• Lucca Kemmers

World trip 2024

99-дневное приключение от Lucca Читать далее
  • Siena

    25 июня 2024 г., Италия ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Today we went to Siena. Stijn drove us in his car.

    It felt like it was a very long drive. The drive was scenic.

    Siena is on a hill. The town were very helpful and had a series of escalators to take you up the steep hill.

    We went to a square called Piazza del Campo where in a week's time there would be a horse race called Palio di Siena. The area around the square was being prepared for the race. There was a gravelley sand clay mixture on the ground. It made a big ring around the piazza. This is where the horses would race. Then around the outside tiered seating was being installed.

    The Palio di Siena is a race that happens twice a year on July 2nd and 16th August.

    The one held one the second of July is called the Palio di Provenzano.
    The race has only ten riders. The riders are chosen from within the 17 contrade ( city regions ). The riders ride bareback and wear the colours of their contrade. The riders have to race 3 laps. In the race you can get thrown off your horse. This happens a lot so they made the rule that only the horse has to cross the finish line.

    Walking around we saw a tower that looked like a liquorice allsort!

    Siena was very busy and it was raining on and off. We did not stay long.

    We drove back to Lucca and had some dinner with Stijn before heading back to our B & B.

    Lucca
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  • Pisa and the Beach

    26 июня 2024 г., Италия ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today we went to Pisa to see the leaning tower.

    It was not at the angle I expected. I thought it would be at a 45 degree angle, but instead it was like a 80 degree angle. We took all the typical photos of us holding/pushing down the tower. I bought a little statue of the tower. It says PISA on it.

    We then went to the beach. It was called Spiaggia Libera beach. The water was very warm and there were some waves. There were lots of chairs and umbrellas, which you had to pay for.

    We swam, and I made sandcastles. The sand is a different colour to Australian sand because this sand is dirtier. My sandcastle was more like a sand hole because I was making holes.

    After a while I got bored of making sandcastles so I played soccer with Stijn. I was goalie and he was shooting. After a while we swapped positions. Even though Stijn is really good at soccer, I managed to score a few goals.

    We then drove back to Lucca and went to a restaurant. It is the same restaurant we went to the other day when it was rainy. We had lots of pizza.

    Today was Stijn's last day with us so Mama and I headed home while Papa played with Stijn.

    See you tomorrow

    Lucca
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  • Quiet Day

    27 июня 2024 г., Италия ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Today we had a quiet and relaxing day.

    In the morning we had breakfast. Every day I have had lots of sweet food for breakfast including a pain au chocolat, which is the French name for the chocolate croissant. It is like a cup made of croissant. It had liquid chocolate in it and icing sugar that had crystalized. Nonna kept saying to eat even though I was full because it would make me grow.

    I was lucky enough to get some souvenirs from Lucca, including a slingshot with my name on it. It has a green rubber bit and my name is burnt into the wood.

    Papa and I both got some shoes from the Italian brand called Hey Dude. They are very light and are slip on.

    Mama got a pair of linen overalls that are green. They are big and baggy and comfortable. It has one pocket on the right hand side.

    In the afternoon we took a train to Pisa to pick up a hire car. We drove back home and went to sleep.

    Lucca
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  • Last day in Lucca

    28 июня 2024 г., Италия ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Today we climbed lots of steps. We climbed up a tower called Torre Guinigi. It had lots of stairs (233 steps) and Mama thought she would really struggle, but she did an amazing job.

    When we reached the top, there were 7 oak trees on the roof. We met some nice people from the US and some people from AUS.

    Torre Guinigi is the tallest tower in Lucca and nothing is allowed to be taller than it. The tower is from the year 1400.

    We then rode around the city wall on 4 person bike, that may or may not have been electric (it was electric but Papa is too ashamed to tell anyone) with a cover on top.

    The walls around Lucca were erected during the Renaissance. They are among the best city walls that are still fully intact. The walls make the city of Lucca famous.

    We went to the best gelato in Lucca. I had cookie flavour.

    We wanted to go all the way around the wall, but a bit of it was closed because of the Lucca Summer Festival.

    We rode back the way we came and went home.
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  • Monterosso, Cinque Terre

    29 июн.–2 июл. 2024, Италия ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    From Lucca we drove to Cinque Terre on the Italian sea side. We took a rental car along a long and windy road. Cinque Terre means five villages. In Italian Cinque is five and Terre means village. The five villages are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We stayed in a hotel in Monterosso for three nights, and we visited Riomaggiore. In Cinque Terre there are no cars allowed so we had to park far away and walk with our suitcases by hand to our hotel.

