Friends Around the World

I have missed all of my friends from the U.S., but I have made lots of new friends. Making new friends is a great way to get to know a place better. I have made British friends and I have also made American friends at Harlaxton. When I first got to England I made friends with a few of the kids my age who had come to Harlaxton too. These were the kids who helped me find all of the secret passages at Harlaxton. As the weeks went by I got to know a few of the kids on my footy (soccer) team in England. Nathan is one of my favorite British friends, and he and I hang out alot together. I have had fun exploring the woods at Harlaxton with him and going over to his house and climbing trees at a park by his place. It has been a blast. Another boy on my footy team named Reuben and I have become good friends. We have been newt hunting and he and his dad took me to a Nottingham Forest football game! These friends are like my good friends back home because we can cause trouble together! While I was playing with my British buds I was also making new friends with the college students. Who said college students can’t play sports and be fun? Well whoever does is wrong. I will not name all my college friends because you would be hearing a lot so I will only tell you a few:  Dex, Bill, Riley, Anna, Jordan, Griffin, Jack, Emily, Kait, Christy, Ben, Eric, Craig, Sam and Stephanie are a few of the college students I have gotten to know. A few of the Harlaxton kids I have gotten to know are Laith, Michael, Maddie, Brendan, Ryan, and Jacob. I have done almost all of my adventuring at Harlaxton with one of these kids. In the woods we have found bunkers and sniper nests that were used back in the war because British troops were actually stationed at Harlaxton. My friends and I also play board games (Risk) most every day and also Legos. Missing Harlaxton and England friends will be one of the many reasons I will be sad to leave England. Thanks for going on the expedition with me through this blog!

Chess and Bridges

We’re on the go today, so we don’t have much time on the computer. We (Brock and Layla) are doing this blog together! Today we were heading into London. As we were leaving Harlaxton Village, we remembered we’d never blogged about the twist that is on the chimney pots on top of houses here. Most chimney pots just have a boring old rectangular shaped one, but the ones in this village are not plain old normal chimney pots. They are chimney pots in the shape of a chess piece. The ones we could see easily were the rooks and pawns. The idea was made in the 1800s. Since both of us are fans of chess we thought the chess pieces were so cool. They were meant to be guards, but all we were thinking was how to get on the roofs and start playing. If you ever need giant stone chess pieces, you know where to look for them. In that same little village there is a small little post office that we use for most everyday foods because it is like a mini grocery store. You can find these chess chimney pots all over England. Speaking of which, you can see them in London. That’s where we spent most of the day. One of our favorite places in London to see is Tower Bridge. We learned it used to be the largest bascule bridge ever. That is interesting if you know what bascule means, but we had to remind ourselves by looking it up. It is French and means "see-saw". The bascules were operated by hydraulics and used steam to pump the engines. The bascules still run by hydraulic power but starting in 1976 they use oil and electricity and not steam to power the engines. It took 8 years and over 400 workers to build Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge is on the River Thames. As a special thing, in 1977 the Tower Bridge was painted red, white and blue for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebration. This year is the Queen’s 60^th Jubilee which is her 60^th year as Monarch. They call it the Diamond Jubilee. There are things all over England celebrating this. Maybe they will put diamonds on the Tower Bridge! When we saw it in person, though, it had bright blue trim and was beautiful.

Lake District

As the days are ticking down we tried to pick our last few places to visit. We wanted to pick a stunning place because we realized we are actually very sad to leave England. We settled on the Lake District. The Lake District has majestic mountains and shiny lakes. First we wanted to visit a town right by the sea, so we chose Barrow-Furness. We went to the docks and looked at ships and seagulls. I saw Navy ships and I found out that they make submarines in Barrow as well. I saw a few jelly fish too! I also learned Emlyn Hughs was born in Barrow-Furness. He used to be the captain of the England national team and also Liverpool FC. That made me want to play footy, so we did that. We also played footy tennis, badminton, golf, and the best part was hiking. We did so much in the Lake District. We drove way up into the mountains and stopped at a place called Elterwater village for the hiking. We saw lots of sheep and I even saw a few lambs practicing head-butting each other. They were so cute. We walked parallel to a small stream. The stream got bigger and faster and then there was a small waterfall! It was small, but powerful. The sound was exactly like the ones you use to fall asleep. I loved it. We walked a little more and we saw another waterfall. This one was 42 feet tall! It was called the Colwith waterfall. We had to start heading back to Harlaxton, but I would go back to the Lake District in a heartbeat. On the way home (to Harlaxton) we stopped in a quaint town called Windermere. The town had a main road with lots of small shops. All of the shops had their own charm. The town sat on a huge body of water. The day was fantastic.

