Ravenna - Italy

We went to Ravenna on the 24/9. In Ravenna there are lots of churches with pretty mosaics from around 520-550 ad. We visited 3. In the first one there was evidence of mosaics from earlier people (but still around the same time) that had been covered over. There were hands, arms and fingers in pillars and head shapes behind curtains. It looked a bit like people in the shower. The second and third were much more impressive. There were images of bible stories in mosaic. The mosaics aren’t made of small squares but of small cones with square bottoms to make it longer lasting. My favourite part of all the mosaics was a small quail. The windows in the churches weren’t glass but a translucent stone called alabaster.

Hand and head shape

Cool mosaics

Quail

Translucent stone

Venice - Italy

We went to Venice on the 25-26/9. On the first time we went there we flipped a coin when ever we got to a junction. Did you know that Venice sinks 2.3 cm every 10 years? It also used to be it’s own country. We wandered round in circles for a bit than wandered over to the San Marco. We fed the pigeons while mum and dad queued for St. Mark’s church. St. Mark’s church was destroyed in a fire in 932 ad then rebuilt, but in 1063 the Doge didn’t think it was impressive enough so he demolished it. It was rebuilt (again) in 1094. In the church there were some mosaics but there weren’t as impressive as the ones in Ravenna. We didn’t have a Gondola ride though. For dinner mum had traditional cuttlefish ink pasta. It was black and tasted fishy.

Venice canal

Black pasta

Feeding the pigeons in Piazza San Marco

On the second day we made masks. Well we painted them. We learnt about traditional methods and mask history. I learnt that masks are a very Venetian thing. One of the first masks was called a Volto and was worn by men and women and had a big chin so you could eat and drink without taking it off. It was generally worn with a hood and cloak of silk and topped off with a tripod hat. Another type of mask was called the Moretta or Mutta. It was worn by women and was black and oval shaped and covered only the mouth, eyes and nose. It was held on by a button that was gripped in the lady’s mouth so she couldn’t speak. That was how it got the nickname Mutta. The Plague Doctor mask is a very distinguishable mask. It has a long beak and covers the face. It was sealed around the edges by a cloak and hood. For protection the eye holes were covered in glass and the breathing slits in the beak had herbs pressed to them on the inside. The Plague Doctor looked quite disturbing because they thought the plague was caused by spirits and so tried to scare them off. The Venice carnival lasted for 2 months and required everyone to wear masks for the whole time. In some places it was law to wear masks all year and there was a very popular game were you could only play if you had a mask on. While wearing a mask called the Gnaga you couldn’t be arrested unless you were being violent. I chose a mask that covered your eyes only. I chose to blend pink and purple for the background. To do that you paint half and half with your chosen colours then you get a clean brush and stab the paint starting from the bottom of the light colour and going up to the dark colour and finishing at the top of the dark colour. We then chose some colours to do the patterns and then freehanded the rest. We chose ribbons and the mask was varnished. I am very proud of my result. The masks are paper mache and hand made.

Volto

Mutta

The Plague Doctor

My mask

Skocjan Caves - Slovenia

On the 30/9 we went to the Skocjan Caves (don’t ask me how to pronounce it). There were two parts. The first part was called the Silent caves and the second the Water Murmuring caves. In the silent caves there were lots of impressive stalactites, stalagmites and stalacmuts (or cave pillars). The stalactites and stalagmites grow 0.0075 cm every year. The biggest one is called The Giant and is 15m tall and 200,000 years old! In the Water Murmuring caves there is a river. The river goes out through a small hole. Sometimes the hole gets blocked and the cave floods.  The water level rises 80 meters. There was an old explorers trail on the rock face and an old tourists trail by the river. The lowest point we reached was 121m underground. The cave system is 6kms long! The explorers only discovered the Silent caves in 1904 but discovered the Water Murmuring caves in the 1860s. This was because the caves were so dark and they were on the opposite side of the river from the Silent caves.

A photo we took in the cave

The 2nd half of the cave 

Predjama Castle - Slovenia

On the 1/10 (pinch and a punch for the first of the month no backs!) we went to Predjama Castle. Predjama Castle is 813 years old built into a cave and has natural tunnels and walls. It is halfway up a 123m cliff. The torture chamber is a natural room. Erazmus (the Slovenian Robin Hood) lived in the castle in the 14th century. He got attacked and wouldn’t come out so the attackers tried to starve him out. But Erazmus had a secret natural tunnel to the next, slightly warmer, valley. There he got food. Erazmus even sent the attackers talk a roast ox and cherries! The cherries in that valley weren’t ripe and you cant see the cave very well from the outside so it appeared that Erazmus was staying put; so the attackers thought that Erazmus had magical powers. Erazmus had water collectors in the cave to collect water because the stream; their rainwater source, could easily be poisoned. Finally the attackers caught a servant. The servant told them that the weakest place is the bathroom. The servant was released back into the castle to signal when Erazmus next went to the loo. The attackers got the signal and attacked the bathroom. Erazmus was killed. His girlfriend planted a lime tree next to his grave and it is now hollow and charred. I think it was hit by lightning.

Prejama castle

One of the half natural walls

Plitvička jezera - Croatia

On the 4/10 we went to Plitvička jezera. Plitvička jezera is a park with lots of waterfalls and lakes. It is beautiful. We saw a red frog by the bathrooms and fish in the lakes. The lakes are a beautiful blue and the highest waterfall is 26m tall. The deepest lake is 68m deep. We got a boat across the biggest lake and a bus up a hill.

