Bruchsal, Germany - 7th January 2012
By: fam-united
Today some of us joined Petra, when she went to the parish hall to sort the sweets for the children, who walked through the streets as starsingers. They had bags and sorted the sweets so that everyone nearly received the same amount of sweets at the end. You can see the bags on the table. There were about 50 bags. Some of the bags were brought to a day care center, some to a children's home and some to a nun, who knows several poor families, who surely will be happy about some sweets.
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Posted Jan 28, 2012, 1:24 pm
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Karlsruhe, Germany - 5th February 2012
By: fam-united
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.
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Posted Feb 19, 2012, 11:26 am
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between Karlsruhe and Durlach, Germany - 5th February 2012
By: fam-united
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.
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Posted Feb 21, 2012, 4:43 pm
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Durlach, Germany - 5th February 2012
By: fam-united
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.
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Posted Feb 21, 2012, 7:24 pm
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Cologne, Germany - 4th March 2012
By: fam-united
Today we drove to Cologne. Petra's husband had to be there for a Trade Fair and Petra met olgamaus.
Here is some information about Cologne (wikipedia):
"Cologne (English pronunciation: /kəˈloʊn/, German: Köln [kœln], Kölsch: Kölle [ˈkœɫə]) is Germany's fourth-largest city (after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich), and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.
Cologne is located on both sides of the Rhine River. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. The University of Cologne (Universität zu Köln) is one of Europe's oldest and largest universities.
Cologne is a major cultural centre of the Rhineland and has a vibrant arts scene. Cologne is home to more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics and sculpture. The Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne, Gamescom and the Photokina."
Cologne Cathedral (German: Kölner Dom) is the city's most famous monument and the Cologne residents' most respected landmark. It is a Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. In 1996, it was designated a World Heritage site; it houses the Shrine of the Three Kings that supposedly contains the relics of the Three Magi. Residents of Cologne sometimes refer to the cathedral as "the eternal construction site" (Dauerbaustelle).
Cologne Central Station: On an average day, about 280,000 travellers frequent the station, making it fifth busiest station in Germany.
Then we walked down to the Rhine.
We turned around and took a look back to the cathedral.
Here's the Hohenzollern Bridge.
Great St. Martin Churchis a Romanesque Catholic church. Its foundations (circa 960 AD) rest on remnants of a Roman chapel, built on what was then an island in the Rhine. The church was badly damaged in World War II, with restoration work completed in 1985.
We then walked around the Imhoff-Chocolate Museum.
We took a look back to the Hohenzollern Bridge, cathedral and Great St. Martin.
The museum is run by the Schokoladenmuseum Köln GmbH. Since March 2006, the Swiss chocolate manufacturer Lindt & Sprüngli has been its partner in producing exhibits. Prior to that the partner was the Cologne chocolate producer Stollwerck, and the museum was formerly known as the Imhoff-Stollwerck-Museum.
On this photo you can see, how high the water was in 1995 and you can see, where we took the photo with the chocolate girl, where we stand for the view back to the churches and bridge. The yellow line shows the way we walked around the museum and the green line the way, where we came from.
Inside the museum we saw all the machines which are necessary to make delicious chocolate.
There is a real chocolate fountain! We all got wafers dipped into melted chocolate. Yummy!
This equestrian statue shows Frederick William III of Prussia. You can see here, who else is on the base of the statue.
The Heumarkt is beside the Alter Markt the biggest place in Cologne historic city.
There are several small breweries in Cologne. This one is located at the Heumarkt.
It started to rain and we walked back to the cathedral. We entered it and it was so so dark inside, that we had problems to take nice photos. So please excuse the quality.
So this was the last photo of Cologne and we drove back to Bruchsal again.
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Posted Mar 18, 2012, 1:53 pm
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Mannheim, Germany - 10th March 2012
By: fam-united
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.
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Posted Apr 6, 2012, 3:13 pm
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Bruchsal, Germany - 22nd April 2012
By: fam-united
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.
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Posted Apr 29, 2012, 5:57 pm
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Bruchsal, Germany - 29th April 2012
By: fam-united
This is my last update from Bruchsal. I hope to crawl out of my envelope again soon.
Bye, Mi-Go
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Posted May 13, 2012, 3:28 pm
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