Marianske Lazne

Hi it's Tait

On Saturday we had breakfast in the restaurant in the hotel and then Darcie, Frazer and I climbed the ski slope and played in the snow. When we came back we got Mum and Dad to come up too. So we walked up the slope again and this time we all walked through the snowy forest and to a look out tower with views of mountains and Marianski Lazne. The tower was really old and had exactly 100 steps. Then we walked through the town looking at the singing fountain (which played a song every 2 hours) and all the old buildings and looking in shops. At around lunch time we went into a café and had some really nice pancakes. The flavour I picked was strawberry, cream and ice-cream, it was delicious. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel. When we arrived half the snow was melted but we still walked up the slope again and Darcie, Frazer and I went sliding on the ice. When we got back to the hotel we had dinner in the restaurant downstairs. I picked wild boar with blackberry sauce. It was really nice. When we were done I was so full and I went up stairs and got ready to go see the singing fountain light display where they have lights in all the water shoots that go according to the music. The lights were really good. Afterwards we drove back to the hotel and I fell asleep really quickly.

Alphen aan den Rijn to Marianske Lazne

Hi it's Tait,

On Friday we had to pack up and clean the house in Alphen aan den Rijn to get ready to leave for Czech Republic. We left at about 2 o’clock to go to our proposed destination, Marianske Lazne in west Bohemia on a small mountain. We drove through the Netherlands and Germany. When we got to the German and Czech border it was strange because we had to do heaps of things with the police and then they let us through and dad started to drive off when men started to yell at him to come back so he reversed back and they told him that they had gone through the German police and they were the Czech police so we had to tell them everything as well. When we arrived in Marianske Lazne it was snowing and the hotel we stayed in was next to the ski slope and the forest. Dad was booking rooms but it took ages because the man at the counter could not speak English. Dad ended getting a room and by the time we got to bed it was about 11 o’clock.

Ajax vs NEC

Hi it's Tait,
last night was so cool, we drove to Amsterdam Arena and parked about 300 meters away from the Arena. Darcie, Mum and Frazer went to have dinner in Amsterdam and Dad and I went and collected the tickets for the game. When we got tickets they gave us the last minute package, we ended up getting first row seats and we were right next to the play. In the first half there were some close shots and the Ajax goalkeeper saved a penalty by NEC. In the second half Ajax scored but it was called offside even though it hit a defender and goalie and then was knocked in by Hunterlaar. There were a couple more really close chances and NEC were unlucky a couple of times with long shots. I liked that game more than any games in Australia because everyone were chanting and singing the whole time. After the game Dad and I were walking to the train station when we saw a whole heap of people chanting something and we went to see what was happening when we walked straight between some hooligans throwing beer bottles at police with bats and shields and some police were on horses. It was pretty scary because they could have had a huge fight at any moment and we were between the police and the hooligans. After we got through the middle of the hooligans we walked to the train station and got a scroll and some really nice juice, we finished that and then waited for Darcie, Mum and Frazer to arrive then we all walked back to the car and drove home.

Kroller-Muller museum

Hi it's Tait,
Today was really fun. We went to a place called The Kroller-Muller Museum, a large art gallery with originals by Picasso,Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Remior. It was in a huge national park with heaps of bike paths all through it. The reason there were so many bike paths were just for going into the park you could have the option to get a bike to ride on for free. So we got a bike each and rode about 3km to the museum and looked around at all the artwork. It was very interesting to see all the art work painted by some of the best known artists ever. My favourite painting was one that was sort of a patterny, big and colourful. After looking through the museum we had a hot chocolate with cream and biscuts. Then we rode all through the national park, it was great, there were so many different landscapes. We rode about 2km and then stopped at a little restaurant with a playground outside. Mum had some wine and we played in the playground. After the playground we left to go back to the car, when we left it was raining but it quickly fined up. It was 8km to the car and as we were riding through the plains the sun was setting and I felt so relaxed. When we got back to the carpark we left for home. When we got home it was about 7:00. We watched animal planet (in english) for about half an hour and then left to go to the shopping center for dinner. We found a really nice little seafood and bought some dinner. Darcie doesn't like seafood so we went to a shop and Darcie got some chicken. While everyone was getting chicken I went to a sport shop around the corner and was looking around when I saw a whole heap of socceer jerseys all half price. There were heaps of teams, Holland, Real Madrid, Italy, Liverpool, Man U, Cameroon, Brazil, PSV Eindhoven and Spain. Darcie had been saying she would get me something really good for my birthday and Christmas because she normally doesn't get me anything. So I asked her if she would get one for me and she said ok. I was looking through all the jerseys and picked a Spain adidas one. I was extra happy because she said I could have it as an early present. After that we came home we had our dinner, it was great. Then we had a cake for dessert.

