22/4/2011
Today we went to Villette Park, it’s not actually called that I just can’t remember the French name for it, Villette is in it though, the Science Museum there. The park wasn’t very interesting but the museum was really good!
In the museum (it wasn’t actually a museum, more like Scitech) we got tickets to the Science Fiction exhibition. In the exhibition we saw things like the original Robots, story boards, movies and costumes from Science Fiction things.
We also did experiment things with light. It was hard to tell what you were supposed to do because the instructions were in french but we managed to figure it out. Some of the things we saw were light going through a triangle of glass then going through coloured glass and making more different rainbows, it was pretty. Then we saw this thing, where you have to sit on the other side of a glass wall to a person and try to match up your reflections, it was cool on one side of the glass but the other side of the glass didn’t work.
Then we went to the luxembourg Park and saw the remote control boats. It was really quite hot so we didn’t watch them long but, they were good and cute. Then we went to the shade and started to look for Ice-creams but, they were not there so we got some chupa-chups and some water.
On the way back to the apartment we looked saw the out side of the French Observatory, where the French Meridian line was. It was a little bit unimpressive compared to the Greenwich observatory.
At the apartment we had dinner and then we went out and had crepes and looked at the Eiffel Tower at night again. The crepes were really good again, I had chocolate and Banana this time and it was better than the Nutella.
23/4/2011
Today we took the train from Paris to Amsterdam. We got to the train station about and hour and a half before the train was scheduled to leave so we sat down and got something to eat.
By the time we had finished eating our train was delayed 15mins and at that point it didn’t matter because the other train times were undetermined. We still had around 45mins before the train left so, I sat down and read my book.
Then our train time became undetermined and there were no trains leaving. We ended up getting on the train 1hr30mins later than was scheduled.
When we finally got on the train we found that we had four seats facing each-other with two tables in the middle. I had to do my cutting and sticking (scrapbook) so I got that out, sat, cut and stuck.
With about 45mins to go we had to change trains because the train we were on couldn’t get into the station because of the delay. We had to wait about 15mins for the next train to arrive but it got there.
In the train we saw the country part of Amsterdam. There was lost of flowers, vegetables and dutch style windmills, it was a pretty countryside.
When we got to Amsterdam central we caught a Taxi to our Hotel. The hotel room was really big, there was two beds, it was nice, the bathroom was big and Sam was happy because there was a TV. The man that helped us with our bags gave Sam and I a little box each with two packets of Doritos, a toy, a soft drink, and Amsterdam bike bell and a packet of Mentos, Sam’s toy was a cardboard plane and mine was a ball with a cup thingy that you catch it with.
We then went for a walk around the block and looked for something to eat. We found an Italian Restaurant and sat outside while we ate. We also had Dessert, it was alright, mine was vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce.
When we got back to the Hotel (the Albus) we bought 24hrs of Movies and TV. Then we looked at the movies and decided to watch the first episode (double episode) of the fifth season of Doctor Who, it was funny and it was the first episode of a new Doctor.
24/4/2011
Today was Easter and when we woke up there was easter eggs! We (Sam and I) both had a trail of Easter eggs (his longer than mine) with a big egg at both ends. We were aloud to eat some eggs before breakfast so we ate them while watching another episode of Doctor Who, this one from the sixth season.
Then, after breakfast, we went to Anne Franks House. Anne Frank was a Dutch, Jew girl that hid in a House in Amsterdam, with her family and another family, for three years while World War II was going on, she kept a Diary through the years in hiding and then after she died in a Jew camp her Dad published a Edited version of her Diary called (in English) The Diary of Anne Frank.
We lined up out the fount of the House for about a hour then finally got into the house. It was a one way system and we went through all of the rooms used by the families in hiding. We only saw the rooms though, all the furniture had been removed by the wishes of Otto Frank (Anne’s Dad). The windows were covered by a black material, just as it was in the days of hiding, and the stairs were really steep. In Anne’s room there were posters a pictures on the walls, they were the original pictures that Anne had put up to make the room more cheerful.
Once we had been through the house we went into a display area where it showed us Anne’s original Diary and some of the sheets and other books she used after her Diary was full. Anne Frank’s House was really good but also really sad.
After Anne’s house we had lunch then hired a 4 seater pedal boat, so we could ride round the canals. We hired the boat for a hour.
Sam and Dad pedaled first while Mum and I sat in the back and took photos. After about 3mins Sam discovered that his feet didn’t reach the pedals properly so I took over the pedaling. The canals were really quite pretty, there was lots of spring like trees along the side of the roads and all the dead petals were falling off them. Then Mum had a go at pedaling and also started to navigate. It was not long after that, that Dad started to get frustrated with the steering and then he got grumpy, luckily we were on our way back by that point.
Then we went back to the Hotel and watched Fantastic Mr. Fox, it was really good and it was funny (we also ate Easter eggs :)).
We went and got dinner (Italian again) then went to the Hotel and Watched Black Adder (also funny).
25/4/2011
Today, first, we went to Madame Tussauds (a wax figure gallery). It started off as an early Amsterdam display, then went to Important and Royal Dutch people then finally into just Famous people.
