Hello! Today we travel to Paris the city of lights. We caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower through the smog not fog smog. We got to our new awesome house where everyone gets their own room except for Mom and Dad of course. Josephine and I had a debate over who should get the awesome red room. I said that the partially awesome green room made me feel like I was in a leaf and that made me feel claustrophobic. I won the debate. We then got our day passes for the expensive train and went into Paris. We walked to the Arc de triumph and looked at it for a bit. We went to go have supper I picked Chinese. It was really good I had Sweet and sour chicken with chicken spring rolls. Then we went to the Eiffel tower and took a couple pictures, we looked for a boat to take us on a cruise. We decided to come here for some water and internet. Then we will go back and get a boat for our tour around the city of lights. (Makes me think of Ratitioue…XD he he he) Bye!!!!!! Emy.
Addition after the boat....the boat trip was really interesting! The oldest bridge in Paris is called the "New Bridge"!!! funny....also the island in the Seine where the first Pariseains lived was called "dwelling surrounded by water". We had fun but I got cold. Mom got this neat picture of the tower when it was lit up.
Today we went to two French castles (chateaus), the chateau de Chenonceau and the chateau Cheverny. The first one we saw was built on a river and the other inspired Captain Haddock’s house from the Tintin series by Herege. The one over the river originally belonged to Henry the 2nd’s mistress’ (illegitimate wife). It has many rooms, in one a lady lived the last 11 years of her life mourning her husband’s death and doing needle point. The grounds consist of two flower gardens, one vegetable garden, a 16th century farm, a donkey pasture and a maze in a forest. It was very interesting and in every room, there was a large basket of real flowers. It was beautiful. In the Chateau Cheverny, we went to the Tintin exhibition; it contained rooms of the house that Captain Haddock lives in. There were seven rooms. One was the crypt as seen in “The Secret of The Unicorn.” Another was the lounge in the Calculus Affair. Then there was Calculus’ laboratory, Tintin’s bedroom, Abdallah’s gallery and the Super-Calaculor. After that we went in the actual chateau and learned that people still live on the third floor, and that it is open 365 days a year. It was very beautiful and a favorite hunting lodge of King Henry the 2nd. Did you know people of the medieval times slept sitting in their beds, because lying down was a position reserved for the dead. No wonder the bed’s where so small! After we went to see the 100 hounds kept there. We where shocked that they all did their business in one spot! We waited the 45 minutes in order to see them fed, but they weren’t fed on time so we left the dogs to wonder where their meal was and went the three hours back to Orbec.
Today we went in 2 different directions! Josephine and I went to the Bayeux Tapestries and Mike and Emily went to the Normandy War museum.
Battle of Hastings - The Tapestries tell the story of William the Bastard's war against Harold for the throne of England. William won the famous battle of 1066 and became known as William the Conquerer! Josephine and I were impressed with the life-like 70m stiching of horses, soliders, warships and battles. The story had approx. 50 scenes describing, for the mostly illerate people of the time, how great William was! The truly amazing part of it is how it survived mostly intact for a 1000 years. At one point it was used as a tarp to cover a cart full of guns in the late 1700's, but a general saw it and saved it.
Emily and I went to the Normandy Landing Museum which was very informative. The museum cover everything from the inception of the plan to the end of Aug. There was a fantastic movie in english that covered everything that happened during that time period, so therefore we didn't have to read the endless posters that hung on the wall. In the museum they had a lot of displays that covered what was worn by all the combatants and explained what they all carried. Further they had a lt of equipment inside such as AA guns and self propelled guns. We could not take pictures in side so thus there is none for this portion of the blog.
After we met up again we headed off to Juno beach were the canadians landed on June 6th. There we had a picknick on the beach where hundreds of Canadians lost their lives it was kind of wiered for me to be doing that. I collected some sand to bring home so that I could use it in a history class. Once we finished lunch we took of to the Juno centre which housed some facts about Canadians participation in the war and after. I have to say that I was disapointed in that museum! It cost more to see that museum than the other one we went to see which had more? Go figure!! Well we are in McDonalds again blogging so that is all from us today.
