Solingen, Germany - 10th April 2011
By: olgamaus
Hi Mummy,
we have really springtime now in Germany, blooming trees are everywhere and the sun is shining. So Katja, a friend a I took a walk to a wonderful medieval castle today, just the three of us.
We went to the neighbour city Solingen. Solingen is called the "City of Blades", since it has long been renowned for the manufacturing of knives, scissors, fine swords and razors.
We started our trip in the housing area of a very old district, Solingen-Burg.
We continued our trip walking along the river Wupper. We stopped here at this weir.
Can you imagine what this is? It is an ear-trumpet which intensifies the sound of the little waterfall which is running down the rock. Katja told me that usually there is much more water running down, but we did not have heavy rain for weeks now so there is only less water.
We had to cross the river here.
We had to walk uphiill for some time. Katja showed me the castle than, situated on the hill in the background. I will also show you a zoomed photo.
Katja's friend wanted to make a side trip to a nearby dam, just to have a look at the concrete dam.
We had to walk only a few hundred meters to get there.
Back on our original trail, Katja showed me Remscheid, about 8 km apart from here.
Leaving the woodland we walked through a rural area than.
I like those small half-timbered houses
A sawmill is also situated here.
We nearly reached the castle!
The castle is called "Schloss Burg". Schloss Burg was built in 1133 by Count Adolf I von Berg on a hill above the river Wupper.That's why this region is called "Bergisches Land". Many people believe that it's name refers to the landscape with hills and valleys. (For those who do not speak German: The German word for mountain or hill is "Berg", so many people think that the name "Bergisches Land" means "land with many hills")
In the castle courtyard you can find souvenir shops and shops whose owners are doing an "old" handcraft. For example someone makes soap, another makes brushes, then you can buy things that were used by knights for the kids, like swords and helmets.
Here you can see Count Engelberg II von Berg, the guy on the horse in the courtyard.
An Easter market is also taking place in the courtyard, so there are lots of beverage carts.
You have a georgeous overlook across the valley of the river Wupper from here.
We decided to walk downhill, back to Solingen-Unterburg. People who don't want to walk all the way to the castle can take the ropeway.
Deep in the valley we parked the car.
Those houses are looking like toys
This creek is ending into river Wupper just behind the bridge in the background.
We sat down in a beer garden and enjoyed a large beer.
What a wonderful trip!
Bye
Kirin
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Posted Apr 10, 2011, 6:49 pm
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travelling to, Canada - 18th April 2011
By: olgamaus
Hi Mummy,
today it was time to say good-bye to Germany and all my friends here.
Now I'm looking foreward to explore Canada.
Love
Kirin
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Posted Apr 18, 2011, 4:23 pm
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Aylmer Lookout, Canada - 21st May 2011
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
Today, for once, we had some nice weather over the weekend, so smaug took us to the mountains for a walk . First we spent some time along the shores of Lake Minnewanka...which looks still pretty much frozen.
Later we headed up on the side of the mountain to the location of an abandoned fire lookout from where the view of the lake was much better .
As the sky was blue but we kept hearing loud thunders, we asked sammino what that noise was. He explained that they were just avalanches coming down from those mountains behind us. He also added that we were probably safe...how comforting .
On the other side of the valley the snow covering Mt. Aylmer seemed less likely to come down...or so we hoped.
Funny enough, someone put up here a makeshift swing, so we played a bit with it .
As we were getting hungry we asked smaug if he had packed a full 3 courses meal plus dessert . Disappointingly he didn’t planned the day properly and just handed us some energy bars .
Apparently this lookout is famous for being visited by lots of bighorn sheep but there was none around today...although there were plenty of traces of their passage here, very smelly traces that did not make for interesting photos . Talking about smelly things, another very common and slightly less pleasant resident here is the wood tick, so smaug spent the day covered with this fairly disgusting insect repellent...which made the experience of being around him very tough on our smell sense and which also probably explains why (despite this being May long weekend) we hardly met anyone (people, TV or wildlife) the whole day .
On the way back to the car we stopped on the lake side. Very close to the shore the ice is starting to break up so the lake might be open soon . Too bad it soon started to rain a bit, so we hid in the backpack and wondered if there was going to be a 3 courses meal with cake waiting for us at home .
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Posted May 23, 2011, 4:11 am
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Calgary, Canada - 26th May 2011
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
Today we all gathered together to say goodbye and wish a safe trip to Mandy Sheep who is flying back home to join her mum for a trip to Denmark.
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Posted Jun 4, 2011, 8:34 pm
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Calgary, Canada - 27th May 2011
By: smaug
Hi Mum,
Today two new guests arrived here in Calgary for a short visit : Dean, a nice horse from the USA and Krystal, another one of smaug’s TVs. They were a bit jet lagged so we welcomed them and then let them go get some sleep .
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Posted Jun 5, 2011, 4:02 am Last edited Jun 5, 2011, 4:37 am by smaug
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