London day 3

1. Camden Markets
2. Bits and bobs bag
3. Speakers corner

 

 

 

Camden Markets

Our story begins at Camden markets, London. After walking up a small street full of cute little stalls (and having a look in some of them) we reached the proper old, very, very, very, very, very big Camden markets. We walked down a small pathway turning left to find the biggest, busiest markets we had ever seen. They had every store you could possibly imagine. They had every single type of stall in England, Great Britan, Europe, Earth, The Milky Way, The Universe!!!! Okay maybe I over exaggerated a bit, but only a bit!!! It stretched out for miles. The suburb of Camden was completely covered in that market. The entire suburb was literally that market. Now we walked on to some stalls. If you wanted to buy flashlights, mobile phones, pizzas, wontons, ice-creams, cigarette lighters, clothing, buttons, antiques, tea-pots, tea-bags, tea-cups, portraits, drawings, crepes, juice, water, costumes, lollies, pencils, scissors, soap, spice, gemstones, souvenirs, shoes or literally anything else you can think of you could find it here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gross!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bits And Bobs Bag

Now in one of the stalls that I was in, I spotted a small chest of buttons. Now I rummaged through these buttons and found all sorts of little bits and bobs. I collected these in a small bag for two pounds. I took these to speakers corner after the markets and then I went home and sorted them.

 

 

 

Scuffle scuffle scuffle

 

 

 

 

 

Speakers Corner

Now speakers corner is a place where people go to announce things. Anything about their lives, their ideas and their views. They go and annonce problems and overjoys. They express their anger, sadness, happiness, missunderstandings, annoyedness and more. At speakers corner when we went there we experienced singers, yellers and whispereres. It was also quite busy. When this had listened to enough we walked back home and tumbled into our cozy, soft beds and drifted off to sleep.

 

 

 

And this and that and this and that and tis and that

 

 

 

Bye for now

Drew-on-the-move

 

RESEARCH: Museum-natural history museum

This blog is some research that I did to help mum and dad decide whether to go to the natural history museum.

I got the map from safari. It came up when I first looked for the museum online. I copied and pasted the map into Blogsy.

Then I got some reviews that people had made from going to the trip advisor website. I also copied some of them so we would know what was good and what was bad about the museum.

We have decided to go their so I will report back in my blog soon about my review of the museum.

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

Me and my boyfriend spent here an entire afternoon, but it wasn't enough, it's huge!!!

The animals area is amazing, there is a real size reproduction of a whale and it leaves you breathless. The earth part was really interesting, but the earthquake engine is on mantainance, so it's not working; it'll be ready for the autumn, when we will definitely come back! Five stars.

 

 

A great free day out. We enjoyed this very much as there was so much to see I would defy anyone to be bored in here. The building itself is also very impressive. Our kids are now grown up but we know they would have loved it in here when younger in fact they probably still would! Four stars.

 

 

Visited sunday, drove into London and parked up easily on the road for free 5 mins stroll away. Got there 11ish to a small queue. £5 for a guide and £1 for a map inside. Free entry but encouraged to make a donation.

Have been a couple of times before, but it is so vast with a huge number of things to see you can only scratch the surface. With 4 kids in tow we went straight for the dinosaurs. Really interesting when you stop to read about them, but frankly you could spend all day in just this area. Onto the Blue whale. Always found this quite awesome, although he is looking a bit tatty now and could do with a bit of tlc and a dusting.

That summed up the museum. It is absolutely stunning with incredible exhibits but is looking a bit tired now.

None the less, how can you knock free entry to one of the greatest museums in the world. Kept the kids quiet for a few hours and hopefully taught them something too.

5 stars all day long. Just go.

 

 

I'm not going to waste hundreds of words to put my opinion across about this one:

It's dull

It's such a shame because the building is exquisite, the detail and masonry are a joy to look at. I spent most of my time waiting till I could get out of there, and looking at the walls and ceiling.

The exhibits can be summed up as: if you like bits of stone, bits of dead animal, and bits of fake dead animal, you'll probably like it here. Personally I'm happy to see my bits of stone and dead animal by the side of the road, while I go somewhere interesting.

I simply don't see how you can appreciate the wondrous living world around us by looking at dead things.

It's such a shame because I really wanted to like it here, I really did, it's just not my thing. Next time I'm here, I'll pick somewhere that's more likely to interest me like the science museum, or the V&A. Two stars.