Hi! Today we went to Mont-Saint-Michel. It’s very huge and really cool. How many stars hmm…. 4 ½!!!! Out of 5! As you walked in there was a loooooong street full of shops, restaurants, and hotels. You could take a tour that talked about the dungeons and a couple of other museums. Sadly all were in French except for the Maritime museum 250 ships help! We did not go to the maritime museum yay! We then climbed up lots and lots of stairs. We got into the abbey and walked into this room where there was a church. There was a cool balcony with a beautiful view. Then there was the room where the Nuns and Monks ate. They weren’t allowed to talk at all! Next we went to the cloisters where they pray. It was made to give the impression of ‘a floating garden’. There was supposed to be another chapter house leading off of it but it was never built. There is a giant wheel which they used to haul supplies to the cathedral. Mom was amazed that people actually walked in it to move it. Once we got out we saw a really narrow street that would be really hard for some people to get through! Bye! Emily
Hi all We do not have Wifi where we are staying so this blog is going to be short! We arrived in France and went to our new abode which is fantastic! There are children there whom Josephine and Emily can play with. I love the yard but it reminds me of how much grass I don't have to cut, yea. Here is a picture of where we are staying at! Our first trip in France was to Dieppe and it was heart stopping for me to be there, seeing all those headstones in the cemetery I almost cried. As well we were on the beach and we saw this awesome monument for the Canadian troops. Well I told it was going to be short.
We have just left the land of expensive food and good beer to the land of good food and great wine! We left Dover this am and on the way over we saw the white cliffs and they were wonderful. Once we got into Calais we had to wait a few hours to get our car but we now have one and we don't have to carry our luggage as much as we did in England. So we decided to leave Calais and eat a nice meal outside city limits, well everything was closed and we were all starving. We went to about 3 different towns and found nothing open. We should have stopped at the McD's for some food but we thought we would try something different, oh well. We are now in Boulogne and are relaxing and waiting for food joints to open up. There are no pictures from today I should have taken a picture of our brand new tan colour Clio but I didn't I will add one tomorrow. Ciao from France Mike
Hello everybody! Today I will be telling you about (Drum roll please) …. DOVER CASTLE! Today we had fried eggs, ham, toast, and sausages for break-fast. At least I like eggs & toast! Then we trekked all the way up, and up and up and up and up… until we got to the castle. After that we walked to the war time tunnels. Our tour guide took us to the Annexe level A.K.A. the hospital. We followed the story of a pilot who had been injured in a dog fight. (Airplanes not dogs) It was really interesting. We then went on a self guided tour of the second level (It’s lower than the first one.) We couldn’t go down to dumpy the final level because it’s unsafe. We traveled through the 2nd level and ended up outside. Then we walked to the roman light house it was pretty cool. We went to the castle and wandered around there climbing up stair upon stair. After we reached the very top we found we could get to the highest part of the castle! It was really awesome. We walked through the kitchen, the King’s room, the Queen’s room with teensy kid beds, and much more. We also went through the Medieval tunnels they were cool. We also saw wild horses, they were really cute!!.
