African Safari

Hi it's Tait,
Yesterday morning Dad, Frazer and I went for a long slow jog through the orange groves. It was about 5 km and took about 1 hour. When we got home I had breakfast and then we played in the yard for a while. Then we decided to go to an African Safari about an hour from Pedregeur. We arrived around 3 and there was no one there so we played a bit of soccer while we waited. Then we saw some people and they said that you get the tickets in the restaurant. We went to the restaurant and the lady there was English. Then we went into the Safari Park. We drove around and saw donkeys, deer and zebras up the top. Then we drove to the bottom of the area and got to pat elephants. We saw Bulls with huge horns and there were hippos and a white rhino. Then we drove back to the restaurant and saw all the animals in the small zoo. There were 2 lion cubs, a porcupine, pumas and these small little almost things like large guinea pigs. Afterwards we drove home and had pizza for dinner.

Relaxing at home

Today we spent the morning at home and after lunch we all jumped in the freezing cold pool. Then we had a dinner that we had in France.

Relaxing at home

Today we spent the morning at home and after lunch we all jumped in the freezing cold pool. Then we had a dinner that we had in France.

Cave at Benodolieg

Yesterday we stayed at home most of the day playing in the yard and watching a DVD. At about 4 Mum and Darcie came home and told us that they had found a cave nearby, so we went there and had a look. There was a TV screen in the cave showing a programme on Neanderthals who used to live in the cave. There were the remains of skeletons (bones, teeth) from rhinos, hyenas, Neanderthals, bears and deer. We walked through the cave and Frazer and I hid and scared Darcie. There were lots of stalactites and stalagmites in the cave. After looking through the cave we went into Pedregeur and went grocery shopping. Then we went home and Darcie made dinner and then we went to bed.

Moving to Pedregeur

On Monday it was time to go to the next house, also in Spain and outside a town called Pedregeur only 20 minutes from Altea. We spent the morning packing and then went to the beach. There had been a storm when we were driving home from Granada so the waves were huge. We played soccer on the field on the beach for a while and then went to a café for lunch. I had a jacket potato with cheese and bacon and it was really nice. We played on the beach for a while longer and made a rock wall along the hill as a barrier to stop waves getting us wet and it worked. Then we went home and loaded up the car and met Javier who was looking after the key to the house and then he took us there and showed us how to work everything. After Javier left we had dinner and then went to bed.

Tobogganing to Alhambra

The next day we went to the tobogganing run after breakfast. We hired 2 toboggans and then Frazer and I both got a new pair of ski gloves. Then we went tobogganing for 2 hours, it was really fun and we all had a great time. After tobogganing we headed down the mountains to Alhambra a palace built by the Moors over 1500 years ago. In Alhambra there were Arabic carvings on the walls and tiles that were very colourful. The palace had beautiful gardens and water running through it underground and came out in the fountains and small canals about 1 meter wide. Afterwards we headed home and arrived at around 10.

Night in the Sierra Nevadas

Hi it's Tait,
On Saturday we left our hotel after breakfast and headed for La Rabita. When we arrived we played on the beach for a while. Afterwards we headed up into the mountains. We drove over the foothills and then down into a valley, by the road there were almonds and grapes being farmed. We went through the valley and around to Granada and then back up into the Sierra Nevada mountains. When we came towards the top of the mountain there were little bits of snow and when we got to the summit there were heaps of people tobogganing. And dad said that the next day we could go tobogganing. We had to go find accommodation lower down the mountain so we left the tobogganing run and got in the car. We drove to the next town down the mountain and stayed in a small hotel. The hotel had a games room and we played air hockey and another fun game for a while until we had to get ready for dinner.

La Rabita

Hi it's Tait,
On Friday we decided to go to a small fishing village called La Rabita that Granny and Poppa had been to 20 years ago and recommended that we go there and to the surroundings. La Rabita is on the south coast of Spain near Granada. We left Altea at around 12 o’clock and headed off along the coast. Around Murcia there were really nice rocky mountains with the sea at their base and the sun setting in the background. We arrived in La Rabita at around 8 and played in a park on the sea side and then couldn’t find a hotel that was open so we drove to a small town nearby. We stayed in a nice hotel that had really nice dinners. I had swordfish with a salad. After dinner we went to our room and then went to bed.

