A long overdue update...

It’s been a long time since the last update and we have lots of catching up to do!

After we left London, we had a huge week at Disneyland Paris.  We got there by car; driving all the way there from Steve and Pat’s place in London.  To get across the Channel, we drove our car onto a train and went across in the tunnel.  It was a bit strange being inside our car inside a train for the trip across, and as soon as we got across everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road!  Luckily, with a lot of concentration from Dad, we finally made it to Disneyland.

Disneyland and Paris was a lot of fun, but we all left totally exhausted and in need of some rest and relaxation.  A couple of weeks ago we made it to Magdeburg (Germany) which is a nice quite city – the perfect place to recover from all the travelling.

Now that we are rested, we need to get up-to-date with the blog.  So let’s start with Disneyland;

Disneyland was great and there was so much to do.   We stayed in a really nice hotel that was a short walk to the Disney Village and the two Disney parks.

Everywhere we went we kept bumping into Disney characters.  Sometimes they were just statues, like Wall-e and Eva, and Mike from Monsters Inc.;

But most of the time they were live characters that we could talk to and cuddle (they didn’t talk back).  We say Mickey, Miney, Goofey, Pluto, Stitch, and lots more…

The cheekiest characters were the chipmunks.  We saw them twice; the first time one of them stole Olivers hat and the second time one of them stole Dad’s hat and sat down to steal Dad’s dinner.

We saw lots of characters at a restaurant called the Mickey Café.  We ate dinner there on the second night and Oliver liked it so much that he wanted to go back there for dinner on his birthday.  We even got a cake!

Stitch and Pluto came out to our table when the cake came out and danced like crazy while they played Oliver a birthday song.

There are lots to see and do in Disneyland.  On the first day we watched a big stunt show with cars going over big jumps and lots of explosions.  We even saw lightning McQueen.

Other than meeting characters and watching shows, the other exciting thing about Disneyland was the rides.  Some of these were heaps of fun, like the Buzz Lightyear ride and the spinning car ride, and some were really scary.

The scariest ride was “Crush’s Coaster”.  It was a really fast roller coaster that was all inside a dark building.  Oliver and I never want to go on it again!

One of Oliver’s favourite rides was “Autotopia”.  In this ride you get to drive your own car around a track.  You have to control the brakes and accelerator and steer the car so that it doesn’t crash into the sides.  It was pretty cool.

One of my favourite things was the exhibition about Disney animation.  There were lots of things to explain how animation works and how to draw Disney characters.  Dad and I learnt how to draw Mickey Mouse.  I also traced some pictures of a worm crawling along and watched it as an animation.  When we got back to the hotel, dad took photos with the camera and made my pictures into a movie;

I was very proud of myself!

On the third day we went in on the train to have a look at Paris.  We walked along the Champs Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe as well as going up in the Eifel Tower;

Eventually our time at Disneyland and Paris ran out and we hit the road again.  We drove all the way from Paris to Magdeburg in one day.  Most of the main roads in Germany don’t have speed limits, so we could go really fast.  Even going really fast, it still took us 10 hours.

We were glad to arrive and start resting.  We have been out exploring Magdeburg and the surroundings in the past couple of weeks, but we’ll leave that for another update.

Tonight we are going to be early because we are starting school in Germany tomorrow.  Maybe Oliver and I will be speaking German when we come home…

Goodbye Edinburgh ... Hello London!

On Friday the 8th of April, we said goodbye to our friends in Edinburgh. :( it was very sad, even a few tears from mum, but we were excited for the next part of our journey.  Here is a photo of Amelie with her best friends from Royal Mile Primary, Trisha and Jorja.  Amelie will miss them very much.

On the way to London we stayed one night at Stoke on Trent, it was about half way to London.  In London we stayed in the city at a hotel.  We only explored London for about 24 hours, but we saw lots.  Here are some photo's of our first afternoon.

First we walked across the bridge and past big ben, and Westminster.  We even saw the church where Prince William and Kate will get married in.  They were already starting to errect scaffolding for seating along the streets.

