Monday, June 13, 2011

Regendorf

Last night I made it clear that this morning I was sleeping in.  Thankfully, my request was granted!  When I woke up, it was just in time for breakfast.   I had a traditional German breakfast, which is bread and a ton of toppings or sauces.  They had Nutella (chocolate cream),  jam, and salami.  Yum!  Also for bread toppings there was some fresh honey from my dad's friend's bee hives.

My dad's friends, Steffi and Stefan, are very zealous bee keepers.  It is very confusing what you have to do to keep a consistent collection of bees. There is a queen bee that lays eggs and creates bees.  Then there are worker bees, that create honey, and build cells in which the queen lays eggs.  The worker bee decides whether to build a male bee cell or a female bee cell.  If the worker bees think the queen is laying too few eggs, and is maybe dying, they will make special cells that will grow new queens.  Then the queen will lay an egg into those cells.  The first queen that hatches will kill all the other queens.  The old queen will leave once it knows the new queen is forming.  Then it will simply die.  This is a hard time for the bees because they have no queen until the new queen hatches.  Anyway, the fresh honey tastes really good.  They even let me look at the bee hives.


After looking at the bees,  my new friend Jens gave me a ride in his huge truck!  It has a section in the back of the truck that is used to carry big and heavy objects.  It is the same type of truck the Germans use in their army!  It is literally the biggest truck I have ever seen!  We went though the forest, so it was really bumpy!


Later in the day, Jens, Mom, Dad and I went to tour an old castle ruin.  We had to hike ~ 45 minutes to get to it.  I did not mind though.  I thought the hike was beautiful.  The trail was lined with gorgeous trees.  When we got to the castle, we had to climb over the wall to get in.  Well, at least that is what I thought.  My parents found the entrance.  We toured the castle for a long time.  Found in that castle was the oldest recording in history of a snow ball fight!  It was a painting.  When we left the castle, we discovered that you did not have to hike to get to the castle.  There was a short way that only took two minutes.  Do you want to know what I thought of the shortcut?  Boring!

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic




6 comments:

  1. Way to go, Roh. Love your blogs! Keep up the good work!
    Love,
    your loving mom

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  2. Hey Rohan,
    Great descriptions and pictures!

    It sounds as if you have become a strong hiker, but I remember when you were bored hiking and your Mom had to tell tall tales to keep you going without complaint.

    And the pictures of you in the bee protection hat reminded me of the times your Mom got clothed to protect herself when spraying the wasps on your AK deck. Also reminded me of one of my great aunts who raised bees. Their honey was a treat for us too.
    Love, Grandma Doris

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  3. Thanks for commenting. I appreciate you guys commenting.

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  4. Great Pics! Love the anti-bee suit! Have any of the africanized honey bees made it to Europe? Can you organize the people you're with and take shots of the group too? You know, boring family shots that your readers (ok, me and Svetlana at least) would love to see?

    I was a very non-zealous beekeeper once. I found a beehive in the woods and, well, did nothing! Ha!

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  5. Sure (well I think they are boring.) I will take some more pictures of the group! I can't wait to see you again.

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