Relaxing at Altea

Hi it's Tait,
We spent the next 4 days playing games like monopoly, dominos, going to the beach, watching DVD’s and reading.

Barcelona to Altea

Hi it's Tait,
On Sunday we walked down La Rambla to the seaside and had a look around. There was a huge Christopher Columbus statue on a column about 25 meters high and the tour yesterday had said that his index finger was over 50cm long. We got some popcorn and walked along the wharf and saw about 200 fish all eating other peoples popcorn that they had thrown in. Then we walked back along the port to La Rambla. We walked back up through the artists and then had lunch in a small café. We had wraps and mine was chicken with some salad. Then we walked back to the car and headed for Altea. The drive took about 5 hours but the scenery was really nice with the coast on one side and the dry, rocky hills on the other. We arrived at the house at around 6 watched some T.V. and then went to bed.

Barcelona tour - north

Hi it's Tait,

On Saturday we left Maite’s house at about 10 o’clock and walked to the tour bus stop and hopped on. We drove for about 3 minutes and then hopped off at the Casa Battlo stop and had a closer look than yesterday it was the Gaudi house with all the different colours and the small verandas. Then we kept walking and had lunch in a bakery, I had a sandwich with cheese and ham with a hot chocolate. Then we walked to the nearby Gaudi house, La Pedrera, it had huge stone carvings on the roof and it was all sandstone. After that we walked along to the next bus stop and hopped on the first bus that came. We stayed on the bus for a couple stops and then hopped off at another Gaudi design, the Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that is still not finished. It was a bright cathedral and was full of squarish carvings and amazing stain glass windows. Out the front of the cathedral were heaps of artists that had painted things in Barcelona like the cathedral, Casa Battlo, La Pedrera and Guell park(also by Gaudi), we walked through all the artists to the bus stop and then caught the bus to Guell park. we hopped off and walked about 1km to Guell park an old real estate area that a man owned and asked Gaudi to build houses and have a large forest in it so he could sell them off. although they were nice and in a really nice area they were not bought. there were 2 houses out the front, one with blue and white marble tiles broken up and stuck to the roof and large tower. then we saw a rock wave that curved over and then touched the ground in an arc. then we had to go home as it was getting dark. we drove home past the Camp Nou, Barcelona’s home ground and back to La Rambla and then we had dinner after we had walked back to Maite’s house.

Looking around Barcelona

Hi it's Tait,

Yesterday we had a look around Barcelona. It was very interesting, we walked along La Ramblas and saw pet shops selling ferrets, hedgehogs, chameleons, tortoises, turtles, rabbits, doves, pigeons, chipmunks, iguanas and chinchillas an animal native to Spain that can climb trees and looks similar to a possum. We kept on walking after looking at the pet shops and saw people doing funny poses in costumes they might jump out at you. One man painted all over black with glasses and a penny farthing scared Darcie. After that we walked to the tour bus stop and hopped on. After the first stop we saw the most amazing two houses both designed by a world famous architect Antonio Gaudi. The first house was 4 or 5 stories high and was all curvy it had little balconies for every floor. The other one was similar but the roof was covered by randomly smashed marble tiles that were made into little pieces and then arranged to cover the roof. We kept driving on the bus and then saw the longest shopping place in the world, the whole 4 km street was covered in only shops. We hopped off at a bus stop near a cable car and went on the cable car up to the top of the hill to a fort where we hopped of and had a look around. They had a great view of the port and had all the huge machine guns still out there. Afterwards we had some lunch, a croissant with ham and cheese and then we hopped back on the bus. We drove through the port (one of the most important in Europe) and then through the gothic part of town where we saw amazing houses and the cathedral designed by Gaudi. We hopped off at La Ramblas and went to the main square. There were over 300 pigeons I think and a man gave us a bag of seed each, I held it near my shoulder and had a pigeon on it in no time. He was there while we walked around until a car back fired and he flew off. After feeding the pigeons we walked through the market, it was so colourful. We saw pig heads for sale and lots of fruit and vegetables, Darcie went crazy when she saw the lollies and chocolates. On our way out we saw got a juice each from a stall, they were really nice, mine was pineapple, strawberry and papaya. Then we walked to a small tapas and got two wraps to share. Then we went home for a while. We went out to dinner at 9 in a Spanish restaurant and we got a huge feast each starter (4) was nice one was this cod dish with crust bread the next was an assortment of fresh fish that were really nice. Then there were mussels done in a Catalan style and the last starter was a type of really nice seafood noodles. By then I was full but there were still more I had baby squid and then a dessert of ice cream and cake. Then we walked home and went to bed at about 11:30. I have decided that so far my favorite city that we have been to is now Barcelona.