Then we got some icecreams and walked past Buckingham Palace.  You can tell that the Queen is at home, because the flag is flying.  Also there were police with big guns there to protect her.  We saw the guards at the palace, they weren't allowed to move unless they were doing their special march.

We then walked through Hyde Park ....

Until we got tired legs and took a London black cab ....

To Trafalgar Square!

Then we walked back past the place where they keep the Queens' horses ....

The horses also had to stand very still.

We also took a picture of Paddington Bear with a Guard!

Then we walked back to our hotel where we had dinner .... Ollie's other front tooth came out at dinner time!

We had our baths, it was a nice hotel, with robes and slippers and all.  Ollie and I thought the robes looked like kung-fu clothes.

In the morning, we went on the London Eye, it is a big ferris wheel in the middle of London.  We were up really high!

From the London Eye, we spotted Darth Vader ... so we got a photo with him

Then Mum saw Captain Jack Sparrow, and got a photo too....

After that, we took the "London Underground" which is the train, to a place in Hyde Park called "Speakers Corner".  Dad loves Speakers Corner and goes there every time he is in London.  It is a place were people can go and talk about what ever they like.  The people who are talking usually stand on something like a ladder or a box.  Lots of people go to listen to the people talking and ask them questions and argue.  Here is a photo of one of the speakers at Speakers Corner, and the people listening and asking questions.  Dad thought the mans pants were funny.

Ollie asked Mum who she believed, the man on the ladder, or the man in the grey shirt who was holding a "can" (aka alcoholic beverage) who was arguing with him.... Mum said she didn't know, but Ollie said he believed the man with the can.   hmmmmmm......

After we left Speakers Corner, we went to our Great Aunt Pat's house.  Pat is our Nanny's Aunty .... she is not that old, but she is great .... we stayed at her house and her lovely husband Steve cooked a magnificent barbeque, especially for a pommy, and we got to meet Lucy, Richard and his wife and two kids ... they were all so nice, it felt just like being at home with family!

Here is a picture of our Great Aunt Pat.....

Pat and Steve gave us some very useful tips about travelling on the eurotunnel and driving in Paris ... lucky!  In the morning we headed off to France!!!

Thanks so much Pat and Steve, so nice to catch up with you, looking forward to seeing you guys in Australia!

Mothers Day in Scotland!

Today it was mothers day in Scotland.  Amelie and Oliver have gone to bed after a big day, so I (Megan) am writing up the blog tonight.

We had a lovely mothers day, the kids made some wonderful mothers day cards for me at school which I was not allowed to see until today.  They gave me my weetabix in bed for breakfast and a glass of water.  Although the kids weren't that keen on going out today, we managed to talk them into coming for a drive to Falkirk to see the famous Falkirk Wheel.  Ollie thought that the Falkirk Wheel was a boat flinger and so did not want to go on the wheel at first.  But then we explained to him what it really is.

A long time ago, before cars and trains, canals were dug in the land and filled with water so people could transport things across Scotland by boat.  Before steam engines were invented, the boats were pulled by horses, that walked alongside the canals.  Now that there are cars and trains, they don't use them to transport things, they use them just for fun.

The Falkirk Wheel is a big mechanical wheel (that doesn't really look like a wheel) which holds two gondola's (or containers) of water.  It moves boats from one water canal to another canal 35 metres higher up.  You drive your boat into a gondola at the bottom of the wheel, then some gates close to hold the boat and water in, and the wheel lifts the water and boat up to the higher canal, and vice versa.

The wheel moved very slowly, so that the water didn't spill out and the boat did not rock, so it wasn't very exciting, but very safe.

Here are some pictures of the wheel and of us on the boat that went on the wheel:

When we got back down to the start the kids saw something totally cool that they wanted to try!  They saw water walkers!  The kids climb into a plastic bubble, which is pumped up and then pushed into the water, where they try to stand up, walk, run, jump etc... apparently it is not as easy as it looks. 

