On the 23rd of November we went into Paris. First we went to the Arc de Triomphe. It is massive! It has an eternal flame for the unknown soldiers that is re-lit every morning. Then we went up the Eiffel tower. There is 689 stairs to the top (that you can walk to). On the 1st floor, there is a glass floor! It’s very creepy standing on it. We then got a boat to the Notre Dame. We didn’t go inside because there was a huge queue but the outside looks really cool. We tried to get a boat to the Louvre but we missed it and so we walked. We went in through the glass pyramid. First we went to see the Mona Lisa via the Flight of Victory. The Flight of Victory is a statue of a lady with no head or arms but wings. She looks like she is being pushed back by the wind. The Mona Lisa is actually really small. It’s also not as cool as I thought it was. We then went to see the Venus de Milo. It’s a statue of of a lady with no arms found in Greece. We then went to see some paintings. Most of them were of people, but there was a few landscapes and a lion’s face. 

The Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel tower

Notre Dame

Flight of Victory

Arc de Triomphe

The Eiffel tower looking up from the 2nd floor

Venus de Milo

The Mona Lisa

On the 24th and 25th of November we went to the Somme. The Somme is the World War One battle field. On the 24th we went to a museum in an underground tunnel that was used as an air-raid shelter. There was lots of things that were used in the war like guns, helmets and even a shaving kit! There were carved shell cases and models made out of bullet cases made in the war because the soldiers got bored. On the 25th we stopped at random cemeteries on the side of the road. At every one I put a flower at the big crossing the back of the cemetery. Lots of graves said “A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR, KNOWN UNTO GOD.” It means: Here’s a bit of someone, but we have no idea who it is. We went to a New Zealand missing memorial and signed the book and sang the national anthem. We then went to Thiepval. Thiepval is a giant arch that is covered in all the names off the missing of World War One. It then has heaps of gravestones and crosses at the back. By the first cemetery we went to, we looked in the ploughed field on the other side of the road. We found a live bullet, a shell case, bits of old pipe and bullets. 

Thiepval

A grave stone

Us at the NZ missing memorial

A shell case

A live bullet

On the 12/11 we went to Rome again.We went to the colosseum first. The colosseum is a roman amphitheater. It was originally called the Flavian Amphitheater. It was built in 80 AD and is two semi-circular theatres joined to make it an oval shape. It was used for gladiator battles and other things until 523 AD. We walked through the Roman forum (the ancient part of rome) to the Trajan’s column. The Trajan’s column is a column put up the emperor Trajan when he defeated the Dacians (now Romania). It has a spiral carved story all the way up. We then walked to the Piazza Navona and looked at the street artists. There was a very clever spray painter. We walked (in the dark) to the Trevi fountain. I through in a coin. Then I through in another one. We went for tea in a small restaurant with really nice waiters. They even did magic tricks. Unfortunately they were the first two magic tricks I learnt.

The inside of the Colosseum

The outside of the Colosseum

Trajan's column

Trevi fountain

 On the 15/11 we went for a bike ride in Meremma national park. We were on the back and a fox tried to steal my jumper!! When we were biking back, a fox ran out on the track and we stopped and it came over!! It was very cool.

The fox

The fox

On the 8/11 we went to Matera. Matera is in Itaty and is a town where all the people lived in caves called sassi, until 1952s when the government gave them houses. The people shared their caves with their animals, i.e horses, chickens and pigs. The average of six children slept in various places including the chest of drawers. In one 'church' there is still evidence of paintings.

Some sassi

Inside a sassi that has been furnished

Painting in a sassi church

On the 9/11 we went to Pompeii. In Pompeii, there were lots of roman baths. I learnt how they worked. First you went into a waiting room. It had cubby holes to put your stuff. There you waited for your turn in the baths. Then you went into the frigidarium. This was the cold room. You had a cold bath then went into the tepidarium. This was like a sauna. You went in here to warm up. It was heated by fires. After that you went to the calderium. This was like the hottest hot pools in Hanmer springs. It was heated in the same way as the tepidarium. Literally. The heat from fire in the tepidarium came under the floor, which was raised on small brick pillars, and through the walls, which were hollow. We saw a beware of the dog sign. It wasn't plastic, it was a mosaic of a dog! It said 'Cave Carnem'  (Ca -[as in cat]- ve Car-nem).  All the roads in Pompeii were badly cobbled and had what we think are ancient zebra crossings. They were raised stone blocks across the roads. We went to an exhibition of the body casts. I found it kind of creepy. The mountain is called Vesuvius. http://blog.degreed.com/top-10-facts-about-mt-vesuvius-and-pompeii/  - 10 interesting fact about Pompeii.