 

 

I took my son in his pushchair now he is 15. If you're a member you can use the members room & surf the net. Even without the exhibits the building is incredible & would be worth going to on its own. It has become a second home. My son has had his birthdays there. we know all the dinosaurs almst personally. Five stars

 

 

We saw the building from the outside when we went to the Victoria and Albert and knew that we had to go in. However, the line at the main door was very long. We went around to the side (I believe it's Exhibition Road....between V and A and the science museums), and there was no wait. It is a bit of a maze to find your way back to the main exhibition hall, which is what we were eager to see, but we figured it out and saw things along the way. An incredible building. Worth going in just to see it even if you don't have time to take advantage of the exhibits. Four stars.

 

 

 

The museum is free, and well worth a visit - the is quite literally something for everyone. Getting the early is a must, as it is quite easy to spend a whole day looking around. Four stars.

 

London day 2

• Hampton court palace
1. Gardens
2. Tennis
3. Paula and kids
4. Outfit cloak
5. Two o'clock PM show
6. Kitchen
• Paula's house
1. Boat down the river thames
2. My first ever lock
3. The markets
4. Heavenly crepes
5. Paula's house
6. Playtime with kids
7. Best BBQ

 

Hampton Court Palace

 

Gardens

While I am writing this blog I would like you to imagine that you are me. You walk into the wonderful, beautiful Hampton Court palace gardens to all the shapes and types and colours of flowers you could ever imagine. After walking though and past these you decide to go into the twisty turny maze - it takes you at least 25 minutes to get through the curved and narrow paths with walls made of hedge, wood, twigs and a tiny bit of fencing. Finally when you get out of the maze you continue on to see the old tennis court.

 

 

Tennis

Now when you finally get there, to the old, grand and still in use tennis court and walk inside you see some new people, not the old famous ones, playing on the court a strange game called Real Tennis. What you see people play at Wimbledon is different to is but came from this game.

As you walk in you see little rolled up balls which is how tennis balls used to look like. Today we use hollow balls - these ones have cork centres. Then they wrap them up tightly in plastic. Last, they put a cast of soft protective and green covering over the tennis ball and play.

 

Paula and kids

After the tennis court you head on down to the cafe to meet your new friend new friends. When we found them we discussed a lot about our lives. It turns out that twenty years ago your mum used to live in London and used to know them. There mum is called Paula and she had two sons, Nathan and Rueban. These two sons seem to like you and you start to like them back. Then you decide to go back to ther house.

 

Paula's House

 

My first ever lock

On the boat down the river Thames to Paula's house you experience your first ever lock. A lock is where there is a gate on the river and on the other side is lower water so they lower the water down on your side and you go slowly through. When off the boat at Richmond and heading to Paula's house you stop off at some markets.

 

Heavenly crepes

At the markets there is a crepe stall which you all get a crepe from. You get a Toffe Banoffe and your friends get triple choc. Then you walk down to there house.

 

 

 

 

 

Best BBQ

A little while after arriving at the house you go to have dinner. They serve you an amazing meal with delicious carrot, miraculous caramelised nuts and pears, a sausage and roasted potatoes.The best bit about your day is experiencing your first ever lock.

That's what I did today

Bye for now

Drew-on-the-move

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

London Day 1

1. Premier Inn
2. Breakfast
3. Taxi To The New Apartment
4. Big Blue (Busy) Bus Tour
5. Sleepy Time

Hi guys now I'm in London and ready to talk about the new amazing things here.

 

 

Breakfast

Breakfast at the Premier Inn was amazing, with brilliant bacon, a sizzling sausage and perfect piklet. I was already charmed. Eating them was even more amazing, it just seemed to melt in you mouth. Anyway, after that miracle meal it was time to leave the Premier Inn, we called a taxi and were off to Notting hill and our apartment for the next week.

 

 

Big Blue (Busy) Bus Tour

After settling in to our new apartment we decided to go on the Big Blue Bus Tour.

 

Here are some things we things In saw and learnt on the tour.

