Friday August 17th, 2007
9:06pm Denmark Time
1:07pm Saskatoon Time
Right now we are on a huge ferry crossing the sea , going from Denmark to Norway. Today so far wasn’t very exiting. We got up, packed the car, said bye to Gerhart, and headed out the door. Kathi was at an appointment in the morning, so we didn’t get to say bye to her. She came upstairs before we left, but us 3 girls were still asleep. We left Hage around 10am, and got to the tip of Denmark at 8pm with only a few wrong turns. In germany we stopped for a WC break, and we had to pay .50Euros each to go to the bathroom, and we had to pass through rotating gates once we payed. Once we got to Denmark, mom said welcome to Scandinavia because everyone had blonde hair, and it was $16 Canadian for a burger at Burger King.
Our actual ferry is supposed to leave tomorrow at 2pm, but we wanted to try and get on the one that left tonight at 1am. We went and asked, and they said HURRY, HURRY, AND YOU CAN MAKE THE ONE THAT’S LEAVING NOW, so we caught the one at 8:30pm.
The ferry was way bigger than we were expecting. We all went out on the deck for “take off”. It was so gorgeous. Now we are all back in our seats because there is a Gail ahead. Big storm. Siri hates boats. The waves right now are massive, so shes not very impressed.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Thursday August 16th, 2oo7
Thursday August 16th, 2007
10:33pm Hage, Germany Time
2:33pm Saskatoon Time
Today we lazed around the house until almost 2pm. It was pouring rain so hard outside, it felt like we were being attacked. I bought a Sudoku book for a Euro the other day, and now the entire house is hooked. Dad was so concentrated, it was his fault we didn’t leave until 2. We drove to Aurich to check out their shopping. We went to the biggest mall in the city, and it was PATHETIC. It had one clothing store that was for children. Then it had a Walmart Type store, some engraving stores, bakeries, a hair salon, a fitness center, and a movie theatre. There were Harry Potter movie posters in German, so mom asked it we could have one, and they gave us 2 posters and I fell in looooove. Lovelovelove. So we gave up on the mall. Europe is different than Canada in the way that it still has lots of small, family owned businesses everywhere instead of malls, while Canada’s small local businesses have been driven out by big American companies (I learned this all in Marketing). We drove along the coast and looked at a neat harbour. We came home all our laundry was washed and folded! Thanks Kathi! We repacked our bags because we decided to leave tomorrow morning, instead of leaving tomorrow at midnight. Its going to be a BRUTAL day. We had supper, then played cards. We went downstairs and got a picture of Kathi and Gerhart. THEY ARE SO CUTE!! I just wanted to adopt Kathi and take her home with me. I think their story is that Kathi’s husband died of cancer, and Gerhart’s wife died of some sort of cancer as well, and then when the German $ was turned into Euros, they lost everything and their pensions were cut in half because the German $ wasn’t worth anything anymore. So now they live together. I don’t know if they’re “together” because they have separate rooms, but he called her “freau“, which means wife I think. Anyways, they are so cute, but they are pathetic at English. Poor dad got a tour of the cellar downstairs with Gerhart, and dad had no clue what he was talking about. Their house is freaking massive though, with lots of windows, and all brick, and so NEAT (as in clean). I want it. Anyways, bedtime soon. Tomorrow is going to suuUuuUuuuuuuUuuck!!
10:33pm Hage, Germany Time
2:33pm Saskatoon Time
Today we lazed around the house until almost 2pm. It was pouring rain so hard outside, it felt like we were being attacked. I bought a Sudoku book for a Euro the other day, and now the entire house is hooked. Dad was so concentrated, it was his fault we didn’t leave until 2. We drove to Aurich to check out their shopping. We went to the biggest mall in the city, and it was PATHETIC. It had one clothing store that was for children. Then it had a Walmart Type store, some engraving stores, bakeries, a hair salon, a fitness center, and a movie theatre. There were Harry Potter movie posters in German, so mom asked it we could have one, and they gave us 2 posters and I fell in looooove. Lovelovelove. So we gave up on the mall. Europe is different than Canada in the way that it still has lots of small, family owned businesses everywhere instead of malls, while Canada’s small local businesses have been driven out by big American companies (I learned this all in Marketing). We drove along the coast and looked at a neat harbour. We came home all our laundry was washed and folded! Thanks Kathi! We repacked our bags because we decided to leave tomorrow morning, instead of leaving tomorrow at midnight. Its going to be a BRUTAL day. We had supper, then played cards. We went downstairs and got a picture of Kathi and Gerhart. THEY ARE SO CUTE!! I just wanted to adopt Kathi and take her home with me. I think their story is that Kathi’s husband died of cancer, and Gerhart’s wife died of some sort of cancer as well, and then when the German $ was turned into Euros, they lost everything and their pensions were cut in half because the German $ wasn’t worth anything anymore. So now they live together. I don’t know if they’re “together” because they have separate rooms, but he called her “freau“, which means wife I think. Anyways, they are so cute, but they are pathetic at English. Poor dad got a tour of the cellar downstairs with Gerhart, and dad had no clue what he was talking about. Their house is freaking massive though, with lots of windows, and all brick, and so NEAT (as in clean). I want it. Anyways, bedtime soon. Tomorrow is going to suuUuuUuuuuuuUuuck!!
Wednesday August 15th, 2007
Wednesday August 15th, 2007
10:37pm Hage, Germany Time
2:27pm Saskatoon Time
HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY SIRI!!!
Siri slept with me again last night, so we were rudely awoken by mom and dad with the video camera singing happy birthday to Siri, and bringing her breakfast in bed. We decided to go to into Holland for Siri's birthday. On the way to Holland we stopped at a concentration camp from WWII. It was located in Engerhafer (Germany). All the information we had about it was in German, so we're not 100% sure what exactly happened at this camp, but there was a memorial there with all the names of the people who died there, and there were lots of names. There was a church there that we checked out, and the graveyard next to it was gorgeous. It was so well kept with fresh flowers. We had planned to visit Auschwitz, but its located in Poland, and our rental car isn't allowed to go there because of the high crime rate and corruption. This memorial was a really neat place to visit thought. We then continued our journey and crossed the boarder, heading into Holland. There were a million windmills in the fields. We went to Winschoten and checked out the city. First we had lunch by a big oldfashioned windmill. Then we went and checked out their shops. We shopped and expored for hours. We then stopped to get gas on the way back to Germany because it was a lot cheaper in Holland at 1.025 Euros/Litre for diesel, which is 1.53Canadian Dollars/Litre. And we complain about hitting $1/litre in Saskatoon for regular gas. pft. We stopped at a car dealership, and dad found a 2005 Smartcar Convertable 2 seater for 11,000Euros. It was sweet.We came home and had supper. Kathi came up with a map of Canada, wanting to know where we were from. She is so sweet. I wish we could communicate with her better so we could get to know her. The one thing Siri wanted to do on her birthday was to see that pony. Shelby HAAAAD to go on the internet, so mom and Siri went to see the pony, while dad, Shelby and I went into a Casino and checked our emails. We then came home and did dishes, i repacked my bags, and then we played cards.
10:37pm Hage, Germany Time
2:27pm Saskatoon Time
HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY SIRI!!!
Siri slept with me again last night, so we were rudely awoken by mom and dad with the video camera singing happy birthday to Siri, and bringing her breakfast in bed. We decided to go to into Holland for Siri's birthday. On the way to Holland we stopped at a concentration camp from WWII. It was located in Engerhafer (Germany). All the information we had about it was in German, so we're not 100% sure what exactly happened at this camp, but there was a memorial there with all the names of the people who died there, and there were lots of names. There was a church there that we checked out, and the graveyard next to it was gorgeous. It was so well kept with fresh flowers. We had planned to visit Auschwitz, but its located in Poland, and our rental car isn't allowed to go there because of the high crime rate and corruption. This memorial was a really neat place to visit thought. We then continued our journey and crossed the boarder, heading into Holland. There were a million windmills in the fields. We went to Winschoten and checked out the city. First we had lunch by a big oldfashioned windmill. Then we went and checked out their shops. We shopped and expored for hours. We then stopped to get gas on the way back to Germany because it was a lot cheaper in Holland at 1.025 Euros/Litre for diesel, which is 1.53Canadian Dollars/Litre. And we complain about hitting $1/litre in Saskatoon for regular gas. pft. We stopped at a car dealership, and dad found a 2005 Smartcar Convertable 2 seater for 11,000Euros. It was sweet.We came home and had supper. Kathi came up with a map of Canada, wanting to know where we were from. She is so sweet. I wish we could communicate with her better so we could get to know her. The one thing Siri wanted to do on her birthday was to see that pony. Shelby HAAAAD to go on the internet, so mom and Siri went to see the pony, while dad, Shelby and I went into a Casino and checked our emails. We then came home and did dishes, i repacked my bags, and then we played cards.
Tuesday August 14th, 2007
Tuesday August 14th, 2007
Mom and dad got up early and went to an information station to tell us more about Hage. Mom and dad said they had a surprise for us, so we drove to Norddeich and ended up at a Seehunds Station National Park. (Seehunds=Seals). We got to see the seals being fed, and they were so freaking ADORABLE. There were a couple different sections blocked off by glass, and this one seal was digging and trying to get under the glass to see her friend at the other side. Then the seal on the other side would try and stick its nose under to see her. We decided they were dating and loved eachother. THEY WERE SO CUTE with their little noses and big eyes. Im in love. There was a little blonde girl who was standing right by the window, and would screach everytime one came near her. She was so cute. EVERYTHING THERE WAS CUTE. Well not everything. Shelby snuck a picture of a lady whos armpit hair was quite visable even when her arms were at her sides. Anyways, after that we walked to the North Sea, but this time we were going to it from GERMANY, not Belgium or France or England. Siri and I decided to beat dad this time, so we sprinted like 100meters and got there first. Sucka. The sand was so soft. mMmMm. I love beaches. Also by the aquarium they had a segway track set up. A segway is a standing, self-propelled 2wheel cart. Weird Al rides one on his "White and Nerdy" music video. We may have all started singing that song when we saw them. All except Shelby who didnt understand. We then drove to Norden and did a bit more shopping. Not much though. Dad and I went to check our emails in a bar. It was smokey and stinky, but satisfying. We found mumma and the girls, then headed back to Hage. We stopped to buy beer and more milk, because we drink atleast 4 litres a day (milk, not beer). The milk here isnt as satisfying as at home. Here it tastes kinda like whipped cream, it just doesnt quench. FYI. Then we came home and had another WONDERFUL supper. We had schishkabobs, but here they are called gewurzter schweinvauch um einen holzspiess gewickelt.
Mom and dad got up early and went to an information station to tell us more about Hage. Mom and dad said they had a surprise for us, so we drove to Norddeich and ended up at a Seehunds Station National Park. (Seehunds=Seals). We got to see the seals being fed, and they were so freaking ADORABLE. There were a couple different sections blocked off by glass, and this one seal was digging and trying to get under the glass to see her friend at the other side. Then the seal on the other side would try and stick its nose under to see her. We decided they were dating and loved eachother. THEY WERE SO CUTE with their little noses and big eyes. Im in love. There was a little blonde girl who was standing right by the window, and would screach everytime one came near her. She was so cute. EVERYTHING THERE WAS CUTE. Well not everything. Shelby snuck a picture of a lady whos armpit hair was quite visable even when her arms were at her sides. Anyways, after that we walked to the North Sea, but this time we were going to it from GERMANY, not Belgium or France or England. Siri and I decided to beat dad this time, so we sprinted like 100meters and got there first. Sucka. The sand was so soft. mMmMm. I love beaches. Also by the aquarium they had a segway track set up. A segway is a standing, self-propelled 2wheel cart. Weird Al rides one on his "White and Nerdy" music video. We may have all started singing that song when we saw them. All except Shelby who didnt understand. We then drove to Norden and did a bit more shopping. Not much though. Dad and I went to check our emails in a bar. It was smokey and stinky, but satisfying. We found mumma and the girls, then headed back to Hage. We stopped to buy beer and more milk, because we drink atleast 4 litres a day (milk, not beer). The milk here isnt as satisfying as at home. Here it tastes kinda like whipped cream, it just doesnt quench. FYI. Then we came home and had another WONDERFUL supper. We had schishkabobs, but here they are called gewurzter schweinvauch um einen holzspiess gewickelt.