    We spent lots of time at the beach. While diving in the very clear water, I found a octopus. It tried to get my face but it missed.

    The beach at Monterosso had stones instead of sand so we made dams out of big rocks at a little stream running on the beach. We made a really good one that blocked so much water we had to make a little outlet for the water to go through. Some boys from Germany helped us with the outlet. I do not know their names because they spoke no English. I only know that they were German because Papa could tell that they were speaking German.

    One day we took a ferry boat along the five villages and we got off at a village called Riomaggiore. It was supposed to have colourful houses but they looked like they needed a paint job because the paint was peeling. We left soon after we got there.

    We had pizza for lunch one day. Papa had a really yummy lemon pizza. It had no tomato base and had ham and lemon juice on it along with slices and rind of lemon. While Papa had the pizza he also had a lemon beer!

    We had a nice time in Monterosso but was it was not as good as all the hype.

    We now are on the home stretch, because now we go back to The Netherlands, then back to England, Vancouver, San Francisco, Fiji, then back home to Gundaroo.

    Lucca
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  • The ancient Roman Coins

    6 июля 2024 г., Германия ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Today Tante Fleur took us to her work to show some old Roman coins she was working on. Tante Fleur is a professor in Archaeology at the Frankfurt University (called the Johan Wolfgang Goethe University). She specialises in the study of ancient coins.
    Her very big office is inside a very big building, the I.G. Farben Building. It has played many important roles in history since its built in 1930, including being the HQ of the US Army in Europe during the Cold War.

    After we got a tray with ancient coins out of the safe at Fleur's work she told me about them all. There were coins that were from the Romans, and coins from the Greeks.

    The Roman coins were very different to each other. Some were very thick, while others were thin. One had a bee on it. One was the size of a small button.

    The Greek ones were very different. There were not as many as the Roman coins.

    There was also a few Egyptian coins as well, but they were Alexandrian.

    We then went to see Krijn play his sport game. He plays floorball, a form of indoor hockey.

    I had a go after the game. I was not very good.

    Krijn then went to a birthday party for his friend while we went to a nearby village where there was a small festival with heritage cars.

    In the evening we got ready for the quarter finals of the Euro 2024 football (soccer) between The Netherlands and Türkiye. The Netherlands won and will be facing England next Wednesday in the semi finals!
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  • Leaving Frankfurt

    8 июля 2024 г., Германия ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today Krijn went to school at seven thirty and Arjan left soon after. Fleur left us by ourselves at eight.

    We had some bread rolls for breakfast and started packing.

    We packed the rest of our stuff and drove back to Wageningen. It took us about 5 hours and we stopped twice.

    We are now back at Oma and Opa's house.

    Bye!
    Lucca
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  • Burgers' Zoo

    9 июля 2024 г., Нидерланды ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    Today we went to a zoo with Oma and Opa. The zoo was called Burgers' Zoo. Burger translates as Of the People so in English it would by called The People's Zoo. It looked a lot like Dubbo Zoo. If you have never been to Dubbo Zoo it is very free range and is very large.

    We went into the bush zone. It was enclosed, temperature controlled, and very humid. At the start you had to put your glasses under a Tapir snout (fake) and the steam would stop your glasses fogging up. There were loose animals there. We saw a Capybara and an Aardvark in a very nice enclosure.

    We then went into the desert zone. We had to go through a dark tunnel to get to the desert. When we exited the tunnel we were in a very realistic desert. There were cacti and there was a Vulture. We saw a Roadrunner and a Porcupine. We were lucky enough to see the porcupine climb up a small tree to get some food. I did not know that porcupines could even climb!

    We exited the desert zone and we walked to the safari zone. In the safari zone we had to protect Mama because there were wild Mice running around and Mama is deadly afraid of Mice.

    In the safari zone there were Lions, Giraffes, Deer, Zebras and Rhinos. There was a little baby Giraffe that was trying to get the food but it was not fully grown and the food was up high. We were on a nice veranda-like-porch above ground. It was very smart except for the trees blocking the view.

    We then walked to the restaurant and had some lunch.

    Next was the mangrove zone. In the mangroves there were lots of loose Butterflies. One even went onto my finger! In the water there were several Manatees. There was one baby one and three adults.

