Hi all. I am thinking that it would be best if we met up on Saturday the 29th or Sunday the 30th of January, the weekend before school goes back. If this is a problem please let me know asap. I don't know about movies either because I have no idea of what is out at the moment. I was thinking that we could stay at my place and maybe go to the park and/or go to Winston Hills shops. If you all bring $5-10 and we cold get pizza, walk to maccas, get lunch at winsto or even get Indian/Sri Lankan takeaway (Dad's suggestion, I'm fine with anything but it is up to you to decide).
If this is all ok with you guys then please gt back to me via e-mail or the blog (preferably the blog).
We are going to a hotel-like place in a village out of Kathmandu for 3 days and there probably won't be internet so I will get back to you when we have internet. Can't wait to see you all and tell you about our European experience.
Posted at 9:18pm.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Sorry for lack of posts (again)
We are currently in Nepal and are constantly being amazed by the craziness and basicness of Kathmandu. We have electricity, though only for 12 hours a day (it is switched off at various times during that day according to a schedule). Internet is also quite sketchy, when there is no electricity internet goes on and off and it is still bad even with electricity on. Because of this I don't know when my next entry will be. If I can't post, at least I will still be able to tell you in around a Fortnight, as I get back on the 25th.
Talking about getting back I was thinking that when I get back we you could all come over or something. I am thinking of the 27th, 28th or 29th. Could you please tell me which days suit you so I can organize it and get back to you. Also could you please contact Cameron, Minh, James and William and see if they would like to come over as well. It won't be big and might be short but it will be good to catch up before school.
The British museum was as amazing as it sounds, mainly because of the diversity of things in it. The justifications were things like 'protecting the statues from the weather', 'placing the statues at eye level instead of up on a building' and 'putting the statues in "world context" instead of just with other Greek artefacts', They were really shocking. There was also another sign saying that a different British explorer while looking for Assyrian ruins had been given a letter (though didn't say who, sneaking suspicion that it might have been someone from England) to "take any pieces of rock that he might see use in" i.e. take anything you want, they don't matter to anyone... except us. At the end Jonathan and I were slightly sad that we didn't have anything like the museum in Australia and that we probably couldn't take an excursion to the British museum.
Anyway, I am starting to get a bit travel weary and I think we all may want to get back to Australia a bit. Can't wait to catch up with all of you once we get back and hear about your holidays and things like NCYC etc. Hope to post and hear from you soon, but, as I said before, it might be a few days before that happens.
Posted at 8:25pm.
Talking about getting back I was thinking that when I get back we you could all come over or something. I am thinking of the 27th, 28th or 29th. Could you please tell me which days suit you so I can organize it and get back to you. Also could you please contact Cameron, Minh, James and William and see if they would like to come over as well. It won't be big and might be short but it will be good to catch up before school.
The British museum was as amazing as it sounds, mainly because of the diversity of things in it. The justifications were things like 'protecting the statues from the weather', 'placing the statues at eye level instead of up on a building' and 'putting the statues in "world context" instead of just with other Greek artefacts', They were really shocking. There was also another sign saying that a different British explorer while looking for Assyrian ruins had been given a letter (though didn't say who, sneaking suspicion that it might have been someone from England) to "take any pieces of rock that he might see use in" i.e. take anything you want, they don't matter to anyone... except us. At the end Jonathan and I were slightly sad that we didn't have anything like the museum in Australia and that we probably couldn't take an excursion to the British museum.
Anyway, I am starting to get a bit travel weary and I think we all may want to get back to Australia a bit. Can't wait to catch up with all of you once we get back and hear about your holidays and things like NCYC etc. Hope to post and hear from you soon, but, as I said before, it might be a few days before that happens.
Posted at 8:25pm.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The British Museum
On our second day in London we headed to the British Museum. The range of stuff in the museum was amazing. There was Egyptian things, Assyrian, Greek, Asian and various Clocks.
We started by looking at the Assyrian (near Iraq) statues that were 'taken under permit' in the 1800's (as were most items in the museum). In the Assyrian section there were big statues that were mounted on the sides of gates and statues and columns telling stories of Assyrian victories. Often biblical figures popped up and there were even one or two stories that feature in the bible. This made Dad quite excited because he liked the ancient proof of events in the bible.
We also saw some Egyptian and Greek statues and buildings that were, once again, taken by British 'explorers' and 'archaeologists'. There was a room with a lot of the reliefs and carvings from the Parthenon.
In another section of the museum there was a display of clocks from the 16th century to modern day times. The standout of these was a clock in the shape of a ship that, at 6:00, or dinnertime, it would move up and down the table, while a bell rang, before firing a cannon at the front of the ship, setting off a fuse that would fire 10 or-so other cannons around the ship.