Monday August 13th, 2oo7
Monday August 13th, 2007
Siri crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night, then in the morning she wouldnt let me get out of bed. She's such a little cuddler. She also found it amusing picking the skin peeling on my arm from my sunburn. We FINALLY got out of bed, and headed out the door. We went to a couple shops, and then we went to a hardware store with dad. He really wants to buy a shower tap like they have here to take home. Then mom and dad dropped us girls off at a store, then went to a tourist information place. We sat on the curb for over half an hour waiting for them to pick us up after we were done in the store (and we took a long time in the store). Then we came home and Siri and I made lunch. I had the worst hiccups, but Siri helped me cure them. (She used your method Shaun, and she says, "IT'S THE BEST METHOD I'VE EVER USED! ITS NOT EVEN IN BOOKS OR ANYTHING, AND I THOUGHT HE WAS RIDICULOUS WHEN SAM TRIED IT ON ME THE FIRST TIME!"). Shelby and dad had a nap, while mom and Siri went to the store. They came back with candies, and Siri just kept feeding me them. FINALLY the lazy slobs got up, then we had a WONDERFUL supper. Props mumma. Mom and dad had went for a walk last night and told us about this little pony they found. They went to pet it, and it pushed so hard against the barbedwire fence to get closer. Dad said we needed to go and give the little guy some attention. So we got some carrots and apples and walked for EVER (mom and dad said it was a short walk...liars). We got to the place and mom was like, "PONY!", and it neighed and came galloping over. AWWWW. It was a little black thing. We went to the door to see if we could feed it, but there was no one home. Their lawn was waaay overgrown and there was a bag of probably a dozen loaves of bread on the doorstep. Did anyone even live there?? Poor baby. We went and fed him the carrots, and petted him. He just wanted some love. Shelby had a bad experience with Jamie's horse, so she didnt go near. Wuss. We came home and had to avoid stepping on stugs. I found a new friend! A frog! It was little and black and kept trying to jump out of my hand, but it loved me. Us girls did dishes while mom and dad went for another walk. Then we all played Rook, and went to bed. OH, and I successfully finished my very first Sudoku!
Siri crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night, then in the morning she wouldnt let me get out of bed. She's such a little cuddler. She also found it amusing picking the skin peeling on my arm from my sunburn. We FINALLY got out of bed, and headed out the door. We went to a couple shops, and then we went to a hardware store with dad. He really wants to buy a shower tap like they have here to take home. Then mom and dad dropped us girls off at a store, then went to a tourist information place. We sat on the curb for over half an hour waiting for them to pick us up after we were done in the store (and we took a long time in the store). Then we came home and Siri and I made lunch. I had the worst hiccups, but Siri helped me cure them. (She used your method Shaun, and she says, "IT'S THE BEST METHOD I'VE EVER USED! ITS NOT EVEN IN BOOKS OR ANYTHING, AND I THOUGHT HE WAS RIDICULOUS WHEN SAM TRIED IT ON ME THE FIRST TIME!"). Shelby and dad had a nap, while mom and Siri went to the store. They came back with candies, and Siri just kept feeding me them. FINALLY the lazy slobs got up, then we had a WONDERFUL supper. Props mumma. Mom and dad had went for a walk last night and told us about this little pony they found. They went to pet it, and it pushed so hard against the barbedwire fence to get closer. Dad said we needed to go and give the little guy some attention. So we got some carrots and apples and walked for EVER (mom and dad said it was a short walk...liars). We got to the place and mom was like, "PONY!", and it neighed and came galloping over. AWWWW. It was a little black thing. We went to the door to see if we could feed it, but there was no one home. Their lawn was waaay overgrown and there was a bag of probably a dozen loaves of bread on the doorstep. Did anyone even live there?? Poor baby. We went and fed him the carrots, and petted him. He just wanted some love. Shelby had a bad experience with Jamie's horse, so she didnt go near. Wuss. We came home and had to avoid stepping on stugs. I found a new friend! A frog! It was little and black and kept trying to jump out of my hand, but it loved me. Us girls did dishes while mom and dad went for another walk. Then we all played Rook, and went to bed. OH, and I successfully finished my very first Sudoku!
Sunday August 12th, 2oo7
Sunday August 12th, 2007
10:53pm Hage, Germany Time
2:53pm Saskatoon Time
We got to sleep in today. The beds here were sooo much more comfortable then in Switzerland. Dad got up early to read Harry Potter. He finished the book (it was the 1st one), and asked me question after question, and the answers werent until the 7th book, so I told him to read it himself, and he told me to quit being so damn rude. We drove around Hage to see what it was like. THen we went to Norddeich to grocery shop because everything in Hage was closed today. At one point dad pulled us aside and was like, "just listen. See, there is very little noise in this store. I can hear you girls from the other end of the store, so keep it down, we dont need everyone to know we're here". We overdid it on the groceries today. We are going to have to eat like pigs this week to get rid of all the food we bought. And it only came out to 58Euros! Food here is so cheap! But people are pushy, and thats annoying. Some lady who didnt have as many groceries as us just walked ahead of us, and went through the till first. We would have let her, but she should have waited for us to OFFER, dont just budge. Ugh. Anyways, we came home and unpacked, then dad had a little nap while the rest of us looked at all our Europe pictures so far. Mom then got her cooler and sat out on the balcony in the sun with her book. All of a sudden she calls me saying there is a boy nextdoor smoking who looks about my age. I start walking to the balcony when Shelby runs by, pushes me, and says, "you have a BOYFRIEND!" (Shelby...when you read this, you cant deny this happened). I felt like we havent had contact with people our age in forever, because we spent the next like half an hour spying. We even got out the binnoculars. How pathetic are we? We had a huge salad, then just lounged around. Mom and dad went for a walk, and Shelby, Siri and I played cards out on the balcony and listened to music for hours. We played Rhianna's "SOS" until dad sang along. Then we came inside, attempted to watch our Europe video, then went to bed.
10:53pm Hage, Germany Time
2:53pm Saskatoon Time
We got to sleep in today. The beds here were sooo much more comfortable then in Switzerland. Dad got up early to read Harry Potter. He finished the book (it was the 1st one), and asked me question after question, and the answers werent until the 7th book, so I told him to read it himself, and he told me to quit being so damn rude. We drove around Hage to see what it was like. THen we went to Norddeich to grocery shop because everything in Hage was closed today. At one point dad pulled us aside and was like, "just listen. See, there is very little noise in this store. I can hear you girls from the other end of the store, so keep it down, we dont need everyone to know we're here". We overdid it on the groceries today. We are going to have to eat like pigs this week to get rid of all the food we bought. And it only came out to 58Euros! Food here is so cheap! But people are pushy, and thats annoying. Some lady who didnt have as many groceries as us just walked ahead of us, and went through the till first. We would have let her, but she should have waited for us to OFFER, dont just budge. Ugh. Anyways, we came home and unpacked, then dad had a little nap while the rest of us looked at all our Europe pictures so far. Mom then got her cooler and sat out on the balcony in the sun with her book. All of a sudden she calls me saying there is a boy nextdoor smoking who looks about my age. I start walking to the balcony when Shelby runs by, pushes me, and says, "you have a BOYFRIEND!" (Shelby...when you read this, you cant deny this happened). I felt like we havent had contact with people our age in forever, because we spent the next like half an hour spying. We even got out the binnoculars. How pathetic are we? We had a huge salad, then just lounged around. Mom and dad went for a walk, and Shelby, Siri and I played cards out on the balcony and listened to music for hours. We played Rhianna's "SOS" until dad sang along. Then we came inside, attempted to watch our Europe video, then went to bed.
Saturday August 11th, 2oo7
Saturday August 11th, 2007
We go up early today and loaded the car. We said bye to the Polish family, and got a picture. Then we went down to the tourist office to sign out, and they gave us apples and water. How nice. We headed down that winding road for the last time. 9km in 12 minutes. Dad is quite confident with that road now I guess. We began our 12 hour trip around 9:30am towards a town that mom wasnt able to find on any map she had. Thats reassuring. When we left the Alps, we were sad. I think Switzerland was the favorite of us girls, but not mom, who says she is more like Besta, and likes the flatness better. We went over a bridge, and there was an island in the middle of the lake, with ruins of a castle and a church with a walkway into the water. Our drive was really long and started off pretty uneventful. Then we had a near disaster right at the German boarder. The officer pulled us over, and let us run...RUN to the bathrooms. Another officer stopped an entire row of cars to let us cross the street. What a memorable boarder crossing. We drove through Frankfurt, and counted all the Ikea's that we passed. We stopped for lunch and ate all the German delicacies like schnitzels, schweinebauch, and hahnchenschenkels. A hitchhiker stopped me and asked if i would drive him. OH, and the bathrooms automatically cleaned themselves! I dont know if I can add a video on here, but I definetaly taped it. Hahahahahaa, the toilet seat would swivel all the way around while a sponge-thinger cleaned it. Twice we stopped to call Kathi (the person who owns the place we are staying for the week to tell her we would be late). She apparently speaks english. MOM: "hi, Kathi?" KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". MOM: "we just passed Frankfurt, so we are going to be late". KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". MOM: "We'll get there around 10 o'clock". KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". She didnt have a clue what was going on. We drove and drove and drove. We were leasurely driving in the slow lane going 140km/hr. Dad would look in his rearview mirror and say, "Ruth, look at this one", then a car would speed by us like we were just sitting there. One time a Porsche sped by going probably 629km/hr (thats exaggerated), and dad just chuckled to himself. We FINALLY got to Kathi's house around 10pm...after spending the last half an hour driving around in circles. Kathi is a cute old woman who showed us where we were staying. She lives in a really big house (that had a stuffed fox in the entrance way), and we get the entire top level suite. She showed us around, but she had ZERO english. It was slightly awkward. The place was gorgeous tho. I guess our Rook and Kaiser games are going to have to be a bit more quiet than they were in Switzerland this week.
We go up early today and loaded the car. We said bye to the Polish family, and got a picture. Then we went down to the tourist office to sign out, and they gave us apples and water. How nice. We headed down that winding road for the last time. 9km in 12 minutes. Dad is quite confident with that road now I guess. We began our 12 hour trip around 9:30am towards a town that mom wasnt able to find on any map she had. Thats reassuring. When we left the Alps, we were sad. I think Switzerland was the favorite of us girls, but not mom, who says she is more like Besta, and likes the flatness better. We went over a bridge, and there was an island in the middle of the lake, with ruins of a castle and a church with a walkway into the water. Our drive was really long and started off pretty uneventful. Then we had a near disaster right at the German boarder. The officer pulled us over, and let us run...RUN to the bathrooms. Another officer stopped an entire row of cars to let us cross the street. What a memorable boarder crossing. We drove through Frankfurt, and counted all the Ikea's that we passed. We stopped for lunch and ate all the German delicacies like schnitzels, schweinebauch, and hahnchenschenkels. A hitchhiker stopped me and asked if i would drive him. OH, and the bathrooms automatically cleaned themselves! I dont know if I can add a video on here, but I definetaly taped it. Hahahahahaa, the toilet seat would swivel all the way around while a sponge-thinger cleaned it. Twice we stopped to call Kathi (the person who owns the place we are staying for the week to tell her we would be late). She apparently speaks english. MOM: "hi, Kathi?" KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". MOM: "we just passed Frankfurt, so we are going to be late". KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". MOM: "We'll get there around 10 o'clock". KATHI: "yeah, yeah, yeah". She didnt have a clue what was going on. We drove and drove and drove. We were leasurely driving in the slow lane going 140km/hr. Dad would look in his rearview mirror and say, "Ruth, look at this one", then a car would speed by us like we were just sitting there. One time a Porsche sped by going probably 629km/hr (thats exaggerated), and dad just chuckled to himself. We FINALLY got to Kathi's house around 10pm...after spending the last half an hour driving around in circles. Kathi is a cute old woman who showed us where we were staying. She lives in a really big house (that had a stuffed fox in the entrance way), and we get the entire top level suite. She showed us around, but she had ZERO english. It was slightly awkward. The place was gorgeous tho. I guess our Rook and Kaiser games are going to have to be a bit more quiet than they were in Switzerland this week.
