Travelog for: JBF Bear

I'm JBF Bear and I am a super super SUPER special bear!

If you read here you'll see why:
http://www.thejustbecausefoundation.com/index.html

My mentor got me last year and we thought it would be awesome to travel around and spread the word and make people more aware of all the good they can do!

I hope to visit lots of kids and Cancer treatment centres and hospitals and camps and everything else and bring a smile to everyone's face!!!

My mentor showed me some lovely pics of a sister JBF Bear which were sent to her by a wonderful woman named Chevaughn Joseph who is the President and Co-Founder of the Just Because Foundation!!!
Sister bear got to visit a camp for kids with Neuroblastoma in Northern Ontario, Canada!!!
Look, I've posted the pics for you all to see (see below)!

I'm off to Portugal first to my mentor's dear friend, Helder who is going to take me on vacation with him!!!

I'm so excited to start!!!

See you soon with photos and stories when I arrive!!!

Hello mommy Eshara, 

How are u my dear? I was a little tired for a long trip, but I arrived.
I'm today by Helder's house and go to sleep because I'm too tired, I'll be here for a weeks, so we have time...
I'll send updates. this week will be very calm. 
Big kiss to u, mommy.

Hi Mummy 

How are u? I'm ok.
The weather here has been very cold and I spent the day of the fireplace. 
Today I take the boys to show you who I sleep with.
This Christmas there and I'm also going to spend Christmas out Hélder, then show you the photos.
Hopefully, Mom, you have a merry Christmas and talk soon

So exciting!

JBF Bear will soon be on his way to visit with fam-united in Germany!!!

It is exciting for him to be able to continue his journey and hopefully spread the word about his Cause!

Surprise!?! I'm with fam-united since today. She really had to search for me in the member list, because she didn't remember, that I was on the way to her. She's getting old, but I will help her to think of everything, that's necessary, when she has guests.

Bye, JBF Bear

Today we were invited to celebrate our host uncle's 80th birthday. We celebrated at a Greek Restaurant close to the Rhine. In the early afternoon we went on a walk to have a view on the Rhine. Both, the Rhine and the Neckar flow through Mannheim. Mannheim is a nice city, Petra told me, but she had no time to show more than the Rhine.

Happy Easter to you!

Finally I found time to read these two pages of two different newspapers of the week. The one is about Bruchsal asparagus. Bruchsal is famous for its asparagus fields and auctions.





The other newspaper page is about the baroque palace of Bruchsal. I think, you have a good view to many different parts of the main building with the church tower, but still many houses are missing.

We have typical April weather in Bruchsal. There is sunshine and the next moment there is hail and thunder and rain.

Today evening we saw a nice double rainbow. My host family still has to fight with illness

We are on our way to Trier today. My host and her husband invited us and her husband's parents to join them on the trip. Here I enjoy a cup of cappuccino in a motorway restaurant.

When my host's parents in law were young, they lived in Trier-Ehrang. Actually they were born there and grew up there. We saw all the places, which were important for them. This town is a suburb of Trier, which is located in Rhineland-Palatinate. There live about 10 000 people and it is the third largest district of Trier. It has municipal laws since 1346 A.D.

Here we see the church St.Peter of Ehrang.






Then we went to a house, which was built in 1805. Here you can read about it:

At lunch time we drove to Burg Ramstein. After eating a tasty meal we went the last metres to Burg Ramstein and took some photos there. The castle is surrounded by wood. The first castle was build 915 A.D., the one, which we see now was built sometime around 1300 A.D. The former tower house was about 25 metres high and had four floors.

Because my host's parents in law are older people, we had no chance to have a walk in Trier and see all the sightseeing places really close. Her father in law sits in a wheelchair and her mother in law needs a walker, so it is too difficult for them. Nevertheless we took the chance to take a look at the sightseeing places from a place called Petrisberg. It was a bit difficult to take photos, though, first my host didn't have her own camera, second we had the sun against us and third either I or the landscape was sharp and so we had to zoom in some parts to give you a closer view on some places.

Trier is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC on the banks of the Moselle. Trier lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of ruddy sandstone in the west of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the border with Luxembourg and within the important Mosel wine region.

The city is the oldest seat of a Christian bishop north of the Alps.

With an approximate population of 105,000 Trier is ranked fourth among the state's largest cities; after Mainz, Ludwigshafen, and Koblenz.

You can take a look at the link. My host says, that she loves Trier and that you should come and see it, if you get a chance to visit this part of Germany.










We will go and see St.Matthias in the late afternoon.













I'm really sorry, but we also had no chance to catch a short view to the most famous Porta Nigra, because you can't see it on the photo above - it is just too small as you can see on the zoomed in photo.

St. Matthias' Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Trier. Monks have lived in the present St. Matthias' Abbey since late antiquity. The monastery adopted the Rule of St. Benedict in about 977. The abbey was originally named after Saint Eucharius, first Bishop of Trier, whose tomb is in the crypt. The church has been given the status of a basilica minor.









The abbey church, a Romanesque basilica, is a renowned place of pilgrimage because of the tomb of Saint Matthias the Apostle, after whom the abbey is named, located here since the 12th century, and the only burial of an apostle in Germany and north of the Alps.





Just above the tomb you see the sleeping statue of St. Matthias.