Denmark - Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark. We loved Copenhagen. They have a royal family here and the princess is a Tasmanian, Mary. The Danes love Australians and they all speak English really well which is lucky because we don't speak Danish. They use Kroner as they money which was a problem because we only had Euros.
We went on loads of bus tours which was a bit boring. We visited the Little Mermaid statue, which is really famous. We went to the Tivoli Gardens which is a huge amusement park and they have concerts there ands fireworks but not on the night we went. We went on a very old wooden rollercoaster which Orlando enjoyed and Amelia didn't.
We went on the Aerial playground which is great and you have to wear helmets and a harness that you have to clip and unclip from the safety lines. Amelia finished the course and it took two and a half hours. Mum got stuck hanging over some trees and didn't want to finish it after that.
They have a Parkour course where you learn to jump buildings and staircases like they do in one of the James Bond movies.
Hans Christian Anderson comes from Denmark and they have statues of him everywhere. He wrote The Little Mermaid and other fairy stories.
Before we came to Copenhagen, we stayed at Aarhus. Aarhus has a living museum. They have an old town which has houses and shops from the 1800's and they are all furnished and there are people in there dressed in olden day clothes and you can buy olden day cakes and sweets. They also have the 1920's and the 1970's which wasn't very interesting but mum and dad loved it.

 The Little Mermaid

 Aarhus - living museum

 Tivoli Gardens

 A Beach pool behind a shopping mall

The treetop playground

 The treetop playground - the start

 Amelia on the playground, getting to the end

A ride at the Tivoli Gardens - we didn't go on it.

Denmark - Legoland

We rented a campervan in Hamburg, in Germany. It is a bit small but we have been staying at Camping grounds and they are great. We stayed at one last night with a pool and waterslides, animals, mini golf, trampolines and lots of playgrounds with those jumping pillows. We are at another one tonight that has jumping pillows, mini golf and giant chess as well as a lake you can canoe on. We visited LegoLand today. We went on some rides and saw the mini villages which were really cool, and the Aquarium. There was a lego zoo and Star Wars. Legoland has a hotel in the middle of it and clothes shops and a large lego shop but we were not allowed to buy much.

 Lego clock

 One of the villages

 And another

 The zoo

 A boat ride through world famous (lego) monuments

 Like this

Lego Atlantis in the Aquarium

Star Wars

Amsterdam

We flew from Belfast to Amsterdam. The cabbie ripped us off and the owners of the place where we were staying did not come out to let us in until 2 hours after we arrived.
Amsterdam is really pretty and has lots of canals. Many people live in houseboats and the houses along the canal are leaning. The streets are really crowded and everyone rides a bike so we were always dodging the bikes. We also saw some kids standing on surfboards and paddling down the canals.
We went on a canal tour boat which was boring after a while.
We went to Van Gogh Museum and saw his paintings which we liked.
We saw lots of interesting things. We walked through the shopping district and saw lots of cats.
We went to the Anne Frank House and saw where her family and another family lived in hiding from the nazi's for two years. Her father was the only survivor, which is really sad.
We also went to the Museum of Torture where they have lots of old torture machines which was a bit scary really.
Best of all we went to the Nemo Science Centre which has five floors of science and technology that you can play or experiment with. At the top of the centre, they have a cafe and games and a small water park that falls down a lot of steps and kids are allowed to play in it, and you can see the tops of Amsterdam from there.

The streets of Amsterdam

 Amsterdam

 At the Van Gogh Museum

 Canals

 Amsterdam neighbourhood

Up the top of the Science Centre

Belfast

We stayed in Belfast for a few days because our mother made a mistake with the flight bookings. Belfast was nice. We went to the top of a shopping centre with a glass dome and looked over the city. We went to Shankill Road and saw lots of houses with the british flag all over them and loads of wall murals. We left there before going into the area with lots of irish flags. Belfast has catholics and Prodestants who used to fight a lot because the catholics wanted to be separate from Britain and the Prodestants didn't.
We stayed at a hotel in the Titanic Quarter where they built the Titanic and went to the Titanic Museum. We also went on a boat trip through the Quarter and drove out to walk across a rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede.