Friday August 10th, 2oo7
Friday August 10th, 2007
11:39pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
3:39pm Saskatoon Time
We just got home from a day of exporing! The sun was shining today! We started by going to St. Pierre de Clages which was a book village. It was boring. The only excitement was the cutest, happiest little puppy. Reminded me of Tori. She was so adorable. Then we drove to Sion which is the capital of the province we are in, which called...Valais...i think. When we drove into Sion, we saw 2 mountain tops, each with a castle on top of it. We parked and walked up a huge hill to get to the entry of the 2 castles. We first went up 10,000 stairs to Valere. It was built in the 11th century. It was gorgeous, and so high up! We took lots of pictures off the edge. There was a church at the top that we went through. We were getting so annoyed with dad because there wasnt much battery left in the video camera, and we didnt want him to waste it on the church. Then we went down, and our legs were rubbery. We decided to hike up to the 2nd castle which was twice as high as the other one, with 3 times the amount of stairs. It was called the Tourbillon Castle, and it was built in the 13th century. We had to walk atleast 100000000 stairs to get to the top of this one, and all the stairs were uneven rocks on the edge of a cliff. We FINALLY got to the top (sweaty and unable to breathe...we are SO out of shape), and discovered it was all ruins. It was gorgeous though, and it was my favorite. It was way higher than Valere castle, we could see right down into it. We took so many pictures off the edge of this castle, and (thankfully) it was absolutely gorgeous out. Shelby saw a soccer field, so we got a couple pictures of that too. On our way down, Shelby and I climbed up some of the ruins. Note to self...quit wearing flipflops when we have to hike up 3 miles to get to a castle. Im surprised my $1 flipflops have lasted this long. We then drove into downtime Sion and stopped at an information place, and we saw a map of Switzerland. We found Ovronnaz on the map, and we are 1590meters high, and near us there are villages as high as 3250meters!! Then we went out and shopped! Poor dad. While we were in H&M for "apparently" over an hour...dad sat and read his Harry Potter. So we shopped until the stores kicked us out, then headed back to Ovronnaz. We stopped in an Ikea-type store on the way back and attempted to communicate with the non-english speaking associates, but failed. We came home and ate supper. Then Shelby and I walked over to the spa where the internet is. We checked our emails, and I called Shaun with the end of our Swiss calling card. Shelby and I walked home, and it was dark. We saw the lights of little towns even higher on the mountain than us! It was so pretty! A car almost hit us while we were walking. I was sure I saw people hiding in the bush in the dark, and Shelby and I freaked out a bit, but we didnt see anyone. Turns out it was Siri and mom taking out the recycle, then spying on us. We played cards for waaay longer than we were supposed to, then we repacked our bags and put everything by the door. Early morning tomorrow. 12 hour drive to northern Germany!
11:39pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
3:39pm Saskatoon Time
We just got home from a day of exporing! The sun was shining today! We started by going to St. Pierre de Clages which was a book village. It was boring. The only excitement was the cutest, happiest little puppy. Reminded me of Tori. She was so adorable. Then we drove to Sion which is the capital of the province we are in, which called...Valais...i think. When we drove into Sion, we saw 2 mountain tops, each with a castle on top of it. We parked and walked up a huge hill to get to the entry of the 2 castles. We first went up 10,000 stairs to Valere. It was built in the 11th century. It was gorgeous, and so high up! We took lots of pictures off the edge. There was a church at the top that we went through. We were getting so annoyed with dad because there wasnt much battery left in the video camera, and we didnt want him to waste it on the church. Then we went down, and our legs were rubbery. We decided to hike up to the 2nd castle which was twice as high as the other one, with 3 times the amount of stairs. It was called the Tourbillon Castle, and it was built in the 13th century. We had to walk atleast 100000000 stairs to get to the top of this one, and all the stairs were uneven rocks on the edge of a cliff. We FINALLY got to the top (sweaty and unable to breathe...we are SO out of shape), and discovered it was all ruins. It was gorgeous though, and it was my favorite. It was way higher than Valere castle, we could see right down into it. We took so many pictures off the edge of this castle, and (thankfully) it was absolutely gorgeous out. Shelby saw a soccer field, so we got a couple pictures of that too. On our way down, Shelby and I climbed up some of the ruins. Note to self...quit wearing flipflops when we have to hike up 3 miles to get to a castle. Im surprised my $1 flipflops have lasted this long. We then drove into downtime Sion and stopped at an information place, and we saw a map of Switzerland. We found Ovronnaz on the map, and we are 1590meters high, and near us there are villages as high as 3250meters!! Then we went out and shopped! Poor dad. While we were in H&M for "apparently" over an hour...dad sat and read his Harry Potter. So we shopped until the stores kicked us out, then headed back to Ovronnaz. We stopped in an Ikea-type store on the way back and attempted to communicate with the non-english speaking associates, but failed. We came home and ate supper. Then Shelby and I walked over to the spa where the internet is. We checked our emails, and I called Shaun with the end of our Swiss calling card. Shelby and I walked home, and it was dark. We saw the lights of little towns even higher on the mountain than us! It was so pretty! A car almost hit us while we were walking. I was sure I saw people hiding in the bush in the dark, and Shelby and I freaked out a bit, but we didnt see anyone. Turns out it was Siri and mom taking out the recycle, then spying on us. We played cards for waaay longer than we were supposed to, then we repacked our bags and put everything by the door. Early morning tomorrow. 12 hour drive to northern Germany!
Thursday August 9th, 2oo7
Thursday August 9th, 2007
9:21pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
1:21pm Saskatoon Time
We got up early, and headed out the door for Italy. It must have snowed last night because the tops of the Alps were covered in snow. It was kinda cold out and drizzling, so going down the mountain was a bit questionable. The part of Switzerland right by Italy was COVERED in snow, and super cold. We had to go through a tunnel to get to Italy from Switzerland. We went through the tunnel and saw a huuuuuge dam out the side. It was insanely huge. Once we got out of the 6km tunnel, the weather in Italy was quite nice. Sunny atleast. We drove to Aosta and spent the day downtown. We went to bakeries and tried new goodies, all us girls bought a new outfit (or 3), dad checked out the hardware stores, and we visited old churches. In the middle of the day it was nice enough to just wear a t-shirt. We walked so much we were exhausted. On the way back to the tunnel, we stopped at an alcohol store because mom needed to buy ItALiaN wine. In the tunnel on our way home, my job was to video that inanely huge dam. Unfortunately we were in a cloud, and it was all white. It was so snowy. Shelby and I realized we have only showered 3 times so far this trip. Ah, the joys of having nongreasy hair and a boyfriend =) On our way back to Ovrannaz, we stopped at a lot that had a bunch of machines used to clear the snow on the mountain roads. The machines had either lots of wheels, or a track like a skidoo. Dad made me video them. We also stopped in Montigny to look at an old, rundown coleseum (sp?) It was so neat! It was rundown, but it still had the benches, and showed where the lions were let out during the fights. It was like a mini replica of the one in Rome. It had perfect acustics, and it sounded like you were on a loudspeaker when you talked, so for some reason the Sestak family decided to sing and yell, giving the other tourists a show. We survived the 24 switchback road up into the cloud called Ovronnaz. We had supper then played cards. We are all worn out from all the walking we did today. So, hopefully its bedtime soon.
9:21pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
1:21pm Saskatoon Time
We got up early, and headed out the door for Italy. It must have snowed last night because the tops of the Alps were covered in snow. It was kinda cold out and drizzling, so going down the mountain was a bit questionable. The part of Switzerland right by Italy was COVERED in snow, and super cold. We had to go through a tunnel to get to Italy from Switzerland. We went through the tunnel and saw a huuuuuge dam out the side. It was insanely huge. Once we got out of the 6km tunnel, the weather in Italy was quite nice. Sunny atleast. We drove to Aosta and spent the day downtown. We went to bakeries and tried new goodies, all us girls bought a new outfit (or 3), dad checked out the hardware stores, and we visited old churches. In the middle of the day it was nice enough to just wear a t-shirt. We walked so much we were exhausted. On the way back to the tunnel, we stopped at an alcohol store because mom needed to buy ItALiaN wine. In the tunnel on our way home, my job was to video that inanely huge dam. Unfortunately we were in a cloud, and it was all white. It was so snowy. Shelby and I realized we have only showered 3 times so far this trip. Ah, the joys of having nongreasy hair and a boyfriend =) On our way back to Ovrannaz, we stopped at a lot that had a bunch of machines used to clear the snow on the mountain roads. The machines had either lots of wheels, or a track like a skidoo. Dad made me video them. We also stopped in Montigny to look at an old, rundown coleseum (sp?) It was so neat! It was rundown, but it still had the benches, and showed where the lions were let out during the fights. It was like a mini replica of the one in Rome. It had perfect acustics, and it sounded like you were on a loudspeaker when you talked, so for some reason the Sestak family decided to sing and yell, giving the other tourists a show. We survived the 24 switchback road up into the cloud called Ovronnaz. We had supper then played cards. We are all worn out from all the walking we did today. So, hopefully its bedtime soon.
Wednesday August 8th, 2oo7
Wednesay August 8th, 2007
7:41pm Ovrannaz, Switzerland Time
11:41am Saskatoon Time
We followed our Polish friends to Montigny to see a castle. We parked at the bottom and had to walk up and up and up. I am so out of shape. The Polish father was like "you're like Americans. They have to drive everywhere, we know what they're like". Dad whispers to me, "lets show them we're not American". There were cemented paths to the castle, but there were shortcuts straight up the hills that the Polish father and the Polish son decided to take to show off. So dad and I joined them. My flip flops were too slippery, so I went up the mud barefoot. I went through a patch of poison ivy, and burnt my legs. FINALLY we got to the top of the damn hill where the castle was. It was really sweet. There were catapolts, and a cliff thing, and it was pretty neat. We couldnt go inside though which kinda sucked. We looked in the keyholes, and tried to break into a window, but failed. Then the Polish people went to France to see where the Olympic games were held, but it started to rain, so we decided to drive to Aigle to see another castle. It was raining really hard, so we went to the grocery store. We bought lots of chocolate, and lots of different kinds of beer, plus of course yummy food. There was the CUTEST old lady there that was so tiny, and asked Siri to get someting for her off a top shelf, and I wanted to adopt her. Once we were done at the store, we headed to the castle. This castle was so SWEET!! We went up a winding staircase up the stone turret. There were 78 stairs, and 6 different floors. Each floor had a different purpose, and the attick was a torture chamber. There was a dungeon going under the turret, but it was blocked off (thank goodness. it was so dark and creeeeepy). The fourth floor had a secret passageway to a dining hall. There were wine cellars, and servant quarters, and weird passageways that led to small little rooms, and up to rooms full of windows. We went up this dark passageways that was a skinnyskinny flight of winding stairs, and up at the top there was a little room with little windows on each side. People had carved and written their name in the wall, and we found so many signatures that said in the 1800's. We took a picture of a signature from 1855. It was thundering and lightning out, and it was really dark in the passageway we were in. Mom hid in the shadows, and jumped out at us. We screamed so loud, and Shelby told her that made up for all the times we scared her. Then Shelby and dad both smacked their heads on a doorframe at the same time. Basically, it was a pretty sweet castle. It was raining, so we had to run to our car. We came back to Ovronnaz, up the winding roads in the rain. I counted and there are 24 switch-back turns (hairpin turns? When you have to basically make a 360 degree turn to climb the next steep part of the road). Its freaky deaky. Ovrannaz is right in the cloud. Siri and I made supper, and now we're about to play kaiser. Im getting yelled at to come play, so ill talk to you later! ITALY TOMORROW!!