Greenwich and Prime Meridian

Outside of London there is a small town called Greenwich. Greenwich is small, but it is on almost every physicists bucket list. Greenwich is the Prime Meridian of the world. The Prime Meridian separates east and west which makes it control time too. Many representatives from different cities got together in 1884 in D.C. and decided which city should be picked to be the Prime Meridian of the world. Out of all of them Greenwich was picked. One of the main reasons Greenwich was picked was because over 2/3 of the ship maps used Greenwich for the Prime Meridian. When we got there we looked for the signs that said The Royal Observatory. The Royal Observatory is where the big Prime Meridian part is. All around The Royal Observatory there is a beautiful park with lots and lots of dogs being walked. Right in the middle of the flat park there is a big hill that does not seem to really fit. On top of the hill sits the Royal Observatory. We went into a museum and saw lots of cool telescopes. Some were huge. We got to see a section of a 40-foot reflecting telescope that was used by William Herschel. He’s the guy that discovered Uranus! There were also lots of sundials and clocks. One clock used time with degrees instead of numbers, which made 12 o’clock equal -360. We walked outside onto a porch where there was a line going straight with a point going out. This was the exact line for the Prime Meridian. At the moment I was on the west side of the world. I walked up and all of a sudden I was on the east. I started jumping from one side to the other like a two year old. How many times can you be standing on 0 degrees longitude? We then headed back toward the middle of Greenwich. As we were walking we saw a market. We walked through and I got a fruit kabob. It was tasty. Greenwich was fabulous.

Newts

It was just a regular day walking around the Harlaxton grounds when I remembered how people had told me there were newts all over the woods. I decided to give it a shot. I walked to a small stream and started looking around. I picked up a rock and there laid a small newt! I was so excited. I really did not expect to find one so I was a little off guard. I played with him/her and got a few pictures. I then let it go. That night I was getting a little antsy so a college student and I went and we caught six more. We let each one go after we caught them. I went home, but at around eight I was starting to go crazy because I could not stop thinking about the newts. I went out with a flashlight (called a "torch" in England) and I immediately found out they are nocturnal. I caught nine easily. I brought them all back and my mom found a bowl for them. Then I looked up some things about them. All the sights made it sound like I had smooth belly newts. The smooth newt is the most common newt in the UK. The smooth newt is known for their smooth orange bellies. The next day I went back and looked a little more. I was getting a obsessed with the little critters. I walked back to the stream and checked a few more things out. I did not find newts, but I did find newt tadpoles that were so cool. Just like frogs, newts have tadpoles. The tadpoles that I found were only about 1/50 of the size of the grown-up newts I found. You could tell they would be easy prey, but that is why there are thousands of them. A lot might be eaten, but a lot would not. That is the newt way of life. Now the newt way of life is get out of the pond alive, grow into a newt, GET CAUGHT BY ME, get placed back in the wild, and then grow up. Newts beware, Brock is here!

Rutland

Rutland is where we went today. Rutland is a beautiful county with a huge lake and nature reserve. When we got there we were met with an outstanding view of Rutland Water. Rutland Water was completed in 1973 and at the time was the largest manmade reservoir in Great Britain. You could see people fishing, boating, and even just laying out on blankets to enjoy the water. We decided to walk around the lake. As we walked we saw what was set up to be a bug hotel. That is what they make to help bugs have a good habitat. Over 2,000 different species of bugs live in an average garden and they made the hotel work for all the bugs! It is meant to help save insects that are going extinct. One of the pictures you see is the bug hotel. We walked two more feet and we saw an osprey nest that people could help make. I got to put a stick on it. One of the nature wardens was holding a small male chaffinch. A chaffinch is a small bird with a pretty orange breast (the male has more colors than the female). The worker said that the bird had flown into a window so he was taking care of it for a little bit. It was cute. We walked back the way we came. If we would have walked the other way and kept walking around the lake we would have done a full 9-mile circle. We saw a sailing club called Chandlery and we stopped inside for lunch. It was tasty. We then walked back and enjoyed a little more time by the water, laying out a blanket to read books. Rutland is one of the prettiest places I have seen yet.