Today we went from out house in Canterbury to a guest house by the sea. We dropped our bags off in the hotel (we weren’t aloud in our room until 3:30) so we went for a walk by the sea. Then we went up to the white cliffs, which are actually made off small dead animals. We stopped on a ledge for a while and watched the boats. Unfortunately, it was so foggy we couldn’t see the other shore. It was also very hot, 25 degrees. After we rejuvenated we continued our walk up the hills. It got hotter as we went farther and eventually (after we ran out of water) we turned around. When we got back we went in to our room and all had a drink. In our room we have three beds, TV and an en-suite, but no Wi-Fi. Once we had lounged around for a while we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant, it was good. Then we went back to our room and watched TV until bed
Today we finally got to do some cycling! The best part of cycling in Britan is that they actually like cyclist here. Motorist don't swear at you but are patient and give way. There are bike lanes, paths and even a designated part of the sidewalk for bikes!! We did some cycling out of town on beautiful roads that wound through the countryside. We stopped to look at this little church along the way. We met a caretaker there who was getting ready for a funeral in the afternoon and he showed us around. The rose is called Peace and it smelt wonderful. The roses in England are spectacular. The first vicar served there in the 1300. We also got a beautiful view of the city. The kids did really well in town and on the trails. After about 3 hours (kids were tired) we made our way back for lunch. The girls and I then went exploring while mike biked off to the Spitfire Museum 17 miles away. We found a beautiful park and window shopped at a bunch of stores. I'd love to bring back some pottery but back packing and pottery don't mix well. Mike just got back so I'll put in a few of his pics too. He said the museum was a little anticlimactic. That's all for now. Jane
Today we came to rest our heads in the beautiful town of Canterbury. This is the neatest place we've been in so far in my opinion. We have the cutest little house on 6 Duck Lane which has three stories and a tiny patio. We are about 5 min. from one of the biggest cathedrals in England - Canterbury. We did the tour of it this afternoon and saw the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170! It is truly a wonder. The girls and I then left Mike at a pub to sample more beer while we went to a Canterbury Tales re-enactment. It went through 5 of the 29 stories from Chaucer's Tales. It was a little "cheesy" but the girls liked it and I've now exposed them to the Father of English Literature and it only cost $40!!! Tomorrow we're going to rent some bikes...yippy. This amazing building seems to literally leaning over the street to take a look - just look at the door. It's been on this street since the 1600's and Charles Dickens mentioned it in one of his books (can't remember which one). Jane
Hi all today we are on the train traveling from Inverness back to London for another night in the Hostel at Earls Court. For those wondering if I got a Kilt, no I didn't get one. Just to buy a kilt was going to cost me $400 and to get the whole nine yards would have cost $2,000. I think I could use that money on other things. If you go to our other website which you can find at one of our earlier posts. Mike
Today we took a tour bus to the Isle of Skye. I generally abhor bus trips (car sick) but there wasn’t really any way to get to the Elean Donan Castle – one of the places to go in my book “40 Places to See Before You Die. It was a beautiful day so we were able to see the hills in the Scottish Highlands very well. The scenery was stunning with the clouds just touching the tops of the hill/mountains. We stopped at a hunting lodge for tea in the morning and at lunch we spent an hour and a half at the Clan Donald Centre and Armadal Castle. Mike is ¼ Scottish (specifically Mac Donald) so it was an interesting stop for him especially. Many of the Mac Donald’s from Isle of Skye emigrated to Prince Edward Island in the 1700’s. After lunch we continued our tour on a narrow road to Ord. Mike and I were both wishing we had our bikes! It would have been great fun with the hills minus the single track road. Several time we had to back up to a wider spot so other cars could pass. We stopped at a beautiful beach near Ord to collect shells and enjoy the warm sun. I found lots of limpets, one of my favorite Gastropods! Our bus driver tried to find us one of the cute Highland steers (or Hamish – locally called) but they were all too far away to see. We were then off to our final stop the Elean Donan Castle. How do I explain the disappointment? We stopped at a parking lot about a ¼ mile away and took pictures!!!! We didn’t get to go up to it let a lone go into it!!!UGH!!! Beautiful with the mountains in the back drop but really??? Trying to look on the sunny side- it was a nice day, and we did see a lot of beautiful thing that we wouldn’t have seen if we just went to the castle! Jane
Hi all Today we tried to go to Loch Ness or to another castle but it didn't work out so we went for a walk and we came upon a parade! It was a parade to start a new session of the city council, so there was a parade with Bag Pipes and I was happy. In fact everyone in our family was happy that we came upon it. We went to visit Inverness Castle but it was disappointing it was closed and I don't think there is much to see anyway. We went for a walk instead around the river that runs through town and also the canal that runs beside it. We came across a park that the girls had fun playing in and we saw a rugby game which was interesting. We are now blogging from our usual sits in the bar so that we can get free internet access. Tomorrow we are going to Isle of Skye for a full day so that will be fun. We have been relaxing and it has been great. We will have some pics tomorrow to show everyone. If anyone is interested Strongbow beer is not a very good beer to drink, this is the worst I had so far. Chat tomorrow. Oh if you are going to text us at 3am don't expect a reply. I will also post a video to youtube as well. Mike
Today we walked around Inverness. We went to a bike store and decided to see dolphins. Josephine and I each got an Areo Mcflurry from McDonald's. They were really good we walked for a long time crossed a bridge,and got to the dolphin center.We found a tea hose Dad had tea Mom and Josephine had water and everyone had scones with strawberries and whipped cream. I didn't like the scone... We went to the dolphin center, it wasn't that great.We walked to the bus stop and took the bus back. Bought sweaters,and hopefully are soon renting Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix.