7:41pm Ovrannaz, Switzerland Time
11:41am Saskatoon Time
We followed our Polish friends to Montigny to see a castle. We parked at the bottom and had to walk up and up and up. I am so out of shape. The Polish father was like "you're like Americans. They have to drive everywhere, we know what they're like". Dad whispers to me, "lets show them we're not American". There were cemented paths to the castle, but there were shortcuts straight up the hills that the Polish father and the Polish son decided to take to show off. So dad and I joined them. My flip flops were too slippery, so I went up the mud barefoot. I went through a patch of poison ivy, and burnt my legs. FINALLY we got to the top of the damn hill where the castle was. It was really sweet. There were catapolts, and a cliff thing, and it was pretty neat. We couldnt go inside though which kinda sucked. We looked in the keyholes, and tried to break into a window, but failed. Then the Polish people went to France to see where the Olympic games were held, but it started to rain, so we decided to drive to Aigle to see another castle. It was raining really hard, so we went to the grocery store. We bought lots of chocolate, and lots of different kinds of beer, plus of course yummy food. There was the CUTEST old lady there that was so tiny, and asked Siri to get someting for her off a top shelf, and I wanted to adopt her. Once we were done at the store, we headed to the castle. This castle was so SWEET!! We went up a winding staircase up the stone turret. There were 78 stairs, and 6 different floors. Each floor had a different purpose, and the attick was a torture chamber. There was a dungeon going under the turret, but it was blocked off (thank goodness. it was so dark and creeeeepy). The fourth floor had a secret passageway to a dining hall. There were wine cellars, and servant quarters, and weird passageways that led to small little rooms, and up to rooms full of windows. We went up this dark passageways that was a skinnyskinny flight of winding stairs, and up at the top there was a little room with little windows on each side. People had carved and written their name in the wall, and we found so many signatures that said in the 1800's. We took a picture of a signature from 1855. It was thundering and lightning out, and it was really dark in the passageway we were in. Mom hid in the shadows, and jumped out at us. We screamed so loud, and Shelby told her that made up for all the times we scared her. Then Shelby and dad both smacked their heads on a doorframe at the same time. Basically, it was a pretty sweet castle. It was raining, so we had to run to our car. We came back to Ovronnaz, up the winding roads in the rain. I counted and there are 24 switch-back turns (hairpin turns? When you have to basically make a 360 degree turn to climb the next steep part of the road). Its freaky deaky. Ovrannaz is right in the cloud. Siri and I made supper, and now we're about to play kaiser. Im getting yelled at to come play, so ill talk to you later! ITALY TOMORROW!!
Tuesday August 7th, 2oo7
Tuesday August 7th, 2007
9:38pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
1:38pm Saskatoon Time
HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY GRANDMA SESTAK!!!
We woke up this morning in a cloud! It was all white looking outside, we couldnt even see the edge of our balcony. It wasnt very nice outside, so we decided to go to the Thermal Baths Spa. Its called ThermAlps or something clever like that. There were 2 outdoor swimming pools, and one indoor, plus a hottub. The outdoor pools were soooo nice and warm, and had theraputic areas with bars and bubbles and mMMmMm...it was so nice and relaxing. It was awesome looking at the tips of the Alp mountains, and being surrounded by a cloud. So turns out we are 1590meters high or something. Im not sure if i told you that already. So the pools were awesome. We spent $80 getting in, so we decided we may as well spend the entire day there. My sunburnt arm is so sore today. There is more blistering, and I cant even raise my arm without it hurting. Every little touch I got in the pool, i FREAKED. We had lots of fun. We had handstand competitions, and took turns with the goggles. We carried eachother around the pool and would fall asleep while they carried us. Poor Siri. I made her carry me everywhere.
After the thermal baths, we checked our emails, then came home and had supper. After supper dad, mom, and Siri went for a walk with our new Polish friends. Shelby and I stayed home, we are SO antisocial. oh well.
I think the plan is to go castle exploring tomorrow, so im going to header off to bed soon. Night all!
Monday August 6th, 2oo7
Monday August 6th, 2007
7:00pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
11:00am Saskatoon Time
Dad woke up Shelby and I at 6am because he "couldnt sleep". Well thanks dad, now we cant either. Then like 15 minutes later we heard him snoring. Atleast he was able to fall back asleep. Bugs me. Oh, and my arm felt like it was on fire.
We got up and had breakfast, then mom and dad went to the tourist information place while us girls played 100 rounds of President Gopher (card game). We attempted to do laundry, but ive never seen so many buttons on a damn machine, and they had instructions in every language but english. So frustrating. So mom and I attempted to figure out the french. THEN we didnt have the correct amount of Swiss Francs, so mom had to go ask our new Polish friends in suite 10 that mom and Siri picked up on a walk. They gave us the change as long as we went back and visited them. Shelby and I hid in our suite while mom forced dad and Siri to go visit. Poor Siri came back tainted. She said the Polish girl (whos 16) would never start a conversation, she's just stare at Siri. HHAHAHAHHA. oh dear. So the dryer didnt work, so we hung out all our wet clothes off our balcony. We went into town, and it looked like a bunch of hillbillies lived in our suite with our clothes draped everywhere. Mom made us walk to the internet, which was all uphill. Stupid mountain. We each checked our emails, and watched people go by while we waited our turn. There are some oddball people in this world. After the internet visit, mom and dad went for a walk while Shelby made supper. Siri and I werent allowed to help her make supper because she wanted to take all the credit. After supper we watched It Takes Two. It was english with Dutch subtitles. Dad felt bad for poor Claurice. Then we went to bed. Another wonderfully lazy day.
ps: My sunburn in horrible!! Its only on the right side of my body, plus patches on my legs where the sun came through the balcony. Dad thinks its 3rd degree. Tonight it had big blisters on my shoulders. In all my sunburns, i've never blistered like this. Who woulda thunk, the place where we get color would be at the top of the Swiss Alps.
7:00pm Ovronnaz, Switzerland Time
11:00am Saskatoon Time
Dad woke up Shelby and I at 6am because he "couldnt sleep". Well thanks dad, now we cant either. Then like 15 minutes later we heard him snoring. Atleast he was able to fall back asleep. Bugs me. Oh, and my arm felt like it was on fire.
We got up and had breakfast, then mom and dad went to the tourist information place while us girls played 100 rounds of President Gopher (card game). We attempted to do laundry, but ive never seen so many buttons on a damn machine, and they had instructions in every language but english. So frustrating. So mom and I attempted to figure out the french. THEN we didnt have the correct amount of Swiss Francs, so mom had to go ask our new Polish friends in suite 10 that mom and Siri picked up on a walk. They gave us the change as long as we went back and visited them. Shelby and I hid in our suite while mom forced dad and Siri to go visit. Poor Siri came back tainted. She said the Polish girl (whos 16) would never start a conversation, she's just stare at Siri. HHAHAHAHHA. oh dear. So the dryer didnt work, so we hung out all our wet clothes off our balcony. We went into town, and it looked like a bunch of hillbillies lived in our suite with our clothes draped everywhere. Mom made us walk to the internet, which was all uphill. Stupid mountain. We each checked our emails, and watched people go by while we waited our turn. There are some oddball people in this world. After the internet visit, mom and dad went for a walk while Shelby made supper. Siri and I werent allowed to help her make supper because she wanted to take all the credit. After supper we watched It Takes Two. It was english with Dutch subtitles. Dad felt bad for poor Claurice. Then we went to bed. Another wonderfully lazy day.
ps: My sunburn in horrible!! Its only on the right side of my body, plus patches on my legs where the sun came through the balcony. Dad thinks its 3rd degree. Tonight it had big blisters on my shoulders. In all my sunburns, i've never blistered like this. Who woulda thunk, the place where we get color would be at the top of the Swiss Alps.
♥ Sunday August 5th, 2oo7
Sunday August 5th, 2007
We did a whole lot of nothing today. We went to the tourist information place, and they spoke zero english. We asked about any interesting sights we could see in the area, and she looked at us confused then took out a map that had a point that said "Sailles", and looked at us questionably. Not quite. We walked around a bit. It was so hot out. I cant believe how high up the mountain we are. I sat out on our balcony, and we can see the ski lifts at the top of the mountain, which isnt too far above us. We spent the afternoon reading. I read Harry Potter for 5 hours and finished it (so far this trip, my plan was to read really slow, and limit the amount i read everyday so the book would last longer, but I couldnt stop today). I got a hooooorrible burn on my right side. My chest is half red, half white. Mom and the girls played cards all afternoon, and dad slept. Anyways...back to Harry Potter. Is it bad that I feel slightly jealous of Ginny?
Saturday August 4th, 2oo7
Saturday August 4th, 2007
10:19pm Somewhere In Switzerland Time
2:19pm Saskatoon Time
We got up early this morning, loaded all our stuff in our vehicle, said bye to Albert and Gretta, then headed out on the highway. We drove through France, and stopped at these HIDEOUS bathrooms. Ive never been to anything so rank. Everytime the door opened, water splashed everywhere, so we freaked out when we first went to go in. Then there was no toilet seat, girls had to like.,.back in and stand on little steps to avoid being in liquid. Uuuuugh, everyone who walked out had a disgusted look on their face. barfbarfbarf. Ok, anyways, then we continued our journey towards Switzerland. We finally hit the Swiss Alps. They were GOOoOoooOOoooRGEOUS. Not as huge as the Rockies, but still gorgeous. We drove by this huge lake, and it was amazing. Shelby wanted to go there for a quick little swim. We probably over-videoed this lake. We drove deeper into the Alps, and saw a HUGE bridge connecting 2 mountains. We also saw waterfalls, and it was crazy because there was farming right up the sides of mountains..and each field was so neatly layered and organized. Lots and lots of grapes. We had a bit of trouble finding our town of Ovronnaz. We drove in a cirlces a few times, and tried to talk to non-english speakers who would point up. Way up. We asked this one man directions, and he said he didnt speak english, but his son did. He called over his...extremely goodlooking...son and he said that Ovronnaz was like wayway up the mountain. We saw a town waaay up, and he said it wasnt that one, it was one above it. Umm...ok. So he pointed us in the right direction and we started our journy...up. We went up steep hills, and around so many switchback turns. We stopped at that town which isn't even half way up, and dad said he didnt know if we should go any higher. But, we did anyways. We drove uphill for like 20minutes and went through 3 towns before we got to Ovronnaz. The view was aaaaamazing!! We are so close to the tips of the alps, and we can see itty bitty dots in the bottom of the valley which are houses. We got to our cottage thing. It was called Beau-site, and it reminded me of Memorial Lake..hey Mare? Our house was one floor up, on the corner. It was a cute little suite, made of wood (im not sure what kind...oak?), like a cabin. Our view off our balcony was the tips of the mountains. It was so nice. So we unpacked, had a bite to eat, then went to bed. We were all uber tired.
10:19pm Somewhere In Switzerland Time
2:19pm Saskatoon Time
We got up early this morning, loaded all our stuff in our vehicle, said bye to Albert and Gretta, then headed out on the highway. We drove through France, and stopped at these HIDEOUS bathrooms. Ive never been to anything so rank. Everytime the door opened, water splashed everywhere, so we freaked out when we first went to go in. Then there was no toilet seat, girls had to like.,.back in and stand on little steps to avoid being in liquid. Uuuuugh, everyone who walked out had a disgusted look on their face. barfbarfbarf. Ok, anyways, then we continued our journey towards Switzerland. We finally hit the Swiss Alps. They were GOOoOoooOOoooRGEOUS. Not as huge as the Rockies, but still gorgeous. We drove by this huge lake, and it was amazing. Shelby wanted to go there for a quick little swim. We probably over-videoed this lake. We drove deeper into the Alps, and saw a HUGE bridge connecting 2 mountains. We also saw waterfalls, and it was crazy because there was farming right up the sides of mountains..and each field was so neatly layered and organized. Lots and lots of grapes. We had a bit of trouble finding our town of Ovronnaz. We drove in a cirlces a few times, and tried to talk to non-english speakers who would point up. Way up. We asked this one man directions, and he said he didnt speak english, but his son did. He called over his...extremely goodlooking...son and he said that Ovronnaz was like wayway up the mountain. We saw a town waaay up, and he said it wasnt that one, it was one above it. Umm...ok. So he pointed us in the right direction and we started our journy...up. We went up steep hills, and around so many switchback turns. We stopped at that town which isn't even half way up, and dad said he didnt know if we should go any higher. But, we did anyways. We drove uphill for like 20minutes and went through 3 towns before we got to Ovronnaz. The view was aaaaamazing!! We are so close to the tips of the alps, and we can see itty bitty dots in the bottom of the valley which are houses. We got to our cottage thing. It was called Beau-site, and it reminded me of Memorial Lake..hey Mare? Our house was one floor up, on the corner. It was a cute little suite, made of wood (im not sure what kind...oak?), like a cabin. Our view off our balcony was the tips of the mountains. It was so nice. So we unpacked, had a bite to eat, then went to bed. We were all uber tired.