 Northern Ireland

 Carrick-a-rede

 Carrick-a-rede

 Belfast through the glass dome

 Shankill Estate

We got some coke cans with our names on them

A school, Dunguaire Castle and Kylemore Abbey

On our way to Galway, we stopped to see this tiny church. It used to be where monks lived and it is 700years old and it is still a church but also a school. It had ruins and some graves in it. It was really cool.

Dunguaire Castle was great but really small. Kylemore Abbey was pretty but we weren't allowed to go in many rooms because nuns still live there. It used to be a private house, then in the 1920's it became a girls school until 2012, when it closed. It has a lake and a little church and a Mausoleum where the first owner buried his wife, a glass house and a Victorian garden. It is a very long drive to Kylemore Abbey and there is a lot of mist. It was really cool.

 Dunguaire Castle

 They have medievel banquets here and people can get married in here. 

 Kylemore Abbey, the lakes and hills behind it are part of the Abbey too

The little church at Kylemore Abbey

The mist

Southern Ireland

We have stayed at Waterford where they make world famous crystal. It is very expensive. We toured the factory where they make it. We also toured a medievel museum and an old house while we were there. Waterford is a very old port town and all of the goods for Ireland used to come through Waterford.

We stayed at Killarney after Waterford where the streets and shops stay open late so we walked around Killarney until 11.30 and bought some photos of Ireland to send home.
We visited Cork and Blarney Castle and we and mum kissed the Blarney Stone. Blarney Castle has a very narrow staircase and we had to climb a lot of stairs to get to the top. They had a great garden with creeks and great cubby trees where the branches reach down to the ground.

We visited Crag Caves, the limestone caves. They were OK but there are caves at Naracoorte which are much better to visit. If you can- go there.
The best place we visited was the Aquadome at Tralee where they have a 90 metre waterside. They also have a wave machine and a one that turns the pool into rapids and we got swept all over the pool.

Mayo and the horse-drawn caravans

We loved the horse drawn caravans. We had a three day trip and our horse was called Daragh. It was a very old horse and it was going to retire after our trip. The horses are called Farrier horses. They are working horses. The caravans are like the old gypsy caravans and we had to harness the horse in olden style harnesses. The caravan had a table and chairs which turned into a bed and there was also a small sofa which turned into a bed as well. It was very cramped in there when it rained.
We had to learn to drive the horses and to brush and feed them at the end of the trip as well as harness them in the mornings.
We shared the tiny roads with other cars so sometimes someone had to walk ahead and lead the horse.

 The outside

 leading the horse

 The inside

Driving the caravan

Dublin, Ireland

We travelled to Dublin on the ferry which was HUGE! We watched a movie at the cinemas on the ferry - Now You See Me - which was good.

The ferry also had places to eat, a games room,a  playground as well as pubs and lounges. We didn't take any pictures of it. Sorry.

We are staying in an apartment in Dublin where Uni students stay. So it can get loud. When we arrived there was a huge football match in Dublin so the roads were busy. The next day there was a bus strike AND a huge football match and Hurley match (Hurley is a Irish type cricket game). Luckily there are loads of taxis in Dublin. The next day was a holiday AND a city marathon. Dublin has been very busy so far.

We went to see a book called the Book of Kells which was written in 800AD which is very old. It has to be under glass with dim lighting so it does not get ruined. We also saw a very old library with statues and very old books.

We visited Kilmainham Prison which is very old. the leaders of a rebellion in 1916 were imprisoned there and shot by a firing squad there. There were 14 of them, the last one shot was already nearly dead so they had to carry him in and tie him to a chair to shoot him. Families were imprisoned there - the kids whose parents did something wrong would have to go there too and they were only allowed one hour outside and they had to walk in a circle looking at the ground and not talking for the hour. The rooms were tiny - they were only supposed to have one person in them but they got crowded.

We went to the Waxworks Museum with Dad while Mum and Linda went shopping. We didnt take any photos but it was OK. They had Jedward there. Jedward are twins who are famous for something but we do't know what.

We also went to the Dublin Zoo. We saw some of our friends' favourite animals. It had more animals than the Adelaide zoo - like Elephants, Rhino's, lots of flamingos and hogs. It had glass cages so it was hard to take photos.

We are on the train to Castlebar, in Mayo to go on a horsedrawn caravan trip. 

 Trinity College - Dublin

 The library. It is very old and so are all the books

 The old gaol in the main area

 The courtyard where the kids were allowed to walk in circles

 The corridor of the gaol

A tiger at the zoo