Nov 30

Today I didn’t want to do anything early, so my Mom and Dad went to the Musee D’Orsay. Then they came and picked me up, and we all went to a science museum. It was pretty cool – they had a planetarium show. (Mom’s unauthorized addition – it taught us that Earth’s moon was formed by the collision of a meteorite into the earth, scattering debris, which formed in a month into the moon.) After the museum we went to a little French Restaurant and I had Beef Bourginon which was tasty, and chocolate mousse.

Nov 29

Hey guys -- Today I went on a plane to Paris. When we got to Paris we found that some Europeans charge to use public bathrooms! We then went to our apartment that we’d rented. We then left to go to a museum. Within twenty minutes of being out, we had gone to two pastry shops, and a candy shop. We had this great meringue/chocolate mousse thing called a merveilleux (it means marvelous in French). When we arrived at the museum (the Pompidou) we saw a bunch of surrealistic art, and got a great view of the Eiffel tower. The museum was kind of weird because all the pipes and escalators and stuff were on the outside – it looked like a person turned inside out – gross, but strangely interesting.

Nov 28

Mom to meetings (again!). Dad and I went off to a science museum, which was very cool. It had a very cool variety of exhibits. One of my favorites was a game where you had to press one fo three big buttons. On the first one, there were infrared beams which you had to avoid, on the second one you had to avoid light beams, and the last one was timed and you had to move your feet so the speed-sensitive floor wouldn’t catch you. I did all of them – they were easy! Then we went back to Edinburgh on very very crowded train.

Nov 27

Today we went to the Scottish History Museum. We then went to a Disney-esque science museum called Discover Earth. It was kind of cool. There were a varied bunch of exhibits, including a video on volcanic eruptions kooonut, and a cause-and-effect game. Then we hopped on a train to Dundee.

Nov 26

Today we went Edinburgh Castle. It was cool. We saw all the royal stuff: the royal jewels, scepter, the royal armory, etc… Then we went to the optical illusion museum where there were tons of cool optical illusions like holograms of a T Rex that seemed to jump out of the wall, and a camera obscura. Then we walked down the Royal Mile.

Nov 25

Today we woke up in Hazelwood castle and after breakfast we explored the old cathedral by the castle, explored the castle grounds, and fed sugar cubes to a racehorse. It was really great – I wish we could’ve stayed there for another night.

We went to York, an ancient walled city. We went to the Minster – that’s what they called the old church – my Dad says it is one of the most important Gothic cathedrals in England. The best part of the Minster for me was climbing the tower, where we got an amazing view, and my Mom got very excited about this odd architecture, flying buttresses, which helped keep the walls of the cathedral up. Then we went on the train to Edinburgh.