First thing this morning we made breakfast and went to our new house. We have four rooms; A kitchen, bathroom, living room, and master bedroom. Emily and I are sleeping on the pull out couch. Then we got on the bus with out Dad and went to the pony trekking place. We went to a small town called Drumnadrochit,it is right by Loch Ness. We walked to the barns and watched the farrier, until our ponies were ready. Mine was a dappled grey pony named Fergus. Emily's was a brown pony called Fidget and Mom's was another grey horse called Kelly. Then we went on a two hour trek, up the hills and around Loch Ness. We passed a castle called Urquhart, and tried to guess it's age, Emily was closest. It was built in the 6th century, and we had a beautiful view on the hill from horseback.
Well we have had a couple of down days, one was on the train to Inverness, and the other was trying to find a place in Inverness to stay. We, I booked the Hostel for us and it turned out that we were in separate rooms and with other people. The hostel did not have an option families, I was not happy to say the least when we were told. Oh well another lesson learned. Also another lesson was that we should have pre-booked a cabin here instead since they were almost all booked up, luckily we did find one and you will hear about it from Josephine on tonight's blog. We thought that being outside of London that things would be less expensive but boy was I wrong. It cost 76 pounds for us to stay in the hostel, yikes that is more than we paid in London which was much nicer. We had a bunch of kids from Germany stay in the hostel and they played their techo music for most of the time they were there, even first thing. That music has not changed since I was in Germany a lifetime ago. The people here are very nice and accommodating which is very nice, however it is hard to understand them with there accents. Another lesson learned on the way from London on the train was to prebook your tickets which we did and we wanted the seats facing each other, however again we were disapointed to find out that we were not in the seats that we wanted. Good news though is that we did snag what we wanted and so all was good again. Here are two pictures that we took over the last couple of days. One was from the train the other was from our walk into the city centre. I am sitting here in a pub with one of the few places that has free internet access having a coffee waiting for the girls to come home from their pony treking at the Loch Ness, I hope they are having a grand time. Well that is all I have to say right now, please contact us if you want to know more or if you just want to chat.
Hi! Today we had a lot of fun laughing. First we went to the tower of London. There we had a guided tour, our tour guide was very funny and made lots of jokes. My favo We went all over the tower including the place where they executed some of Henry the VIII's wives. Now they have a monument to all those who were beheaded there. Then after the tour we went to an exhibition about Henry the VIII's amour. Then we went to see the crown jewels. The biggest diamond ever was bigger than my palm of my hand.
After that we slowly trekked to the globe theater. Once we got there Dad and I went into the wrong seats... the ones for people who pay a lot. We finally got into our seats and the show started.It is called as you like it. During the play someones cell-phone rang and the jester pretended to answer the call, he was my favorite character.It was very funny and I think Shakespear is also good at writing love storys as that is what it was.
Today we went to Hampton Court, home of King Henry the 8th (The fat one, as Emily and I call him) The palace was magnificent, I loved the maze and the people in costumes. We couldn't find the horses. (they were supposed to be here on holiday..)We didn't get lost in the maze, luckily.Did you know the king had six wives! 2 were beheaded, 1 died in childbirth, 2 were divorced, and 1 outlived him! I would not like to be married to him!! After, we went to the war museum, (Dad's turn) It was pretty cool, they had lots of weapons. My favorite part was the interactive exhibit of the trenches. It was called "Horrible Histories: Terrible Trenches." based on a book series about the past. They had another trench experience complete with smell. It was disgusting!!!! They also had the bomb that gave people in Japan leukemia and an interactive sub. exhibit. I wanted to go to Ikea for dinner, but it was too far away so we went to a Chinese restaurant, it was very good. I liked the sweet and sour chicken balls the best. Then we went to the train station and saw the most adorable dog, called a Whippet. It's a racing dog like a Grey hound, but smaller. I will enjoy going to be today, I'm almost asleep now!
