward to the end of the month or early September, when many more berries will be ripe. She loves to cook jam from all kinds of fruit, also from wild fruit like elderberry, blackberry, rowan, hawthorn, blueberry or rose hip.



Along the path you can often find piles of trunks.







Bye
Kirin

Hi Mummy,
we went to Cologne today to attend a meeting of German members of a worldwide community for knitters and crocheters, also spinners. This meeting was taking place in the German Sports and Olympic Museum. To get there we had to cross river Rhine first.



You can see Cologne Cathedral and the old town and also excursion boats.



The bridge in the background is Hohenzollern bridge, the most heavily used railway bridge in Germany.





It was only a short walk along the river until we reached the German Raveler Meeting.



To show you that the meeting really was taking place in a museum we took a shot of Michael Schumacher's racing car. Michael Schumacher is a former German racing driver, a seven-time Formula One World Champion.



We saw wonderful knitted clothings and tons of fantastic yarns.





There was also a contest for handcrafted things themed "I love Germany"



Lunch time!



Later we went to the city centre to have a look around.



The old town is situated along river Rhine. Cologne was originally founded by the Romans around the year 50 A.D. Although the city centre of Cologne was nearly wiped out in World War II there are still parts of medieval Cologne with its narrow lanes left.







This is Heumarkt, a famous place with lots of bars and restaurants.



Here you can find this equestrian sculpture of Frederick William III of Prussia, placed here in 1878 A.D.



The Cologne carnival is one of the biggest street festivals in Europe. There are shops selling costumes during the whole year.



We went to the shopping streets than. There is also a Hard Rock Cafe.





Of course Katja also showed us Cologne Cathedral, city's most famous monument.  It is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. It is a World Heritage site since 1996. At the moment peace demonstrations are taking place on the large place in front of the cathedral.







Cologne Cathedral is called "the eternal construction site" because constructions works are taking place every time. Some building parts are placed on the ground.







We had to walk back to the car than which was parked on the opposite side of river Rhine. This time we used Hohenzollern Bridge to cross the river. Four equestrian statues showing Prussian emporers and family members of House of Hohenzollern are placed at both ends of the bridge.





The fences of the railway track are covered with love padlocks.









Good-bye Cologne!



Bye
Kirin

Hi Mummy,
today we managed to take Katja's adult son out to a walk. He wanted to have dinner with us, this meant also taking a longer walk with us

We started our trip downhill to Morsbachtal. We came along some older industrial complexes.





This road following the valley is one of the oldest parts of the city area.



We went into the forest than. All along the path these flowers were blooming - Himalayan balsam.



A farm was situated at the walking path. Here we saw geese ...



... a flock of sheep ...



... and a curious horse. It came to the fence to get cuddled, I believe.





What a lovely valley!





Katja also showed us this historic factory building (with an ugly pond in front of it )



Later we had to walk uphill for an eternity to get back to the city. Katja's son was a bit faster that I was.



After leaving the forest we still had to walk for almost half an hour to get home.



Here is one of three allotment areas in the municipal park. In the background you can see the outskirts of Remscheid and Wuppertal.



Let's have dinner now!

Bye
Kirin