 

1. Big Ben
2. Parliament
3. Hyde park
4. Huge obelisk (Cleopatra's needle) with the sphinxes around it the wrong way round. They lay down facing into the statue instead of facing away and protecting it.
5. Marble arch. John Nash who was a famous architect copied the Arch of Constantine
6. Famous streets
• Baker Street
• Oxford Street
• Regent Street
7. Piccadilly Circus (not a circus but a roundabout - "Circus" comes from Roman word for Circle)
8. London Bridge
9. Tower Bridge
10. Lots of other things

 

 

The bus was quite fun but very busy. It also rained a lot. We had to wear two rain jackets. In the end I had learnt quite a bit of new stuff. So far London is old, bubbly and monument filled.

 

 

 

 

 

London Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Ben and parliament

 

 

 

 

Great to be speaking English again.

Drew-on-the-move

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disneyland

I loved Disneyland.

At Disney you can get pin collections on ribbons. I also got one of these. I Now Have Four Pins. One is multicoloured with the words Disney dreams on it. Another just has the words Disneyland Paris in big colourful letters on it. The third has all the main Disney characters on it. The last has the Micky mouse symbols spinning between two small and large circles. How you use them is a different story. What you do is go up to a Disney cast member with a pin collection and trade pins with them. You can only trade with two pins per cast member, per day. I bought these with the fifty euro note that my uncle gave me. Thanks uncle crispy!!

 

On our last day we went to see there fireworks show, Disney dreams at 11 pm . It turns out that it's about Peter Pan trying to catch tinkerbell but in the process he makes all the magic of the castle spill out. It was amazing show.

 

Now I'm not going to talk much more about Disney but I'll still put in lot of pictures.

 

 

Disney dreams

 

 

 

And those are my four pins

 

 

I think that it's crazy that daddy didn't love Disney. He says that he didn't really have much fun. I think that he should at least think about how long it would have taken to make. Not only enjoying the rides, I also liked shopping along the arcades of Main St USA. Dad says he didn't really like that much either. Disney was even better then anyone possibly could ever dream of.

 

 

Now that I'm nearly in London I think I might develop an accent.

Bye for now

Drew-on-the-move

 

 

Paris - Sunday

Hello here I am ready to talk off my adventures at the Louvre.

1. Early mornings
2. Daisy explenation
3. The hunt and Mona Lisa
4. Home time

Early Morning

 

Today my mum and dad woke me up early with 30 minutes to go until the Louvre treasure hunt. We got ready as fast as we could. Which turned out to quite a hassle. We were all really stressed. Finally we were ready for the Louvre.......

Daisy Explanation

 

When we got to the Louve there was a nice lady named Daisy waiting for us. She explained the rules of the hunt to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the her logo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were playing in teams. In mum and my team this was our strategy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is an is all the things you had to find.

 

 

 

As you can see we only found seventeen of them.

 

 

 

The Hunt And Mona Lisa

 

On your sheet there were bonus points. They would tell you to write down or do something and you'd get extra points. Here are some of the things we have found and some info about them

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Adoration Of The Magi

Number: 1

Country Made In: Italy

Made By: Bernardino Luini

Year made: 1520

Size: Medium

Found: Yes

Use: Painting

Recommended: Yes, this fine fresco shows us the most important part of the nativity scene, sounds boring but is in fact quite interesting because of it's attention to detail, it makes you want to stare at it for longer and longer.

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Philippe Pot's Tomb

Number: 2

Country Made In: France

Made By: Unknown

Year Made: 1494

Size: Medium

Found: Yes

Use: Tomb

Recommended: No, this statue is not very interesting because it seems more flavourless then most of the others.

 

 

 

 

Name: Monument Of The Heart Of The Duke Anne De Montmorency

Number: 3

Country Made In: France

Made By: Unknown

Year Made: 1571

Size: Big

Found: Yes

Use: Statue

Recommended: Yes, this sculpture has an interesting backstory. The duke was the one who persuaded Leonardo da Vinci to move to France.

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Bust Of Alexander The Great

Number: 4

Country Made In: Greece the Cyclades islands (near Santorini)

Made By: Unknown

Year Made: 100 BC

Size: 1 metre

Found: Yes

Use: Sculpture

Recommended: Yes, he was one of the greatest leaders ever and is right next to the Venus de Milo.

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Frieze Of Griffins

Number: 5

Country Made In: Iran (when it was called Persia)

Made By: Unknown

Year Made: 510 BC

Size: Huge (all the way around the walls)

Found: Yes

Use: Mosaic

Recommended: Yes, and right near it you'll find other objects that belonged to Darius the great like the giant double bull head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some picture of the other fifteen that enjoyed most.