Thats all for now,

Bye

Tait

Kinderdijk

Hi it's Tait,
Today we went to a place called Kinderdijk. It was a large area listed for world heritage with I think about 17 old style windmills. 1 was a museum and the rest were homes. We walked through the one that was a museum. it was very interesting to see all the cogs and that close up the sails spin soo quickly, but I guess today was quite windy. There were so many different types of windmills, thatched, stone, wood, metal and one really strange one that was the only one of its type. After looking through Kinderdijk we went to a small cafe where we had apple pie with cream and a hot chocolate. Afterwards we took the slow way home but we got to see a lot of different things than you would going on the highway like old towns. They were really interesting things we saw. In one village there were canals along all the houses and one house had a kind of garage with water in it so they could park their boats.

Amsterdam ArenA

Hi it's Tait,
Today dad left to go to Bonn by train really early. After mum dropped dad off and came home and we had to get ready to go to Amsterdam. We left later than planned and arrived at Amsterdam ArenA about 11 o'clock and then went into the ticket office to try and get tickets for the game on Saturdaybut they said we had to be members and to call a phone number to get the tickets, so we called dad and he got the tickets. Then we decided to go on a tour of the stadium. It was so cool we got to go down behind the goals and on the edge of the field. I learnt heaps about the stadium like its stands are the third steepest in europe behind the San Siro and Santiago Bernabau. It was the first stadium to have an opening and closing roof, it's grass is replaced 4 times a year at a cost of €150,000 each time, it can seat 52,000 people and it is the largest stadium in the Nederlands. after the tour we had lunch in Soccer World. After lunch we walked to the train station and saw that the next train was 25 minutes away so we went to one of the sport shops near the station and looked around. We found some soccer shoes that were really good and I tried them on. They were Umbro and cost €30. They fitted me so we bought them and went to the train station and saw that the train had just arrived so we ran up the escalator and got there just as the train was starting to leave. The next train was another half hour and would leave at 4:50 and so we decided to go home because it would be quite late by the time we got to Amsterdam.

Staying at home

Hi it's Tait,
Today we had our car serviced and were planning to go to Amsterdam again but we got the car back later than expected. We ended up staying home all day but we spent most of the time in the park. it was fun we caught frogs and met some more children and one of them could speak quite good english.
Bye for now,
Tait

Maduradam

Hi it's Tait,

Today was great, at 12 o'clock we drove to the capital of the Nederlands, Den Haag. Den Haag was huge. We drove to near the centre of Den Haag to a place called Maduradam, a place where they make miniature models of the most interesting things to see in the Nederlands in a scale of 4% of the real thing. It was very interesting to see every thing there. It was in great detail and even had moving trains, cars, planes, boats, windmills and even theme park rides. There were a lot of carp in the water, they were huge. We found a huge group of about 30 in the miniature Rotterdam bay and fed them little bits of biscuts, they swarmed around it and were attacking each other to get to it first. In the mini Amsterdam there little tour boats exactly the same as we saw yesterday. They had the princess Beatrix lock to keep the water at the right level with boats going through as the doors lift up and the water gets to an even level.

Amsterdam

hi its Tait,
im in Alphen Aan Den Rijn. Yesterday we went to Amsterdam, i really liked it, it had so many canals. We arrived at the amsterdam arena where Ajax play. We parked underneath the stadium, then walked past the Ajax museum and into the train station were we caught the train to Amsterdam Central. When we arrived we walked along the canals and through the red light district. Then we went into a really nice restaurant were we had lots of meals to share. My favourite meal was the pita bread with lamb kebabs and tzatziki. It was so nice! Afterwards we walked to the Anne Frank museum. Anne Frank was a teenage girl who was a Jew during the 2nd world war. she lived in hiding in a house for 2 years. She had to stay quiet in daylight hours incase the people in the office next door heard them. I found the museum very interesting. After leaving the museumwe walked to Leidseplein Square where there were people playing instrumentsand artists painting pictures. After we left Leidseplein square we found a board that said the train we needed to get on was in 10 minutes so we all ran to central station and just made our train back o Amsterdam Arena.

Urk

hi its Tait,
The last couple days have been good. Yesterday we were going to go to Amsterdam but in the morning I wasn't feeling well so we stayed home until about 2:00, then I started to feel better and Frazer and I went out to the park. we were walking around when we saw a small island in the canal. We found the crossing some kids had made and went over there. There were ducks swimming near by and a couple trees on the island.

