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.