Bats

Harlaxton Manor holds many surprises. One of the best surprises is the endangered species of Barbastelle bat that lurks in the Harlaxton coal tunnels. There are only four colonies of the Barbastelle bat in all of Britain and Harlaxton is one of them. Harlaxton Manor is also home to the noctural bat, the biggest bat in Britain, the long eared bat, and the pipistrelle, the smallest bat in Britain. There are 18 species of bat in Britain and 11 can be seen in our county, Lincolnshire. A few people come to Harlaxton several times a year to check and make sure the bats are okay. My family and another family were really interested in the bats, so the people were nice enough to bring some in to the Van der Elst Room. They came in with three wooden boxes. They explained that the boxes were bat boxes and that they had live bats inside. We got really excited. The first bat they showed was the long eared bats. I did not understand why they called it the long eared bat because it had anything but long ears. But all of a sudden two huge ears unfolded from the bat’s head. The ears were almost the size of the body! The next bat they brought out was the pipistrelle. It could have fit through a door crack it was so small. It was the size of a half dollar. It was so cute. Finally they brought out the nocturnal. It was over two times the size of the pipistrelle. A noctural can weigh 40 grams and an average pipistrelle only weighs about 5 grams. The pipistrelle might be small, but it has a huge diet. Like all bats in Britain it eats insects and if you have an insect problem call the Pipistrelle Busters. A pipistrelle can eat over 3,000 bugs in one night. The people told us many fascinating facts. I hope I have not batted you away from my blog by posting this.

Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon is a small town that sits proudly upon the river Avon. Stratford has a huge history compared to the town’s quaint size. Stratford is where William Shakespeare, one of the best play writers of all time, was born. William Shakespeare wrote many famous plays including Romeo and Juliet, the Tempest, and the Twelfth Night. Shakespeare is known for how he puts all types of acting into his plays. There are drama, comedy, love, and lots of other types of acting in Shakespeare’s plays. The words in the plays are hard, so we have been reading lines from a certain play to make sure we understand things. Our reward was to go to a Twelfth Night play production! The play was amazing. The people made it so it was like the 21^st Century version. I loved the play. The next morning was Easter. I had a surprise in store for me. The Easter Bunny had visited! We had our own small Easter egg hunt at our Bed in Breakfast. I got candy, gold coins, and British coins. It was so fun. Since it was Easter and we were in Stratford we went to the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare was baptized and buried. The Church has huge organs that are played. In one song they had people playing trumpets while the organs were playing. At one part you got to light candles. When everyone blew them out the Church was filled with swirling smoke. Holy Trinity was beautiful. After the Church we went and had lunch at a Thai restaurant. The food was delicious. We then walked through the Stratford-upon-Avon Market. The Market had lots of wood and stone crafting. The market passed us by where Shakespeare was born and grew up. It was funny because on the road it went modern house, modern house, 15 Century house, and modern house. They have kept Shakespeare’s house in good condition. We stopped in a map store with maps as old as 1600s maps. We also stopped in a bookstore with lots of Shakespeare books. We also passed by an archeology dig on Shakespeare’s grown-up house. It was a big pit with people looking at stone walls and digging at the ground. We then walked and looked at the river Avon. There were lots of pretty swans. By the river there is a big statue of Shakespeare with four people from his many plays. They were Hamlet (who represented Philosophy), Lady Macbeth (who represents Tragedy), Falstaff (who represents Comedy), and Prince Hal (who represents History). The statues were stunning. At that time is was time to go, but I would go back to Stratford-upon-Avon in a heartbeat.

Burghley House

A Harlaxton group took a field trip to Burghley House, and my mom signed us up to go. Burghley House really should be Burghley Mansion. William Cecil, who was the first Lord Burghley, started building the Burghley House in 1555 and it was finished in 1587. William was made Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I after the old Treasurer, Lord Winchester, died. That made William Cecil one of the most powerful men in the country of Britain. William made a whole area for the queen that included a bathroom, changing room, dining room, bedroom, and lounging area. The funny thing is that she was only there for a few nights! William Cecil died, but that was not the end of the Cecil line. John Cecil was the next person in line for the Burghley House. He was called the traveling Earl because he traveled to so many places. John brought many things back from his travels to help make the Burghley House even more amazing (there are hundreds of paintings and even whole fireplaces he brought back). Brownlow was next on the throne. He is remembered for starting the amazing gardens all around Burghley. David Cecil, another Lord Burghley that came later, is known for his athletic achievements. Lord Burghley won a Gold Medal for the 400 meter hurdle in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. He won silver in the 400 meter team relay in 1932 in Los Angles. They had a room where you could see his shirt, gold medal, silver medal, and lots of other things he used in the Olympics. In one part of the Burghley house they had a room about the kings and queens of England. One question asked did Henry the VIII owned 50 palaces. I was sure nobody could own that many houses, but I was wrong. He owned 55! He even ordered a whole town called Cuddington in Surry to be flattened so that he could build a huge palace called Nonsuch over it. He was a greedy guy! Another part showed you Elizabethan words from the Elizabethan times. Two words I learned were Prithee which means please and Grammarcy which means thank you. Would you prithee pass the tea Ma ’dam? Grammarcy. One of my favorite parts of the day was going to see the farrow deer in the yard outside Burghley House. Farrow deer are a type of deer that were brought by William Cecil to Burghley as his personal animal. There are 160 acres for all 400 wild farrow deer. They are amazing creatures with crazy long horns. Grammarcy for reading my blog!