There were other curiosities at the museum like North American and Mayan statues and clothes as well as Chinese artifacts.
We were all amazed by the British Museum and the collection that it has gathered from around the world. We were also amused by the 'justification' of Lord Elgin's actions of taking reliefs and other objects from the Parthenon and other sites in Greece.
Posted at 6:48pm
We started by looking at the Assyrian (near Iraq) statues that were 'taken under permit' in the 1800's (as were most items in the museum). In the Assyrian section there were big statues that were mounted on the sides of gates and statues and columns telling stories of Assyrian victories. Often biblical figures popped up and there were even one or two stories that feature in the bible. This made Dad quite excited because he liked the ancient proof of events in the bible.
We also saw some Egyptian and Greek statues and buildings that were, once again, taken by British 'explorers' and 'archaeologists'. There was a room with a lot of the reliefs and carvings from the Parthenon.
In another section of the museum there was a display of clocks from the 16th century to modern day times. The standout of these was a clock in the shape of a ship that, at 6:00, or dinnertime, it would move up and down the table, while a bell rang, before firing a cannon at the front of the ship, setting off a fuse that would fire 10 or-so other cannons around the ship.
There were other curiosities at the museum like North American and Mayan statues and clothes as well as Chinese artifacts.
We were all amazed by the British Museum and the collection that it has gathered from around the world. We were also amused by the 'justification' of Lord Elgin's actions of taking reliefs and other objects from the Parthenon and other sites in Greece.
Posted at 6:48pm
Monday, January 10, 2011
London
We arrived in London at around 4:30/5:00 and it was already dark so we caught the tube to the station Elephant and Castle !?!??! It was still a 1km walk to our apartment and, by the end, we were all wishing we had caught a bus.
The next day we headed off on a bus to Buckingham palace, via Westminster street and other notable attractions. We reached Buckingham palace and had a brief look around before heading to St James's park and then off to the Tower of London.
The tower was really cool because it had a lot of different exhibits and areas, like the Crown Jewels, The Bloody tower, the Southern Walkway and a new exhibit of King's armor over 500 centuries. Everyone enjoyed it because there was at least one thing there that everyone enjoyed. I liked the royal armor exhibition the most because it is what I am into. It many exhibits which weren't confined to armor. There were weapons from different time periods, royal gifts and also guns confiscated during a massive police investigation in 1995.
We headed back to our apartment Via another bus, enabling us to see London at night.
Posted at 8:19
The next day we headed off on a bus to Buckingham palace, via Westminster street and other notable attractions. We reached Buckingham palace and had a brief look around before heading to St James's park and then off to the Tower of London.
The tower was really cool because it had a lot of different exhibits and areas, like the Crown Jewels, The Bloody tower, the Southern Walkway and a new exhibit of King's armor over 500 centuries. Everyone enjoyed it because there was at least one thing there that everyone enjoyed. I liked the royal armor exhibition the most because it is what I am into. It many exhibits which weren't confined to armor. There were weapons from different time periods, royal gifts and also guns confiscated during a massive police investigation in 1995.
We headed back to our apartment Via another bus, enabling us to see London at night.
Posted at 8:19
1000 Views!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its great to see how much you have been following me while we journeyed around Europe. Its really nice to hear from all of you almost every day. Sorry that my posts aren't up to date but I will try to correct that with this post.
Sorry for the confusion Alexander, but what I meant was while you were in England last year, did you go to London, and if so what did you see there?
In Paris the day after Versailles we climbed the Eiffel tower, though we weren't allowed onto the top level. We all loved the view of Paris from the second floor of the Eiffel tower. It was amazing that, while up on the tower on the second floor you felt so high, but viewing it from the ground you could see that the second floor is only around halfway up.
We then walked to the beginning of the Champs de Elysees and then across to the Louvre. We only had about one and a half hours at the Louvre, which wasn't nearly enough, but we used that time to see enough to get a taste. We saw some renaissance paintings as well as medieval paintings and classical Greek sculptures. We also managed to get a peek at the Mona Lisa and were more surprised at the queue, or lack of it, than the paintings size.
After the Louvre we didn't do anything in Paris for the rest of the day.
The next day we traveled to Gare Nord, the main station where the Eurostar leaves from. We dumped our luggage there and caught the 42 bus, on the recommendation of someone in the Tourist info booth. The bus took us on a route through the centre of Paris, along the Champs de Elysees, though not to the Arc de Triumph and out of the centre again. We were able to see alot of the city, especially the centre.