    We then went into the giftshop. I bought a Crab keyring. I called the Crab Bob.

    We then drove back to Wageningen.

    Opa went to a gathering of his club and came back at eight. There was a thunderstorm and Opa had to ride home in the rain.

    I went to sleep and despite the storm I slept well.

    Lucca
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  • Going to Amsterdam

    10 июля 2024 г., Нидерланды ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Today we took a train to Amsterdam. Amsterdam, like Venice has lots of canals.

    We met a friend called Ange at the station. She took us to her house where we met up with her husband, John and their son, Oscar.

    We know them because Mama was Oscar's nanny when he was younger.

    We went to a pancake house that we go to every time we go to Ange, and had some pancakes. I had one with cookies, chocolate syrup, strawberries, and a tub of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. When we paid we got two keyrings of little clogs that said Pannekoek house. Clogs are a type of Dutch shoe made of wood.

    We went back to Ange's house. Ange had to do some work, Oscar went to see a movie and John took Mette, their dog for a walk.

    Mama, Papa and I walked to Dam square and looked around.

    We went inside the Dutch royal palace to buy some tickets to explore the castle. It was very busy so we decided not to go in.

    We then explored Amsterdam's biggest shopping street. It is called Kalverstraat. That is like the Dutch version of Mayfair street.

    We then walked back to Ange's house. On the way we bought some football stuff at a shop called Jumbo. I got a flag, and some snacks for the Dutch/England game later on that night. Ange gave me a Dutch supporter shirt that also turned into a bag! We then relaxed for a little bit.

    We then took John's boat onto the canal. A canal boat is called a "sloep". We then got some pizza.

    We then rode the boat round the canals for a little while.

    While we were riding the boat we went past Anne Frank's house where the annex was. Anne Frank and her family had to hide in a secret annex because they were Jews during the second world war. While they were hiding Anne wrote a diary. I am reading it.

    We then headed back.

    At nine o clock we watched the England/Netherlands game on their TV. Because Ange and her family are British they were going for England. Mama was also going for England. That left Papa and I to go for the Netherlands. At the start the Netherlands did a really good goal. A few minutes later England got a penalty and scored. It was now 1-1 and it stayed that way until the second half.

    Because it was late I went to bed but in the morning Mama told me that England had scored in the last minute and won 2-1.

    I really enjoyed today.

    Lucca
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  • Van Gogh Amsterdam

    11 июля 2024 г., Нидерланды ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    When I woke up today Mama told me that England had won and would face Spain in the grand final of the Euro Cup. We had breakfast and left the house quickly because we had 09.15 tickets for the Van Gogh museum.

    We then walked to the Van Gogh museum. Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch painter. He was the guy who cut of his ear and shot himself.

    He painted Starry Starry night, Sunflowers, and The Bedroom. He also painted lots of paintings of himself so that he could practise painting people because models were very expensive back then.

    When we got to the museum we had to wait a little while for Ange because she had to do a quick work call.

    In the museum there were lots of his paintings. On the first floor there were all his self-portraits. At a desk we got a treasure hunt where we had to find certain pictures and describe them. At the end you got a prize.

    We looked at all the floors. We saw the original sunflowers and lots of other originals.

    There was an extra exhibit that showed some more of his paintings including the Bedroom. One of his paintings was painted outside during a storm so there are little grains of sand in a painting.

    I managed to complete the treasure hunt and got stickers, tattoos and a postcard with Pikachu as one of his paintings.

    Ange bought me a Playmobile figure of Vincent Van Gogh painting the Sunflowers.

    We then went to the Hard Rock Café for lunch. I had a Messi burger and received a stress golden soccer ball. Ange had some nachos and Papa helped her finish them because there was quite a lot.

    We then walked slowly back to Ange's house, stopping every now and then to look at shops. Ange bought me a rubber duck from the Mama Duck Shop. It looked like a Viking so I called him Erik the Ducking.

    We then had to pack to go back to Oma and Opa.

    We said goodbye to Oscar, Ange, and John and got onto our train.

    We arrived back in Wageningen about an hour later and Opa drove us home.

    Lucca
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  • Groningen-Jolien

    12 июля 2024 г., Нидерланды ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Today we drove for 2hrs and arrived at a friend's house in Groningen. Her name is Jolien. She is a very special friend of ours. Papa use to babysit her! We arrived at her new house and gave her a plant that I called Bob.

