Author: djnuttall1

Warwick Castle

When I was in England I visited Warwick Castle. It’s the second oldest castle in England.

The first awesome activity was the Horrible Histories maze. The point of the maze is to collect stamps from different places in time such as Viking and Norman times.

Later we went to the jousting. The theme was the War of the Roses and there was a series of battles between the Houses of York and Lancaster.

After the jousting I went to the Falconers Quest. It was about a man who collected birds of prey to bring back to Warwick Castle. I saw eagles, condors, vultures, hawks and falcons.

Next I tried archery for the first time with real bows and arrows. I scored 3 outer bullseyes and 9 missed the target while I was learning. That was it – I had used all of my arrows!

Vasa museum

Sorry I haven’t done a post in a while. The reason I haven’t done a post is because I’ve done a lot of traveling. I’m now in Stockholm in Sweden.

So now let’s get on with the post…

Today I went to the Vasa museum. The Vasa is an almost 400 year old ship that sank in the 17th century. It is famous because it was brought up to the surface in one piece 333 years later. It is in almost the same condition now as back then. It’s first voyage only lasted 20 minutes before it sank.

Today the boat looks like wood but originally it was colourful. They ground up plants and minerals to make paint to decorate the boat.

Segovia

Last week we went to Segovia on a train. When we got there , we saw an amazing aqueduct that stretched 17 kilometers from the mountains. Once the water got to the city it was transported underground to everyone’s homes .

Next we went to the Alcazar. Inside the Alcazar we went up an 152 stepped tower! At the top there were amazing views over the town.

There was a great armoury at the Alcazar . We saw:

  • crossbows with ivory patterns inlaid in them,
  • suits of armour for knights and horses,
  • mortars for firing flaming rocks,
  • halberd -a spear with an axe head

Armoury at the Royal Palace in Madrid

©

It’s really hot in Madrid at the moment the temperature is 37 degrees today. To avoid the heat we went to the armoury at 10:30 (we weren’t allowed to take our own photos so we got this one off the internet)

Editorial credit: Michele Buzzi / Shutterstock.com

Did you know in Spain kids who were 6 had armour to start training (sounds tough for them!)

I liked the weapons that they had. These are some of the weapons that I thought were most deadly:

  • Mace
  • Rapier
  • Longsword
  • Flamberge blade
  • Lance

To protect the horse while going into battle they also used flexible horse armour.

Now we are off to our rooftop pool!

©
©

Guggenheim museum

Yesterday I went to the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain.

dog ©

The Guggenheim museum is made of stone, glass and titanium. The architect is Frank Geary who never took his pen off the paper when designing the building.

Outside the museum there was a dog made out of flowers, these metal balloons and a metal spider.

When you walk inside you see amazing metal sculptures that twist and turn. The sculptures were made by artist Richard Serra. When you walk through the metal passages it makes you dizzy.

Food on my holiday

This is a selection of foods I have had on holiday:

Tm

In Florence I ate amazing ribs. They were delicious and crispy, I ate 8 out of 12 before I was full.

In Florence, after going to the Boboli gardens I cooled off with a delicious ice cream. My favourite flavour was strawberry.

After a day of excitement in Barcelona, I found my favourite 🍣 and maki rolls.

The potatoes were my favourite.

Still in Barcelona we had our first tapas. We were starving because we had walked 18,000 steps and swam for 2 and a half hours!

Pompeii

About 2000 years ago a volcano called Mt Vesuvius erupted covering the city of Pompeii in volcanic ash. The volcanic ash flew so far it made it to the sea covering the beach and filling in the bay.

This is a dog

When the ash fell it covered this dog and set hard like rock. Over time the dog rotted and left a hollow inside.

This is how the cast of the dog was made:

Step one – drill a hole through the ash to the hollow

Step two – pour liquid plaster in the hole

Step three – wait for the plaster to dry

Step four – break the ash off the cast

Gladiator school

In Roma we went to Gladiator school. First I got to try on some heavy Gladiator armour.

Second I got taught how to use a Roman sword. Here are some ways to use it: Hack, right neck, left neck, right leg, left leg and shish kebab which is stabbing someone in their stomach.

Last we went to the Collosseum where Gladiator fought. Sometimes they fought animals such as : lions, tigers, leopards, hippos, and even giraffes!

Singapore Science Centre

Yesterday l went to the Singapore Science Centre. When we got there we saw there was an exhibition on called Dino Quest so we queued up in the line to get tickets.

There was a Tesla coil demonstration.

My very stupid mum made my sick dad go in a cage that was about to get zapped by 3.5 M volts of electricity-I think she wants the life insurance!🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑

We had to wait for 45 minutes till we got a place in Dino quest. We had a card that we swiped at different stations so we could uncover our dinosaurs. My dinosaur was a Koolasuchus, the worlds biggest amphibian.

Currencies

In New Zealand we use Dollars but in the places we are visiting they use other currencies such as :

In Italy, Spain, Portugal they use Euros

20 euros for my trip

In England they use Pounds – I’ll have to take a photo when I get there…

In Singapore and America they have Dollars that look different to ours

Key phrases

In 3.5 weeks I’m going to Italy. Here are a few useful phrases I’m going to use in Rome:

English – Italian

Where are the toilets? – Dove sono i gabinetti?

Where is …? – Dov’è …?

The bill, please – Il condo, per favore

Thank you – Grazie

One ticket to … – Un biglitto per …

Do you speak English? – Parli Inglese

Yes . No – Sì . No

Please – Per favore

Hello – Ciao

How are you? – Come stai

I’m … years old – Ho … anni

I’m from … – Solo di

My name is … – Mi chiamo …

0 – Zero

1 – Uno

2 – Due

3 – Tre

4 – Quattro

5 – Cinque

6 – Sei

7 – Sette

8 – Otto

9 – Nove

10 – Dieci

100 – Cento