paris, mainly ...

16/4/2011 

Today is Lucy’s Birthday, Happy Birthday Luce, hope you had a great day and liked our pressie. 

Today we left England and went to Wales! The drive was quite long and we didn’t really do anything along the way apart from going to petrol stations and having toilet stops. I did get the Brit Awards 3 disk CD though. Sam and I also made a Playlist on the Family Ipod and we listened to it, it’s good. There were lots of sheep fields and lots of fields of canola flowers, they were pretty! 

When we got to Wales we decided to go for a drive, again, we went through more fields of sheep and canolas then we got on a little steam train that went along a road in the countryside, next to more fields of sheep and along the river, it was the last ride of the day so we couldn’t get a return pass and the walk back to the car was to long so Dad drove the Van along the road near the track and took pictures of us in the train. 

On the way back to the campsite we saw a sign that pointed to Boughton’s End, so we decided to take a quick drive to the end of the road to see what was there. When we got there all we saw was a little town like thing that was probably home to many Boughton’s.  

17/4/2011 

Today we went to Warwick Castle, a big castle that has lots of different activities to do with the castle and the Lancastrians that lived in it. 

The first thing we did was get tickets outside the castle. There were three actors outside the castle walls and they were acting as King Henry the VIII, Queen Victoria and one of the Kings of the Lancastrians, they were all very good at acting their part especially King Henry the VIII. 

When we had the tickets we went to see the Merlin Tower. The first room was like kinda like the London Dungeons but not scary. The actor was pretending to be a new apprentice of Gaius, Merlins teacher, and he was looking for a person in the audience that could do magic. He found a little girl that could supposedly do magic in the audience and she had to lead the rest of the audience to the next room and then she had to read a magic spell that would summon the Great Dragon. The dragon was a big screen with an animated 3D like picture of the dragon in Merlin with a person behind the screen making it move and interact with the audience it was really cool. 

Next we went and saw the Castle Trebuchet fire a 20kilo rock into the air and across the lawn. It was really interesting and there was another actor that was giving a running commentary and a story of what the Trebuchet would have been used for. 

Then Sam had a go at Archery. He got taught how to shoot the arrow and then he shot 12 arrows onto a target, he only missed two! 

After the Archery we went and had lunch and watched a bird show. I had a Jacket Potato with Beef Chili, it was really yummy. The birds were good to, there was two Eagles and a Vulture that a trainer was telling us about then let them fly about a bit.  

Next Sam and Dad went and herd a story in the court yard ad Mum and I went to the Princess Tower. The Princess tower was not very good, it was based at about 4 or 5 years old and was nothing like I thought it was going to be. It was actors again and they were Maids of Honor and a Princess, they were planing the princesses sisters wedding and it was lots of stuff about fairy tales. 

Then we went up the castle wall thing and into a tower (up and down lots of spiral staircases) and looked at the view. You could see quite a bit from up there. 

We then saw a Knight Show that involved three actors showing us how to fight and told us about the different weapons and things that they used in war. It was funny and informative at the same time. 

18/4/2011 

Today we had to take the Campervan back:( We drove to the farm thing where we picked it up and they checked it, to see if it was in good form then we got a lift back to the train station. 

When we got to london we went to our Hotel and dropped our bags off (we weren’t aloud to check in yet) and went for a shop. 

We first went to a Game shop and Sam bought two games, Ningago and Star Wars 3, then we went to a Show ticket place and we bought 4 tickets to see We Will Rock You that night. We then went to a Forbidden Planet shop (a shop for NERDS) and had a look around. Sam ended up getting Dalek and a Harry Potter wand and glasses and I got the Time Turner (from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I’m a Big Nerd:D). Then we went into a Sport shop and I got a pair of sunglasses for 2 pounds 99 (about $5) and Dad got a Red collared shirt and two pairs of shoes. 

Then we went onto the Going Out Shopping. We went into two or three shops looking for Mum and Dad. Dad got Black jeans, a Red T-Shirt, a White T-Shirt, a Black Shirt and a Black Cardigan and Mum got Black cropped pants, a Blue T-Shirt, a light Brown T-Shirt, a light Blue T-Shirt and a Black cardigan and when Mum was shopping she was stressed out. 

Then we went back to the Hotel and got ready to go back out again and see We Will Rock You. When we got to the Theater it looked like the inside of His Majesties Theatre, which I said was the fanciest of the theaters in Perth and this was not the fanciest of the London Theaters. We went to the shop thing and bought some Malteasers (Yum) then got seated and ready for the show. 

