Travelog for: DuDette

MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY MOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
(Sorry DuDu, you are not nr. 1 today, but I still love you!)

You can't imagine what happened today!!! 

As I told you Alex had a BIG surprise for us! He organized a meeting with some other toyvoyagers. And LOOK who I met:
my beloved sister Cheerio! 


She showed me her new lovely bag and told me about her adventures.
After talking a lot we all decided to take a group picture.
(f.l.t.r.: Günther, Peaches, Alex, Cheerio, me, Bernie, Wavy Gravy, Crawfish & Jethro)


Alex wanted to have a picture with the whole Californian gang. Crazy kitty! 


Look, Wavy Gravy is as small as I am. I really like him.


"California girls
We're unforgettable
Daisy Dukes
Bikinis on top
Sun-kissed skin
So hot
Will melt your popsicle
Oooooh Oh Oooooh"


When we had to say goodbye to each other I gave my sister a good-luck-kiss. I hope we will meet again soon!


DuDette

Happy 4th of July!

We invited Liberty-Buddy-Bear and got some original American sweets.

Hey Mom & DuDu,

back to the main railway station once again where I met my sister on Tuesday!
Did you know that there's an underground (U-Bahn), too? Currently, it has only three stations, does not connect to any other U-Bahn line, and is operated as a shuttle line using a single train. It is the newest U-Bahn line and was opened in 2009. Not all stations are as nice as this one, but all trains of the U-Bahn are yellow.



DuDette

Today we did a walk around the houses. We didn't like to take pictures so we left the camera at home. When we came back, we were a little bit shocked! The door to the balcony was opened. We weaseled onto the balcony and saw someone relaxing in Alex canvas chair! Who is this?


It turned out that the one in the canvas chair is a new guest. His name is Fiete and he'll stay for about one month. I think we'll have a lot of fun. He told us that nobody was at home when he arrived so he decided to wait for us while enjoying some sun.


DuDette

Hello Mommy,

today we didn't really have time for sightseeing, but when our host went to her work we stopped for one picture. It's the backside of the Zions Church in the district Mitte. It's an evangelic church and it was dedicated in 1873. It was built on a hill of 52 meters (170.60 ft), one of the highest points of the former Berlin. The tower itself got a high of 67 meters (219.82 ft) and serve as a reference point and viewpoint. The specific characteristic of the church is that the nave isn't align to the east, like it is normal. That one is align to the north!

DuDette

Hello Mom,

today we did a ride by car through our host's Mom's hometown. It was the first car-ride for Fiete, he had some problems when the car started.
This is a small village in Saxony-Anhalt. There's not so much to tell, just that they had the biggest power station of the world about 100 yrs ago. But as you know I already showed you pix of here before.








Yours DuDette

Hey Mommy & DuDu,

once again we discovered this small village!
We started with the town sign. What a difficult name! The inhabitants just write Z'witz and call it Zschorns (don't speak the Z!). Confusing!


It's really green around here.



This is the new control-room for the old power station, but it's closed for years.


There's also a sports ground in this village.


The street where we live...sometimes!


On this street Crawfish learnt driving a car.


Then we walked to the park.



In this park you can see the catholic church. It's really small and... pink!



While the others stayed in the park Fiete and I walked through the rest of the village.
This is the kindergarten where my host went when she was a child.


We found a ruin. This big old house was the clubhouse about 25 yrs. ago.


There's also a place for small festivals. Unfortunately there was none today.


Hm, they have really small streets.


Look at this electrical tower, it's huge!


This ugly yellow building is called "Platanenhof". It's one of the newer buildings, but the walls have lots of scratches.


There's another church in this village. This one is an evangelical lutheran church and it looks really old.



Near the church we found the memorial for the victims of the World War II.


Then we finally found some parts of the old power station. Since 1995 it's a museum. The last 2 chimneys fell this spring. This big "chimney" is a cooling tower. There's only one left for the museum.


Can you see the red scaffold? It was a part of the engine house.


And these buildings behind us were the houses for the workers called "Kolonie". It was included in the list of EXPO projects, undergoing widespread restorations in 1997-99.



They have a really beautiful school and schoolyard in this village, have a look!


On our way back home the sun came out of the clouds. It was so wonderful to enjoy it!

I think this walk was enough for me! My feet hurt!

DuDette

Hello Mom, hello hubby,

we did a road trip again!
First we went through villages and forests. It was not the best weather. Have a look to the sky - it's blue and grey and really dark!







After a while we arrived in Dessau. It is situated on a floodplain where the Mulde flows into the Elbe. Maybe you never heard of this city before, but you may have heard of some of its sons, like Hugo Junkers (first airplane totally made from metal, the Junkers J 1 in 1915 - founded the Junkers & Co-airplane-factory which was Europe's biggest airplane factory during World War II), Thomas Kretschmann (Hollywood actor), Dieter Hallervorden (famous comedian and singer, honorary citizen) or Moses Mendelssohn (philosopher, father of Haskalah).





This is the old brewery. It doesn't work anymore, there's such a small adventure park inside.


The building on the left is the biggest shopping mall of the city, called "Rathaus Center".


The tower is part of the City History Museum.


The most famous bridge crosses the river Mulde.


When we arrived at the place we wanted to go we had to wait a while in the car, it was raining cats and dogs.


I visited the famous Bauhaus, another UNESCO World Heritage! The Staatliches Bauhaus (full name) was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts and was founded by Walter Gropius. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design.