We are having some problems with getting online so please bear with us. Yesterday we went to two museums, the British Museum and the National Gallery. I have to say one could stay all day at both places but unfortunately we couldn't due to time constraints. There were a lot of interesting things happening in the British Museum, we saw a lot of Egyptian items that date back from before time started. We saw the Rosetta stone which allowed people to translate ancient Egyptian writing. We saw a really neat boat that worked as a clock for a dinner table. But the most interesting thing I saw and touched was a very old rock that was used as a tool by some civilization over 500 million years ago.Anyway I have to cut this short so that Josephine can comment on today's events.
It's been a whole week, but with what we've all done it feels like a month! We are getting the hang of the home schooling work...the girls have been really great. They even want to do more Math than they have to. We're bonding well, 24/7 is a little intense sometimes so we're glad that we all have ipods to tune each other out when we're on the trains.
Today was a fantastic day for me. Burghley horse trials is a 4 star event 90 miles outside London. We went for the X-country day which is the most exciting day. There were 80 horses,1000 dogs and probably 200 - 300,000 people! The jumps were awesome, the horses gorgeous and the weather perfect. We walked the course once seeing 1-3 horses jump each fence. There were huge drops, lots of tricky "skinny" fences and even a waterfall jump. Kyle Carter (1 of the 2 Cnds) the guy who bought my last horse, was there. Unfortunately he had a fall at jump 20 while we were waiting to see him at jump 22?! He and his horse were ok but a fall is an elimination. Bumber since he was clear up until then. There was a huge shopping area, and horse lovers... you would have gone nuts. I've never seen such great horse stuff, I could have spent a fortune if I still had a horse! Oh and did I tell you about Burghley House? I don't know why they call it a house because it looks like a castle to me. The horse trials is held on the 11,500 acre estate. The house was nothing less than breathtaking!!! I would have loved to go in but it was close during the competition. We were famished by the time we got back, so we found a pub that had a salad bar...yea veggies!!!!
Today we got up really early and some people didn't sleep at all (Everyone but me...) Well anyways we got to Stonehenge two minutes after the tour started. I got some good pictures but I also got cold. We went right up to the stones and saw some medieval graffiti (WOW that's old ) The one I found said: 1886. I can't remember the rest! (AHHH! Can't spell today.) Then we got back into our cab and drove away into the sunset wait no... the sunrise do do do do... We drove to Avery and on our way into the town we saw a bunch of stone pillars. They were shaped like: A shark, a horse,and a rabbit. There was a bunch of cows there and you could walk right up to them. Dad touched one but it walked away. The taxi driver drew us a map of the when the town wasn't there. It looked like an alien. As we got into the town we saw a lot of sheep. We walked around and tried to avoid sheep dung! Then we went to the place where part of Harry Potter and the philosophers Stone. Josephine and I were over joyed as for Dad... well he didn't want to go in. We had a lot of fun looking into rooms and recognizing them such as Snape's classroom.The place was called Lacock abbey. We went to Bath but we didn't go into the baths. Since we're going to Rome. We ate fudge though.
Then we went to Sarum a place where a castle and a cathedral once stood luckily we didn't have to climb the big ditch that was around it. We couldn't go where the castle was though because we were two minutes late. We then went back to the house we are staying at. Pictures tomorrow as well we are off to see the horse trials.