In all, I felt that we had seen a massive amount of Paris for how long we had there. We managed to see a lot of the main attractions, or at least get in the vicinity of them.
Posted at 11:34
Sorry for the confusion Alexander, but what I meant was while you were in England last year, did you go to London, and if so what did you see there?
In Paris the day after Versailles we climbed the Eiffel tower, though we weren't allowed onto the top level. We all loved the view of Paris from the second floor of the Eiffel tower. It was amazing that, while up on the tower on the second floor you felt so high, but viewing it from the ground you could see that the second floor is only around halfway up.
We then walked to the beginning of the Champs de Elysees and then across to the Louvre. We only had about one and a half hours at the Louvre, which wasn't nearly enough, but we used that time to see enough to get a taste. We saw some renaissance paintings as well as medieval paintings and classical Greek sculptures. We also managed to get a peek at the Mona Lisa and were more surprised at the queue, or lack of it, than the paintings size.
After the Louvre we didn't do anything in Paris for the rest of the day.
The next day we traveled to Gare Nord, the main station where the Eurostar leaves from. We dumped our luggage there and caught the 42 bus, on the recommendation of someone in the Tourist info booth. The bus took us on a route through the centre of Paris, along the Champs de Elysees, though not to the Arc de Triumph and out of the centre again. We were able to see alot of the city, especially the centre.
In all, I felt that we had seen a massive amount of Paris for how long we had there. We managed to see a lot of the main attractions, or at least get in the vicinity of them.
Posted at 11:34
Friday, January 7, 2011
Reply to Comments
Great to hear that NCYC and the theme parks were fun. Hope everyone from St Matts is good. It is hard to post things because don't have much time where we are staying, except for at night when we have a couple of hours. I'm trying to keep up to date, but there is just so much stuff. Will post about the rest of Paris and also London tomorrow (hopefully). By the way, how long did you spend in London and what did you see?
Posted at 8:51pm London time.
Posted at 8:51pm London time.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Versailles
We had a slightly lazy morning before heading off to the Palace of Versailles, to take advantage of it being free on the first Sunday of the Month. The walk up to Versailles was amazing, with the gold-leaf gates and the view of the palace. We were all amazed by the inside as well, though Jonathan complained about the amount of Paintings.
The thing I found most amazing about Versailles was how much everything inside it must have cost. There were so many different paintings and things with gold lea on them! While only about halfway through the palace we all started commenting on how we all had massive sensory overloads. I was also really amazed by the ceiling paintings in each of the rooms and got a sore neck from looking at them all.
After going through Versailles the general consensus was that it was very show-offy and arrogant and ‘look at what we’ve got’. Not to say that we didn’t like it at all, it was just very big and expensive-looking.
We then wandered through the gardens for a bit and looked at how grand they were. Dad said that he could easily see why the French Revolution occurred, looking at the palace and the gardens and how expensive they would be, and we all agreed with him. We saw some swans waking along a frozen pond/fountain and looked at the leafless trees wondering how amazing this would be in Summer time.
Posted at 8:17pm London Time
The thing I found most amazing about Versailles was how much everything inside it must have cost. There were so many different paintings and things with gold lea on them! While only about halfway through the palace we all started commenting on how we all had massive sensory overloads. I was also really amazed by the ceiling paintings in each of the rooms and got a sore neck from looking at them all.
After going through Versailles the general consensus was that it was very show-offy and arrogant and ‘look at what we’ve got’. Not to say that we didn’t like it at all, it was just very big and expensive-looking.
We then wandered through the gardens for a bit and looked at how grand they were. Dad said that he could easily see why the French Revolution occurred, looking at the palace and the gardens and how expensive they would be, and we all agreed with him. We saw some swans waking along a frozen pond/fountain and looked at the leafless trees wondering how amazing this would be in Summer time.
Posted at 8:17pm London Time
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Paris Day 1 (after coming from Brussels)
When we arrived in Paris we dumped our bags in the luggage storage at Gare de Lyon, one of Paris’s big railway stations. We then left Gare de Lyon to do some wandering around Paris for 3-or-so hours. We ended up just walking up the Seine and going to Notre Dame. After reaching Notre Dame we walked around it and then stood outside the entrance for a bit. Gemma soon began complaining that she was tired so we walked to the nearest metro station and went back to Gare de Lyon before catching the RER to the apartment we were staying in.
A very Belgian New Year
We spent New Year’s Eve with an old friend of Mum’s who is living with her husband and children in Brussels. We left for the celebrations at around 9:00 and went to a Greek restaurant for dinner. It was amazing walking around Brussels because it is still legal to purchase fireworks there. There were heaps of people letting off ‘bungas’, which are plastic tubes filled with gunpowder.
