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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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Crossing the Arctic Circle

Yesterday we drove to Finland. We wanted to go to the Sami museum, but it was closed. Then we drove to the campsite, and me and Vivi made a den out of sticks while Dadddy and Mummy made a fire. After that we went with Mummy to find big sticks to use as horses while Daddy made dinner. It was a big fire and we made smores!

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Today we went to see real SANTA at the Santa Claus village in Rovaniemi. He has a fluffy beard and he is not scary at all. He also has big feet. He told us that on the west of Finland there are trees, trees and lakes, and on the east of Finland there are lakes, lakes and trees. We also saw his time regulator, that slows the earths rotation so he can visit all the children in the world on Christmas eve. We gave Santa a letter that told him how to find us when we are travelling.  We have a picture as a signal that we will make out of twigs or stones next to the car.  It is a smiley face with a santa hat.

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We crossed the Arctic circle again, and this time we are going south.

Daddy also bought me my very own knife!

Then we went to the Arktikum museum. There were lots of things to do and we learnt about all the animals and people who live in the Arctic.  I tried on wooden goggles used by Sami people, to stop snow blindness. There was a section on pollution and you had to try and get an oil ‘ball’ from the source to the town, by creating a pipeline.  It was really hard. I learnt about people catching stockfish and cutting them open and hanging them to dry.  We saw lots of hanging frames for the fish in Norway, but they were empty.  We also watched a Northern Lights display.  They are very green. Some people believed that they are caused by a fire fox running across the sky.  Other people believed it was their ancestors playing football with a walrus skull.  The northern lights are really to do with the solar wind that comes from the sun.

 

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Vikings and Mermaids

***Delayed Publishing, 17/09/18***

Today we went to a museum about Vikings.  We saw 5 old viking longships that were sunk and put back into pieces.  At the museum they have remade the boats (using original materials, and methods) and you can sit on them.

We even dressed up like Vikings!

We also played a viking game called Thor’s hammer.  You had to throw a big wooden hammer at the statue heads.  Daddy was the best because he knocked the head over.  I could hit the statue but it didn’t fall over.

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On the way to Adrian’s house, we stopped past the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen.  In the real story, the little mermaid turns into sea foam not like in the Disney movie.IMG_2245

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Lego House

***Delayed publishing, 16/09/18***

Today we went to the home of the brick.

This is a town called Billund in Denmark where LEGO and DUPLO is made.  It was INCREDIBLE.

There were lots of different areas in the house.  In the entrance there was a big lego tree. It was funny, because at the top LEGO men were still building the tree. There were some big dinosaurs made from LEGO too.

The house was divided into 4 areas, Red, Yellow, Green and Blue and there were different things to do in each one.  My favourites were:

  • Building the LEGO city.  You built on top of a square brick and put it in the city area.  When you put your brick down, the city would change colour depending on your brick.  And LEGO men would come and visit it.

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  • Making LEGO fish. You made a fish and then scanned it into a computer. I gave it  eyes and a mouth and then it swam off onto the computer screen! This was Genevieve’s favourite thing to do.4
  • There was a rainbow made of nearly 2 million LEGO bricks.  It was 5.6m high!IMG_2159
  • You could make a LEGO car and race it down a track. My first one didn’t work very well, but the next one was better. You could also see if your car would fly through a hoop.3
  • There were big LEGO scenes.  One had a mountain and a castle. One had a volcano, and one was a city.  There was a LEGO train.  It was very good.
  • Daddy really liked the history section about old LEGO, because he found some old LEGO sets that he owned. Like the hospital and Technic that Grandpa brought back from Germany when he was a little boy.

At the end we saw a LEGO machine making bricks and we got a pack of 6 red bricks each.  It was a perfect day.

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To County Donegal

Hello.

Yesterday I went to Kylemore Abbey. It was all very beautiful.  It was an old girls boarding school run by nuns.  The school has closed but the nuns are still there.  There was lots of old stuff, like priests robes.

There was a big walled garden with lots of flowers and vegetables.  The flowers were arranged in shapes. There was even a snorty pig.  We also saw a bird smashing a snail shell to eat the snail!

Then we walked up another cliff, called Slieve League.  It was a big hill and we had to walk all the way up.  But I got a hot dog at the top.  Mummy and Daddy shared a lobster roll.

Then we went to a campsite with the biggest sand dune!

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