Europe – Canada trip.

Didn’t do a lot to day. But we did go see a one of a kind train system, thats suspended above a river and the train hangs from the tracks rather then driving on them. We rode to train around the city in a big loop with was fun. We were then going to go to soling but ran out of time so we headed home and … didn’t do a lot just kind of muted around and then to sleep.

So today was a good day. We got up in the morning at about 9 o’clock and had breakfast after breakfast we mucked around for a few hours. at around 11 we decided to go out and look at the shops as Claire wanted some jeans. The shops were not amazing and there were cigarette buts everywhere so we headed home. At 12:30 we left to pick up to pick up the mother of a man named Peter who is a good friend of the people we were staying with. So after picking her up we left for his work place the car ride took around an hour and a half and was uneventful. Now what I haven’t told you is that the place where Peter worked Is the largest and main centre on space research, astronaut training, and the head control centre for the rosette mission (that one the landed on an astroid). It also has serval other facilities for research and communication (e.g. with the ISS). And Peter was giving us a guided tour! When we got there we first had to go through serval layers of security and get name tags. Then went to the main control centre for the rosette mission and communication centre for communicating with the ISS. Peter showed us around and talked about the how everything worked. It was very interesting when he showed us a scale model of the rosette probe and talked about where it landed on the asteroid. He also told us why the probe landed in the wrong place and what went wrong. After we were done we went to this huge building that was the main centre for research on ho space and space travel effects the human body. In there we were shown a short arm centrifuge, which is an experimental way of simulating gravity in Zero G, so that the astronauts can exercise properly in gravity. We were also shown and MRI scan that they use to study the effects of Zero G on the human mind, apparently being in space makes you less intelligent because of something to do with the fluids in your brain. After leaving research centre we walked down to the astronaut training centre, yes where they train real astronaut. In there we first went to see a 1:1 scale model of the American, Russian, and European. This are the models that they use to train the astronauts and show then what it be like inside the ISS. And we went in side the american and Russian bits (not the European because it was set up for an experiment). We spent a long time in there taking photos and exploring, not that it was very big inside. We then headed over to the big pool that had a 1:1 model of the European part of the space station. we were not allowed inside that part of the building but we did get to take some photos. After that it was time to leave. So we went out to eat at a Germany buring house which had good food, and we then headed home. For the record we were only able to have this tour around the space centre because Peter is one of the head people there and it is not normally open to the public, so a big THANK YOU to Peter.

To I woke up, got dressed and ate breakfast (you know the usual boring stuff). Then we all hopped in the car and head out to the border between Germany, Holland, and Belgium. We arrived at the place were they meet. Which is also the highest place in Holland. And then preceded to crosse the border between Germany and Holland, Holland and Belgium, and stand in all 3 at the same time. Did you know that between most European counties there is no border protection! It was a lot of fun crossing into 2 different countries in on day (however as we did not need passports to crosse we did not get the stamps from those respective countries). After that we went to Jan (pronounced yarn) student flat (Chiara’s older brother) for afternoon tea. That was fun and he food was nice.Then we headed of (with Jan) to the city centre to see the chrisms markets and a old church. The Christmas markets were nice but kind of boring, the church however was nearly 900 years old and very interesting. It was this huge stone building and the entire ceiling had a mosaic over it. By this point we were all pretty tired so we head home to eat and sleep.

Today I woke up (funny that), and had breakfast. Then It was off to a old file factory that had been shut down about 50 years ago. the factory was very interesting at the factory as it had lots of old stuff. The factory floor was full of old files, file building materials, and file manufacturing machines. Upstairs there was an old office that had lots of cool stuff like type writers and other administrative stuff for the factory. On the way out I was allowed to grab an old file. (the factory was not a museum but the people we are staying with help to look after it so we got to have a look around). On the way out they told us that there were over 40,000 files left over in the factory. after we left he factory we went up to hill a bit to look at the old house that the owner of the factory used to live in. The house was rather creepy and not as interesting so we didn’t stay there long, but we did get shown were the house had been damaged in WW2 which was interesting. We then took of in the car to visit an old castle that is 1200 years old but had been restored. before we went in we ate at a Germany afternoon tea of super waffles and hot chocolate (seriously that is what they eat). The castle was great and we visited places like the dungeon, wall, and keep. The keep was especially cool as it is 30m tall and we stood right at the top and look down at the court yard. After that we tried on some chain mail and played with some (real) medieval weapons, which was great. After that we left and went home as we still had bad jet lag. We ate Dinner and went to sleep.