The famous people section was the biggest and it included people like, Madonna, Freddie Mercury, Lady Gaga, Albert Einstein, Vincent Van Gogh, Robert Pattinson, Robbie Williams and Spiderman. It was really cool, but kinda freaky, you were aloud to take photos and all the wax figures looked so lifelike that it looked like there were just heaps of people posing for photos.
After Madame Tussauds we went on a 1 hour canal boat tour and it was hot (amazingly). On the boat we went past the dock, on some of the bigger canals and down the little ones to. It was a very pretty trip, but the announcements were annoying because there were around 5 different languages being read out.
Then we went back to the Hotel, got packed up, checked out and went outside to wait for our booked taxi like thing to the airport. The taxi was half an hour late and by that point Mum was freaking out, so was Dad, but we got there, even though we got dropped off at the wrong side of the really big airport.
When we were checked in and at our gate waiting we found that we were some of the first people there.
The flight was about 2 hours long and we got to Oslo (the Capital of Norway) at around 8:30pm with no time change. Before we took off the driver apologized to us and said that there would be a lot of taxing before take-off because he had to drive 8km to get to the right runway.
When we got to Oslo we had to catch the train to the Centre of the city. When we got out of the train station we looked ahead and there was our hotel, big, white, and 7 or 8 stories high. We checked in, got into our room and it was big, nice and was the first room we had had that had a balcony.
26/4/2011
Today we went on the Norway in a Nutshell tour. We started of with a train ride out into the countryside of Norway, it was really pretty, there were lots of mountains and the longer we spent on the train the more snow there was. There were all these ski holiday shacks that looked just a little covered with snow and it was spring, I couldn’t imagine what it looked like in the winter!
Then we stopped at a station where we had to change trains, so we changed to a littler train that took us through the Flam mountains and gorges. There were 20 tunnels along the way and the length of all the tunnels put together was 6km. There were lots of water falls in the gorges and at one of the biggest ones there was a platform and we were aloud to go outside the train and take photos.
At the end of the 1hr train journey we got of at a small station called Flam and had to wait 1hr till we got on the boat. While we were waiting a big cruise ship pulled up at the dock, we were amazed at how big that ship was compared to our little boat (ours was 3 stories high).
When we got onto the boat we went straight up to the top deck and sat in the middle so we could see everything. The chairs were green plastic deck chairs and the sun was shining. As the further away from the dock we went the better the view was, there were mountains and hills surrounding the water, water falls all along the mountains and little villages and town on the water side, it was so pretty. Closer to the end of the journey it got really cold and windy and Sam started to complain so Mum sent him down stairs into the heated room, he liked that and he also got a chocolate from the vending machine.
When we reached the end of the boat journey we got on a bus that took us through more mountains and around some lakes. This was also a pretty trip but the bus made me sleepy and Dad said I fell asleep for 3 minutes.
Then we went on another train that took us into Bergen where we were staying. Then we had to walk a kilometer to the Hotel. This hotel was nice but the one in Amsterdam was better.
27/4/2011
Today we spent in Bergen. We first went to the Tourist Information Centre and found out about the Funicular and Cable Car (they both go up big hills). Then we went to the Funicular (that was the closest) and bought return tickets. We went up the big hill through a tunnel and in the open air. When we got up we looked at the view and then went to the playground, Sam decided that the playground was too little (for little kids) and then Mum decided that we should go for a walk. On our walk we found a bigger kids playground hidden in the forest (a very thin forest) and this one Sam liked so, we followed it (it was like an obstacle course) and that was enough walking for Mum. We also ate lunch at the top of the hill, for Mum and Dad, Tuna rolls, for me and Sam, peanut butter rolls.
When we got down the hill we went to the Aquarium. We go there at about 2:30 and the man at the front desk told us that they were feeding the seals at 3:00. We wanted to watch the seals so we went to see the reptiles first (we though they would be quicker) and in the reptiles we saw Spiders (they were gross, big and hairy, yuck), Crocodiles (only small and medium sized ones), Lizards (they were huge) and Snakes (they were big, fat, small, yellow, brown, fake, eating, scary and gross).
The seals were cool, they were doing a training session, rehearsing for their new show, and they were really cool. The only bad thing about them was the trainers were speaking in Norwegian.
After we went back to the Hotel to eat waffles we went to the old part of Bergen and looked at all the wonky buildings. We also looked for dinner but, after a while we decide that we were too full (from the waffles) to eat a restaurant meal so we went to a 7eleven and bought two folded pizzas to share.
28/4/2011
Today we started our 3 day journey home to Australia. We went on two around 2hr flights today, the first from Bergen to Oslo and the second from Oslo to London. I didn’t like being in the airport because checking in to both flights I got chosen for a random checking thing going through the security gates (not good).
When we got to London we caught the bus to the Airport Hotel and just stayed there. We had dinner at the Hotel Restaurant that had a perfect view of the landing runway. We played a game while we were eating where you have to guess the country that the plane comes from and the winner get nothing!
