Daisy in Germany - Part 2

Hi!
Now I can show you some photos my host had taken during my visit to Germany.

I arrived a longer time ago in November 2007. My journey took a long time in a small cold envelope, but at least I got a helicopter for the last part of my way.

At my host's home many other animals had been interested to met such a nice cow like me for the first time. That made me really happy.

I met a nice elephant, a polar bear, a hippo, a wild pig and a walrus - all talked in different languages but of course we understood each other from the first moment.

During the next weekends I visited two German cities. The first had been Magdeburg, a bigger city in the Eastern part of Germany (Saxony-Anhalt).
Here we visited a park with a special star monument. I tried to read all the names on the stars but I didn't find any star with my name... - what a pity!

Then we went to a park near the river Elbe.

This photo was also taken in the park. I was sitting "in" a balustrade and there was deep water under the bridge. Because of this it was a difficult photo shooting for me.

Then we went to a gazebo - my host hold me in her hand, but I think you can't see me on the photo because I am too small.











After the walk in the park we went back to town and I met a famous man who was born in Magdeburg many years ago.

His name was General von Steuben. Maybe you remember the Steuben Parade in New York...

Later that day I also met another animal living in Magdeburg. I liked him, although he talked in a different language as well, because he wasn't born in Germany, but in Kenya.
















This was the last photo which my host had taken in Magdeburg.

The next trip took me to Braunschweig, a city in Lower Saxony. I will show you the photos a little bit later.

After that trip my host had to work really hard, therefore we couldn't go on more trips to other cities, but in Dezember during a wonderful cold weather period, we went on a trip through the nature not far from my host's home.

Look at the following pictures:

We had a great day outside and I enjoyed every minute. Then the Christmas time started. The windows of the houses in my host's quarter of the town had been decorated like the one you can see in the photos:

And then, as you already know, I met Santa Claus:

On Christmas the next toy voyager arrived. His name is Gulliver from Germany, a great, wonderful and friendly bear. Together we came into contact to a small dragon - wow, that was an adventure...

A short time later I started traveling again - and now I'm on the way to London.

Bye,
Daisy

Daisy in Germany - Part 1

Wow - after a longer time staying in Germany I am able to write here in my blog. During the last weeks my host was waiting to get an account, but now everything is okay!

I am really happy about that. During the next days I will write about my life in Germany and I will also show you some photos.

Today my host is too busy to help me, but she promised to do this during the next days.

Daisy

Daisy in Austria

It has been a while that I arrived in Vienna/Austria now. I am staying at a funny family with 3 little boys - so I'm having great fun here. I had a warm welcome from 3 other toyvoyagers staying here: Éireannach, a Russian pig who wants to become an Irish pig, Tanusha, the sexy monkey from the Ukraine and Kleo, a little shy doggie-girl from Italy.

My hosts showed us alot of Vienna. The first place we visited was Schönbrunn Palace. We had a long walk in the park there and even went up a little hill to the point of view "Gloriette" from where we had a wonderful view over the city.
And imagine, we even visited the zoo there!! Have a look whom I met there!!









My hosts also did alot of sight-seeing with me. So one day we went to the city centre and had a looong walk there. We passed by the City hall...,... the Austian parliament and the old imperial theatre.









We played hide-and-seek in the park in front of the Museum of historical arts. We watched these beautiful horses with their carbages (they are called "Fiaker" I was told) in front of Hofburg. Hofburg was the residence of the Habsburg family and it hosts some museums, the Austrian National library and the President's office nowadays.
We also visited this wonderful and very colourful house created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. There is nothing special inside - just normal flats I was told. Wouldn't it be great to live there? All the citizens have the right to create the surroundings of their windows just as they like - but only as far as they can reach with their arms. Interesting, isn't it?
One day my host announced that we'd go to the countryside for a weekend! How exciting, isn't it? So we all packed our stuff and went to Upper Austria where my host's parents live. We had a wonderful and exciting time there!