Woke up on a plane today. Flying at 917 km/h at 30,000 feet. But they served a good breakfast, which is nice. it was about 2 hours till we were due to land so after breakfast I watch a movie and read my book. The plane landed and we unloaded. On the walk towards security there we hundreds of people but when got to security there was almost no one there. We conclude that they mist have all have connecting flights. After passing through security we meet with Chiara and her family as we were staying with them for the next 9 days. Chiara is an exchange student that my Mum mentored about a year and a half ago. Once we collected our baggage and picked up the rental car, we started the tow hour journey not he autobahn (a big flat motorway) to Chiara’s house. The car trip was long and un eventful. When we got there we had a big breakfast of roles, buns, and cold meat, which was very good. After that we were to tided to do anything so we sat at home and unpacked. By about 12 German time we were struggling to stay awake but could not sleep as sleeping at midday would give us terrible jet lag. So I struggled to keep my eyes open for the next 6 hours (William fell asleep around 4). We then had dinner but by that point it was difficult to talk properly so I excused my self and went to bed.

After sleeping for 13 hours, we woke up and went down stairs to find a place to eat. We found a small bakery and ordered some pastries. The food was nice and we ate quickly. After breakfast we went back to the hotel room and planed what we would do for the day. We decided to catch the ferry over to Hong Kong and take a cable car to the top of the peak (the highest point in Hong Kong). When we left the hotel we struggled to find a bus to the ferry terminal and had to ask a police man. The bus ride was very interesting as we went though a lot of the city and could see all of the shops and people. We also noticed that all the scaffolding was made of bamboo, and was tied together with only plastic ties! Once we got to the ferry terminal brought tickets and hopped on the ferry. The ferry was this rickety old boat that was very slow. On once on the island we walked to the cable car which was a lot like the wellington cable car. It took us nearly  half an hour to get on the car as we had to wait in line for tickets and then we just used out on getting the car. The cable car ride was very step was hard to stand up in. When we got to the top there was a giant building which was only part of the shopping mall that they had built up there. A lot of the people who had come up had only come to shop! we went to the top of the building which had a viewing platform and got a great view over the city, one of the buildings in the city was taller then the mountain. when then started to desend the mountain on a path through the forest. There was a lot of rubbish on the path and in parts it was very slippery. When we got to the bottom and started walking through the city. All of the buildings in the city were massive and it was very intimidating, almost claustrophobic. At some point we had lunch at a Starbucks, which was one of the few places that looked like it had reasonable food preparation hygiene. We had a look at a mall of which that main attraction was a huge apple store, and headed back to the ferry. On the ferry ride back we saw a large old fastened wooden boat like the ones used in ancient China. We then court the bus back to the hotel and rested there for a few hours. after the rest int he hotel we decided to go to the Hong Kong night markets and then to the airport. We walked through some incredibly dirty streets and parks. When we got to the night markets it was some where between the worlds biggest 2 dollar shop and a huge amount of sea food restaurants with all of there food out in the open. There was nothing to buy there in the 2 dollar shops and no one who was not from Hong Kong and in their right mind would buy from the sea food shops. We left quickly and started for the airport via the train station. After a long walk walk and some doubt we were going the right way, we made it to the train station via an ice skating rink. When we arrived at the platform there was a train sitting right there, perfect there would be no wait.So we quilt brought tickets and scared through the gate, and we would have got the train but mums ticket didn’t work so by the time we had got her a new ticket the train had left. lucky we only had to wait  8 minuets for the next train. the train ride was uneventful, so we got to the airport and took our baggage out of storage and checked it onto the flight. Then with 3 hours to kill we went in such of a sticker of the Hong Kong flag. The search however was unsuccessful, so we checked out a shop that sold high end drones. One of the drones was $42,000 Hong Kong dollars! After making around at the shop for a while we went through security and found a place to eat dinner I had a chicken burger which was great but incredibly spicy so I could not finish it. Everyone thought I was exaggerating how spicy it was so made dad ate the rest and after the first bite his face turned bright red it was so spicy!  By then t was time to  board the plane so we oped in line. once on the plane we noticed how much nicer it was then Cathy Pacific. However by that point I was struggling to keep my eyes open and Claire had already passed out. I managed to stay awake until half way though in flight dinner before falling asleep.

Good bye New Zealand and hello adventure. Today is the first day of the trip and it’s very Read the rest of this entry »