Grantham Mid-Lent Fair

We went to the Grantham Fair. Grantham holds a big fair two times a year. The one we went to is the Mid-Lent Fair because it is in the middle of lent. The fair dates back to the 1400s! Of course now they sell cotton candy instead of cattle. Now they also have rides. We walked through the fair looking at all the things that are the same as fairs back home and at things that are different. Many of the prize things are the same. You can win goldfish and stuffed animals at a lot of the stalls. There was a big area for bumper cars. I really wanted to do it. Some college students, my mom, and I rode on the bumper cars. It was so “bumpy” that my sunglass lens broke off. Every time I got bumped or I bumped someone else I thought my teeth would fall off. The bumper cars here jolt you around more than the ones back home. I also ate some fair food. I tried fried donuts that had a lot of powdered sugar on top. It was so good. The fair was terrific.

Costume Ball

Last night Harlaxton College had a costume ball for all the students and we were excited to go. I saw a king, Sherlock Holmes, and even members of the Blue Man Group. Even all the professors and staff got dressed up, and those are the people in the photo. My sister wore a Rapunzel outfit and my mom wore a hippie costume. I was a gladiator. I had no weapon so I made myself a bow and arrow. I went to the Harlaxton woods to look for the perfect big stick. I found it. I also found some string to make the stick into a bow. I then got an arrow (a chopstick!). I was ready to go. We walked up to the castle for the ball. We ate a fancy meal in the Long Room. Then we went to the Great Hall to boogey to the DJ’s music. It was so fun. We even started a huge Congo line. I heard almost every song in the book. The costume ball was fantastic.

BBC and Wicked Fun

On Friday we went to London. We have been to London many times, but you can never get tired of it. We first were at Trafalgar Square. It is a big square right in the heart of London, and there are four big bronze lions in the square that I like to climb on. Right now there is also a big Olympic countdown clock that is ticking down the time until the Olympics start. The Olympics will be held in London so everybody is excited. After spending a little time in Trafalgar we went to the Thames, a river in London. We went on a river cruise! The Elsea family had been in London and we met back up for the cruise. Our ship was called the Symphony. When we got on we were assigned our seats and off we went down the river. We passed Big Ben and the London Eye, but the highlight was going under the Tower Bridge. I have walked around and over the Tower Bridge, but I had never seen under it. It was cool because everything went darker as we went under the bridge. Next it was time for us to say goodbye to the Elseas and for my mom to put on her professor hat. She had arranged for her classes to go on a BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) field trip and the students met us there for a tour. I got to see so many amazing things. I got to stand in TV studios. I also got to stand in a green room the Beatles were in. A green room is where actors sit before their show. Many of the actors were picky and had to have everything their way. We learned about one singer who had to be carried everywhere he went! He refused to walk on the stairs or take the lift (an elevator). Can you guess who it was? I will tell you in a minute. At the BBC I also got to be on a trivia game. I lost, but it was fun. I have heard lots of great things about BBC and I agree that they are all true. We next went to Wicked the musical. Wicked is like the Witches side to the Wizard of Oz. It was amazing. The singing was Wicked! The day was perfect. And for my friends who are having Spring Break this week, I hope your days are perfect too. The person who I was talking about being picky and having to be carried was Prince.

Cambridge

Cambridge is a town about an hour and a half train ride from Grantham. It sounded like a fun place to go to so that is where we went. When we got there we headed toward the Eagle Inn. The Eagle Inn is an awesome 600 year old Pub. It is where DNA was first discussed. DNA (DeoxyriboNucleicAcid) is a self-replicating material. It is the key factor to life. James Watson and Francis Crick were the first people to discuss DNA. At the Eagle I ate Fish and Chips (fish and fries). It was delicious. After the Eagle we went to the Market. Next we did a small treasure hunt that was meant to take you around Cambridge. It passed us by buildings that looked like mini castles, King's College that looked like a HUGE castle, and lots of other cool things. King's College was beautiful and is one of 31 colleges part of the University of Cambridge, one of the best universities in the world. I loved Cambridge!