A road in Pompeii

Some bodies

Pompeii from above

A street

Beware of the dog

On the 11/11 we went into Rome. We went to St. peter's square and saw the pope.  Did you know that St. Peter's square is a giant sun dial. There is an Egyptian obelisk in the middle that acts as the gnomon (bit in the middle of the sun dial). We then went to the Vatican museums. There was an actual mummy that you could see and lots of hieroglyphics. We saw lots of statues of men. They originally had rude bits but one pope didn't like that so he got someone to carve fig leaves over them. There was a room with animal statues including a hare, a toad and even a giant camel head! There was a tapestry room with a couple of tapestries that were disturbing. There was even a room with all the maps painted on the walls! Last of all we went in the Sistine chapel. I saw the famous pointing statue. Personally, I don't think it's as great as people say it is We saw lots of ridiculous guards in stupid outfits. We queued for St. Peter's Basilica and then went in. It is HUGE.  The bronze used to make the high altar was taken from the Pantheon. There is a secret code of the pope that illegitimately had a child. The crest on the pillars has a woman's face and the crest gets fatter and on the last one the lady's face turns into a baby's face. 

Silly gaurds

Sneaky picture of the chapel roof 

Window in the Basilica 

Silly guard

Silly guard

Hieroglyphics

A mummy

A statue

Tha animal statues

Map on the wall

The Basilica

Painting on the ceiling

Corinth - We went to Corinth on the 28/10/15. We saw yet more rubble. There were the remains of small temples and a roman arch. There were lots of headless statues and an ancient ‘shopping mall’. We were disappointed at the uninteresting-ness off the information. There was a museum with more things in it. It even had a shelf of rude bits that had fallen off statues! We saw some Corinthian columns. Corinthian columns are a style of column that has leaves and flowers at the capital (top). The other two styles are Doric (plain capital) and Ionic (scroll like capital).  

Corinthian column

Doric column

Ionic column

Athens - We went to Athens on the 30/10/15. We walked to the Agora (more rubble) and saw the Temple of Hephaestos. The columns were Doric, there was a carved frieze and carved metopes above the columns. The lines dividing the metopes are called triglyphs. We then walked up to the Acropolis. The Acropolis is the temple sanctuary dedicated to Athena and built to celebrate victory in the Persian wars in the 5th century BC. In one part there are 6 women acting as columns. They are called the Caryatids and the ones there are actually plaster casts. The real ones are in The National Museum in Athens (5 of them) and the last one is in London. We went to the Parliament building and saw the changing of the guards. We saw 3 guards wearing skirts, tap-like shoes with bobbles and hats with long tassels. When they saw us they started to walk in a stupid way, lifting one leg up to horizontal then stamping it down to make a loud noise. 

The Caryatids

A guard

Guards doing a silly walk

Athens Day 2 - We went to Athens again on the 31/10/15. We visited the National Archeological museum. The main part was mostly statues. There was a bronze statue of either Zeus/Poseidon. No one can decide! There was also a bronze statue of a young boy riding a horse. The statues got more and more realistic as we went from start to finish. There was a section of jewellery that I liked. There was gold, amethyst and glass necklaces. There was also two gold burial masks. One of them looked very funny. I liked a gold butterfly brooch. We went on to the Egyptian section. As you walked in there was a stupid looking statue of a hippo. Not surprisingly there were quite a few Goddess Isis things. There was even a real mummy! There were animal sarcophagi and lots of scarab beetles. We then went to an Irish pub to watch the rugby. It was incredibly loud and packed full to the brim. The rugby was intense and at one point I didn’t want to watch it. But yay! We won!

Woman playing a hockey like game

Zeus/Poseidon 

Boy on a horse

Poseidon

Gold death mask

Gold butterfly

Amethyst necklace

Hippo

An actual mummy

An Isis statue

A description of Isis

Isis on a coffin

My favourite scarab

Us after the rugby

Delphi - We went to Delphi on the 1/11/15. Delphi was where the Oracle lived. We saw some rubble. In Greek mythology, Zeus released two golden eagles at the edges of the world, and they met at Delphi supposedly making it the centre of the world. The walls were completely covered in tiny Greek writing. We saw the stadium where they held the Pythian games, second only in importance to the Olympics.

Writing on the wall

The stadium

Meteora - We went to Meteora on the 3/11/15. Meteora has lots of blobby rock pillars with monasteries and nunneries on top. There used to be 24 but now there are only 6. The rock is called pudding stone because it looks like a christmas pudding mix. To go into the monasteries and nunneries girls have to wear skirts that cover their knees and long sleeved tops. Boys have to wear trousers and long sleeved tops. In the olden days, to get new monks and nuns up, they sent down a net on a rope and the monk/nun got inside and was pulled up! We tried to walk back between two rocks but ended up following a goat trail that then disappeared. The day before we found some natural hot springs and went swimming.

Rock formations

A monastery

Us in the hot springs