We Will Rock You is a musical based on Queen songs. It is set in the year 2300 and non-computer generated music is banned. There are two school age kids that are not part of the GaGa club (the kids that are following the rules) that get captured by Killer Queen’s police and taken to a prison like place, they escape and find refuge with the Bohemian’s (the other Rebels) and find out about the secret writings. Gallelaya (Gaza) and Scaramoosh (scary bush) the two school kids find out that Gaza is the one chosen to bring back the music to Planet Mall. Gallelaya and Scaramoosh then go off to find the instrument hidden in a rock some place on the planet, then find it at the entrance to Wembley Stadium and rock and roll comes back to Planet Mall. 

The show was really, really good. 

19/4/2011 

Today I started off by going out to the shop with Dad to go find a bag to put all our stuff that won’t fit in the suitcases in and a pair of Converse shoes for me. We had to be back before 11:15 so we could get to the train station on time so it was kinda rushed. We found a big black bag that fits all the stuff in and I got a Pair of Black Converse, they are cool. 

We got back 5mins late so Mum was panicking and we had to walk fast to St Pancras station. The train we were catching was the EuroStar to Paris, France! We bordered at about 12:25 and the train left at 12:28 London time. During the ride I read my book then we had lunch on the train then I read my book again, the ride wasn’t very interesting because we spent a lot of time in tunnels, one of them under the ocean! 

When we emerged from the under ocean tunnel the countryside looked pretty much like England country side but without the drystone walls. Then we got into the City and it looked completely different. It is quite a dirty city, it’s mush bigger than Perth, it’s way busier and it is Paris! 

When we got off the EuroStar we caught the Metro (Metropolitan train line) to Abbesses and walked up the big hill in Montmartre to get to our apartment. Getting up the hill was really hard, we were tired and the bags were heavy and the road just kept getting longer, but we made it to the apartment and it’s awesome! It’s big enough for the 4 of us (kinda) and its not at the very top of the hill. 

We then went for a walk around the city (close city) and Sam was very grumpy so we went home, got food for dinner on the way, had dinner then watched Night at the Museum 2, it’s quite good. 

20/4/2011 

Today we spent our first proper day in Paris doing lots. We started off by going through the Tuileries gardens to get to the Louvre. The gardens were really nice and the weather was nice enough to ware shorts! When we got to the Louvre the line to get tickets was extremely long, we/Sam didn’t want to wait that long, so we went to back to the Metro and went to the Notre Dame. 

We didn’t spend a lot of time at Notre Dame because the line was too long, again, we just looked around the back garden. 

Then we went to Galeries Lafayette, a big, three building, 7 level shopping centre, and had a look around. We first went to level 4, the casual fashion level, and had McDonalds. It was not the best meal that I have ever had but that is just McDonalds. After lunch Mum and I had a look for Jeans in the jeans section and Dad and Sam had a look at the CD’s. I found some jeans quickly and bought them even quicker so, I looked for some T-Shirts. At the end of the shopping trip I had bought a brown, long T-Shirt with blue birds on it, light blue skinny-leg jeans and a blue scarf. 

After shopping we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and got in the line to take the stairs to the top. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the front of the line! When we finally got to the stairs it took us only a couple of minutes to get to the first level, but the view was pretty good. You were able to walk all the way around the tower and there were signs that told you what you were seeing. 

Then we walked up to the second level and that is as far as we got. The view was just the same as the first level, just higher. The only way to get to the top was by the lift and the line was really quite long, so we decided that we didn’t want to get there that badly so we went back down. 

When we got to the bottom of the tower we sat on the grass and had a ice-cream and looked at the view. The ice-cream was really good!  

At about 6:00pm we went to the Louvre again and entered through the bottom of the big glass triangle, through the shopping center under the museum and there was no one there! 

The Museum was mostly Art but there were things like Ancient Egyptian writings and coffins and statues and things like that, it was good. The art was good, we saw the Mona Lisa, it was the original and it was smaller than I thought it would be, and Venus de Milo, also the original but the size I thought it would be.  

21/4/2011 

Today we woke up late and didn’t get out till about 11. We went to the Champs Elise and looked for a place to eat lunch. We ended up eating at a cafe in the outside section, it was very nice. I had Spaghetti Bolognese, Sam had a huge Hot Dog, Dad a Salad and Mum a quiche, our starter was Escargot, it was alright.

Then we went along the road and went into a clothes shop, I bought a brown, baggy top and a white top with all different summer clothes on it, shopping is fun. 

Then we went to the Musee D’Orsay, an Art gallery, and looked at all the art. We first went and saw Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, Sam wanted to see them because Vincent Van Gogh is in a Doctor Who episode, they were quite good then we looked at all the other artists art then left. It was a really good gallery. 

After we had dinner, at the apartment again, we went out to the top of the hill and got some crepes, with Nutella and Banana for me, they were really yummy! We also saw the Eiffel Tower at night, It was really, really pretty and cool!!