Segovia

Segovia was our destination. Segovia is a town my parents fell in love with about twelve years ago. And it is the town I was created in! I had heard so much about it. Segovia is known for its Roman Aqueducts and castle. An Aqueduct is an old Roman water system. Water will slide down a series of stones into a water house. Then the water would be collected. The Aqueducts stand tall in the air and they are held up by arches. There are 167 arches in this Aqueduct. On part of the Aqueduct there is an arch in the middle too. The Aqueduct was made almost 2,000 years ago. I climbed one of them and I felt like king of the world (stone). By the Aqueduct we walked around in a square called La Plaza del Azoguejo. After the Aqueducts we steered toward the castle, called an Alcazar. The Segovia Alcazar dates back over 800 years ago. It was made upon a hill so that everyone for a long ways could see it. After the Alcazar was used as a castle it turned into a State Prison. In 1762 the Alcazar changed again into a Royalty Artillery School. About a hundred years later a fire burned down lots of the Alcazar. The Alcazar was fixed and later turned into a Military College. It is now a museum. We walked around the Alcazar. I got to see cannons used in the Royal Artillery School. They were huge. After sticking my head in a cannon and trying to make it fire we walked up the tower. The tower is the tall part where guards would patrol. We had to walk 152 stairs to get to the top. What a climb! At the top you could see miles. I could see every part of Segovia. From the view I could see lots of big birds nesting on the tops of trees. They were storks. Those must have been the birds that delivered me! The castle was great. We went to an ice cream shop two different days. On the last day I had a cone with a scoop of strawberry cheesecake and a scoop of white chocolate ice cream. I liked it so much that I can't wait to go to Segovia again.                         

Madrid

Madrid is where the Elsea family and my family went after Barcelona. Madrid is the capital of Spain. We first went to Plaza de Sol and then went to Plaza Mayor. Plaza Mayor is a huge courtyard with a big arch to walk on each corner. Lots of street performers were walking around. There was a big statue of a man riding a horse and a pretty clock on one of the buildings. The statue was King Philips III. He was king when the Plaza was created. Next we headed to Restaurant Botin for linner (that's what we say is lunch/dinner since we ate in the middle of the afternoon!). Botin was Ernest Hemingway's favorite place to eat in Spain. Hemingway is my mom's favorite writer. In one of his books we have at my home he describes the restaurant, and my mom wanted to go back there because she said the food is delicious and that it is the world's oldest working restaurant (since 1725). I was excited. Inside you walk down a spiral staircase into a room that has rocky, old walls. It was cool. I ordered King Prawn. I loved it. Madrid was great!

Barcelona, Spain

The Elsea family and my family explored Barcelona. There were lots of things to see and do. We first went to the La Sagrada Familia (the Sacred Family), who were a super rich family who wanted something to be remembered by in Barcelona and all the people in it. The Palace is huge. The Palace was started in 1909 and it is still being worked on today. You can tell why too. Every square foot has multiple designs. Two big towers shoot up from the top of the roof. You can see two more being worked on. what makes the Palace the most beautiful is the fashion. Since many different people have worked on the Palace there are many different designs. There will be a square pattern and then all of a sudden a triangle pattern. This is the cause of many different designers. After the stunning Palace, we walked on the La Rambla. La Rambla is the busiest and most popular street in Barcelona. People walked up and down the street. Next we went down to the sea by a port. The sea we went down to was the Mediterranean. It was so pretty. By the sea was a huge aquarium. We went inside and looked around. I saw cuttlefish, sharks, octopi, and lots of other cool fish and mollusks. A fish that got me excited was the Long-horn Cowfish. I had done a report on them at school. We took a picture and that is the yellow fish you see in the picture. Our next stop was a Picasso museum. It had many of his paintings. Picasso lived in Barcelona for part of his life. Many of the paintings were made by him at age 15! You could see how he changed his style completely over his lifetime. I liked the museum. I thought Barcelona was great!