A waterfall

Us on a board walk

A waterfall

Part of the park

On the 8th of September we went to a cave in France (Peche Merle) to see some cave paintings that are 25000 years old. There were horses, mammoths, elephants, aurochs (or - ox - ses), cave bears, hand prints, bison and human figures. My favourite were the  horses. One of the horses’ heads is the natural form of the rock. There were also some really impressive stalactites and stalagmites, cave pearls, bones and cave bear claw marks.

Cave pearls

Horses 

HAnd

Mammoth and other things

Mammoth

That night we went out to the town (perched at the top of a cliff face) near our campsite for dinner of local food. We had mini soup for a starter, a mountain of lettuce with goat’s milk brie, raisins, duck, potato salad stuff and pate (each) for our main course and chocolate yumminess with vanilla sauce for pudding. We walked back in the dark down a closed path and I was a bit scared. 

Mini soup

Proportion of the spoon 

The next day we went for a bike ride down the river. Part of the path was carved into the cliff face and part of the cliff face was carved. We rode to the next village and had pizza for lunch. The pizza came from a van with a pizza oven in it by the river! On the way we passed some locks. Locks are to help boats get down a steep bit of river. What happens is the boat is uphill on the river and someone opens the doors of the lock and the boat comes in on the same water level, then someone closes the doors behind the boat. Someone then pumps the water out of the lock so it is the same water level as the downhill part of the river. the doors infant of the boat open and the boat sails out. This can also happen the other way round. Sometimes the water in the lock isn’t the same level as the boat so water has to be pumped in/out of the lock before the lock opens. On the way back we helped operate a lock. We also saw a man doing a really strange dance and filming himself. The other day he was trying to film himself putting on suncream.

Biking

Carved wall

The day after we drove to a really nice campsite in a field. On the way there we drove over Millau suspension bridge. The towers are the tallest in the world but the road is only the 12th highest. It cost 400 million Euros to build and 25 Euros to drive over. When we got to the campsite we went for a walk up the hill. The path was a dry riverbed. we got to the top and climbed up some rocks. That night there was a giant thunderstorm that kept us awake. The next day at that campsite there were wedding photos being taken.

Wedding

Us on our walk

Funny tree 

Bridge

After the wedding photos we went to a lake. We hired a pedalo with a slide on and went swimming in the lake. It was very green and deep. We saw some young men jump of a 15m high bridge into the lake, a guy with a remote control boat and another guy with a remote control float plane.

On the pedalo

On the 11th of September we went to see Mum’s friend Rachel. She lives in France with her husband (who has recently had a lung transplant) and 2 yr old daughter (Jasmine). She is fluent in French, Italian and English. Her daughter is learning to speak both languages (French and English) and is talking a mish-mash of both. One of Jasmine’s favourite sayings is Pousse-toi (poost - wa) which means move your but (sort of). Jasmine has this squeaky robot hamster and cat robot things and she hid them from us and we couldn’t find them. The next day Rachel texted Mum to say that they were in the washing machine.

That evening we drove to a campsite with a pool. in the middle of the night a burglar alarm went off and woke us all up.

We stayed in that campsite for a couple of days then drove to a campsite in Italy with our friends. There was a pool there that was 1.5 - 3m deep! You had to wear a swimming cap and I got a yellow one. There was also a beach volleyball court and WiFi. We stayed there for 4 nights. On the 2nd and 3rd nights, we saw in the (fenced off) forest behind us a family of wild boar! We called them Chris, Chris Jnr, Steve, Steve Jnr, Big Dadda (the boar) and the rest were Co. Wild boar in Italian is Cingiale.

Chris

On the 3rd day we went to Cinqueterre (Chink - w - terror) on the train. We got off at Riomaggiore (Rio - m - jaw - a) and had a look around then walked up 643 steps to the top of the hill the down 600 more on the other side to Manarola. We had pizza and then Lui, Nico and I went to a place to watch the waves. There was a couple who got knee deep in water because of the size and power of the waves. After Nico left, Lui and I stayed and saw a 3 meter-ish tall wave. We both scrambled up a rock so we weren’t swept away. We then got the train to the next village (Monterosso) and went swimming. The waves at the beach were big but not to large. It was really fun. We got an ice-cream and got on the train back home. We got fined because we didn’t have the right ticket.

One of the villages

Another village

Coming down the hill

On the 19th we drove to Pisa. We went into a campsite and then walked to the leaning tower. We walked through a souvenir market on the way  to the tower. I After seeing the tower walked around the town. We walked through a proper market that was only on that day. We saw junk pictures, jewellery, knitted stuff and lots more. It was an excellent day out.

The leaning tower

Driftwood fish

At the church

We went to Barcelona 2 days ago. We got the train from the town we were in and went on the Metro to Parc Güell. We went to the mosaic section and looked around. We saw pillars with colourful circles of mosaics on the celling, the wobbly colourful mosaic benches, the drippy pillars, wonky mosaic buildings and the mosaic lizard. We fed pigeons from our hands and saw green parrots.

Lizard

Pillars

Wobbly bench

Wobbly building

Drippy pillars

Drippy pillars

After that we went to the Sagrada Famìlia. The Sagrada Famìlia is a church designed by Gaudi. We got tickets and had tapas while we were waiting. The dorrs of the Sagrada Famìlia have bugs on them. The inside has lots of pillars and stained glass. The pillars are supposed to look like trees that have lost their leaves. It is beautiful.

Stained glass

Stained glass

The Sagrada Famìlia

The roof

Stained glass