Here is Ollie getting in the bubble:

Amelie and Ollie in their bubbles on the water:

Amelie standing up:

and falling down:

and Ollie getting out, looking very happy:

They had a wonderful time and as usual Ollie said today was "the best day ever" and he had "hundreds of fun".  Only 4 more days of school in Scotland, and I know the kids and their friends over here will be a wee (little) bit sad.  They really love their school in Scotland, although I am told it is not as good as Nillo, because their best friends are at Nillo.

Cheers
Megan

fun things

Last Friday (25th March) after School we went to a fun park called the Meadows in Edinburgh and had lots of fun.  To get into the park we climbed through a little tunnel.  We even made mum climb through it as well.  She wasn't very good at it.  They had lots of things to play on, like a flying fox, and a turn table ride where we spun ourselves around and tried to jump on and off.  Daddy spun mum around in a spinning cup thing and she got very sick.  She was laughing so much but said she didn't really like it.  She felt sick all night.

On Saturday we went to lunch with Dad's work friend called Jin, his wife and two girls.  They gave us a box of really yummy cookies!  We had lunch at a chinese yum cha restaurant and it was very yummy.  I loved the noodles the best.  Ollie liked the prawn dumplings, dad tried the tripe and said it was good, mum tried the chicken feet and said they were ok, but not much meat on them!

On Sunday we went to Edinburgh Zoo!  We saw penguins, leopards, monkeys, seals, flamingos (dad said they only had one leg!), cheeky baboons, lions, and painted wild dogs.  The dogs are not really painted by humans.  We saw penguins that looked like the ones off "Surf's Up", and a Pengcow - here is the picture:

Here are some of the other penguins:

My favourite was the baboons because they were very funny, the baby baboons were wrestling and looked so cute!

There was a big building called living links that had heaps of capuchin monkeys that people study.  All the monkeys had necklaces so that the people could tell them appart.  There was a book that told us what their names were based on the colour of their necklace.  The monkey below had a black and yellow necklace. Her name was Ellie!  She was so cute.

The leopards came up very close to the glass screen.

Then we went home and rested up for school on Monday.

On Tuesday it was parent teacher night.  My teachers said I was very good and that they want me to stay in Edinburgh.  Ollie's teacher, Ms Duncan, really likes him and he doesn't seem to be stressing her out, unlike his effect on Ms Strang and Mrs Tag :) .  He has been trying really hard and gets along well with everyone in his class.  He says that he has NEVER got his name on the board at the Royal Mile Primary School, and now remembers to take off his gym shoes, put his homework in his tray and is putting spaces between his words when writing.  He even finally finished a picture that all the other kids had already started before we got to Scotland, all the class clapped and cheered when he finished ... At the Royal Mile Primary School, all the classes have a teacher and a teachers assistant ... I think this makes their job a lot easier!  Mum and Dad were so proud of us!  We will be very sad to leave our new school, but miss our friends at Nillo very much.

Today (Friday 1st April) mum and dad took us to Queens Park to climb up to Arthurs Seat, which is an old volcano!  We drove up to a loch, which is Scottish for a lake, and then climbed up from there.  It was very hard to climb, so we took turns in getting piggy backs from dad to help us up.  It was so windy up there that we nearly got blown off the mountain!  We had to try to stay close to the ground so the wind didn't get us, you can see how our hair was getting blown around in the photos.  I was very scared of the wind, and we were so high up!  Ollie likes the mountain climbing.  After we got to the top, we walked down the whole way with dad, and mum met us at the bottom near the Palace in the car.  Here are some photo's:

As a reward for being "Pete Persistent's" and getting right up to the top, dad took us to the movies to see "Hop", it was really good.

We only have one week to go before we leave Edinburgh, then we go to London for a few days, then Paris for a week, where we will go to Disneyland for Ollie's 6th birthday, and then we will go to Germany to live for 2 months.  Mum and dad said we are going through an underwater tunnel on a train to get to France!

From Amelie