Barca Footy

GOAL!!! I went to a Barcelona match! It was amazing. I felt like I was in a wave of blue, red, and yellow. It was ten times better than I thought it would be. When you first see the inside of the stadium it takes your breath away. Barcelona is my favorite team. Lionel Messi who plays on Barcelona is my favorite player. He is so good that Barcelona signed (recruited) him at age 13. The stadium was HUGE!!! Here is a comparison to the Lucas Oil Stadium where I have cheered on the Colts and the Barcelona Stadium. The Lucas Oil Stadium has 63,000 seats and the Barcelona stadium has about 99,000. Barcelona played Granada. Barcelona beat them 5-3. The first half Barcelona dominated scoring two beautiful goals. The second half had a turnaround. In the first five minutes Granada scored off of a cross. Then only about ten minutes later Granada got a penalty and they scored! At that point it was 2-2. Barcelona needed to pump it up. That is exactly what happened. Messi came in and dribbled between two defenders. He fired it in and the crowd erupted. On top of the goal, Messi had just beat a Barcelona record for the most goals! Messi broke Cesar Rodriguez's 57-year Barca record. Not long after number 23 on Barcelona scored again. Granada was still fighting strong. They got another penalty and they scored! 4-3 Barca. Right at the end of the game Messi scored again for a hat trick! I was so happy. The game was GREAT! 

London for Mum's Day

This weekend we went to London. In London we went to Camden Lock Market. It is called the Camden Lock Market because it is right by the Camden Lock which is a waterway. Camden Market is one of the biggest and busiest markets in London. It has over 1,000 different market stalls. Camden Market has food, book, clothes, shoes, knickknacks, and toy stalls. At one stall I got a chicken kabob! It was so good. We walked around for a long time and we did not even see half the stalls. At one food area, they had motorcycle seats for chairs. That is what you see in the bottom picture. In one store there were walls of old sewing machines, at least 100 or maybe 200 of them. There is also a bridge that goes over the canal so you can get from one side of the market to the other. You can see boats going through the locks. The Regent's Canal was opened in 1820. After Camden Market we went to see Billy Elliot the Musical. Billy Elliot is an Irish boy who wants to dance. The only problem is no one will support him. Even his family is against him dancing. Then one day he meets a dance teacher. After that his adventure soared. The musical was amazing! I could not get the music out of my head. Lots of the dancing involved doing flips and twirling and at one point they used a rope and he flew around the stage. Billy Elliot was EPIC! We went to London for Britain’s Mother's Day which is celebrated a different day than in America. My mom will get two Mother's Days this year since she is two times the fun.

Lincoln

Yesterday the Lothamer family and my family took a small day trip to Lincoln. Lincoln is a town about an hour from Harlaxton. Lincoln is what the area, Lincolnshire, is named after. Lincoln is a town known for their huge hill with the gigantic cathedral at the top. We took a small train to Lincoln. When we got off you could see the hill. As we were walking up we stopped in a small, pretty building. We found out it was made around 900 A.D. It may have been the oldest building I had ever stepped in! Then we started our trek up the hill. Lots of people bustled up and down the street that went up to the top of the hill. On both sides of the street there were shops. We saw toy, candy, food, clothes, and electronic stores. We walked up and up and up. At about half way we ate lunch. After lunch we walked up and up and up some more. At a few points it was really steep. Finally we reached the top. If you looked left you could see a castle. If you looked right you could see a HUGE cathedral. We went straight to the cathedral. As soon as we stepped inside our mouths hung open. It was huge! There were big stone arches at the top to hold it up. At the sides there was loads of stained glass. The first thing we did was light a candle for my grandpa. We had lit one already in Paris, but we decided we could never light enough candles. It made me feel good. We walked around and learned lots of fun stories including one about an imp (a magical creature) who was turned to stone by angels. After the visiting the Lincoln Cathedral we stopped and peeked in the castle. It was big! Unfortunately our train was going to leave so we had to head back, but the castle did look cool. Lincoln was great! That night Harlaxton had a huge bonfire. They had been saving up lots of wood and grass since last year to make it burn. The fire was almost 20 feet in the air. Sparks were everywhere and everyone made a circle around it. The cold night turned into a steamy, fun glowing night.

Paris

Our family friends, the Lothamers, and my family went to Paris, France. Paris is an amazing city known for its art and food. I was so excited. I had been to Paris before, so I knew how excited I should be. Our first destination was the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was made for the 1889 World’s Fair. The Eiffel Tower looks like the ultimate skeleton building. Other than a few spots you can see through the whole Tower. The whole Tower stands over 1,000 feet tall! We walked around and then headed to the Arc de Triomphe. It is a huge arch and is located on the Place Charles de Gaulle on the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The arch is in honor of the people who fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars. The next day we headed to the Louvre. The Louvre is a huge museum. It holds many famous paintings including the Mona Lisa. It was so cool to see. Then we went to Notre Dame. It is a huge church. Inside we lit a candle for my grandpa. It was sad, but then again happy because mom asked us each to whisper a happy memory about Papa. It made me feel good. You might have heard of Notre Dame because it is the setting for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a book that Victor Hugo wrote (the guy who also wrote Les Miserables). After Notre Dame we ate lunch outside at a nice restaurant. That night we went back to the Eiffel Tower. We got to go up it. We had to take multiple elevators to get to the top. You could see for miles. At night the Eiffel Tower lights up.

