Edinburgh, Scotland & some of England

Edinburgh

After leaving Berlin we flew into Edinburgh which is the capital of Scotland. The first day we were there we went to do lots of shopping. I bought a nice warm coat. In the evening we went to a pub for dinner then went into the gardens on in front of Edinburgh Castle where you needed special tickets, which we had, to watch the fireworks because it was the best view. The fireworks were loud and spectacular.

We spent the next day exploring Edinburgh but at night we decided to do a Ghost Tour. We met near the Mercat Cross where they told us about what they used to criminals there. It was pretty horrible. Then we went into the square near the church where they told us about a man who they had to hang twice and his ghost appears on the anniversary of his hanging.

Then we walked around some of the Closes and heard some more scary and ghost stories. After this we went into the vaults under Edinburgh which are supposed to be haunted. We heard ghost stories about Mr Boots, a Cobbler and little boy called Jack who the story goes went into the vaults looking for a lost toy and never came back. The ghost tour was not that scary and I wrote in their visitors book that it should be scarier.

Because I hadn’t been too scared on the ghost tour Mum and Dad decided that I could go into the Dungeons which is supposed to be very scary because there is actors to make it scary. We went into various rooms like a court with a judge who shouted a lot, a scary boat ride and cave and even a show where my Dad got pulled up on stage and they pretended to chop his ear off. I was pretty scared by some of the things but it was funny watching Daddy on stage and I really liked it.

On a bit of an explore we came across the Scottish Museum and had a look inside. We saw lots of animals and science exhibits. I liked driving the formula 1 car and being an astronaut. 

It was finally time to leave Edinburgh which was a city that I really really liked.

Falkirk Wheel

Mum and Dad really wanted to show us and go on the Falkirk wheel. It is a wheel that takes canal boats from one high canal to a low one. It goes really high in the air and you get to see a bird in the canal. It is still the only one like it in the world. Then we had a play in the water movement park which was really different and fun.

Harry Potter Train

We drove through the Highlands of Scotland for a couple of days which were pretty but we were in the car for a long time. We arrived in Fort William for a special surprise which Mum and Dad wouldn’t tell us about before. We woke up in the morning and saw a steam train in the station. We were catching it and going through the highlands and over the bridge from the flying car scene in Harry Potter. They also had some compartments from the film. 

 

At the end of the line we explored the village, saw a seal in the water and I posted a postcard for my Grandad.

We got a good view and it was really cool to have gone on it.

Blackpool

It was kids days when we went to Blackpool so Emma and I could chose whatever we wanted to do. Our first choice was to go to the water park that had lots of really fun waterslides.  We got to ride heaps of times without lining up and we had lots of fun.

After the water park we played some of the arcades, rode dodge-em cars, played air hockey and basketball games. We had fish and chips and bought some Blackpool Rock with “Georgia” written in it.

When it was dark it was time for what I’d been waiting for, the Blackpool Illuminations. My Grandad used to show me a DVD of them when I was little and I really wanted to see them. We got to see them from the tram and in a car. My favourite things were the beans and the motorcyclist jumping the buses, but they were all awesome. 

York

We were driving to York and Mum and Dads said that this is one of our favourite towns. I said how can we believe you because you always say every town we go to is your favourite town.

In York there are lots of medieval streets that have wonky buildings because they are so old. We walked down lots of them.

One of the most famous streets is call the Shambles. It is a very narrow street and the tops of the buildings stick out so when they threw their buckets of poo out it wouldn’t run down the walls.

We had lunch at a Haunted Pub called the Golden Fleece and since it was Friday the 13th it was a very scary day and we read some ghost stories from there.

From here we had a quick walk around the walls and went to the railway museum. I saw some of the carriages from the olden days used by the Queen and how they used to sort the mail. There were lots of steam trains and everyone, especially my Dad, loved it.

Berlin

Our first stop in Berlin was at the Radio Tower where the East Germans used to spy on the West Germans from.

Then it was off to the Reichstag which had a big glass dome on the top. We learnt about some of the history and then climbed around the ramp to the top. We got a good view of the city and had an Audio Guide to tell us things.

The next day we hired some bikes and went to the canal to find a path to ride on. Then we found a café that we called have breakfasts at. I got a muffin .then we rode to the Berlin Wall. It had lots of really cool graffiti on it. 

We rode past one mural and it showed how many people died trying to cross from east to west during the time it was up. The wall was there because after the war the Russians owned the east. There was a west side which you were safe in because it was owned by France, America and the UK but if you were on the east you were stuffed because the Russians didn’t want the people who lived in East Berlin leaving.

So many died trying to escape and lots actually managed to. It was sad looking at the berlin wall. There was something called NO MANS LAND. Where the army was guarding and shot people who they saw trying to climb over the wall.

We kept seeing lots of the graffiti. There are 2 famous ones. The first one is the graffiti of the car smashing throw the walls [ I think who ever in those day was there and walk past said ‘’ I wish that happened to us’’ and the other one was the two famous leaders kissing. 

Then we looked at an exhibition of photos from other walls in Mexico, Palestine and Northern Ireland. The Berlin Wall was very interesting and I learnt a lot.

We then rode through Berlin to the Brandenburg Gate which was a border crossing through the wall. There was a line on the road where the wall was and me and Emma stood in both sides of Berlin at one time.

 

Then we went for a ride into Tiergarten and saw the Victory Column and the Berlin Cathedral that got bombed out during the War. We took the bikes back and went out for dinner. It was great riding around Berlin.

The next day we went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and learnt more about the Berlin Wall and how people tried to and successfully climbed, flying foxed and got smuggled across in cars.

It was then time to fly to the UK but Berlin was D-Cool.

 

Rome

Colosseum

We got to our apartment and dumped our bags and had a chill out. They had a DVD with the film Gladiator so we put it to get an idea of the colosseum in the past. Then we went for a walk to the colosseum and got our tickets and walked around it. We looked at the bottom where they put the people in to fight. It would have been really scary. The stadium was huge and would have been unbelievably noisy.

Vatican Museum

The next day we went to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. It was a very long queue to get in but when we finally did we went to look at all the very special and valuable statues and paintings.

After walking around for a couple of hours we still hadn’t been into the Sistine Chapel but we went to the cafe because we all were really hungry.

 

Finally we went into the Sistine Chapel where the painting of the touching fingers is. It is a painting of God and Adam touching fingers. It was in the middle on the roof. It was very crowded and you weren’t allowed to take photos, which was annoying. 

St Peters Basilica

After the Vatican we went to St Peters Basilica, the head of the Catholic Church. When I walked in the church, I was amazed when I saw it. The roof was blue, white and gold and there were amazing statues all around. I think it the most beautiful church I have ever seen. Just as we were leaving it went mad with rain and lighting. It was horrendous!  We tried to shelter undercover hiding behind a column in St Peters square but we still got wet as the rain came in sideways. There were people selling rain coats and umbrellas but it was no use because we were already soaking wet. We tried to get home but it was really wet. We had to run through the puddles. I was really cold, so was Emma. I still had a great day though. I rate it a 10 out of 10

Trevi Fountain

Mum and Dad made us go to a lot of sights in Rome on our last day there. I was looking forward to seeing the Trevi Fountain because I had been reading about it in a book that morning and had made lots of notes that I wanted to read out when we were there. Eventually we got to the Trevi Fountain. There were lots of tourists there but we fought our way to the fountain and threw in a coin which means we will come back to Rome. 

I read out all of the information to Mum, Dad and Emma who found it very interesting.

I loved Rome it was a very interesting place.