Le Sappey En Chareuse to Barcelona

hi its Tait,
Last night we had snails and they were so nice that I had seconds. They were covered in a garlic sauce with butter and parsley, they were chewy and really tasty. But today we to pack for Spain all this morning. There was so much snow, at least 60 cm. We left for Barcelona at 2 but before that dad dug the car out from the snow while mum packed. When we stopped for petrol near the border of France and Spain, there was so much wind and it was so strong that it made the door so hard to pull shut. We arrived at Maite’s house at about 10, we met her husband and son and then had pizzas for dinner. They had a dog and we made him jump really high by attaching pizza to a peg on fishing line. The pizza was really tasty and had a really thin base. We had 3 pizzas, one cheese, one smoked ham and one with dried lamb sliced really thin with olives on top. Then Mum and Dad went to an apartment that they are staying in which was about 3 blocks away. We are in the middle of downtown Barcelona and Maite’s apartment is 180 years old right next to one of the most famous streets in Barcelona La Ramblas.
Adios amigos

SNOW!!!!!!!!

There’s so much snow!!!!!!!!! This morning when we woke up I did a lap of the yard in bare feet through 15 cm of snow. We played in the yard for an hour and then went to les 3 sommets. A mountain near here and went on the toboggans but we went hardly any where, the snow was to powdery and thick and we stopped almost as soon as we started. After tobogganing we went home and had lunch and then Frazer, Luca and I went to biathlon training. When we first arrived we had a bit of laser shooting practice and I was hopeless. Then we got cross-country skis but we got no poles and so went into the snow we did some exercises and then played a game of rugby on skis it was really fun. After rugby we had some races and then practiced going down hills. Once fell over and really hurt my thumb. Then we went inside and had more shooting practice, I eventually got the hang of it and could hit all 5 laser sensors in a row. Afterwards we all walked home and played chess. Tonight for dinner we are having escargot (snails) and I can’t wait to try them.

a long hike

Hi it's Tait,
Today we drove up to a mountain over looking Grenoble and the village we are staying in and looked at the really nice veiw of Grenoble and the alps behind it. We walked along a long ridge and then cut down into Le Sappey en Chatreus then we went through the village and back to the house. When we arrived I was so tired and we had been hiking for over 2 hours but I think I was so tired because of the last hour of the hike where we had to go down the mountain and my legs got tired trying not to go really fast and falling over. After we got home we had some lunch and then played chess for a while. After Luca, Charlotte, Marie and Darcie got home from school we had a fondoo, it was really nice!!!
Au revoir

School with Lucas

Hi it's Tait,
On Monday I went to school with Luca, who we are staying with. The school was in Grenoble and took 15 minutes to drive to. We met all Luca's friends. His first class was sport. We did circus routines like juggling, unicycles, trapeze and tight rope walking in the gymnasium. We had to go in groups of 4 so Frazer and I joined Luca and his friend James, who could speak English quite well.

