Enjoying England

Hello everyone,

Our campervan on the Chunnel Train

Did you get your report cards yet?  I hope you were all doing great work for your teachers!   So after we were done skiing we decided to head back to England.  We drove through Germany and Belgium and then got to the French Port of Calais.  There we decided to take the Chunnel back to England.  The Chunnel is a train that goes through a tunnel under the English Channel.  It only takes 35 minutes and the train cars can take all sorts of cars.  We ate our lunch while we sat in our campervan and zipped along under the ground, under the water.  Cool.

Since then we have been travelling around through the south of England.  We went to Dover castle, to a car museum and then to these really cool Moors.  The Moors are a big, hilly area of land with hardly any trees.  There are lots of peat bogs that you have to be careful not to step in because they're similar to quicksand and you could sink in!  There are wild ponies living on the Moor--they are really cute.  The Moor we went to was called Dartmoor and it is where the movie "War Horse" was filmed.  It is also the setting for the Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

Now I'm in a pretty area with rolling hills called the Cotswolds.  We are going to be walking on some ancient paths from village to village.  At least I hope we will--we have been getting a LOT of rain around here.  I'm glad to be staying in a house now instead of our camper.

Dover Castle

Take care,
From,
Mrs McMillan

Anne and Kate at the remains of a Bronze Age Hut

Dartmoor--the barren lands of the Moors

Snowy Alps

At the top of the ski run!

I was very happy to see that Aidan was able to answer my question about gondolas.  We are using a different type of gondola to get us up the mountains to go skiing.  We are in the lovely country of Austria.  

The western part of Austria is very mountainous.  The Alps are the big mountain range in Europe. We have come to a beautiful little village called Seefeld.  It is near Innsbruck and is high up in the mountains.  We are skiing everyday and having a lot of fun!

Also, the first ever Youth (ages 15 to 18) Olympic Games are being held here!  We walked over to the Olympic area to see the biathalon.  That is the event where competitors ski around a track and then come in to a shooting range and try to hit 5 targets.  They do that 4 times.  It was very cool to watch.  And guess what????  A Canadian named Stuart Harden won the men’s event--almost.  He actually won by a lot, but he missed 1 target (only 1! most other competitors missed 4 or more) and when you miss a target you have to do a penalty lap around an oval.  Stuart forgot to do his penalty lap so he got 2 minutes added to his time and ended up in 7th place.  I’m hoping that Stuart uses this as a learning experience before he gets to the real Olympics!

The mascot for the YOG is a chamois goat called Yoggl.  Do you remember the chamois goats I saw in France?  Anyway, Yoggl is pretty cute and I snapped a picture of Anne and Kate with him.  

Anne and Kate with Yoggl

I hear that you don’t have much snow in Guelph.  What are you doing at recess when there is no snow????

Moving On

Hello everyone,
I am so excited about the June Avenue Bloggers!!!!  I have read all your comments and will post them as soon as I get a chance.  Today is a travel day for us, as we move on to our next spot, and I'm not sure how good my internet connection will be.  It is very fun for me to read your comments--so thanks a lot!


BUT...no one answered the question in my last post, which was, "We have gone from the gondolas in Venice to a different type of gondola.  Can you guess what we're doing now?"


More to come...
Mrs. McMillan

Incredible Venice

After we visited Athens it was time to head back to Italy.  We took a ferry from Patras, Greece to Venice, Italy.  The ferry crossing was rough and we were all feeling seasick.  Yuk!  But after we arrived what a treat--Venice is so beautiful.

Do you see the water taxi, water ambulance, gondola and the va

Do you know about Venice?  It is a city that doesn't have any roads, it is all built on the water so you travel by boat or by walking on the little streets.  There is a big canal that runs through the centre of Venice.  It is called the Grand Canal.  This canal is busy with all kinds of boats.  There are vaporetto which are water buses.  There are water taxis which are beautiful wooden boats, and there are gondola which are historic, beautiful, old boats that are steered and propelled by a gondolier.  We were lucky enough to travel by all three of those types of boats.  The gondola was my favourite, it is actually asymmetrical which makes it easy for the gondolier to stand on one side at the back of the boat.  The gondolas used to be working boats that carried goods all around Venice.  Now they are just for tourism.  

Gondolas "parked" 

The Grand Canal is lined with all sorts of amazing buildings--most of them were once palaces.  Venice has an incredible history for such a small place.  The bridges that are in the city are beautiful too.  We spent several days just wandering around the city and enjoying its charm.  The hot chocolate and pastries in Venice are so good--we took lots of breaks to try them out at different cafes.  


My daughters are reading a book that takes place in Venice.  It might be a bit challenging, but if you are interested it is called "The Thief Lord" and the author is Cornelia Funke.  

The Rialto Bridge in Venice

We have since moved on from Venice and now we are using a different type of gondola.  Can you guess what we are doing now?????

Great Greece!

Some olives that fell during harvest

Kate separates the olives from the branch on that machine

It was so nice to get comments from Ryley and Aidan!  Thank you for posting comments--especially since it does not seem to be an easy thing to do!

I am having a fantastic time.  After I went to Pompeii we drove across Italy to catch a ferry to take us to Greece.  It was warm and sunny in Greece.  It was so nice.  We spent Christmas there.  We had orange and lemon trees in our yard and so we ate fresh fruit everyday.  We also got a chance to help harvest olives.  There are olive trees everywhere in Greece.

The flame lighting spot in Olympia

Greece is an ancient civilization with tons of amazing ruins to visit.  The first place I went to was Ancient Olympia.  This is the place where the Olympic games were born.  It is still the place where they light the Olympic flame.  Do you remember watching that video when we did the Olympic unit?  I stood right at the very spot where they light the flame from the sun!!

The South side of the Parthenon--notice the work they're doing!

The East view of the Parthenon

I also went to Athens.  The most amazing site in Athens is the acropolis.  The acropolis is a big hill in the centre of the city.  On top of the hill is the Parthenon an ancient temple to the Goddess Athena.  The Parthenon is a ruin because it was blown up in the 1600s.  What is left of the building is still incredible.  The ancient Greek architects made the building with a bow in the foundation so that it would look perfectly straight to the human eye.  They also leaned the huge Doric columns out a bit for the same reason.  It really is a marvel.  

Stalactites and columns in the caves

One giant column in the cave

The other really neat thing I saw in Greece were the Caves of Diros.  This system of caves is over a kilometre long.  They are full of stalactites and stalagmites.  Most of the  floor of the caves is a river so you have to travel by boat when you’re exploring.  It was cool.  

Take care everyone,

Hope you’re doing well,

Mrs. McMillan