Friday August 3rd, 2oo7
Friday August 3rd, 2007
We woke up and went to the market today. This one man gave us a deal on a shirt because we were from Canada and he wants to visit Niagara Falls. He was telling us about how girls from Paris want to be dressed so fancy and stand out, then he looked at us, staring at Shelby (who just got out of bed and was wearing her pajamas still) and was like, "but it seems like Canadian girls dress....more...modest...and rather.......plain......". Haha, poor Shelby. We ended up buying a new outfit each, at super cheap. We also bought lots of fresh fruits and veggies. We went home and had salmon and creamcheese on crackers. mmmMm. It was so hot out, so we went to the local pool. We are so odd. Us girls took turns with the googles to spy on people under the water. But there were too many itty bitty speedos, so we were disgusted. Then Shelby and I had handstand contests. We looked so hideous in our nose plugs and goggles, so we quickly took them off when the studly lifeguard was near. haha. Then we spied again and went on the pathetic waterslide. Mom and dad went grocery shopping while us girls showered and watched some tv. Every english channel we got excited. We ate supper and watched Erin Brockovich on tv. Haha, my family is so pathetic. We get so into the movies we watch together. We cheer when something good happens, and boo when something bad happens. After the movie, we repacked our suitcases because we had to leave early in the morning to SWITZERLAND. Then we headed to bed.
We woke up and went to the market today. This one man gave us a deal on a shirt because we were from Canada and he wants to visit Niagara Falls. He was telling us about how girls from Paris want to be dressed so fancy and stand out, then he looked at us, staring at Shelby (who just got out of bed and was wearing her pajamas still) and was like, "but it seems like Canadian girls dress....more...modest...and rather.......plain......". Haha, poor Shelby. We ended up buying a new outfit each, at super cheap. We also bought lots of fresh fruits and veggies. We went home and had salmon and creamcheese on crackers. mmmMm. It was so hot out, so we went to the local pool. We are so odd. Us girls took turns with the googles to spy on people under the water. But there were too many itty bitty speedos, so we were disgusted. Then Shelby and I had handstand contests. We looked so hideous in our nose plugs and goggles, so we quickly took them off when the studly lifeguard was near. haha. Then we spied again and went on the pathetic waterslide. Mom and dad went grocery shopping while us girls showered and watched some tv. Every english channel we got excited. We ate supper and watched Erin Brockovich on tv. Haha, my family is so pathetic. We get so into the movies we watch together. We cheer when something good happens, and boo when something bad happens. After the movie, we repacked our suitcases because we had to leave early in the morning to SWITZERLAND. Then we headed to bed.
Thursday August 2nd, 1007
Thursday August 2nd, 2007
We got up at 6am, and headed out to the town of Calais. There we dropped our car off, and got picked up by a big tour bus and began our trip to Engand! Poor Ed, our old man tour guide, had to say everything in like 5 differeng languages. Between each translation he'd let our a sigh, a grunt, and clear his throat. We were known as "ah, Canadians". We were going to cross the North Sea to England by Ferry, but there wasnt one available for today, so instead we decided to take the tunnel under the water. Shelby was dissapointed because we thought we'd be driving, but instead we drove onto a train carrt, and a huge train pulled us through the tunnel at 140m/hr with 6500hp. It was an average of 35meters below sea level, but closer to England, it drops to 75meters. We got to London at 10:30am France Time, 9:30am England time. Shelby saw a red phone booth, and she was basically on my lap trying to catch a picture of it, after a huge strain, she barely got a picture of it. Then we turned a corner and there was a line of 9 of them in a row, 3 meters apart. The bus was silent, and Shelby and I burst out laughing. They bus dropped us off, and we headed out to explore Loooondon. We visited Lizzy's Castle (Buchingham Palace), Big Ben, Trefalgar Square, National Art Musium, The Harbour, Picadily Circus, Cleopatra's Needle, St. James' Palace, Westminster Bridge, House Of Parliament, Covent Garden, and we had lunch in a Canadian Memorial Park. We were eating on a park bench infront of this flat statue thinger. We decided to go play on it, and pull eachother down the slope. After doing so for like...15minutes while lots of people drove by, mom came and was like, "this is a war monument, you cant play on here". Sure enough there was a large plaque that we must have stepped right on that said "Canada Memorial. As A Mark Of Respect Please Keep Off The Monument". Woopsie. Siri fed this one pigeon so many waffles, im surprised it didnt burst and die in front of us. We went back and peered through the gates of the Buckingham Palace and stared at the guards who didnt smile. I would be so good at that job. We walked around this park for awhile, and all of a sudden Siri screamed. A bird pooped on her head, HAHAHA. We said it must have been that first pigeon getting her back for feeding it too much and making it sick. Then we went to Westminster Abbey which is the church that every king or queen has been crowned since William the Conquerer. (Just so everyone knows, this information may be slighty incorrect. Im just writing from what the tour guide man told us, and what i remember). Then we walked forever. I saw a Marriott. What a lovely reminder of what i left back home. We crossed the bridge, and walked down the river edge through an area that reminded me of the Fringe. There were people posing as statues, and performing weird skits. One guy was playing his guitar laying down behind his back, another girl was dressed as a doll, and would rotate and be freaky, another man was painted all blue playing a guitar, a girl was drawing a picture of Big Ben (that was AMAZING) on the cement with sidewalk chalk, an old man was SO CUTE playing his harmonica, and this young boy had these 4 glass balls, and were...i dont know how to explain it...playing with them? He was really good, and it was really cool. There was this statue right beside him that had a pigeon on its head. I was looking at it when we realized it blinked! The statue was a man, and he had a pet pigeon. His costume was amazing. There was this huuuuuge ferris wheel, and beside it there were these 3 crazy people advertising a river cruise. They were dressed oddly with camel-toe enhancing outfits, and scuba gear. They were crazy, so we got a picture with them. We walked and saw Big Ben close up. The face of the clock is 7meters across. We wer super hungry, so we decided to get something to eat. Shelby was adament about getting McDonalds, so we found one. First off...they didnt even know what McChicken sauce was. 2nd, Siri's hamburger had no bottom. It was still yummy tho. It came out to 15POUNDS, so that converted into canadian dollars (x2.5) was a $37.50 Mcdonalds meal. HAHA. We went the Trefalgar Square where we climbed up on the giant lion statues, then we fed the pigeons. If you held food in your hand the pigeons would land on your arm. Shelby was like "omgomgomgomg get if off. get if off!" It wasnt very enjoyable at first. The next day there was a huge festival that was going to take place in Trefalgar Square, so they were rehearsing. We watched the acrobatics, and they were crazy good. It started to rain, and after dad said "it looks like we're going to get some weather" 50 times, we decided to go into the National Art Museum. I was never a huge art fan, but some of the paintings were freaking amazing, and I may have been converted. They dated back to the 1400's. Shelby decided to lean over the roap and attempt to touch a painting (what a dumbass). She wasnt able to because the security guard was on her in a second. She appologized and he said NO WORRIES. He was really nice, unlike the experience i had with one of the guards. To make a long story short, i took a picture and it wasnt appreciated. "YOU WERE CAUGHT IN ROOM NINE..." She didnt seem to care that we took a picture, it was more that her job was so boring she wanted a bit of action. Then, Siri was just holding her camera, and she marched over and told her it had to be in her bag. I guess us Sestak girl's werent overly appreciated in that museum. We were then going to go to the world's largest toy store, but then we had to get back to our bus that was leaving soon. WE SAW A HARRY POTTER DOUBLE DECKER BUS. If anyone cares. Anyways, then we caught our tour bus at 6:00pm (London time) and headed to the tunnel back to France. I attempted to sleep on Siri, but she wasnt a very good cushion. Shes not fat enough. We got back to Poperidge around midnight.
We got up at 6am, and headed out to the town of Calais. There we dropped our car off, and got picked up by a big tour bus and began our trip to Engand! Poor Ed, our old man tour guide, had to say everything in like 5 differeng languages. Between each translation he'd let our a sigh, a grunt, and clear his throat. We were known as "ah, Canadians". We were going to cross the North Sea to England by Ferry, but there wasnt one available for today, so instead we decided to take the tunnel under the water. Shelby was dissapointed because we thought we'd be driving, but instead we drove onto a train carrt, and a huge train pulled us through the tunnel at 140m/hr with 6500hp. It was an average of 35meters below sea level, but closer to England, it drops to 75meters. We got to London at 10:30am France Time, 9:30am England time. Shelby saw a red phone booth, and she was basically on my lap trying to catch a picture of it, after a huge strain, she barely got a picture of it. Then we turned a corner and there was a line of 9 of them in a row, 3 meters apart. The bus was silent, and Shelby and I burst out laughing. They bus dropped us off, and we headed out to explore Loooondon. We visited Lizzy's Castle (Buchingham Palace), Big Ben, Trefalgar Square, National Art Musium, The Harbour, Picadily Circus, Cleopatra's Needle, St. James' Palace, Westminster Bridge, House Of Parliament, Covent Garden, and we had lunch in a Canadian Memorial Park. We were eating on a park bench infront of this flat statue thinger. We decided to go play on it, and pull eachother down the slope. After doing so for like...15minutes while lots of people drove by, mom came and was like, "this is a war monument, you cant play on here". Sure enough there was a large plaque that we must have stepped right on that said "Canada Memorial. As A Mark Of Respect Please Keep Off The Monument". Woopsie. Siri fed this one pigeon so many waffles, im surprised it didnt burst and die in front of us. We went back and peered through the gates of the Buckingham Palace and stared at the guards who didnt smile. I would be so good at that job. We walked around this park for awhile, and all of a sudden Siri screamed. A bird pooped on her head, HAHAHA. We said it must have been that first pigeon getting her back for feeding it too much and making it sick. Then we went to Westminster Abbey which is the church that every king or queen has been crowned since William the Conquerer. (Just so everyone knows, this information may be slighty incorrect. Im just writing from what the tour guide man told us, and what i remember). Then we walked forever. I saw a Marriott. What a lovely reminder of what i left back home. We crossed the bridge, and walked down the river edge through an area that reminded me of the Fringe. There were people posing as statues, and performing weird skits. One guy was playing his guitar laying down behind his back, another girl was dressed as a doll, and would rotate and be freaky, another man was painted all blue playing a guitar, a girl was drawing a picture of Big Ben (that was AMAZING) on the cement with sidewalk chalk, an old man was SO CUTE playing his harmonica, and this young boy had these 4 glass balls, and were...i dont know how to explain it...playing with them? He was really good, and it was really cool. There was this statue right beside him that had a pigeon on its head. I was looking at it when we realized it blinked! The statue was a man, and he had a pet pigeon. His costume was amazing. There was this huuuuuge ferris wheel, and beside it there were these 3 crazy people advertising a river cruise. They were dressed oddly with camel-toe enhancing outfits, and scuba gear. They were crazy, so we got a picture with them. We walked and saw Big Ben close up. The face of the clock is 7meters across. We wer super hungry, so we decided to get something to eat. Shelby was adament about getting McDonalds, so we found one. First off...they didnt even know what McChicken sauce was. 2nd, Siri's hamburger had no bottom. It was still yummy tho. It came out to 15POUNDS, so that converted into canadian dollars (x2.5) was a $37.50 Mcdonalds meal. HAHA. We went the Trefalgar Square where we climbed up on the giant lion statues, then we fed the pigeons. If you held food in your hand the pigeons would land on your arm. Shelby was like "omgomgomgomg get if off. get if off!" It wasnt very enjoyable at first. The next day there was a huge festival that was going to take place in Trefalgar Square, so they were rehearsing. We watched the acrobatics, and they were crazy good. It started to rain, and after dad said "it looks like we're going to get some weather" 50 times, we decided to go into the National Art Museum. I was never a huge art fan, but some of the paintings were freaking amazing, and I may have been converted. They dated back to the 1400's. Shelby decided to lean over the roap and attempt to touch a painting (what a dumbass). She wasnt able to because the security guard was on her in a second. She appologized and he said NO WORRIES. He was really nice, unlike the experience i had with one of the guards. To make a long story short, i took a picture and it wasnt appreciated. "YOU WERE CAUGHT IN ROOM NINE..." She didnt seem to care that we took a picture, it was more that her job was so boring she wanted a bit of action. Then, Siri was just holding her camera, and she marched over and told her it had to be in her bag. I guess us Sestak girl's werent overly appreciated in that museum. We were then going to go to the world's largest toy store, but then we had to get back to our bus that was leaving soon. WE SAW A HARRY POTTER DOUBLE DECKER BUS. If anyone cares. Anyways, then we caught our tour bus at 6:00pm (London time) and headed to the tunnel back to France. I attempted to sleep on Siri, but she wasnt a very good cushion. Shes not fat enough. We got back to Poperidge around midnight.