His next class was French and Frazer and I read our own books as we couldn't understand anything. After French was Maths for 1 hour. Then we went to the cafeteria and had warm lunch. I had couscous, vegetables and chicken + icecream for dessert. After lunch we played soccer with Luca and his friends.
In the afternoon Luca had a German lesson, but it was full, so we went instead with one of Luca's friends called Aubin to an English class. They had to mark their tests, and then the teacher asked Frazer and I to answer questions from the other kids about Australia. After English school was over and we came back to the house and played in the garden with Luca and James. Then we got dressed in snow gear and drove to a skiing area higher up the mountain. We took a tobbogan and some small things that you sit on. It was really fun. When we got home we had dinner and then went to bed.

Berlin to Le Sappy en Chatruese

Hi it's Tait,
I'm in Le Sappy en Chatruese in the French Alps. We left Berlin on Saturday morning and headed to the south of Germany. It snowed on the way. We stopped for dinner and played in the snow. We stayed on the island of Lindau in the Bodensee, a large inland sea that borders Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The next morning we looked around Lindau at all the old buildings and the harbour.

Then we left and drove around the Bodensee, via part of Austria, then on to Lichtenstein. We had a brief look around Vaduz, and saw the castle style residence of the Lichtenstein family. Then we drove into Switzerland and saw some of the Swiss Alps. Then we drove through Zurich and Bern. Then on to France and the city of Grenoble. We drove through Grenoble and then up into the mountains to the village of Le Sappy en Chatruese where we are staying for the next 4 nights with a local family.

Tour of Berlin

Hi it's Tait,
Today we went on a tour of Berlin. We hopped on a double-decker bus and then rode around Berlin and saw all the main sights. We went passed checkpoint Charlie again and saw the Brandenburg gate. We saw most of the embassies and also all the German parliament buildings, most of the rivers of Berlin 3 of the 5 and also the historical churches and buildings. It was very interesting and we had a really nice tour guide that could speak English very well . after seeing all the things in Berlin we went to look in Nike town a huge Nike store. The weather was rainy and windy and so we went back to the hotel and had a swim. Tomorrow we are leaving for France in a village in the alps near Grenoble in the South of France. We will probably sleep in Switzerland on the way there.

Berlin

Hi it's Tait,
In Berlin I have had a really nice time and have had great fun ice-skating and swimming. Darcie had her birthday here and we have seen checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin wall and been to the Berlin zoo. It was very nice to meet a lot of people and I also had some foods I have never tried before like jellyfish, cow tongue, ox, and pig intestines. I have really liked the buffet breakfast and staying in this really nice hotel. The main bad thing in Berlin was that Mum and Dad have been working in the ICEF workshop heaps and we have spent most of our time in the hotel.

Slovakia to Berlin

Hi it's Tait,
On Wednesday it was time for us to leave for Berlin. We said our goodbyes and then left for the North of the Czech Republic in a city called Teplice. On our way through Prague we saw a shopping centre and stopped because Frazer and I needed a haircut. We found a hair salon and Frazer and I got our haircuts and then Mum, Dad and Darcie all decided to get haircuts too. After leaving Prague we went to Teplice and arrived at around 10 at night. When we woke up the next morning on Thursday we left to go to Berlin on the way we stopped right near the Border to Germany and looked at all the nice sandstone and the forests surrounding. Then we continued on to Berlin. We arrived at the intercontinental hotel at around 6:00. We unpacked and then had a really nice dinner with the whole of the ICEF team.

Bratislava

Hi it's Tait,
On Tuesday we went to Bratislava. When we arrived we had to go to get winter tires from the outskirts of Bratislava. After getting the tires we had a look around Bratislava. We had some soup in bread and it was really nice mine was mushroom. Then we went to the palace where the Hapsbergs all got crowned every generation. It had a great view of the whole of Bratislava. We had to leave at 2:00 to get our tires put on the car in Senica. After the new winter tires were on we drove to Scalica to watch an ice hockey game. Scalica were playing the last placed team in the league, there were lots of goals and the end score was 6-1 to Scalica.

Laa an den Thaya

Hi it's Tait,
On Monday Dad stayed at home and worked but the rest of us went to Laa an den Thaya in Austria. At Laa there was a really nice aquatic area that we spent 3 hours at there was a whirlpool, pool, slide, massage pool with hot water and jets for your back, salty really hot pool and a cold pool. It was really nice and I really liked the slide because it went completely dark and then dropped really steeply into a pool. After swimming in the pools at Laa we drove to Brno in the Czech republic and looked around.