Today we went to a town near the sea called Urk it had dikes all along the coast and a lot of wind farms near by. we parked on the main road and then we walked to a light house. we looked out to the sea for a while. Afterwards we walked around the town for a bit then we stopped in a seafood restaurant and had lunch. It was delicious! We had salmon, herring, chips,prawns and crab salad. My favourite food was the salmon dipped in crab salad. After our lunch we walked a bit more and found a very nice restaurant overlooking the sea. We stopped there and had a fanta and Darcie and Frazer went down to the sea, we ended up staying there for a while and then had some dinner. after that we drove home and played soccer with Chooby.

Bonn and Cologne

hi its Tait. I'm in The Netherlands.

the last few days have been very interesting. On Sunday we said our goodbyes to Biggi, Hauke and the rest of the family. Then we drove all the way to Alphen An Den Rijn, the trip took 5 hours. We drove through the border of Germany and The Netherlands, past Utrecht and into Alphen An Den Rijn where we met Rein and Beatrice (the owners of the house) and got to know them a bit.

The next day we stayed at home but Darcie Frazer and I played in the park for ages. We played soccer, in the playground, fed some sheep and played with Danker, Toby and some other kids from the local school.

On Tuesday we woke up at 5:30am and left for Bonn at 7:00. We arrived at about 10. The trip took about 45 minutes longer than normal because of a traffic jam in Holland. When we arrived in Bonn we looked around the ICEF office and met everyone there. Then we left and went for a walk and looked in shops until 6pm. Then we went to the ICEF office, picked up dad and walked with Markus and Sandeep to our hotel and left our stuff and then Markus took us to an Italian restaurant. I had spaghetti carbonara - it was delicious.

Yesterday we went to Cologne. It was interesting. We went on the train which took about 25 minutes. When we first arrived we walked out of the train station and right in front of us was the Cologne Cathedral. Made over 1700 years ago, it was huge. All the windows had different pictures of religous scenes. The floors were made of tiny tiles all different shaped and sizes to make pictures and coats of arms. After we left we walked for about 15 minutes before we got to the Lindt chocolate factory, it was interesting to read about all the steps involved in making chocolate.

On the first floor there were a lot of pictures and information boards to read on all the steps of fermenting and drying the cocoa. On the 2nd floor they had a chocolate fountain where a lady was giving out free wafers covered in melted chocolate. They also showed the little square Lindt chocolates being made. On the 3rd floor they showed how they make hollow designs like rabbits, etc for Easter chocolates. On the 4th floor was a museum displaying old chocolate mkaing equipment.

Afterwards we caught the train back to Bonn. We got on an ICE train, which is the super fast Inter-City Express. It took 15 minutes instead of 25. We only had tickets for the regular train. When the conductor asked Mum to show the tickets he was very kind and did not even ask us to pay the extra fee. When we arrived in Bonn we had dinner at an Asian restaurant. It was so spicy. Then we left for Alphen An Den Rijn and arrived around midnight.

Today we stayed at home until 2pm. Then we went to the park across the road and played soccer with some other kids. Some of them were really good players. We played with them for a few hours, and then came home. Later on a boy named Chooby came to our house and asked us to play soccer again, and we did. I had to stop early because my toe was hurting so when I got home I had a cut on my toe and my sock was red from blood.

Darcie cooked tacos for our dinner. Tomorrow we'll go sightseeing somewhere. That's all for now.
Bye,
Tait

Alphen on de rijn

hi its Tait,
i'm in Alphen On De Rijn, Holland. I'm sorry I haven't been writing but I haven't had time.

On Friday we went to Budingen about half an hour from Nidderau, when we arrived we walked to the Schloss (castle) it was about 300 years old and was now a hotel. afterwards we walked through the main part of town. There were a lot of shops and one of them had things that looked like roller blades but were called offroad skis. While we were walking through the town we saw a cafe that sold only icecream. There were so many different flavours and there were even icecream spaghetti dishes and icecream steak (chocolate). I had a big chocolate sundae with cream and chocolate shavings. then we were on our way to the car when we saw a bakery and stopped and bought a whole heap of different German cakes. when we got home we ate dinner then had all the cake. After that Darcie, Kerstin and i made chocolate mouse and mayonaise.