Wednesday August 1st, 2007
Wednesday August 1, 2007
8:57pm Poperidge, Belgium Time
12:57pm Saskatoon Time
Today we decided to go to France for lunch. So, we packed up and headed out the door. We were apparently annoying when we were driving. We asked dad if he was embarrassed of us. "Yes"...."why?"...."cuz you're hidi". We heard Rhianna's 'Umbrella' on the radio, like we do basically everyday, but in France it was different! It was basically the same, but some of the notes were different, and at parts instead of "under my unbrella", it was "and it can last foreva". Weeeeird. Anyways, so yeah, we drove for a couple hours, then stopped at a bakery and got some lunch. Then we headed to the North Sea again, but this time from France, not Belgium. Mom was like, "dad was first in the North Sea from Belgium, whos going to be the first today in France?", then dad was like, "pft, who cares who is in the North Sea first in FRANCE, its still the North Sea, and I was first in it". But, sure enough, once we found a place to park,and headed to the beach, we had to go down a rope down a cliff thing, but then dad booked it, and was first in the North Sea in France. If we looked hard enough, we could see England across the water. Then the tide started coming up, and it rose so fast! It was really scary actually. There were so many rocks on the beach, and i said i was glad i was out of my rock collecting phase, or else we'd be here for hours. Apparently im not completely out of it, because us girls ended up searching for different rocks to make necklaces out of. After we had enough of the beach, we drove for a couple miles, then saw some statue waaaay up on a hill. We decided to go see it. Instead of taking the paved way up, we took the trail up along the side of the hill. All of a sudden, we noticed a little building hidden deep in the hill. There were little stairs up, and little stairs down. We went down the stairs (so carefully because it was so dark, and just freaky), and we looked around the corner, and there were lots of rooms and tunnels!! Turns out this hill was a battle field, and these were places where the soldiers hid, overlooking the fields, and shot out of the holes. Freaky Deaky. There were couple more on the hill, as we continued our way up. We got up to where the statue was h.o.l.y frick it was gorgeous. It was right on a cliff over the Sea. We could see for miles and miles and miles and miles. There were tons of fox holes on top of the hill aswell, and when we looked in the tunnels, they just kept going, but we were to scared to follow them. Plus if we looked far enough, a lot of them turned into crawling holes. That would be the most clausterphobic thing. uuugh. We were right on a cliff of the sea, so we crossed the protective wire, and looked over the cliff. gah, so high! There was another family there with a 3ish year old, and 5ish year old girls. They werent even watching them. I wouldnt let my kids anywhere near that edge. Anyways, it was absolutely gorgeous, but really scary. I got on my hands and knees and looked right over. Dad got us back behind the protective wire as quickly as possible. We headed down the hill and back to our car. We then drove to the town of Wissant that reaked like fish, and walked around, found a bakery, then went to the bathroom, but it was so gross we decided to hold it for 2 hours until we got back to Poperidge. We drove home and had supper. Then mom and dad went for a walk. Tomorrow is England, so we attempted to get to bed early. No such luck.
8:57pm Poperidge, Belgium Time
12:57pm Saskatoon Time
Today we decided to go to France for lunch. So, we packed up and headed out the door. We were apparently annoying when we were driving. We asked dad if he was embarrassed of us. "Yes"...."why?"...."cuz you're hidi". We heard Rhianna's 'Umbrella' on the radio, like we do basically everyday, but in France it was different! It was basically the same, but some of the notes were different, and at parts instead of "under my unbrella", it was "and it can last foreva". Weeeeird. Anyways, so yeah, we drove for a couple hours, then stopped at a bakery and got some lunch. Then we headed to the North Sea again, but this time from France, not Belgium. Mom was like, "dad was first in the North Sea from Belgium, whos going to be the first today in France?", then dad was like, "pft, who cares who is in the North Sea first in FRANCE, its still the North Sea, and I was first in it". But, sure enough, once we found a place to park,and headed to the beach, we had to go down a rope down a cliff thing, but then dad booked it, and was first in the North Sea in France. If we looked hard enough, we could see England across the water. Then the tide started coming up, and it rose so fast! It was really scary actually. There were so many rocks on the beach, and i said i was glad i was out of my rock collecting phase, or else we'd be here for hours. Apparently im not completely out of it, because us girls ended up searching for different rocks to make necklaces out of. After we had enough of the beach, we drove for a couple miles, then saw some statue waaaay up on a hill. We decided to go see it. Instead of taking the paved way up, we took the trail up along the side of the hill. All of a sudden, we noticed a little building hidden deep in the hill. There were little stairs up, and little stairs down. We went down the stairs (so carefully because it was so dark, and just freaky), and we looked around the corner, and there were lots of rooms and tunnels!! Turns out this hill was a battle field, and these were places where the soldiers hid, overlooking the fields, and shot out of the holes. Freaky Deaky. There were couple more on the hill, as we continued our way up. We got up to where the statue was h.o.l.y frick it was gorgeous. It was right on a cliff over the Sea. We could see for miles and miles and miles and miles. There were tons of fox holes on top of the hill aswell, and when we looked in the tunnels, they just kept going, but we were to scared to follow them. Plus if we looked far enough, a lot of them turned into crawling holes. That would be the most clausterphobic thing. uuugh. We were right on a cliff of the sea, so we crossed the protective wire, and looked over the cliff. gah, so high! There was another family there with a 3ish year old, and 5ish year old girls. They werent even watching them. I wouldnt let my kids anywhere near that edge. Anyways, it was absolutely gorgeous, but really scary. I got on my hands and knees and looked right over. Dad got us back behind the protective wire as quickly as possible. We headed down the hill and back to our car. We then drove to the town of Wissant that reaked like fish, and walked around, found a bakery, then went to the bathroom, but it was so gross we decided to hold it for 2 hours until we got back to Poperidge. We drove home and had supper. Then mom and dad went for a walk. Tomorrow is England, so we attempted to get to bed early. No such luck.
Tuesday July 31st, 2007
Tuesday July 31st, 2007
11:57pm Poperidge, Belgium Time
3:57am Saskatoon Time
Today was a lazy day. We just hung out in Poperidge, going to random shops and markets. We went to a bakery and got fresh salmon and hamsalad sandwiches. They were sooo yummy. mMmmmm. We shopped, checked out the town, and went on Gretta's internet. I was downstairs at the travelshop, and when i came upstairs, Shelby had locked Siri in the shower. We made a family trip to the grocery store. That was an experience and a half. We drove by a handicapped parking spot and Shelby yells, "WE CAN PARK HERE...SAM IS WITH US!"..like i havent heard THAT one before. The store closed in 10 minutes, so we all went in different directions. Mom discovered a brand called 365, and its her new best friend. It was so cheap, yet tasty. We chased eachother through the store trying to find nonbubbled water, and chocolate chip cookies. Siri and I made supper when we got home. We opened a bottle of bubbling champagne, and screamed when the top blew off. Then mom finished making supper while Siri and I videoed our house. We had supper, and dad called us girls simple. Not sure why. Then us girls read and looked at pictures, while mom and dad went for a walk and talked to Gretta. Gretta thinks a day trip to Paris with a family of 5 would be horrible. She told us about the pickpocketers, and how they now corner people in subways, and can get violent. And how with families, they cut some of them off, so only part of the family gets on the train before it leaves. And how at 9am on a very empty street she had everything stolen from her purse, and before she realized it, they were gone. When she went to the police, they told her shes lucky shes not hurt. Mom and dad came home, pulled out the maps and tried to decide what country to visit next. Then we all headed to bed around midnight.
11:57pm Poperidge, Belgium Time
3:57am Saskatoon Time
Today was a lazy day. We just hung out in Poperidge, going to random shops and markets. We went to a bakery and got fresh salmon and hamsalad sandwiches. They were sooo yummy. mMmmmm. We shopped, checked out the town, and went on Gretta's internet. I was downstairs at the travelshop, and when i came upstairs, Shelby had locked Siri in the shower. We made a family trip to the grocery store. That was an experience and a half. We drove by a handicapped parking spot and Shelby yells, "WE CAN PARK HERE...SAM IS WITH US!"..like i havent heard THAT one before. The store closed in 10 minutes, so we all went in different directions. Mom discovered a brand called 365, and its her new best friend. It was so cheap, yet tasty. We chased eachother through the store trying to find nonbubbled water, and chocolate chip cookies. Siri and I made supper when we got home. We opened a bottle of bubbling champagne, and screamed when the top blew off. Then mom finished making supper while Siri and I videoed our house. We had supper, and dad called us girls simple. Not sure why. Then us girls read and looked at pictures, while mom and dad went for a walk and talked to Gretta. Gretta thinks a day trip to Paris with a family of 5 would be horrible. She told us about the pickpocketers, and how they now corner people in subways, and can get violent. And how with families, they cut some of them off, so only part of the family gets on the train before it leaves. And how at 9am on a very empty street she had everything stolen from her purse, and before she realized it, they were gone. When she went to the police, they told her shes lucky shes not hurt. Mom and dad came home, pulled out the maps and tried to decide what country to visit next. Then we all headed to bed around midnight.