We also visited the Masters' Houses which belong to the Bauhaus. Here they built the director's house and 3 semi-detached houses with large ateliers. Their glass fronts are the most noticeable design element of the houses. Alongside the unity of form and function there is a remarkably intensive rendition of colour - Kandinsky and Klee used their rooms for fascinating experiments with the design element of colour.
A new style of living was also to be demonstrated in the Masters' Houses. Gropius' house especially had a number of details worth noting, from the walk-in wardrobe to the hot water pressure spray in the scullery and the double sofa which could be opened out.
This is the house Muche/Schlemmer...

...and this is the house Kandinsky/Klee.


I heard that there are still some UNESCO World Heritages left in this area. Interesting...

Your little mouse
DuDette

Hello Mommy & DuDu,

finally a day without rain!
We went to the city and have a look: the tv tower is still standing!
Between both photos were only 15 minutes. Check out the clouds! 



I also stopped in front of the Red City Hall, the town hall of Berlin. It is located near Alexanderplatz and is the home to the governing mayor and the government (the Senate of Berlin) of the Federal state of Berlin. The name of the landmark building dates from the facade design with red clinker bricks. The City Hall was built between 1861 and 1869 in the style of the north Italian High Renaissance.


Love you both.
DuDette

Hey Mommy,

today we had another big ToyVoyager meeting!

We were so many and we had so much fun!




As you already know one of my legs is broken. I tested to sit in a wheel chair. Please don't tell DuDu that I'm going to have a surgery soon!


DuDette

In the morning after the meeting we got up very late. The whole time we wondered about that familiar voice in our travelbag. When we crawled out we realized that Günther was in our bag, too! Did he jump into the wrong bag after the meeting? I don't know!


In the afternoon Alex showed us a postcard he got from his brother  Phog who is in Finland. He told us about the finnisch language on the card: "Kesäterveiset Jyväskylästä!" Alex told us that "kesä" means "summer", "terveiset" means "greetings", Jyväskylä is the city where Phog is and the ending -stä means where it comes from. So the whole sentence (just 2 words!) means "Summergreetings from Jyväskylä". Mommy, I learnt some Finnish!


Mommy, 2 DuDu's? I'm confused!

DuDette

Hello Mommy,

that little freaky hamster called Chalon left today for his first big journey! He is traveling to Bruchsal.

First he wrote a card for his new host. I was surprised that he's able to write!


When he packed some chocolate into his bag Alex get angry. He told him to take candies instead of chocolate because of the heat.




Fiete gave him a little cow as a talisman for his first journey and Günther gave him a book about his basic rights in the EU.



Then he left. Good luck little Chalon!


DuDette

Hey Mommy,

we did a short stop-over in Halle/Saale, the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Its early history is connected with harvesting of salt.
The town was first mentioned in 806. According to historic documents, the city of Halle has been a member of the Hanseatic League at least since 1281.
This is one of the shopping areas. In case of the heat there weren't so many people.


The city is called "City of the 5 towers" and here you can see "the towers above the city" (as a building is named).
Four towers (on the left) belong to the Market Church St. Mary (Marktkirche), built in 1529–1554. It is using elements of two medieval churches, St. Gertrud Church dating back to the 11th Century and the older St. Mary Church from the 12th Century. The church has four steeples, the two western octagonal ones are called Blue Towers because of their dark blue slate roofing. The other two Hausmannstürme are connected by a bridge and on this bridge was the fire watch. The church owns as well the original death-mask of Martin Luther.
The big tower (on the right) is the Red Tower (Roter Turm), originally built as campanile of the older St. Mary Church between 1418 and 1503.
Roland (on the foot of the Red Tower, maybe you can see it), originally (13th century) a wooden sculpture representing the urban liberty. Today’s sculpture is a sandstone replica made in 1719.
And on the left, just a few steps away you can see a monument to George Frideric Handel, built in 1859.
The sun was not really helpfull in this pic.


On our way back home we took lots of pictures in the car!








This is one of the water towers. You can find a few of them all over the city.


Look, they write the name of the street ON the street! And we didn't use the freeway.










This lake is the famous \"Goitzsche\". (Sorry, the link is in German)











And we saw a beautiful sunset!



Yours DuDette

Hey Mommy,

another road trip with Alex' car.
First we traveled on a street next to a lake.


Then we reached the freeway and Crawfish hit the gas!


When we passed the lake Sachsenburg we did a short stop-over for a picture. You have to know that Fiete's life mission is to take pictures in front of lots of water.
This beautiful small lake is an abandoned coal mine which was flooded by domestic water.


Then we went on by car and left the lake.


We stopped near some flowers for a picnic.


It was a special day for Crawfish, because she got her driver's license for Germany!


Then Alex gave me a heart, that I always know which DuDu is my hubby. I was a little bit confused when I heard there's another DuDu. Me and the real DuDu both have a heart on our stomach.


We enjoyed our picnic. Some of us got lemonade, some milk, a cake and fruits for all of us and a piece of cheese for me.



When we went back home after the picnic Alex and Günther decided to try out the new skateboards. They lashed the boards behind the car.


DuDette

Mommy,

we went to a border line!

Ok, it's just the border line of the rural district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld and the urban district of Dessau-Roßlau. Each sign of the districts show the emblem of the area.
Did you know that there are 295 rural districts in Germany, but only 107 urban districts?

"Welcome to the rural district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld"


"See you in Dessau-Roßlau" (They forgot the "urban district" on the sign!)


Kiss kiss
DuDette