Fussen, Germany

We took a train to Fussen, Germany. As the train drove up you could see mountains everywhere. Fussen is shadowed by the Bavarian Alps. The Alps were covered with snow. Fusson is small and quaint. We decided to walk up the Alps. Our destination was Neuschwanstein Castle. Neuschwanstein Castle is beautiful and famous. It is the castle that Disney uses in Florida. King Ludwig II built it in the 1800s for his summer house. He died before the castle was finished being built. As we walked up toward the castle, you could see lots of mountain peaks. Our first sight of Neuschwanstein made us gasp. It was beautiful. It made all the other buildings look small. We walked all the way to the castle, with horses and buggies walking beside us carrying some people. The view was amazing from the castle. We took a tour of the castle. We got to go in the throne room. The one catch was there was no throne. Since King Ludwig II died before the castle was finished, they never finished the throne. On the walls there were lots of paintings of other kings. In the middle there was a huge chandelier. The chandelier had 96 candles on it. A lot of rooms had items with 96 things because it was a special number in Byzantine myths. In the living room, there were 96 huge ceiling tiles. After exploring the castle we walked back into town and stopped at a shop in Fusson where my mom bought a cuckoo clock that was made out of wood from the Black Forest.

Munich

Some family friends and us made a plan quite awhile ago to travel to Munich. Munich is a city in southern Germany. We went to see the Olympiaturm. The Olympiaturm is a huge tower. It is one of the tallest towers in Europe. At the top there is a rotating roof. We got to eat on it! The top floor is about 190 meters high. The very top is another hundred meters. You could see the whole city. The tower weighs about 52,500 tons. It takes 53 minutes for it to fully revolve. The Olympiaturm was made in 1968. It was made a few years in anticipation of the 1972 Olympics. The Olympiaturm is inside the Olympia Park. All the things in the Olympia Park were made because of the Olympics. Inside the park there are the Olympic swimming pools, tennis courts, and fields and we saw ice hockey too. While I was busy climbing hills and big trees with my friends, this is a photo my mom took of the Olympiaturm. We walked around Munich in the city center area, and we saw street performers and looked at the buildings. We ate Haagen Dazs ice cream and then that night we had German food. 

Isaac Newton

My mom, sister and I went on a field trip today with a class at Harlaxton. We went to Isaac Newton’s home. In the house you got to see where he was born and also where he made some of his experiments (learning about spectrums). We also got to see the famous tree. It had fallen down in a storm, but it lived. It still produces apples today! You can see the apple tree in one of the photos we took. In the other photo, you can see me as part of a human sundial. The sundial was in the backyard. I wrote this story below from Isaac Newton's point of view.

Hi, I’m Isaac Newton. I’m going to tell you a little bit about my life. I was born on January 4, 1643 (or Christmas Day 1642, depending on which calendar you used at the time). I was a weak baby and people tell me I could have fit into a quart pot. My father died three months before I was born so I never met him. My mother left me with my grandma at age three and she went and married a clergy man. At age eight she came back with three more kids. The man had died. A few years later I was sent to a Grantham school. I was a poor student and I often spent time inventing my own knickknacks while the teacher was talking. One day a bully kicked me. I was mad so I fought him. Even though he was bigger than me I won. I wanted to be better at him in everything. From then on I always tried my best in school. A few years later my mom took me out of school to help her on the farm. I was not great at it and after I persuaded her I went to Trinity University. In 1665 the University closed down because of the black plague. I had a bachelor’s degree, but I had been planning on going farther. I went home and this is the time I learned about gravity. One day I watched an apple fall from an apple tree. As I watched the apple speed up before it hit the ground I thought about what made it speed up. I decided it was gravity. In other words, “What goes up must come down.” Little did I know I had just made it possible for many things including space travel about three hundred years later. After the plague I went back to Trinity and I got my master’s degree. After going to college I worked more on gravity. Gravity fascinated me so much my first few years out of college I studied it. I also practiced Alchemy (like chemistry but working with potions and things) even though it was banned in England in 1404. Through the years I invented many things. Two of the inventions are telescopes and pi. I was in the Parliament for one year and the whole time I only said one sentence. I asked for someone to close a window! In 1705 I was knighted by Queen Anne. I went from Isaac to Sir Isaac. I died in 1727. I am probably the greatest scientist that ever lived.