    Because it was a really rainy day we were unable to go and explore her town. We stayed indoors and played some games. One was a new game we learnt. It was a spy game where there were all these code words and some are red and some are blue. There were two teams. Mama and Jolien against Papa and I. You would say one word and a number and the other person on your team would have to guess what you were thinking of. If they got it wrong and accidently chose the black one the game was over. It was very hard.

    Jolien and Papa braved the rain to get Chinese food for dinner. While they were gone, Jolien's boyfriend Hidde arrived home from work very wet. He had been riding his bike. We had not met him yet and he is very nice.

    Papa and Jolien came back with a huge amount of food and a Donald Duck comic book for me.

    We ate and ate. It was okay Chinese food.

    Tomorrow we leave Jolien's house and go to a house warming party.

    Lucca
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  • The House Warming Party

    13 июля 2024 г., Нидерланды ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Today we had breakfast and said goodbye to Jolien and Hidde.

    We then drove to a friend's house in Friesland. Their names were Kaj, Edmee, and Justus.

    Justus and I played with his toys and played chess. We made a Hot Wheel course, but it did not really work. I read some Donald Duck magazines. Justus has a subscription for the Weekly Donald Duck so he has lots of the magazines. He let me keep 3 of them.

    We stayed at their place for a while having morning tea and lunch there and then we drove to Harmen and Marieke's for a house warming party with all of Papa's sailing friends. Their house is surrounded by forest and is very calm. They have a dog called Wiebe he is a mini schnauzer.

    We had dinner there. Sharon, one of Papa's friends, gave me a 2000 piece puzzle! It is set in a library with all these funny things going on it. There is a mummy in it returning 3 overdue scrolls and the fine is over 3,000,000 dollars.

    I threw a baseball with some other kids at the party.

    It was very late when we went home to Oma and Opa.
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  • Family and friends

    14 июля 2024 г., Нидерланды ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    In the morning we went to Papa's cousin Bjorn's house. He has a wife, Annemiek and two children, Sven and Julia. Sven and Julia are my second cousins. They live in the town of Rosmalen.

    We had a typical Dutch breakfast with Hagelslag, cheese, and Duo Penotti. Hagelslag is a type of chocolate sprinkle and Duo Penotti is a Nutella but also with white chocolate.

    After breakfast Sven and Julia gave me a tour of their new house. It looks like a castle.

    After that we went outside and played hockey. Sven and Julia both play Hockey so there were lots of spare hockey sticks. When I accidently hit Julia with the hockey stick, she said that maybe we should play soccer instead. Later I told her I was sorry that I hit her with the stick on the shin, she said it was fine and it happened a lot.

    After a little bit of soccer, we went inside and played on their PlayStation. Because there were only two controllers, Julia and I went first. We played Sack Boy: A Big Adventure. It was my first time playing Sack Boy and I really liked it. After two levels Sven had a turn at his game. It was a FIFA world cup game. He is very good at it.

    We then had to go to some other friends so we said goodbye and drove off.

    The friends we were going to visit are Dutch friends from Australia who moved back to The Netherlands in 2022. The parents are called Michiel and Annabelle, and the kids are called Thomas and Abel. Michiel and Annabelle have been papa's friends since their early twenties, and they moved to Australia in the same year that Papa and Mama did! Even though they lived in Brisbane we regularly saw them. Thomas is only a few months younger than me, Abel is two years younger.

    When we arrived Thomas and Abel showed me their new house in the village of Zeist. It was very cool. We then went outside. Thomas and I took turns shooting at the basketball hoop on the garage. Meanwhile Abel was making a sort of ramp that he rolled balls down. It was very cool. After a while Thomas and I joined him. We made a really cool track with jumps and drops. It was very fun.

    We then went on a bush walk in the forest behind their house. We took their dog Migaloo on the walk as well. He is a Labradoodle. We had lots of fun exploring the forest but we had to head home. When we were back at their house we made a campfire. Michiel and Abel wanted to melt an aluminium can to see what would happen. Unfortunately the can did not melt. We had fun chopping the wood with an axe head we found. We also started a project, Migaloo had made a hole in the ground, so we got a long pointy stick and a hammer and drove it into the ground. It was very fun, but tiring.

    It was getting late so we had to head home.

    I had lots of fun today.

