The Day Tour of Barcelona

Sorry I haven't been posting but every day we do the same thing and what we do every day isn't much. First we do our school work until about a quarter past twelve then we walk down to a very nice promenade with everything and have lunch then walk to the beach which is very close. After that we go back home and have dinner somewhere nice like in the heart of Barcelona called the 'gothic quarter' where you can spend hours window shopping. 

Anyway back to today. We did our school work until the usual time while dad picked up a car. We drove to a church that is so big and is still being constructed even though it has been in construction for over 100 years. Next we drove up the mountain to have lunch at Barcelona's best lamb place and it was REALLY yummy. 

Just by coincidence a museum that we really wanted to go to, Cosmocaxia was next to it. We thought it was just a small, living diorama of the Amazon but it turned out to be a huge science museum. One of the biggest exhibitions was about the first humans and there were heaps of great science exhibitions with subjects like technology, marine biology (lots of fish tanks with different fish in them) and genetics. And of course the living diorama of the rainforest was amazing. It had real life piranhas and anacondas and unique species of birds. We were even allowed to walk in the diorama. It was the best!  

Our local beach

Our local promenade 

Parc Guell

The Cathedral taking 100 years to build

The Museum

Time to go

It was time to leave Oxford and move on. We were really upset because we had made so many friends, we even had a farewell party. We had to say goodbye to all our friends and the whole of Oxford. The horses had moved paddocks so we couldn't say goodbye to them. 

Then we woke up the next morning and had to leave - no going back now! We flew out at about 3 pm to Barcelona. We spent lots and lots of time carrying big heavy bags up and down steps, through the subway, changing lines until 9 o'clock at night when we got to our place. Then we went out for Tapas. 

The next day we had to finish our school work and then we went out and had lunch at the Arc de Triomf (in Barcelona) - if anyone knows who copied who from Paris then please comment. Then we went to the fruit markets and bought peaches and nectarines. I got a mango juice. Then we went to the beach. Dad and Juliet went home. It was SUPER crowded. You couldn't find a single spot. When we got in it suddenly got deep up to your knees then your thighs. The waves were not big like Bronte but we still had to jump them. We forgot our goggles so our eyes got filled with seawater. We got two flavors of icecream on the way home - like double decker. 

Our last day - everyone is frowning except Tebby

Our tapas dinner 

Arc de Triomf

Me and Olivia in the water

The crowds at the beach

Flam - didliom

We woke up and went straight to the trampoline and then had breakfast at the hotel. Then we got into the car and drove to Flam (said Flom). On the way there was lots of sheep on the road and we stopped a lot to look at the view. 

We arrived at about 1 pm and went into town. It is right next to the water and you look up and there are these massive, beautiful cliffs. 

In the afternoon we got on a bus to go to a nearby town to catch a cruise to the fjords. The bus went through some 5 km tunnels that were inside the mountain. The cruise was very fancy. I liked looking at all the views of the cliffs and the water. 

When we got back to our camp ground we made friends with a girl in the room next to us. She was 10 years old. She did Irish dancing like me. Olivia and Dad then went on a train which is meant to be the most scenic in the world. They saw a ginormous waterfall up close. 

Sheep on the road

One of the stops on the road

Us on the boat

Us Irish dancing outside the cabin

Dad and Olivia at the waterfall

Adventures in the trees

Yesterday was one of the best days ever. 

We woke up early and drove to Oslo summer park which is one of the biggest high ropes (like the one in Paris) parks in the world. There are so many courses and they are so long that I only got to do three of them in six hours. 

We arrived, got our gear and did the training course. I went off and did the higher courses (only for people over 140 cm) while Jason, Juliet and Phoebe did a lower course (it was for people over 110 cm but it was a bit too hard for Juliet). They all took up to two hours. Juliet and Kate then went to do a very low course for kids Juliet's age while Jason, Phoebe and I went to do a course which was just really long ziplines. When we were almost finished Phoebe started crying because the last long one was too scary (and we realised she wasn't the right height for the course). We had to wait for ages for a guy to come and put her on a pulley and lower her down while Jason and I finished the course. 