Papa's Boy

I wrote this because this blog is like my journal. My grandpa has died. I loved and respected him. I would go fishing, boating and shooting at a range with him. He took me to my first Blue Angels show and he got me my first tricycle and foosball table. Every Saturday my family and him would have cappos (cappuccinos, and I would have juice) at my house. Every Father’s Day my mom would rent a boat. Sometimes we would go to Patoka and sometimes to Kentucky Lake. It was always so fun. When I found out my grandpa died, I bawled. I was sure the phone call on Wednesday couldn’t be right. He was too awesome to die. We would always have Christmas with him. It was a tradition that we would always eat shrimp. We also always played Christmas songs on the guitar. We are back in the U.S. now, and we will fly back to England on Sunday. In the pictures, you see one with my grandpa and I wearing matching hats. We didn’t even know it, but we each bought these hats from different places and then on the same weekend ended up wearing them for cappos. We couldn’t stop laughing that I bought a hat in Chicago and he got one from someplace else and we looked alike. The second picture is of Papa’s famous teachings. Every cappo visit he would teach us something new. Sometimes it was something funny like how I needed to stop slurping my juice and start appreciating it by slowing down. Many times the lessons had to do with money. When I was younger it was that two pennies is not as good as a nickel. As I got older it went more to how to count out money into rolls. That is what Papa and I are doing in the picture. He was the one that started me on my huge quarter collection.

Southwell Workhouse

We went to the Southwell Workhouse. It was built in 1824 and is one of the best preserved workhouses in the country. A workhouse used to be where poor people worked and lived. People used to think that if you were poor it was your own fault. Workhouses were feared by all ages. You would work around 16 hours every day and would eat the same meals. For children under nine a typical supper was 4 oz. of bread and 1 pint of milk porridge. You would get roast beef once every year on Christmas. Everyone wore the same clothes so everybody would know they were poor. The workhouse had a nursery and a school-room for kids and a laundry and tailor area for women. Men would do shoemaking, baking, farm working, and building. The workhouse was about as close to a jail as you could get. The only difference is that the people working got a very small wage and that at any time you could choose to leave. The only thing is where would you go? You would have a small amount of money or no money at all. Because of this, families who started poor usually were poor the rest of their life. At the workhouse, families were split up and would get punished if they tried to speak to each other. When we pulled up in front of the Southwell Workhouse my first thought was of how big it is. It really was big. I found out that it was thought of as small. Some workhouses could hold over a thousand people. The Southwell Workhouse only held up to 158 people. When you walk inside you feel like you are in a prison or in a dungeon with light. You walk through rooms where the people slept, ate, and worked. The people untied huge rope. The work was so tough your fingers would bleed. I thought it was interesting how some people thought that it was a good thing while others thought it was bad. I think it had good intentions, but the intentions needed a little tweaking. What do you think?

York

We went to York. York is a town North of Grantham. York is a big and beautiful town. York is known for their huge Roman Walls almost 2,000 years old. As you drive into York you will see lots of smaller parts of the stone wall. Some of the pieces left are only a few yards. Others go almost a mile. As we drove around trying to find a good place to park we saw a big castle looking thing on a hill. This castle looking structure was Clifford’s Tower. Clifford’s Tower was starting to be built in 1068 A.D. It once was right next to a graveyard. We took a small tour and learned that it was once a jail. The reason the tower is missing a lot of bricks is because the jailer took off some of the bricks for some extra cash. After going to Clifford’s Tower we set of looking for the York Minster. The York Minster is very easy to find because it looms dramatically over all the other buildings. As we stepped into the Minster we were met with a beautiful sight. The walls were covered with many bright colors. As we read we found out there was a big fire that burned much of the York Minster. As you look at the marble on the walls you could see the pinkish parts which were where it was partially burned. Then we headed toward the Roman Walls. The Roman Walls are one of the parts of the York Walls. All together the York Walls go two miles. In the walls there are 45 towers and 5 bars. Bars are places that people can get in and out of the York walls. When we got to one of the Roman Walls we walked up the steep and narrow stairway to the top. When we got to the top we came up into the first tower. We walked around and that is what you see in the picture. At the end of the wall we came to a bar. It was cool. After that we went to our final destination the Viking center. As we got inside you could see what a house would have looked like. We learned in 866 a Viking army attacked York. They called York Jorvik. At the end of the day I decided York was one of my favorite cities.