    Lucca
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  • Relaxing days with Oma and Opa

    15–17 июл. 2024, Нидерланды ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Over the past few days we have had a very relaxing time.

    On our last night in The Netherlands, Wil and Fran, Papa's Uncle and Aunt and Oma's sister and brother-in-law, came over for dinner. Papa had made a lasagne and we all ate and ate. Unfortunately I was not feeling very well so after dinner I choose to have an early night and lay in bed reading Donald Duck comics.

    Donald Duck comics are really popular with Dutch children. There is a weekly comic that you can get a subscription for. The weekly comic has been going for so long that Opa had a subscription when he was a child in the 1950s! They also make special comics for Christmas and summer holidays. I have a few of the special books at home.

    Papa, Opa and I tried to do the two thousand piece puzzle that I got from the house warming party. We did the side pieces and some of the inside. I would say that we did maybe a tenth of it.

    Opa and I went on several walks into town and to his garden together. It was really fun spending that time with him.

    Opa's garden is an allotment garden, shared by the town. It is around three hundred meters away from Oma and Opa's house. Although Oma and Opa have a big garden they only have a small garden for flowers at the front of their house. Because Opa likes gardening he goes to the shared garden because he wants to grow fruit and veggies.

    In the garden Opa and I found some good berries to use as ammunition for my slingshot. Some went really well, while others just went maybe one meter.

    Besides that we have been relaxing in Wageningen.

    Next, on Wednesday, we fly from Amsterdam to Birmingham.

    Lucca
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  • Rental Car Problems

    17 июля 2024 г., Англия ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Today we travelled from Amsterdam airport to Birmingham airport.

    We got off the plane and then had a really long wait for our suitcases.

    We went to the place where you picked up the rental cars. When we got there it was not there! We had to make some phone calls and we found out that the car was only available for pick-up for one hour! Because our flight was delayed we missed this window. We asked them for another car but they said they were sold out! We found out later that they did in fact have other cars.

    We had to go to other car companies and asked if we could rent a cheap car because the other company would not give us our money back!

    They kept saying that they did not have any cars left.

    Finally we hit a jackpot. We loaded our stuff into the car. Because we are traveling for three months we have lots of luggage. And surprise, surprise our luggage would not fit in the car.

    When we got another car which could fit all of our luggage, we drove off to Leicester. We are staying with Uncle Chris and Aunty Toria for one more night.

    Tomorrow we drive to Bath see you then

    Lucca
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  • Paintball Fun with Uncle Chris

    18 июля 2024 г., Англия ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we woke up and had breakfast.

    Mama and Papa went to go buy another suitcase because one of ours was broken.

    While they were gone Chris and I found the perfect ammo for my slingshot. Chris had little yellow rubber balls. He let me take a few home because they were awesome.

    We then got out Chris' paintball gun. We loaded it with the yellow rubber balls. While we were loading it I heard a hissing sound. I told Chris and he said the gas in the gun must be leaking!

    We got Chris's other paintball gun and loaded her up with the rubber balls. We chose Chris' punching bag as the target because we could pretend it was a human. I opened fire.

    We had to stop using the rubber balls because they were going really fast and we thought it would pierce through the punching bag. We changed over to orange paintballs, but we had the same problem!

    We got some boxes and used those instead. Chris told me to go into the garage and try to find the Nerf Gun target so we could use that. Although I did not find the target I found a big bag of toy soldiers. I brought them to Chris and asked if we could use them as targets as well. He said yes.

    We had fun four the next half hour shooting the toy soldiers. We had to stop using paintballs though because it was making a mess. We switched back over to the rubber balls and get shooting until the gun ran out of gas as well.

    When Mama and Papa arrived back with a new suitcase, Papa was sad that the gun had no gas because he wanted to have a go.

    We then said goodbye and drove to Bath.

    When we arrived it was time for dinner. We went to Pizza Express, which is like Dominos except it is only in England.

    We went to our B&B and went to sleep.

    Lucca
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  • Stonehenge and Diddly Squat Farm

    19 июля 2024 г., Англия ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Today we went to Diddly Squat Farm. It is run by the famous Jeremy Clarkson. He is from an old British TV show about cars called Top Gear. Him and two others test and race cars. He became a farmer after his farmer retired leaving no one to look after his farm. Jeremy had a genius idea that he could run the farm. His farm manager has been nicknamed Cheerful Charlie by Jeremy because Charlie always gives him bad news about something he has done wrong.