Monday July 30th, 2007
Monday July 30th, 2007
9:36pm Pomperidge, Belgium Time
1:36pm Saskatoon time
Today we woke up to a freaking church bell that rang for like half an hour at 7:30am. Dad thought maybe it was some warning bell, but turns out it was to make sure people were on their way to church. We got up and headed to Brugge, Belgium, which is said to be the most beautiful city in Europe. We got there thanks for Lori, our GPS navigator. By the end of the day, her name was Melody, Verna, Gretta, Ingun, Hilda, Volso, Larva, Hagrid, etc. On our way to Brugge, we decided to drive along the coast. We stopped at the North Sea to take a walk on the beach. It was kinda chilly out, but the sun was shining! We were walking along towards the water, when dad just started running yelled "I GET TO TOUCH THE NORTH SEA FIRST!!" Real mature dad. The water wasnt very cold, but there were lots of pokey shells. Mom collected a few shells, while Shelby and I ran through the waves. We looked over, and dad was all amazed by this boat thing Turns out it was a tank thing that they used in the war. Its a 6wheeler on land, but its also a boat. It was made of steel and carried something like 2500kgs of equiptment. I could be wrong about the facts.After our visit to the North Sea, we pulled out Lori and headed to Brugge! On our drive, we passed a tower thing that resembled the Eiffel Tower. Mom thought we should take a picture of it, then photoshop our family in with our thumbs up, send it as our Christmas letter and tell people its the Eiffel tower. No one found this as funny as her, She laughed so hard she cried while the rest of us just looked at her. Once we got to Brugge, it took forever to find a place to park, then we caught a bus and headed to downtown. It was really gorgeous, but honestly...all of this part of Europe is kinda looking the same to me. We got pictures of waterfountains and amazing buildings. We went to a church, and it was...wow. For starters it was absolutely huge! The ceilings were massive, and the stainglassed windows were so detailed. Every inch of the walls and ceilings were intricately carved and designed. I cant believe they were able to build churches like that 100s of years ago. We walked around the village, looking at all the buildings. Each one was so different, even though they all looked the same. We saw massive old castle-looking buildings that were...i dont know what they were, but they were purdy. I guess you need to see pictures. We went and bought frites in the market, and had to pay 50Euros for ketchup. We were walking down the street, and some lady had a huge sneeze, then right after we hear this "UUUUUUGH!!!!" It was mom. How rude is she? She didnt mean to, but it caught her off guard. She yelled it when the lady was right next to her. Oh mom. The streets were absolutely packed with people, but stupid cars and motorbikes would speed past. I cant believe they dont hit people, it made me so mad. Stupid crazy Europeans. HAHAHA, and we saw these 3 old men sitting on a bench chatting away and making fun of things. They reminded me of Shaun, Mitch, and Tanner in 70years. It made me miss home.Lori got us home. We got home and ate supper, then Shelby decided to take a picture of everything. She's so odd.
9:36pm Pomperidge, Belgium Time
1:36pm Saskatoon time
Today we woke up to a freaking church bell that rang for like half an hour at 7:30am. Dad thought maybe it was some warning bell, but turns out it was to make sure people were on their way to church. We got up and headed to Brugge, Belgium, which is said to be the most beautiful city in Europe. We got there thanks for Lori, our GPS navigator. By the end of the day, her name was Melody, Verna, Gretta, Ingun, Hilda, Volso, Larva, Hagrid, etc. On our way to Brugge, we decided to drive along the coast. We stopped at the North Sea to take a walk on the beach. It was kinda chilly out, but the sun was shining! We were walking along towards the water, when dad just started running yelled "I GET TO TOUCH THE NORTH SEA FIRST!!" Real mature dad. The water wasnt very cold, but there were lots of pokey shells. Mom collected a few shells, while Shelby and I ran through the waves. We looked over, and dad was all amazed by this boat thing Turns out it was a tank thing that they used in the war. Its a 6wheeler on land, but its also a boat. It was made of steel and carried something like 2500kgs of equiptment. I could be wrong about the facts.After our visit to the North Sea, we pulled out Lori and headed to Brugge! On our drive, we passed a tower thing that resembled the Eiffel Tower. Mom thought we should take a picture of it, then photoshop our family in with our thumbs up, send it as our Christmas letter and tell people its the Eiffel tower. No one found this as funny as her, She laughed so hard she cried while the rest of us just looked at her. Once we got to Brugge, it took forever to find a place to park, then we caught a bus and headed to downtown. It was really gorgeous, but honestly...all of this part of Europe is kinda looking the same to me. We got pictures of waterfountains and amazing buildings. We went to a church, and it was...wow. For starters it was absolutely huge! The ceilings were massive, and the stainglassed windows were so detailed. Every inch of the walls and ceilings were intricately carved and designed. I cant believe they were able to build churches like that 100s of years ago. We walked around the village, looking at all the buildings. Each one was so different, even though they all looked the same. We saw massive old castle-looking buildings that were...i dont know what they were, but they were purdy. I guess you need to see pictures. We went and bought frites in the market, and had to pay 50Euros for ketchup. We were walking down the street, and some lady had a huge sneeze, then right after we hear this "UUUUUUGH!!!!" It was mom. How rude is she? She didnt mean to, but it caught her off guard. She yelled it when the lady was right next to her. Oh mom. The streets were absolutely packed with people, but stupid cars and motorbikes would speed past. I cant believe they dont hit people, it made me so mad. Stupid crazy Europeans. HAHAHA, and we saw these 3 old men sitting on a bench chatting away and making fun of things. They reminded me of Shaun, Mitch, and Tanner in 70years. It made me miss home.Lori got us home. We got home and ate supper, then Shelby decided to take a picture of everything. She's so odd.
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
Sunday July 29th, 2007
9:15pm Poperidge, Belgium Time
1:16pm Saskatoon Time
We were rudly awoken this morning at 2pm by the parents. We were rushed out the door, because there was some parade going on in a town named Veurne about half an hour away. The people we are renting this house from (the owners of the travel store) took us. Their names are Albert and Gretta and they are so nice!! They're just constantly happy. The parade ended up being the story of the bible, and of Jesus' life. They put on this parade once every year. It was super long, but really good. We didnt understand any of the speaking because it was all in Flemish. Apparently this parade has gone on every year on this exact day for 500 YEARS!! Thats 5x longer than Canada has been a country!! And, the other thing we learned was that if a person is in the parade as a child, they have to be in the parade every year until they die, or else cant do it anymore. And each section of the bible is done by a different family. We got lots of pictures of the parade, especially the angry goats. There was a man sitting near us that would bark (or whatever a goat does) back to it, and the goat stopped and just stared at him. I laughed..JPG)
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(haha, im hideous)
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(dad videoing from the 2nd floor)
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OH, and Albert had a huuuuge supply of Belgium chocolates, and he kept feeding us them! They were soooo yummy, but holy cow, even i had to say no at the end..JPG)
Next door there were the biggest bottles of alcohol i've ever seen, .JPG)
AND there was a jeans advertisement that we loved. .JPG)
After the parade, we walked around the Verne. The architecture was amazing. Then we drove to Flanders Field! Shelby decided to recite the poem for everyone. There was a huge monument built to honor all the Flemish people who died in the war, but then a few years later, it was bombed down. Now, there is the ruins of that first monument, then they built another one behind it.
On all 4 sides of the monument it said "NO MORE WAR" in 4 different languages. We then we drove out to a memorial site for all the Canadian soldiers who fought and lost their lives for this country. The Belgium people are really grateful for us. Gretta told us the story of D-Day and Diepe, and how it happened not too far from here. .JPG)
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We then drove a bit further to a trench that was preserved from WW1..JPG)
Its so weird being in Canada, and learning about the war, and how horrible it was, but you dont really think anything of it. Its a huge reality check when you're standing in a trench that so many men died in. And there were even red poppies growing. It was amazing. Albert and Gretta then took us to Ypres (Lepers). The city is surrounded by water, with only a couple entrances to the city. They built the moat for protection. .JPG)
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Ypres has the second largest marketplace in Belgium. We spent so much time walking around and looking at all the buildings. All these cities are thousands and thousands of years old, and Canada is only 100. Crazy..JPG)
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Anyways, in Ypres, there was a magnificent church, and we probably took 100 pictures of it, trying to capture how amazing it was. It was huge, gorgeous, and the architecture was insane. So intricate..JPG)
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We then got icecream! There were so many choices, and we got yelled at in Flemish?? because we were suppost to order BEFORE we looked at the kinds of icecream. tsk tsk.
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Albert was pointing out all the beautiful flower pots around the city, and was telling us how engineers made them all nice. I think dad got offended by this. So for the rest of the trip, we have to call them FLOWER engineers, not "engineers".
We went to this huge arc thinger that had thousands and thousands of names ingraved in the walls of soldiers who were never found and didn't get a proper buriel. EVERYDAY since 1928 they play The Last Post to honor the soldiers..JPG)
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It so happened that today there was a big ceremony going on. There were choirs and bands and bagpipes. Not to mention news cameras, and some guy from a newspaper took our picture. I hope we make it into the newpaper because we all looked HIDEOUS. I love not showering. Anyways, so this ceremony was pretty neat. There was a man there who fought in WW1, and he got injured, and saw 3 people in his party die infront of him when some explosion went off. He was 109!! .JPG)
Seeing him almost made me cry. Seeing this stuff makes the war so real.
9:15pm Poperidge, Belgium Time
1:16pm Saskatoon Time
We were rudly awoken this morning at 2pm by the parents. We were rushed out the door, because there was some parade going on in a town named Veurne about half an hour away. The people we are renting this house from (the owners of the travel store) took us. Their names are Albert and Gretta and they are so nice!! They're just constantly happy. The parade ended up being the story of the bible, and of Jesus' life. They put on this parade once every year. It was super long, but really good. We didnt understand any of the speaking because it was all in Flemish. Apparently this parade has gone on every year on this exact day for 500 YEARS!! Thats 5x longer than Canada has been a country!! And, the other thing we learned was that if a person is in the parade as a child, they have to be in the parade every year until they die, or else cant do it anymore. And each section of the bible is done by a different family. We got lots of pictures of the parade, especially the angry goats. There was a man sitting near us that would bark (or whatever a goat does) back to it, and the goat stopped and just stared at him. I laughed.
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(haha, im hideous)
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(dad videoing from the 2nd floor)
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OH, and Albert had a huuuuge supply of Belgium chocolates, and he kept feeding us them! They were soooo yummy, but holy cow, even i had to say no at the end.
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Next door there were the biggest bottles of alcohol i've ever seen, .JPG)
AND there was a jeans advertisement that we loved. .JPG)
After the parade, we walked around the Verne. The architecture was amazing. Then we drove to Flanders Field! Shelby decided to recite the poem for everyone. There was a huge monument built to honor all the Flemish people who died in the war, but then a few years later, it was bombed down. Now, there is the ruins of that first monument, then they built another one behind it.
On all 4 sides of the monument it said "NO MORE WAR" in 4 different languages. We then we drove out to a memorial site for all the Canadian soldiers who fought and lost their lives for this country. The Belgium people are really grateful for us. Gretta told us the story of D-Day and Diepe, and how it happened not too far from here. .JPG)
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We then drove a bit further to a trench that was preserved from WW1.
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Its so weird being in Canada, and learning about the war, and how horrible it was, but you dont really think anything of it. Its a huge reality check when you're standing in a trench that so many men died in. And there were even red poppies growing. It was amazing. Albert and Gretta then took us to Ypres (Lepers). The city is surrounded by water, with only a couple entrances to the city. They built the moat for protection. .JPG)
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Ypres has the second largest marketplace in Belgium. We spent so much time walking around and looking at all the buildings. All these cities are thousands and thousands of years old, and Canada is only 100. Crazy..JPG)
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Anyways, in Ypres, there was a magnificent church, and we probably took 100 pictures of it, trying to capture how amazing it was. It was huge, gorgeous, and the architecture was insane. So intricate.
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We then got icecream! There were so many choices, and we got yelled at in Flemish?? because we were suppost to order BEFORE we looked at the kinds of icecream. tsk tsk.
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Albert was pointing out all the beautiful flower pots around the city, and was telling us how engineers made them all nice. I think dad got offended by this. So for the rest of the trip, we have to call them FLOWER engineers, not "engineers".
We went to this huge arc thinger that had thousands and thousands of names ingraved in the walls of soldiers who were never found and didn't get a proper buriel. EVERYDAY since 1928 they play The Last Post to honor the soldiers.
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It so happened that today there was a big ceremony going on. There were choirs and bands and bagpipes. Not to mention news cameras, and some guy from a newspaper took our picture. I hope we make it into the newpaper because we all looked HIDEOUS. I love not showering. Anyways, so this ceremony was pretty neat. There was a man there who fought in WW1, and he got injured, and saw 3 people in his party die infront of him when some explosion went off. He was 109!! .JPG)
Seeing him almost made me cry. Seeing this stuff makes the war so real.
Saturday, July 28th, 2007
Saturday July 28th, 2007
12:12pm Saskatoon Time
8:12pm Hamburg, Germany Time
Today has been spent driving to our new destination. .JPG)
We left Hamburg, Germany this morning with only slight dificulty. Mom and dad got lost on their way from picking up the rental car, so us girls were stuck hiding in our hotel room from the housekeeping ladies trying to get in, because it was after checkout time. Finally the parents returned, and we got to meet our new car. We were suppost to get a Mercedes, but then the parents decided to get a Ford Galaxy instead because we had too much luggage, and the Mercedes wouldnt have been as comfortable. I said i felt it was my fault that we didnt get to get the Mercedes because I was the one with the most luggage, and instead of an "oh no, its not your fault" like i was expecting, instead dad says, "well, it is your fault". Thanks dad. 