By the time we reached the square where the main firework display was going to happen it was around 11:30 so there were already heaps of people. We reached a position which we thought we would get a good view of the fireworks. In the end about half of the fireworks that were let off we couldn’t see because of a building, but it was still pretty amazing.
Posted at 7:59pm London time
By the time we reached the square where the main firework display was going to happen it was around 11:30 so there were already heaps of people. We reached a position which we thought we would get a good view of the fireworks. In the end about half of the fireworks that were let off we couldn’t see because of a building, but it was still pretty amazing.
Posted at 7:59pm London time
Amsterdam
Sorry for the confusion, but this post slots in between Boxing Day and us seeing Harry Potter.
On the 27th of December we headed into Amsterdam for the day. We arrived in at about 11:00 and wanted to find something to eat before exploring Amsterdam. In the end we settled for some Kebabs so we could eat while walking.
We decided to head off to the Anne Frank house first. When we reached the house, there was a massive queue outside it. We stopped and looked at the queue and then decided to change our plans and go to the Van Gough museum/art gallery. We reached the museum and, luckily, the line wasn’t too long.
The Van Gough museum was really interesting, because it had information on Van Gough’s life and also artworks by other painters that inspired him, as well as a very large collection of Van Gough’s artwork (though with noticeable absences like ‘A Starry Night’ and ‘The Cafe’, as well as only having one of his paintings of sunflowers.
We spent quite a while in the art gallery, so it was about 5:00 when we came out. We decided to see if we could get to the Anne Frank house before it closed, thinking the last people were let through at 5:30 with the house closing at 6:00. Because of this we quickly hurried to the house to try to get there on time. In the end we reached it at 5:45-ish and found out that we were an hour off, the last people were actually let through at 6:30.
The Anne Frank house was very interesting. You could go into the rooms that Anne Frank and the 7 other Jewish people were hiding in. They also had some information about the concentration camps and the Nazis during the war. The other big part of the museum was a room exhibiting the original diary of Anne Frank.
By the time we had finished going through the Anne Frank house it was around 6:30 and so we headed off to the station to catch the train back to Rotterdam. On the way we grabbed some more kebabs for dinner, and so ending our kebab tour of Amsterdam.
Posted at 7:58 London time.
On the 27th of December we headed into Amsterdam for the day. We arrived in at about 11:00 and wanted to find something to eat before exploring Amsterdam. In the end we settled for some Kebabs so we could eat while walking.
We decided to head off to the Anne Frank house first. When we reached the house, there was a massive queue outside it. We stopped and looked at the queue and then decided to change our plans and go to the Van Gough museum/art gallery. We reached the museum and, luckily, the line wasn’t too long.
The Van Gough museum was really interesting, because it had information on Van Gough’s life and also artworks by other painters that inspired him, as well as a very large collection of Van Gough’s artwork (though with noticeable absences like ‘A Starry Night’ and ‘The Cafe’, as well as only having one of his paintings of sunflowers.
We spent quite a while in the art gallery, so it was about 5:00 when we came out. We decided to see if we could get to the Anne Frank house before it closed, thinking the last people were let through at 5:30 with the house closing at 6:00. Because of this we quickly hurried to the house to try to get there on time. In the end we reached it at 5:45-ish and found out that we were an hour off, the last people were actually let through at 6:30.
The Anne Frank house was very interesting. You could go into the rooms that Anne Frank and the 7 other Jewish people were hiding in. They also had some information about the concentration camps and the Nazis during the war. The other big part of the museum was a room exhibiting the original diary of Anne Frank.
By the time we had finished going through the Anne Frank house it was around 6:30 and so we headed off to the station to catch the train back to Rotterdam. On the way we grabbed some more kebabs for dinner, and so ending our kebab tour of Amsterdam.
Posted at 7:58 London time.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Apology for Lack of Posts
I'm sorry for my lack of posts over the last few days, but we couldn't get Wi-Fi in Paris. We are now in London and somewhat glad to be back in an English speaking country. We saw a lot of things in our 2 and 2 half days in Paris. We went to Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower. the Louvre, Versailles, walked on both sides of the Seine and visited the Champs Elysees, but not as far up as the Arc de Triumph.
How are all you holidays? What have you been doing? Hope to hear from you and I will post about Paris and other things soon.
Posted at 9:20 London time.
How are all you holidays? What have you been doing? Hope to hear from you and I will post about Paris and other things soon.
Posted at 9:20 London time.
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