Today, we rode the train to Salisbury. We missed our train by thirty seconds and had to wait for 20 minutes!!! Next we noticed that our reaturn tickets were dated for the wrong day. The hiccup cost us 15 dollars, once we got on the train, we thought that dad had missed it, but he was talking to the engineer. Once we got the the hostel, we got to our room with no hicupps. Once we had recuperated we went to the Salisbury Catherdral, it wasn't as old or as big as Westminster Abby but it was in the same stlye, and very beautiful. In one room, they had a Frieze (Bible stories from Genises) carved around the chapter room. After we went shopping and bought some food for dinner. Once we got back, I went on the computer and mom and dad made dinner. Emily and I had to wash dishes.:( We had to buy some internet for half an hour ($4!) There is not wi-fi in this hostel. Tommorow, We are going to Stonehenge at 6:15! We have to wake up at 5:45! Running out of time!!!!!!!
My turn to blog today. We moved to our Mennonite your Way spot this morning. We have a little cottage to ourselves in their backyard. It's not big as you can see, but it is cozy as were are presently, reading, journaling and listening to music while it's pouring outside.
London is filled with so many interesting sights, smells and noises. I'm still surprised by the number of different languages that I hear, the efficiency of the tubes and the shear number of people! Our adventure for the day was Westminster Abby. It is remarkable in a number of ways....the age - built in 1066, the size, and the number of famous people buried in it. Although there are 29 kings and queens buried there I was more interested in the literary and scientific people. To have the graves of Chaucer, Lord Byron, Jane Austin, Handel, Burns, Darwin, Newton, Lyell and Faraday (just to name a few) was inspiring. I imagined the church to be spacious, but it is really crowded with so many tombs and memorials that there is hardly any space for "church". There were also very few icons of Christ, I guess they were too busy putting up images of themselves! Our next stop was just for the girls...Hamley's toy store. It claims that it is the largest toy store in the world! The girls were in heaven. There were 6 floors of toys, demonstrators everywhere trying to sell you stuff and it was crowded. Or at least we thought it was crowded. One sales clerk who was trying to sell us a brush for tangled hair (called the "Tantrum")said the crowd was down by more than half! She did brush Emily's hair easily, but Emily doesn't cry enough to pay $24 or carry it!!! That's it for today, spent more time today traveling. Tomorrow we're off to Salisbury! Jane
Hi All, Mike here writing today's blog entry! I first want to mention some stuff that happened last night after we wrote the blog. We had a fire alarm go off so we all had to evacuate the building, as well I went to a pub and had a beer. That was the second time that I went out and had one. Man are they ever tasty. Today we decided to do all the stuff that we could do that was free, so we went to the Museum of Natural history, Science Museum, and finally the Victoria and Albert Museum. On our way there we saw a lot of interesting cars such as Ferrari, Maserati, and an old jag. Here are some pics that some of you might enjoy. Once we got the Natural history museum there was a very long line, we usually want to get there early so we could avoid these lines, however we slept in till 10 am. That never happens so it was nice that we did. The museum was full of people and interesting items. We first stopped off at the Dinosaur part, then went to the biology section which had a lot of interesting pictures and models of how children are reproduced. Josephine and Emily kind of averted their eyes during that section. After that we walked around and found the Darwin area which Jane enjoyed. We then walked around and enjoyed a wonderful area that Jen would have like. It was full of rocks and minerals. We wanted to visit the butterfly section however you had to pay and thus we didn't go. The Science museum was full of interesting items and the part that I enjoyed the most and got a real kick out of was the cut out of a DC 3 that was from the Canadian Air Force. The cockpit of the DC 3 you could walk in and it brought back a lot of memories for me. Then above the DC 3 there was a Spitfire that was to die for. We went up to the 5th floor which held the veterinarian medical stuff that Josephine and Jane wanted to see, it was small but interesting. Across the hall was the medicine gallery which was full of interesting artifacts that were interesting and could be painful to the patient. The V & A museum was very difficult to navigate around and it was hard to find anything so we saw a few things like the fashion gallery, and ancient Britain gallery. There was a lot more to see however we were on a mission to see the Bed of Wear which was mentioned in Shakespeare time. It was huge and ornate. On the way back to our "home" we took a different route and saw the dealers where they sold all the fancy cars. Tomorrow is going to be a travel day and a day of meeting the people we are going to be staying with. We had a book of pictures that we were suppose to bring but it got misplaced some where at the house. Well I have to stop this blog now because it is getting too long. Ciao for now Mike
