Archive for ‘Eleanor’

Blog posts by Eleanor

The Cold War Museum

***Delayed publishing 11/10/18***

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This morning we visited one of Mummy’s work friends and had some nice Lithuanian sweets.

Then we drove to where my Great Grandfather was a Prisoner of War in World War 2. It was called Stalagluft 6, but there was nothing left as it was demolished by the Soviets.

Then we went to a cold war missile bunker hidden in a forest. Daddy was very excited. There were 4 missile silos, and on the ground you could only see the concrete lids. Then we went underground and saw the silo. It was very big. We saw the world’s smallest nuclear weapon – 1kT artillery round. There were models dressed in Soviet Uniforms. I wouldn’t like to live underground with bombs.

Then we went to a campsite called Honey Valley. Daddy made bread, and we bought some honey. It was yummy!

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Latvia and Lithuania

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We had a nice time on the beach. We drew a castle in the sand. Daddy did some work on the car.

Then we did a drive through Latvia, through the Gauja National Park. We had lunch, then walked over a big bridge. The trees were all yellow and orange and red. Very pretty.

The next day we drove to Riga, this is the capital city of Latvia. In Riga we had a yummy breakfast of pancakes with curd, sourcream and jam. We walked around the town and saw lots of pretty buildings and statues. There was a cat house that had cats on the roof. Then we went to a market and we bought a massive watermelon. Daddy really liked the market. (It used to be a WW1 Zepplin hangar). The market was really big. There was one hall for fish – it was smelly. One hall for cheese and nuts, one for meat, and one for bread and veges.

After Riga we drove to a new country, Lithuania. We stopped at the Hill of Crosses. There were thousands of crosses, some big and some small.  We learnt that the Soviets destroyed them and the local people would sneak back and put more crosses up. There were thousands of crosses.

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Estonia

After Finland we took a ferry to Estonia.

We stopped at a campsite at the Purita marina that was used in the 1980 Olympic Games. There was even an olympic torch still burning.

We did a walk around Purita, and saw lots of men fishing for herrings. We found a sandy beach and a forest of pine trees. Genevieve pretended to be a wolf. We also found a ruined convent. The crosses were a bit creepy.

Then we went to the old town of Talinn. It was very wet. We walked around the cobbled streets. We went into the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  There was a lot of incense, and gold and silver paintings. We looked at some shops, then we had a pizza lunch!

Now we are camping under some pine trees, near a beach.  It is very beautiful.

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Russia

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We were very excited, as we went on a cruise ship to Russia!! The ship was called Princess Anastasia. We had our own cabin with 4 beds. We had a buffet dinner with lots and lots of food and we played exploding kittens. Genevieve won the first game.

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In the morning we were in St. Petersburg. We had to go through passport control and got a stamp in our passports.  Then we did a bus tour with a guide called Yuta. We had lots of stops to take photos. We saw a sphinx and Daddy bought a russian hat. It is very warm.

We saw the Flying Dutchman on the river Neva. And we saw the old port, and the cruiser Aurora. It was used in the Russian Revolution.

We saw the Church of the Spilled Blood, but only the outside.

We saw the Field of Mars and the eternal flame.

We saw St. Isaac’s Church. It had massive doors.

Then we went to the Winter Palace.  This is where the Tsars used to live, and is now a museum.  There was so much to see.  Famous artworks and even the rooms had beautiful painted walls, floors and ceilings.  It was amazing. My favourite was the peacock clock. Daddy liked the ceilings, Genevieve liked lunch. Mummy liked the lapis lazuli table, it was blue.

We bought a matryoshka doll with 7 dolls in it, and a smaller one with 3 dolls in it for Genevieve and I to paint ourselves! Then we went back to the boat and that night we went back to Helsinki.

 

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Helsinki

We stayed in Helsinki at a campground with a playground.  We saw a red squirrel!

We had a day in Helsinki going to the shops. Then we went to a science museum, called Heureka, which had rainbow colours at the entrance.  There were lots of fun things to do. Like make a car and race it down a track. There was a virtual world called Jukola and you could do different activities.  We powered a train by using a rowing machine.

***Edit***

There were lots of great science experiments that the girls enjoyed running round and playing with, but without being really interested in the results.  Such as Foucault’s pendulum, to show the world rotated.  Genevieve grabbed this as soon as it started swinging because she couldn’t help herself! Still a great way to spend the morning.

 
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