In this trip I have had some things I have liked a lot, and some things Idid not like. I am going to give you a top 10 count down of my favorite and least favorite things about Europe.
Favorites
10. The North Wales trip. We had a nice room by the sea, It was a older building. We had a lovely view of the sea. Twice a pesky sea gull decided to take a rest right outside our widow! We got to climb a mountin called the Great Orme. It was windier there than any place I have ever been in my whole life.
9.The Leaning Tower. It felt odd climbing up 294 leaning steps to the top of a leaning roof with low gaurd rails. Now I know how that crooked man who lives in a crooked house feels! I now have a job of holding up the tower, here is a picture of me at work.
8. The Eiffel Tower. This tower is huge almost three times taller than the Leaning tower. It is 1000 feet tall with almost 1200 steps! We took the elevator up, but we walked most of the way down. The views were amazing! At night the tower would glow, and for ten minutes, twice a night the lights would flash on and off. We had a view of the tower from our hotel.
7. Warwic Castle. This was a larger castle than most that we had seen, and it was almost like a walled in fair ground. Tom and I got to fire arrows with a bow at targets. I hit four of five times, but Tom hit his target once. There were also birds of prey and they put on a free show. My favorite thing that we did at warwic was watch a trebuchet launch a 20 kilogram stone 100 yards at 120 m.p.h. They put on a nice show, with a funny man dressed up like a guy from medieval times.
6.Hadrian's wall. We took a cold 5 mile walk along a roman wall built by Emporer Hadrian to keep the Scots in Scotland. We had to catch the last bus and only the temtation of getting halloween candy kept me and tom going. We got to the station in time to chow down on some sweet treats and a cup of hot coco. yum!
5. Gelato. It's cold, It's creamy, It's ice cream that's not ice cream, it's.....gelato. It is like ice cream but it has many more flavors. My favorites are mango, water mellon, strawberry, carmel, and chocolate. I am glad there is a gelato shop opening in oak wood mall soon!
4.Hedgehog. After our parent teacher confrences I saw something move up ahead in the parking lot. I ran up ahead to see if it was what I thought it was. It was a hedgehog! Lucky for us mom brought the camera and she took many pictures of the hedgehog. After our attempts to see one by useing dog food (wich they like) we saw one in our school parking lot.
3.Stonehenge. The stones were brought there 7000 years ago but, by who? And why? some say it was aliens (unlikely), the devil (just as unlucky), Merlin the great migician. I think it was used as a holy place where they worshiped their gods and made human sacrafice. But what were the stones really used for who will know. There is no writen record of the people who built it.
2.The Cinque Terre. This was almost the most exciting place I had ever been. We ran and splashed in the water and 'belly surfed' the waves (belly surfing is when a big wave comes and you lay on your belly and kick a little and see how far you can go!) We all did this except for Tom who was beached because of a cracked head with 2 stiches. We had a good meal at a great restaraunt and the perfect end to a pefect day.
1. Harlaxton Manor. Let me start up this peice with this short sentence, and I think it should sum this whole thing up...This is, by far, the most fun and exciting thing I have ever done in my life!! The place it's self is cool it is a large old building turned into a college. I like all the American facalty here and every one is nice. I like the meals (but I'm not sure mom agrees with me on that one.) We like to hike in the woods that surrond the manor and there is a soccer field not to far away. This is very, very cool!
So those are my favorites, there are a lot more things that could of made it, but now it's time for my least favorites.
Least Favorites
10. Salsberg Hotel. This was a hotel built into a wall. We had to squees 6 people into a room with two bunk beds and the room was no more than 5 feet wide and 10 feet long! There was no bathroom in the room so we had to go down the hallway to get to the bathroom. Once when I went in and tryed to get out the lock was off a bit and I was stuck in the bathroom for a cuple minutes!
9.School. The words are different and our class is large. In England the eraser is now the rubber, thebathroom is now the loo, zero is now not. We don't get any music lessons, and we don't get very much gym time. For gym and drama we have to get changed in the class room!
8.Mont. St Michle. We did not have a nice hotel here. We toured a cathedral and looked out at mud flats. (Wich we could of been walking on but there was quick sand and the tours were £8.) That stop was bad but not as bad as...
7.Manor 'Fire'. One night the fire bell rang and it was not a drill we all got out and a fire truck was going to be called but then called off. Some lady left her hair staitner on. Tom was just glad his chockolate cake didn't burn up!
6. The Louve. Ok ok it has the Mona Lisa but it was hot and stuffed with people. I could not get a view of anything without getting pushed from behind. It was 3 hours of heck if you ask me!
5. sleeping in the train. Have you ever tried it? Well, I don't recomend it unless you like hard beds.
4. first plane takeoff. I was scared when the plane took off down the run way. I was thrown to the back of my seat and my legs felt like jelly. Good thing it was quick because if it wasn't I would have barfed.
3. Smokeing. There are a lot of people here who think other people like to smell smoke. I would say almost 1 out of 10 people we see here smoke. (not at the manor.) I'm glad we are soon comeing back to a smoke free Eau Claire.
2. bus ride from wales. After one of my favorite things, a bad thing happened, we rode.... a bus. You might wonder what's so bad about that. If you had been on it trust me, you would know. For three hours we rode, sick to our stomache's with nothing to do but sit, and sit, and sit. I was so happy when the Manor came in view and we were home.
1. Leaving family and friends. I miss everyone so much. But we will be home in just over 3 weeks.
So those are my favorite and least favorite things about Eourpe, I hope you enjoyed reading them. See you in three weeks. Joe
The Freitags and the Millers met up in London for four days. Our first day we toured the Houses of Parliament and sat in on a session in the House of Commons. We walked up to Trafalgar Square while it was starting to get dark and enjoyed seeing the city lig
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We rode on the top of a double-decker bus
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After the long week-end in London, the Millers traveled a few days then stayed with us at Harlaxton Manor. Asia went to school with Joe for a day. And they were there to help us celebrate Joe's 11th birthday.