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Palace Ceramic Wall Tiles

Number: 8

Country Made In: Iran

Made By: unknown

Year Made: 14 Century

Size: Medium (but part of something much bigger)

Found: Yes

Use: Wall Tiles

Recommended: Yes, I really enjoyed staring at its intricate pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Gilded Cartonnage Of The Lady Tashret-pa-ankh

Number: 16

Country Made In: Egypt

Made By: Unknown

Year Made: 330 BC

Size: Lifesize

Found: Yes

Use: Tomb

Recommended: Yes, I liked it beacause of the the patterns and hieroglyphics on the gold. Much better than I imagined.

 

 

 

 

I could write so much more. Can't wait till my next visit to Paris and the Louvre.

 

Drew-on-the-move

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris Saturday

Today we went to a museum. THE END.

 

OK, in a little bit more detail

• Teeny weeny drinky for mumsy
• Hotel Carnavalet

 

 

TIny drinks

On our way to the museum there was a man and a woman handing out free diet cokes. I don't drink coke or other drinks like it (except Fanta and Sprite if mum lets me). Mum LOVES diet coke. The little cans were eeny weeny beeny aka not very big, but mum seemed pretty happy with the whole free diet coke thing.

 

 

 

 

 

The Museum

THe museum was called Musee Carnavalet and it used to be a hotel.

Now it is a museum of the History of Paris.

 

 

 

 

There were a lot of rooms which were set out in order from Prehistoric PAris to almost now. Unfortunately,the signs were not so good so we went the complete wrong direction again and again. We went that way and this way and that way and that way. so although we dident see things in order, we still saw quite a lot.

Zoe and I both used the audioguides which was good because because otherwise we would have been wondering around helplessly (more than we already were) because everything was in French.

One thing I learned which was interesting to me was that Henry the fourth of France ordered the first bridge in Europe to be built that was just for transport. In other words there were no people living on it. Nowdays it would be surprising to have a bridge with people living on it. This reminds me of the bridge in Florence which used to be the bridge of the butchers but now only has Jewellery stores on it. It was called the "old Bridge" or in Italian the Ponto Vecchio.

 

 

 

A room in the museum

 

 

 

I also learned that the word in French today for "we dont want work" used to be (300 years ago) the word for "we want to work". The people of the revolution weren't very wealthy and used to call the word out. I think the word was "protest" but I cant be sure. (Not sure this is.....ummmm....accurate. Ed)

 

 

 

Almost impossible to tell the difference

 

 

 

Bye for now

Drew-on-the-move

 

Paris - Friday

 

1. Champs Elysee
2. The Marais District
• Buskers
• Worlds best falafel - I had a meatball
• Quite a big Meringue
3. Pompadou centre from the outside and very big bubbles
4. Bye bye my American friends

 

 

Champs Elysee

This is a really wide and busy street that leads up to the Arc de Triomphe. I like to say this in a French accent. It is also the road where the Tour De France finishes each year. I also like to say "Tour De France" in a French accent.

THe Arc De Triomphe is there to honour all the soldeirs from Napoleon's time. It reminded me of the arch of Constantine and the arch of Titus which I saw in Rome just outside the forum.

Because of the ring road which is so busy, the only way to get to the Arc De Triomphe is to go via an underground pathway. We looked at the Arc but didnt go right up to it or touch it this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marais District

 

We took a subway to the Marais district.

There are often buskers on the trains or in the subway. Some are very good.. Today I gave some money to two musicians playing on our train - one was playing a saxaphone and the other a clarinet. They were playing Jazz music which made me feel kinda jumpy in a good way. Another passenger put up a rude finger though because he was trying to sleep.

I also saw a small orchestra playing in the subway. Dad made a little video of it

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe one day Grady and I will be buskers.

 

 

 

Yeah man - check it

 

 

 

 

At the Marais district we ate at a place that served the most famous falafels in the world. I'm not going to say I didnt get one, but then again, I'm not going to say I did. Everyone who did get one, said they were delicious - especially Emily and my dad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking past a bakery we saw a VERY BIG Meringue.

 

 

 

Meringue in the Marais

 

 

 

Pompidou Centre

We walked to the George Pompidou Centre which is the Museum of modern art. Its sort of inside out with all the plumbing and pipes on the outside. Also the elevators are on the outside. It's not a grey dull building - it has lots of colours like red and green and blue

 

 

 

 

 

Outside is a small pond with some colourful sculptures. We sat a while then watched a busker making huge bubbles - bigger than me, Grady, Zoe and Tilda put together.