    Because of him being so famous, many people come to his farm shop. We'd heard about queues of up to 2 hours long, so many had decided to be there before the opening of the shop (at 0930). That's why we left early from home and got to Diddley Squat Farm just before 9am after a 1 hr and 45 min drive.

    When we got there the line was about fifty people long but when we left it was maybe three hundred people long and the car park was chaos.

    We got into the shop and bought some bacon, tomatoes, and some smelly f***ers. A smelly f***er is something that you melt in a oil burner and it produces a nice smell.

    We had breakfast at the lambing shed that was turned into a restaurant. Mama and I had bacon sandwiches while Papa had a sausage sandwich. I also had frozen cow juice which was soft serve ice cream.

    We then went home for a while to put our shopping in the fridge, and then we went to Stonehenge. We had tickets for 4.30pm.

    Even though Stonehenge is not the world's only stone circle nor the biggest it is by far the most famous. We drove to the visitor centre which was under a huge rain cover.

    We got onto the bus that took us to the henge. While on the bus we got good views of the weird mounds in the ground. We later found out that there were people buried under there.

    Stonehenge was built four and a half thousand years ago (neolithic age) and is one of the most mysterious things on the planet. It is mysterious because there are big stones on top of other stones and they did not have cranes back then. I wonder how it was built. Maybe aliens made it or giants? But if humans made it, it is very strange and very advanced for 4,500 years ago! Another thing is that the stones form a perfect circle and certain stones mark where the sun sets at the solstices and equinoxes. The equinoxes are when the time of day and night are exactly the same amount of time and the solstices are when the night (winter solstice) or day (summer solstice) is the longest it will ever be. Both happen twice a year. So maybe the people who built it used it as a calendar? It is very weird and well planned.

    Stonehenge is a very busy tourist attraction but we managed to avoid the crowds by arriving late in the afternoon. We were still at the stones at 6:30pm and just about had the place to ourselves!

    One of the stones had a sort of unicorn horn on it sticking out of the top of the stone. I asked a guard what it was for. He said it was like the world's first Lego set because the stones on top had a hole in it and they slotted together, giving the structure strength just like Lego.

    We sat at a bench for an hour overlooking the stones. It was very calming and two rabbits hopped by. For a while we all sat with our shoes and socks off with our feet touching the grass. It was very nice to be in sync with nature.

    We took lots of photos but lots had other people in them as the bench we were sitting at was about twenty meters away from the henge and just about all the time people were in that twenty meters.

    At the gift shop Mama bought me a giant lemon flavoured lollypop and a Horrible Histories book about the stone age.

    I really enjoyed today and learnt a lot.
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  • Bath & Fairford

    20–21 июл. 2024, Англия ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    After the big day of Stonehenge and Diddly Squat farm on Friday, we thought it would be nice to have a day exploring Bath on Saturday. We saw lots of cool things like a big market and a river. The market was indoors and the river had some artificial waterfalls serving as a boat lock in it!

    On Sunday we went to Mama's first family that she worked for as a nanny. They are the Brown family. On that day there was also a big jet plane show called Fairford Air Tattoo which flew right over their house. They have a glass roof in the sun room so we were able to se the planes fly over from inside! It was a RAF show. RAF is the Royal Air Force. It was very noisy. The planes were doing acrobatics and some had colourful smoke trails. We had lunch and desert. The children are of course now adults, Christopher has a baby girl. Nicholas and Christopher both knew about Pokemon and used to play themselves. They took me on a walk around the neighbourhood for a Pokémon walk. We walked past a bakery and we all wanted to get some brownies but sadly the bakery was closed. It was a Community Day in Pokémon Go, I was very pleased to catch lots of shinys.

    Soon we have to go to the Roman Baths that give Bath its name.

    Lucca
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  • The Roman Baths

    22 июля 2024 г., Англия ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Today we went to a place called Sally Lunn's Bunns. It is famous for the Bath bun.

    The restaurant was in a house dating back to 1482. Legend has it that Sally Lunn came to England and started making the buns around 1680.
    I had one with cinnamon and butter. Mama and Papa shared a strawberry jam and cream one and a lemon curd one. Mine was so good I had a second.

    The house that Sally Lunn lived in is the oldest house in Bath. In the cellar there was a little museum and gift shop. After reading some of the information we bought a bun to go, and a magnet.