The car is super nice though. Black, shiney, smooth, and super roomy. Dad likes the 6speed on the autobahn (spelling?). .JPG)
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Speaking of which, dad loves the lack of speed limit. Its crazy when we're going 160km/hr in the slow lane, and having people speed by like we were standing still. It didn't take dad long to hit the gas, and join the fast lane. Its nuts though. Cars just weave in and out of lanes, inches from eachother, all going over 150km/hour. Its was fun to people-watch when we were in traffic jams. We saw one lady with a hidious haircut, and i was like "SHE HAS A HITLER HAIRCUT!" Mom did the whole "sammy...thats not appropriate", while Shelby laughed for 20 minutes. She cried. .JPG)
Mom would make us look away when we passed because we were laughing so hard, but i told shelby to pose, while i discreatly took a picture of her in the car behind shelby. we're so sneaky.
It didnt take long for the parents to be pissed off about the maps and directions we had. They took lots of guesses about turnoffs, and luckily, up to now, they've been correct. We saw a sign that said Ausfahrt, and loved it. We think it means "exit" or something because its everywhere. Everytime we see it, the person who yells "OSH-FART" first wins. .JPG)
We saw a license plate that almost said Sestak ->.JPG)
We stopped at a grocery store in a town called Dorstein to buy some food. I stayed in the car to protect the luggage (and read Harry Potter). Mom and dad came out with new German friends. Figures. We followed them so they could show us how to get back onto the autoban. They pulled over, and they got pictures and gave us their emails and everything. Mom gave them a Canadian flag, and they loved it..JPG)
Shelby said it was the funniest thing at the grocery store when they were at the checkout. The lady working thought that if she spoke slower, and louder, with more hand movements, we'd be able to understand German. Umm. Not so much.
Saturday July 28th
4:oopm Saskatoon Time
Midnight Poperidge, Belgium Time
We drove through Gemany, then the Netherlands, and finally got to Belguim. We found our first accomodation in Poperidge, Belguim around midnight. It took us forever to find the place because very house looke exactly the same, it was all one-way, and...every house looked the same. We made arrangements to spend our first week here. We are staying in a house ontop of a travel store, so we get levels 2 and 3. .JPG)
Its the sweetest place. Its pretty big with big bedrooms, and lotsa bathrooms. It seems to be the thing to do to have the toilet in a separate room, then the shower in a separate room, then the sink, etc in another room. The only thing that sucked about being ontop of a store, is that we had to drag all our bags up 2 flights of narrow, winding stairs. barf.
Once we were all settled, we had a little snack, then headed to bed. I didn't get to bed until 3am. Stupid Harry Potter =)
Friday July 27th
Friday July 27th
1:11am Saskatoon Time
9:11am Amsterdam, Netherlands Time
So, mom and I are just hanging out in the Amsterdam airport waiting...again. Our plane from Minneapolis had mechanical problems, so we were delayed, causing us to miss our transfer here. So...we’re waiting. Im pretty darn tired. I got up at 8:30am on Wednesday, and I havent been to bed since. So... im currently going for 41 hours. I think. I went over to Shaun’s on Wednesday, and stayed there until almost 4am, then left for the airport at 4:15am. Mary came to the airport to see me off. I love her..JPG)
Our plane didn’t even come until after 10.uuugh. I tried sleeping on the 8 hour plane ride to Amsterdam/our 6 hours waiting at the Saskatoon airport, but i failed. My eyes even hurt too much to read the new Harry Potter...i know. Mom made new friends on the plane...as per usual. She’s too friendly. We’re hanging out with our new old women friends right now. Our first impression of them was when we were waiting in Minneapolis for the plane to take off, it started to rain. They were like, “oh....they must have put the sprinklers on”. Yes...sprinklers...on the cement runway. Im glad our fellow passengers are intelligent. But they’re sweet old things, and make me smile..JPG)
They followed us through the Amsterdam airport so we could get new tickets together, and so we can show them how to use the phones. Silly ladies. So, we’re off to board the plane to Hamburg. Ill finish laterrrrrrrrr.
Friday July 27th
3:04pm Saskatoon Time
11:04pm Hamburg, Germany Time
Finally everything is in place. After getting out hotel, Mom and I went back to the Hamburg airport at 8pm to meet dad and the girls on their trip in. We hoped and hoped they made all their flights. We even asked, but the airport had no idea. They got in on time, we caught the train back to the hotel, and everything worked out, thank goodness. I didnt need anymore drama today..JPG)
Mom and my trip today wasnt so smooth. Every plane was late, so we barely made our connections. Then our plane in Minneapolis got delayed on the way to Amsterdam because of mechanical problems. I think I told you this already. Anyways, our delay in Minneapolis caused us to miss our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg. So we walked 2 miles across the Amsterdam airport with our new old lady best friends, and rebooked a ticked to Hamburg. We got to Hamburg at.... 10:30am. They have all these like smoking "areas" that are like a little glass umbrella. .JPG)
Anyways, then we headed for the train station. The travel booth gave us detailed instructions to our hotel, so we were all set. They all knew the Radisson, and knew it was a popular place. Everything went smoothly except for we were both lugging 2 freaking huge suitcases and a handbag each. Some men had to help us carry our luggage up 3 flights of stairs in the train/subway station. They were so nice (“yeah i bet they were nice. They were probably just trying to sell something”....”yes dad...”). .JPG)
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We got off the train right in front of our hotel. Unfortunately, it was a highrise...and the picture we had wasnt a highrise. Just our luck. So we went in, and i must add i was slightly grumpy. We went up to the checkin, and mom was going to pretend she didnt know this was the wrong hotel, then maybe they’ll shuttle us to ours. I did NOT want to go on those crowded trains again with my suitcases. So we went to the checkin counter and was like “whaaat? We’re at the WRONG hotel? No way!” So we asked how far this one was. She said...”by car? It would be about.... a 6 hour drive”. You’re freaking kidding me. Our stupid travel agent told us it was 15minutes from the airport. So we called the hotel 6 hours away to cancel, but they told us we had to cancel through the travel agency. Unfortunately it was 3am in America, so we had to wait until it opened. We could have booked a room at this Radisson location, but it would have been $600, so mom decided against it. I sat in the hotel lobby for over an hour with our luggage (that i had to steal back from the bellman who didnt understand we were not at the right hotel. “sooo...you got room yet? What room yours?”) while mom went and found a travel agency to find us a different hotel for tonight. She got back, we waited until it was 8am in America, then mom was on the phone for over half an hour cancelling the other hotel reservations. I was so scared they wouldnt allow her to cancel. Once that was successful, we decided to taxi to our hotel. Our driver was the sweetest man ever. He told us about how he loves Mcjagger and The Stones. He told us how he was from a small town not to far out of Hamburg with 500,000people. He told us about the Otobom (spelling?) and how he usually drives about 220km/hr on it in his taxi. Might I add that his taxi was a brand new Mercedes. All the vehicles here are Volkswagon, Mercedes,Audis, or BMWs. So we got to our hotel called Novohotel,.JPG)
checked in, and then i had an hour and a half nap. FINALLY. 51 hours . I’m a machine. Then we headed on the train back to the aiport to meet the rest of the family. So far so good. Hopefully tomorrow wont be disaster trying to get the rental car :S
1:11am Saskatoon Time
9:11am Amsterdam, Netherlands Time
So, mom and I are just hanging out in the Amsterdam airport waiting...again. Our plane from Minneapolis had mechanical problems, so we were delayed, causing us to miss our transfer here. So...we’re waiting. Im pretty darn tired. I got up at 8:30am on Wednesday, and I havent been to bed since. So... im currently going for 41 hours. I think. I went over to Shaun’s on Wednesday, and stayed there until almost 4am, then left for the airport at 4:15am. Mary came to the airport to see me off. I love her.
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Our plane didn’t even come until after 10.uuugh. I tried sleeping on the 8 hour plane ride to Amsterdam/our 6 hours waiting at the Saskatoon airport, but i failed. My eyes even hurt too much to read the new Harry Potter...i know. Mom made new friends on the plane...as per usual. She’s too friendly. We’re hanging out with our new old women friends right now. Our first impression of them was when we were waiting in Minneapolis for the plane to take off, it started to rain. They were like, “oh....they must have put the sprinklers on”. Yes...sprinklers...on the cement runway. Im glad our fellow passengers are intelligent. But they’re sweet old things, and make me smile..JPG)
They followed us through the Amsterdam airport so we could get new tickets together, and so we can show them how to use the phones. Silly ladies. So, we’re off to board the plane to Hamburg. Ill finish laterrrrrrrrr.Friday July 27th
3:04pm Saskatoon Time
11:04pm Hamburg, Germany Time
Finally everything is in place. After getting out hotel, Mom and I went back to the Hamburg airport at 8pm to meet dad and the girls on their trip in. We hoped and hoped they made all their flights. We even asked, but the airport had no idea. They got in on time, we caught the train back to the hotel, and everything worked out, thank goodness. I didnt need anymore drama today.
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Mom and my trip today wasnt so smooth. Every plane was late, so we barely made our connections. Then our plane in Minneapolis got delayed on the way to Amsterdam because of mechanical problems. I think I told you this already. Anyways, our delay in Minneapolis caused us to miss our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg. So we walked 2 miles across the Amsterdam airport with our new old lady best friends, and rebooked a ticked to Hamburg. We got to Hamburg at.... 10:30am. They have all these like smoking "areas" that are like a little glass umbrella. .JPG)
Anyways, then we headed for the train station. The travel booth gave us detailed instructions to our hotel, so we were all set. They all knew the Radisson, and knew it was a popular place. Everything went smoothly except for we were both lugging 2 freaking huge suitcases and a handbag each. Some men had to help us carry our luggage up 3 flights of stairs in the train/subway station. They were so nice (“yeah i bet they were nice. They were probably just trying to sell something”....”yes dad...”). .JPG)
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We got off the train right in front of our hotel. Unfortunately, it was a highrise...and the picture we had wasnt a highrise. Just our luck. So we went in, and i must add i was slightly grumpy. We went up to the checkin, and mom was going to pretend she didnt know this was the wrong hotel, then maybe they’ll shuttle us to ours. I did NOT want to go on those crowded trains again with my suitcases. So we went to the checkin counter and was like “whaaat? We’re at the WRONG hotel? No way!” So we asked how far this one was. She said...”by car? It would be about.... a 6 hour drive”. You’re freaking kidding me. Our stupid travel agent told us it was 15minutes from the airport. So we called the hotel 6 hours away to cancel, but they told us we had to cancel through the travel agency. Unfortunately it was 3am in America, so we had to wait until it opened. We could have booked a room at this Radisson location, but it would have been $600, so mom decided against it. I sat in the hotel lobby for over an hour with our luggage (that i had to steal back from the bellman who didnt understand we were not at the right hotel. “sooo...you got room yet? What room yours?”) while mom went and found a travel agency to find us a different hotel for tonight. She got back, we waited until it was 8am in America, then mom was on the phone for over half an hour cancelling the other hotel reservations. I was so scared they wouldnt allow her to cancel. Once that was successful, we decided to taxi to our hotel. Our driver was the sweetest man ever. He told us about how he loves Mcjagger and The Stones. He told us how he was from a small town not to far out of Hamburg with 500,000people. He told us about the Otobom (spelling?) and how he usually drives about 220km/hr on it in his taxi. Might I add that his taxi was a brand new Mercedes. All the vehicles here are Volkswagon, Mercedes,Audis, or BMWs. So we got to our hotel called Novohotel,.JPG)
checked in, and then i had an hour and a half nap. FINALLY. 51 hours . I’m a machine. Then we headed on the train back to the aiport to meet the rest of the family. So far so good. Hopefully tomorrow wont be disaster trying to get the rental car :S
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