 

 

 

I recognize these guys from somewhere

 

 

 

Bye bye American friends

I am going to miss our friends who leave early tomorrow morning to fly back to Virginia. Hopefully we will see them again soon.

 

Paris - Wednesday

 

1. Catacombs
2. Sailboats in a garden

 

 

Catacombs

 

Now the catacombs were super scary. You start off in long line around the little park near the entry. Then you walk down 82 or so steps to be under the city of Paris inside the tunnels of the old limestone mines.

 

The tunnels go for 100s of kilometres but we walked through them for about 20 minutes.

 

Why walk through tunnels you may say? Because about 250 years ago the Paris cemetery got full so the King ordered all the bones and skulls from every tomb to be moved to the limestone mines which became the Catacombs.

 

The tunnels were dark, creepy and filled with bones along the walls. when I close my eyes now I imagine a headstone with skulls surrounding it and the little heart shape made of skulls right above it. It creeped me.

 

I am glad to be out of there now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sailboats in the Garden

We walked through the Luxembourg gardens.

Big.

 

 

 

The entrance to the garden

 

 

 

Actually we walked on a gravel path which runs through the gardens. We walked all the way from one end to the other end near the large building that dad says is a palace. It is a copy of a palace in Florence that Henry the fourths wife (who came from Florence) liked so much that she copied it.

In front of the palace was a circle pond about bigger than I could throw a ball across. A lot bigger.

Right outside the pond was a man renting sailboats for 3 Euros per half an hour. The boats had flags of different countries on their sails. THere were a few boats on teh top of his table and you could choose which one you wanted. I didn't have a lot of choice. I chose Brazil and called it the "Brazilian Beauty". ZOe chose a Chinese flag which she called "CN China".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You also got a bamboo stick which you would use to push the boat toward the middle of the pond. THe boats sails would then catch the wind and they would fly across the seas which i like to say in a Scottish accent.

 

The boats didn't seem able to tip over. They always stayed upright even though my boat's sail was stuck on the water for a while, it righted itself after its flopping experience.

 

 

That's all for now

 

Drew-on-the-move

 

Paris -Tuesday

My first full day in Paris

 

 

1. Eiffel Tower
2. Playing in the mist
3. Science Museum

 

 

Eiffel Tower

As I was walking down to the ONE-THOUSAND foot tall Eiffel Tower dad told me something really interesting: “Do you know what Gustave Eiffel designed?” “Yeah, the Eiffel Tower” I replied. “And the Statue of Liberty” he said, and do you know what he didn't design. “No” I said. “The Eiffel Tower” dad answered. When we finally got there we stared up at its amazingness. “It probably took one hundred years to build” I thought. It actually took 2 years, 2 months and 5 days to build. I looked it up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking up the Eiffel Tower wasn't as hard as you think it might be. It took about five minutes per one-hundred steps and there were 670 steps in total. So all in all it took 33 minutes and 30 seconds. I was amazed at how fast I could climb it, I thought it would take at least an hour.

 

 

 

SO CLOSE......1 more step to go

 

 

 

 

When you are beneath the Eiffel Tower it seems much bigger than 32400 cm. My first thoughts of the Eiffel Tower were huge, zig zagged & strait. After that amazing experience we decided to go to the Dynamo Museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing in the mist

On the way to the Science Museum which is called the "Palais de la decouvert", we discovered that right outside there was a dry ice mist coming out of a fountain.

It was kinda strange to be in it.

We walked in but couldn't see the ground. Which was not so good seeing as it was slippery mud. I know this because......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoe and I pretended to be Zombies then we made our way to the museum entrance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Science Museum

The museum looked a bit like a temple or palace. It had columns and very high domed observatory ceilings. Not at all like Scitech back home.

There was a huge planetarium but we didn't go in because it had an hours lecture in French.

Unfortunately a lot of the exhibits were in French but a few had English as well.

Some of my favourite exhibits were the pendulum that dropped sand out of the bottom (see photo), the illusions for example when you spin a wheel with lots of colours it became white. I understood that one because white is really a mixture of all the colours of the rainbow put together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also saw the last bit of the frog and toad lecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye for now

 

Drew-on-the-move