    We then explored Bath a little bit before we went to the famous Roman Baths that give Bath its name. The baths were built around 70AD, possibly initiated by emperor Claudius' rule.

    We got an audio tour and went into the baths. It is the only one with water still in it. The water was very warm and green.

    In the Roman times they were called Aquae Sulis. They were built on a hot spring hence the warm water. The Romans thought that the hot water was supernatural and built temples to Sulis Minerva there. Sulis Minerva was worshipped for her healing powers, her role as guardian, protector against disease and misfortune.
    In the Roman times people would write curses on a piece of lead and throw it into the water believing that Sulis Minerva would answer the call and curse the person who the writer wanted cursed. She is not the same person as Minerva, the Roman counterpart of Athena.

    In one room it was really cold. In the other it was very warm. One was called the Caldarium. The other was called the Frigidarium. Can you guess which name is for which room?

    The warm room was called the Caldarium and had heated floors which made the room nice and warm.

    The cold room was called the Frigidarium and had a cold water pool. It was like taking an ice bath.

    Bathers would go from one to the other so the rooms were next to each other.

    We handed in the audio tour and went to taste the bath water from the tap before it went into the baths. It was very warm and sulfury.

    At the gift shop Mama and Papa bought me a Horrible Histories book about Romans.

    We then went home and went to sleep.
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  • Phanpy Drama

    24 июля 2024 г., Канада ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Today I got very stressed. I'll tell you what happened.

    We woke up and went to the airport to fly from Vancouver to San Francisco.

    When we went through security, Phanpy got held up. This in itself was not a new thing. Because he is so heavy, Phanpy shows up as dense. What usually happens is they swab him to make sure that there are no drugs in him. But at YVR (Vancouver international Airport) they tried to refuse to let him on the plane. Luckily Mama stepped into action.

    They said I could have Phanpy on the flight if they cut him open and emptied his contents. This has been my worst nightmare since leaving Australia. Mama said "No way Jose!" This went on and on for half an hour.

    Finally they had come to a compromise. They said I could keep Phanpy IF we left him in the cargo hold underneath the plane. While this meant I would be without Phanpy for the flight, Mama and I agreed because it was either that or have him cut open.

    Papa had to rush back to the bag check in and register his bag with Phanpy in it.

    With this solved, we headed out of security wondering if this would also happen when we leave the States.

    We got off the flight a few hours later. We tried to find our way to baggage claim, but the airport was like a maze!

    When we finally arrived at baggage claim I rushed to Papa's back-pack and pulled out Phanpy. The first thing he said to me was "I'm dizzy!" This was to be understood because the baggage claim is on a conveyer belt that goes round and round.

    We then went to the Fiji Airways check in to speak with them about our flight.

    We wanted to move our flight to a few days later than planed. We had been trying to get hold of them since the beginning of June. We had finally gotten a text saying they had tried contacting us, but they had not!

    When we got to the check in there was no one so we now have to wait till our flight from San Francisco to Fiji.

    Lucca
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  • Exploratorium and Pier 39

    26 июля 2024 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Today Papa and I went to a place called Exploratorium in San Francisco. It was the first of all 'learning by doing' science museums in the world, inspiring others like Questacon in Canberra to be built.
    There were lots of cool exhibits. They included a DIY marble run, a geyser that went off every 20 minutes, and an air cannon that fired a beach ball into the air. My favourite thing was a magnetic sand exhibit with two big magnets in it. The magnetic sand would become spiky but felt like fur. You could make a bridge out of the sand and it would hold! We then went outside for other exhibits. There was one where you could make a keystone bridge. A keystone is the final step in making a bridge. You would have blocks and you would make a bridge from them leaving the middle empty. You would then put in the keystone, and the bridge would hold itself! It works because it pushes the wait to both sides evenly. We made a video of me walking on it.

    We then went to Pier 39 to see the Sea Lions again. This time however there were barely any! There were about 8 of them in total. Last time we saw them (in early May) there were hundreds!

    We then went to Fisherman's Wharf and looked at the shops. We bought some donuts and took an Uber home.
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  • Baseball: Giants VS Rockies

    27 июля 2024 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Today we slept in and swam in the pool.

    At 1:00pm Papa and I went to another baseball game. Mama was supposed to join us but she was sick so we went without her.

    Papa and I had food at Taco Bell. I had a cheesy beans burrito and Papa had nachos. We had a dragon fruit ice tea and some nacho chips as well.

