Archive for ‘Roaming’

Posts about our travels…

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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Savonlinna

After the Arctic Circle we headed south. We had a campsite at Kerimaki lake near a big wooden church.  We saw lots of geese heading south for the winter.

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Then we went to a castle called Olavinlinna in Savonlinna. It is built on a rock in the lake, and there in some of the castle rooms you can see rock sticking out of the floor.  The floors were very uneven. The castle was built by Erik Tott, and was named for St. Olav. We climbed right to the top. There was a room for the ladies and a room for the men. The toilet stuck out the side of the tower and if you stood underneath it you would get poo on your head! The tops of the towers were round, not like English castles.

Then we drove to Helsinki, but the car wasn’t very well and we needed to order some parts.

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Oslo

***Delayed publishing 19/09/18***

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Yesterday we had a nice drive from Adrian’s house to a new country: Norway. We had a nice lunch spot.

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Today we had a long day in Oslo.  It was a very exciting day.

First we stopped at the Olympic ski-jump.  It was massive, but there was no snow on it.  I would not like to do a ski-jump!!

Then we went to a museum with different boats.  The first museum was about Thor Heyerdahl.  He had 2 boats. The first one was called the Kon-tiki.  It was like a raft made of balsa logs tied together. He used it to sail from South America to Polynesia.  It took 101 days at sea. Their pet parrot got eaten by a shark, they then tried to kill sharks but they never found their parrot.

The second boat was called the Ra. This one sailed from Morrocco to Barbados.  It took 57 days, and they had a pet monkey. This boat was made of papyrus reeds.  The first boat fell apart, but they made a second one.

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After this we went to see the Fram.  This was my favourite boat, because we got to walk on it. The boat was very small and it was smelly. (Daddy said this was tar).  It was the first ocean going boat with a diesel engine, just like the taniwha! You could see the cabins where everyone slept.  The beds were small and didn’t look comfy. This boat was used by Roald Amundsen in the race to the South Pole.  He was racing against Captain Scott from England.  Amundsen won the race and Scott died on the way back from the pole, only 11 miles from his camp.  Amundsen used dogs to pull sleds with all their stuff.  When the dogs couldn’t pull anymore then they were fed to the other dogs, and the men.  I would not want to eat dog.

I also saw the tent and clothes that he used. It must have been very cold.

There were also stuffed polar bears and an igloo to crawl in. Daddy didn’t fit. I also tried on a dog harness and could pull 150kg, by myself. Mummy had to pull 300kg!

After the boats we went to a park with a lot of naked statues.  It was called the Vigeland Sculpture park after the man who made them. Genevieve climbed all over them. There were men, women, boys and girls and babies.  At the centre was a pole with people piled on top of more people.

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Lots of Flags

We drove to Dover, and we went on a ferry to France.  Daddy had to drive on the wrong side of the road.

We went to a famous beach at Dunkirk.  In World War Two, lots of soldiers were rescued from this beach, (around 330,000!). Then we drove to a campsite in a field in Belgium.  There were sheep, one pony and ducks.  The sheep escaped to eat the clover in the field.  There was also a cat that ate some of my chicken BBQ!

After dinner we walked to a (Trappist) abbey.  There was lots of brussel sprouts and corn in the fields.

The next day Daddy drove for 11 hours through The Netherlands and Germany.  It was boring.

Today was a great day.  We had piklets for breakfast! We camped next to the Nord-Ostsee Kanal.   There were lots of big boats with containers on them.  I ran along the tow path to chase one.

Then we drove to Denmark, to the town where Lego is made.  We are camping in a Lego playground.  My favourite is the Ninjago playground with lots to climb on.  We entered a challenge to win some lego.

There are lots of flags on the car now! It looks amazing!

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Build Update from Galway

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So… due to circumstances out of our control (i.e. Phil had a rather bad reaction to some jabs that we need for Africa) we ran out of time to complete the landrover build before heading to Ireland. We have only got one of the steel bumpers mounted, the winch is bolted but not wired in, the replacement sunroof visors aren’t fitted, the “light cannon” spotlights are languishing in the garage, and the water tank and filter set isn’t fitted either. Still lots to do once we get back from this trip!

However, the Taniwha is running pretty well, with just the expected moans, groans and niggles that settling into a new chassis and bushes entail (a bit of tightening up to do I think, plus one wheel hub needs replacement).

We have been spending a lot of time talking over packing strategy and modifications we need to make to the way we are doing things (nothing worse than a handful of felt tip pens shooting forwards off the day fridge and ending up under the pedals…)

Speaking of the day fridge, we have had a disappointing experience with our “old” Ironman 30l fridge.  A few days befiore heading off on this trip, it started madly freezing everything while insiting the temp was 11+ degrees…  clearly the thermostat has failed. It’s under warranty still, so we will get it fixed, but will not trust it for Africa.  We have sourced a replacement (36l SnoMaster) which is South African, and is the same brand as the big fella in the boot.  The Ironman will be sent home in disgrace in Margaret’s car.  We are also rather disappointed with the PVC “truck awning” cover for our rooftent – the seams in the corners are splitting, they are only single stitched.  Lazy design. Easy to reinforce – we will sort it before Scandinavia – but it’s highly irritating –  products designed for offroad should be better thought out.  Time for a shitty email to customer service methinks.  (Nakatanenga, Germany, if anyone is curious).

We have been really lucky with the weather so far – a few spots of rain today, but the sun is back out again.  Off on a daytip to the Aran Islands tomorrow…
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