Wien (Vienna)

Hi it's Tait,
On Sunday we drove to Vienna in Austria we arrived in the night time around 5:30 when it was beginning to get dark. When we got out we looked around and saw that we were parked right near a large cathedral with huge stone spires. We walked further away from the car and looked a things like the theatre and the Austria parliament house. We saw another large cathedral and also a palace of the royal Hapsberg family who ruled over most of Europe for hundreds of years. After looking around Vienna we drove back home and arrived at about 11:00 at night.

Lednice

Hi it's Tait,
On Saturday we went to an old chateaux that belonged to the Lichtenstein family. It was in a town called Lednice in the Czech republic. It was very interesting and there were stuffed eagles, skulls of reindeer with the horns still attached and a sculptured horse with a horn of a narwhal and they said that it was a unicorn. After the tour we walked through the gardens and we saw a reindeer swimming through a lake to a small island in the middle.

bojnice and the ice hockey

Hi it's Tait,
On Friday we saw an old Slovakian castle that was the most visited castle in Slovakia. It was really big and had a moat around it. We did a tour and looked around inside. They had lots of weapons on display. It was built in the 1300’s, but remodeled in the late 1800’s. At the end of the tour, the took us through an underground tunnel that lead into a garden overlooking Bojnice.

After the tour we drove back as quickly as we could to the border of Czech Republic and Slovakia, to a town called Skalica. We were 10 minutes late for the ice hockey match. It was really cool! They were all really, really fast on their skates, and it was very violent. Skalicia were loosing 1-0 for the first period of 20 minutes (3 periods of 20 minutes), and then in the 2nd period, they were drawing 1-1, and in the 3rd period they ended up winning 3-1. It was really fun to watch the game and I was cheering and jumping up and down when ever Skalicia scored. We met the Steiner family (our hosts) in between each 20 minute period, and we tried some local fast food. Last night Bystric invited me to go to another game on Tuesday. Can’t wait!!

Olomouc

Hi it's Tait,
On Thursday, we looked around Olomouc, and heard the town hall clock chime. With each chime, figures (carved workers) would start to move and hammer things. After looking around Olmouc, we drove to Slovakia, where we met Veronika in the house we will be staying in for the next week. We went shopping, got some money and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

Kutna Hora

Hi it's Tait,
On Wednesday we looked around Kutna Hora. We saw the cathedral with all its frescos, paintings and statues. It was built in 1368, and we also learnt that Kutna Hora had the deepest mine in the world at that time. We looked in shops and got some clothes and things for the snow. I got ski pants and ski socks, as well as Xcountry ski gloves and glasses to wear in the snow.

I liked Kutna Hora because it was very most of the buildings were 500 years old. They still had the old town wall which ran along a lane way that was named after the daughter of the burgermeister (town mayor), because she was locked into a cupboard by her father and left to die!
After looking around the old town centre, we drove to Sedlec. We visited an ossuary (church and graveyard). During the plague of the 1600’s they ran out of space in the graveyard, so the dug up all the skeletons of the people who were already buried there. There were thousands and thousands of bones. The new dead plague victims were buried in the empty graves, and the bones were arranged by an artist/woodworker inside the ossuary. There is a chandelier made of every boned in the human body. There are family crests and his name was signed in bone! After the Ossuary, we drove to Olomouc, a university town in South Marovia.

Marianske Lazne and Kutna Hora

Hi it's Tait,
On Sunday we left to go to Kutna Hora at around 12:00. After about half an hour we arrived in Karlovy Vary. There were lots of old houses, large hotels and a huge eastern european church with gold plated tops that looked like huge onions. We found a small restaurant and had a really nice lunch, I had pork ribs with heaps of side dishes. After lunch we drove to Kutna Hora. We arrived at about 6:00 and started looking for a hotel. We decided to stay in the hotel Anna it was quite nice and really well positioned near the middle of town.