    We then entered the ball park.

    The stadium in San Francisco is called Oracle Park and is next to the water. There is a counter in the stadium that shows how many balls have gone into the water. At time of writing it reads 103.

    When we entered we received free cowboy hats because today's theme was "Country Music Day". The hats said SF on the front, and Chevy Truck Country on the back. They are very cool.

    We went into the fan shop and I bought a foam finger and Papa bought a cap. We also bought a magnet because we always get a magnet.

    We sat and watched the game.

    In the second inning our team (The San Francisco Giants) got a home run and was in the lead.

    In the seventh inning the opposing team (The Colorado Rockies) got a home run as well. Luckily we scored two more points that inning and we lead 3-1.

    In the eighth inning we scored again. The batter did a good hit and got to second base. Then the pitcher made a wild throw and the runner was able to steal third base. Then the Pitcher did another wild throw and our runner ran home!

    There was still one inning left and the nerves were killing me! Luckily the Rockies did not score in the last inning and we lead 4-1.

    We had won!!!! This was a very special game because Giants pitcher Blake Snell threw 15 strike outs. This is a personal record for Snell.

    Papa and I made our way out of the ball park and got an Uber.

    We were supposed to make our way to the airport and catch a flight to Fiji at midnight. Unfortunately Mama was really sick and she could not fly because her ears were blocked, and when you go really high really fast, your ears pop. If you have a blocked ear, however your eardrum may explode.

    Mama had to go to hospital and get a certificate saying that she was not fit to fly. This means we will have to say in the USA till Tuesday when there is another San Francisco to Fiji flight.

    See you soon.

    Lucca
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  • Despicable Me 4

    29 июля 2024 г., Соединенные Штаты ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Today Papa and I went to the movies to see Despicable Me 4. Mama is still getting better for our rescheduled flight to Fiji on Tuesday. Because we had nothing else to do Papa and I chose to go to the movies.

    The cinema we went to is called Cinemark. In the movie trailers we found out that there will be a Moana 2 and a movie called The Wild Robot from the people who made How to Train Your Dragon.

    It was a really good movie. I will not say much about it because it might spoil things for those who are going to see it. I will say however that it has super minions, a evil red haired girl, and a cockroach/human hybrid in it.

    Papa and I then went to a diner café called Boulevard Café. I had a mac&cheese with bacon in it, and a chocolate milkshake/ Papa had a burger. The meals were really big and Papa had to finish off my mac&cheese.

    We then took an Uber home and went swimming in the pool.
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  • Fiji

    1–4 авг. 2024, Фиджи ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    For the past few days we have been at a hotel near the airport in Nadi, Fiji. It is called The Crowne Plaza. We are in room 320. We were going to go to Treasure Island but that is far away and because we had to delay Fiji because Mama was sick we did not want to do the boat transfer. This hotel was still being made so it was missing lots of things like a games room.

    We have been relaxing by the pool most of the time. We did not go snorkelling because the beach is not very nice.

    Every morning we had a breakfast buffet. My favourite thing on the buffet were the chocolate muffins.

    On our last day in Fiji Papa and I went ziplining. We went to a place called Sleeping giants Rainforest. There were seven ziplines. On one of them I nearly crashed into the safety padding because I forgot to brake because I was busy hanging upside-down. Luckily the man caught me before that happened. You will be able to see my near crash as Papa got it on film.

    In our group there were some people from Wellington. There were two young girls with their parents. We swam with them in the river.

    After we had lunch Papa and I went swimming in the river there. There was a natural water slide that I found. There was also a jump that you could jump into the river from.

    That night we saw a fire show. It was really cool. The people doing it were very good at it. Unfortunately a woman was sitting in front of me the whole time.

    Besides that we have been swimming in the pool. One of the hotel staff, Sam was really nice. He was the one who brought Mama her drinks when she was in her chair by the pool.

    Tomorrow we go back home. The weather has been very different from when we were in Fiji in May. It has been a lot less humid, but the pools have been colder.

    Lucca
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  • Going home

    4 августа 2024 г., Австралия ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    This morning we took the flight from Nadi to Canberra. The flight was very warm. At the airport David (our housesitter ) was waiting for us. We loaded up the car and drove home in our car.

    Now we are back home. I feel like this is all too surreal. I'll sleep in my own bed tonight and tomorrow I'll even go back to school which I'm really excited for!

    Lucca
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