On Saturday it was Hauke's birthday. We went to the Hanau markets it was mainly honey, meat, flowers and fruit and vegetables. we got given a lot of things for free like huge gherkins, honey lollies and meat. When we went home we had a sm all lunch and some chocolate mouse. Then we went to Monicas house (Biggi's sister) and had a bit of cake and slice. Afterwards Darcie, Frazer, Kerstin, Mohar (Kerstin's boyfreind) and I walked to the school soccer field and were playing for a while when a group of teenagers came down and we asked them to play with us. They said ok and we started playing, I scored our first four goals and Mohar and Frazer scored the last two. We won 6-1. Then we went home and played German monopoly, Darcie won. After that it was dinner time and there was so much food. There were heaps of German things, and also lots of other stuff like garlic bread and sausages. After dinner Darcie, Frazer, Julia and I played darts. It was really cool because the dart board was electric and kept score and counted the points even if the dart didn't stick in the dart tips were plastic and the board had holes all through it so the darts could stick in. Then we went home and went to bed.
Bye
Tait

Hessen Park & Marborg

hi its Tait,
yesterday was great we went to hessen park, a place where they take old houses from villages and rebuild them in the park, most houses were from the 1700's.while we were there i had my first German pretzel and it was huge, I loved it. We also saw an old style potting wheel, with a lady making pots. It was very interesting, and she did it so quickly.

After Hessen Park we went to a roman fortress. it was almost 2000 years old. we went into the mueseum and looked at everything that was found by archeologists when they looked through the area. The things i found most interesting were all the kitchen utensills... like a funnel and a kitchen sive. I also found it interesting that their garden tools were the same shape as those we use in our own garden. There were also shoes and bits of woollen fabric that had been preserved because they had fallen into a well, and kept away from oxygen. They were over 2000 years old. After going through the mueseum we went for a walk in the forest and Darcie, Frazer, Julia, Alf and I had an akorn fight. It was fun!

Today we went to Marbourg, the birth place of Martin Luther. We went in the castle there and it had an exhibition about a princess called St Mary who built a hospital and nursed sick people. then we drove down to the town and walked around shops with lollies, artwork, music and clothes.

We went to a restaurant and had three traditional German meals. One with Bavarian sausages and a mustard and herb dip, the 2nd was noodles with onion, cheese melted on top and baked in an oven, the 3rd was potatoes with sour cream and salad that had a yogurt based herb dressing. We ate on a balcony overlooking the town. Then we walked around a bit more and stopped in a lolly shop. We saw lots of chocolate things like soccer balls, soccer players, cars, beer bottles and horses... all made from chocolate. Afterwards we walked a steep hill and back around to the car and drove home.

hi its Tait,
im in nidderau,
on monday we went to an animal park about 20 minutes away from here. In the park there were elk, reindeer, an animal like an ox, wild pigs, lynx, wolfs and we saw some squirrels. most animals were native to in and around germany. when we left we stopped in hanau an old town near here. We walked around and had icecream in the town square.

The next day, after lunch Darcie, Frazer and I went with Rebecca to excercise her horse, Genty.
We rode on Genty for about an hour, then we walked back home and got ready to go to Frankfurt. we went to a large shopping area in the centre of Frankfurt and went shopping in a shop called C & A and i got jeans and a jumper. After shopping we went to a cathedral called The Frankfurt Dom that was started over 1500 years old. It was huge and it had the biggest pipe organ and it was so loud had to almost yell to talk to everyone. Then it was time for dinner so we went into a huge shop and went to the top floor (5th or 6th) and had chocolate mouse and a strawberry dessert. after dinner we were walking to the car and I noticed something was missing Frazer's bag I yelled ( it had my wallet with 50 euro, my nike track suit and Darcie's and Frazer's wallets too.) so we drove to near the shop where we had dinner and Rebecca and iI had to run up to the top floor and ask for the bag. We asked the lady at the counter if she had it and then she started speaking German to me asking questions about the bag. All Iunder stood was "head" so Rebecca had to translate for me. In the end they had Frazer's bag, and we drove home.

hi its Tait,
im in Nidderau. Yesterday we drove through the mountains to a castle called Burg Eltz. It was next to a brook in an oak forest. It was one of the biggest castles in this area and the guide said parts of it were over 900 years old. It was finished in 1400, and it was fully furnished. There were 80 rooms, 4o fire places, and 20 toilets built in. It was the first castle to have toilets, and they were designed to flush when it rained!

After leaving the castle, we drove along the Mosel river to a small village called Beilstein. We stopped at cafe decorated with coffee grinders, and each had huge slices of German cake! We walked through the village on the cobblestone road and headed for the ruined castle that overlooked the town and river. On the side of the path were verticle grape vines. They were planted on really steep slopes. I don't know how they harvest the grapes!

On the way home we stopped in Boppart and walked along the Rhein. When we went into the town square, there was a band playing because they were having a winefest. Lots of people were drinking wine, but we had icecream. Mine was wild berry. I fell asleep on the drive home.