We had lunch then did one more course each. Then we had three hour drive to Geilo, a ski town. When we got there we found a trampoline and a playground. We were SO tired. We unpacked and went to have dinner. We had sausages and chips and mum bought us a hot chocolate with cream. We got home and when straight to bed because we were really tired.

Phoebe and Juliet's first course

My course

Juliet's little course

Preparing for the zipline course

Kids hot chocolate 

Mum's hot chocolate

The view from the summer park 

Viking Biking

Today we went on a Viking Biking tour in Oslo. This is Juliet. I hope you're having a good time in Australia. Me and Dad rode a bike with a trailer and a man sat on my seat for a rest. It was so funny. The best thing I saw was the flowers in the park. 

Here are some pictures I took. 

Here are some other pictures of the tour 

The Oslo Fjords

We are finally in Norway! Today we spent the day down at the harbour and beach, or the Oslo Fjords. First we did our school work then caught the bus to the harbour and we walked around to find people swimming in the harbour! There were steps down into the water. We turned the corner and found a sort of children's beach thing. It wasn't really a beach. It was a little area with lots of little rocks that hurt your feet and a tiny bit of freezing cold water. We spent little time here then had hot dogs and slushies for lunch.

Next we took a ferry to a little island on the other side. When we got there we explored the old ruins of a monastery which was really fun then we found a proper beach. It had sand and big rocks and lots of water on one side and beautiful scenery of a forest on the other. We spent a while there then got ice cream and took the ferry back to the mainland. We asked our way back to the bus stop and accidentally took three wrong buses! We had Japanese food for dinner.

The first beach

The island 

The ruins 

Bell tower at the monastery 

The second beach

Us having icecream 

The Animals of Oxford

After every day we always do two things.

1: Feed a cat. There is a cat that wanders into our backyard that we feed.

2: There are some horses out the back that we feed apples and carrots to every evening. They all come up, get a carrot and a scratch then they have a bum scratch on the gate! There is one that really likes us, a little foal which comes first and stays the longest and licks us and nudges us. Then the foal's  mother and sister come and they all hug and it is so cute!

    The foal

   The other horses

    The foal and it's mother hugging

Blenheim Palace

Yesterday we went to Blenheim Palace. Our grandparents had bought us an annual pass and it was only a twenty minute drive so we got inside pretty quickly. Jason, Phoebe and Juliet went straight to the pleasure gardens where there was a playground - an adventure playground, a butterfly house, a jumping castle, and a maze while Kate, our grandparents and I went to see a tour of the current Duke of Marlborough's private apartments. The Duke's under-Butler was even there changing the newspapers. 

After the tour, the rest of us made our way to the pleasure gardens, in a small train, for lunch. After lunch we went to the secret garden which is a maze of pathways inside a beautiful forest with streams and little waterfalls and toadstools. We got ice cream and we also saw the bride and groom of a wedding come in a horse and cart. 

We then did a buggy tour of the queen pool, which is a massive lake on the estate. We saw a bridge over the lake, which apparently has 30 rooms in it but they cannot check because the residents are protected by law - bats. Jason, Phoebe, Juliet and I went home while everyone else stayed and did one last tour by a woman who was dressed up as a servant from the time of the first Duke.

Me waiting for the first tour to start (we weren't allowed to take photos of the Duke's private rooms)

The train to the pleasure gardens 

The buggy

The Queen pool with the bridge (and the Palace in the background)

A tiny part of the secret garden

Phoebe with the horse and carriage

The Palace

Witney

Yesterday the plan was to go and see a giant computer used in World War Two but only our grandparents ended up going. After a lot of research we decided to go to a place called the Leys in Witney. We had lunch at Waitrose. It was only a 20 minute drive when we got there we saw how amazing it was. There was a 4m high rope bridge where you had to climb up a cylinder shaped climbing frame, birds nests for children which was about 3m high, a water play station, tepees, tyre swings, a putting green, basket swings, and a trampoline. We stayed there for a bit then went to the putting green then went back to the playground then back home.

                The play structure 

              The swings