We went up a little mountain from where we had a wonderful view to lake "Traunsee" and all the other mountains around. And the grass was very tasty there, yummy !!


Then we went to visit "Schloss Orth". It consists of 2 parts: The "normal" castle and a water castle. Yes, imagine they have a castle here situated on a little island within the lake! Very astonishing, isn't it?









On the next day we went to another lake, "Attersee", also a very beautiful one. I wanted to have a little bath there but it was simply too cold. In Austria you can't go swimming outdoors anymore at this time of the year... But we went by boat - and that was funny, too!!









We also saw something else very exciting! We first saw it quite far away.... .... but then it came closer and closer. y< And finally it landed!!!












Unfortunately after we came back from Upper Austria Éireannach and Tanusha had to leave us and continue their journey. But another Toyvoyager arrived, Decker, a lille lion from UK. Travelling is sooo much fun and it's great to meet other voyagers and find friends from all over the world!

Last weekend on Saturday there was the perfect autumn day so my hosts thought it would be nice to go to the woods and search for mushrooms there. They were not difficult to find, but unfortunately the first one was poisonous... ...and another one... but finally we were successful!!! Eireannach and I were soooo proud of ourselves!
We also did some more sightseing here in Vienna, so one day we visited the famous Giant Wheel. And then we had a look at Danube tower. We wanted to go up but since it was very windy we were a bit affraid and we decided not to do it.
You know that I'm staying at a big family and of course they need to do alot of shopping. I helped a bit and I was very curious to see all the milk products they have here...
The weather didn't get much better since we tried to visit Danube tower. Since the kids already got a bit bored from staying indoors all the time we went to Vienna's technical museum with them. It was interesting to see all these engines, satellites, aeroplanes etc. I even was allowed to push some buttons and to do some little experiments. That was funny!!Well, I stayed in Austria for a while but now I have to continue my trip. I had a great time here but I'm also looking forward to my further adventures.

Good bye, Vienna!

Kamnik, Slovenia

Wow, now that I've seen Paris, it was time to take a look around where I am now... Interesting stuff here also...

First, I checked out the crafts of Slovenia. This is called a "potičnik". It is used to make potica, a traditional Slovene sweet dish. It is made of dough with yeast (a bit similar to bread), that is rolled out and then you put various fillings on it and roll it together again. Walnut filling is traditional, and it's usually made for Christmas and Easter.

Do I look like a nice potica? Usually, they're much bigger, this one is meant as a souvenir, but can be used just like a big one, it's made in the same way. Clay, shaped by hand...




And this is a majolika. You put wine in it and then pour it out into glasses. A bit like something called a decanter (so I was told), but not the same... The wine goes into the majolika from the wine barrel directly, and the decanter is a fancy thing.

The Slovenes really drink a lot of wine, and make even more, so wine barrels make sense- And the majolikas also, the barrels are heavy.

Of course, it's hand-painted, and a typical souvenir of Kamnik. On this one, there is a drawing of Veronika, a lady from the Small castle of Kamnik (an interesting story is connected with her, but I'm not in the right mood for typing it) and it is also the coat-of-arms of Kamnik.

These majolikas actually come in varius sizes, I've seen some smaller than thimbles, but also ones I could get lost in...





Of course, I couldn't just admire the crafts, I also took a walk and climbed the Small castle (Mali grad) hill, to admire the panorama. The weather wasn't perfect, but I could see the mountains. Aren't they beautiful? I've also seen them in sunny weather also, but didn't have the camera with me to document it.







Of course, I have to mention my two companions on this visit to Slovenia. They are Frankie, a giraffe from the Netherlands, and Barclay, an elephant from Australia. We had much fun together, and here we had our photo taken in front of the Small castle chapel, built in the 12th century. A bit older than we are...

We were told it was the only one of its kind in Europe, at least from the Romanesque period - it has two storeys and a crypt!

Tomorrow, I will tell you a bit about my trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital city, and then I'm packing my bags and leaving for Austria.