Joining the Swiss army

After finishing Italy, we went to Zermatt, our first stop in Switzerland.

When in Switzerland, your first and foremost objective is to shop for Swiss Army knives. So that's what we spent most of our doing in Zermatt. Funnily enough, we bought all of the knives in Lucerne, our next stop, but more on that later in the post. 

Another thing to do in Zermatt is hike through the Swiss alps. We did that as well. It was tough, but the views were worth it.

After Zermatt, we went to Lurcerne, and bought lots of Swiss Army knives. We also did another walk along the Swiss alps. This one had lots of cows with bells. The walk also had this cool massage path, where you take your shoes off and then walk through water and different types of rocks and mud.

Switzerland is our last stop in Europe, and we are now heading to Hong Kong to catch up with some missionary friends.

Best paddle boat ever!

After Rome, we headed to cinque terre, which is basically where Italians go to have a swim at the beach. 

 We went kayaking there, and had lots of fun. It was really hard constantly paddle the little boat that had no motor. After we stopped for a break, we had an awesome time snorkelling and looking at the cool fish under the sea.

The next day we hired an incredible paddle boat that had a slide! We kept sliding down it an climbing back onto the boat. It was well worth the money. We also went on a really long walk along a lot of the cinque terre.

Most of our time in cinque terre was spent relaxing and chilling out so there isn't really much else to talk about.

Jumpin' Jack Black

Sorry, but I've actually had to do two posts at once, so if you haven't already please scroll down.

In short, Rome was pretty good.

On the first day we went to the colosseum and the Roman forum. The colosseum is massive! It's amazing how many of the stories about it are untrue. Christians were never burned there, and the gladiators would never ask the emperor whether to kill the other or not. The colosseum isn't even its proper name! It was originally called the Flavian theatre, because the guy who built it was called Flavian.

We also went to the Roman forum. That's the place where the ancient Romans did politics. It was very interesting learning about how the politicians kept the people happy by giving them free food, water and baths. If you have read the hunger games books, the city of Panem was based on the Roman Empire.

The next day was even better. On the way to the beautiful Catholic part of Rome, we saw something awesome! JACK BLACK WAS FILMING A MOVIE! It was called the Polka King, but as it is still in the production, there are no trailers or any details. After that special treat, we continued to Vatican City (the Catholic part of Rome). Michaelangelo (the painter, not the ninja turtle) painted most of the roof of the chapel there. His most famous painting is on the roof too.

Venice and Florence

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Internet connections have not been very good.

A couple of days ago, we made our way to Venice by train and water bus. Venice was very beautiful and had lots of canals. Venice is famous for glass-blowing, so there were lots of cool glass blowing shops there. In lots of the shops there were glass balloons that were so lifelike it was like real balloons.

One of the days in Venice was spent doing an awesome gondola ride all over the city. On the other day we went up a big tower that had a view of all of Venice. We also went into a museum full of paintings, but they weren't very interesting. There was one sculpture of a guy with a way oversized club about to bash a snake, but the funny thing about it was that he was completely naked ('its cultural').

After Venice, we headed to Florence. We only stayed in Florence for one day, but we did lots in that short space of time, including the incredible statue of David. It was so detailed, and it looked like he was actually there. We also walked up a 82 metre tall tower with an awesome view of Florence, as well as a 92 metre tall church with an even better view of Florence. 

We then went to Rome, but I'll tell you about that in a couple of days.

Older than Australia

After leaving 'the dodgiest place on earth', we went to Heidelberg, Germany. Heidelberg is a small German town that is older than Australia (but if you've done history in school you'll know that's not hard). Heidelberg is a very relaxed town, and a lot of our time there was spent walking around the city and visiting all the shops and markets. On the second day there we visited an old castle that was built in the thirteenth century (that's also older than Australia). It was really big and had lots of rooms. It looked a bit wrecked and dad thought it might have been wrecked in combat in the 17nth century.

In my next post I'll tell you about our last stop in Germany, Munich.

Walt Disney Copyright Scandal

That's right, you heard me, Walt Disney has been convicted of copyright........ But nobody cares. I'm serious, we went to a castle in Germany called Neuschwanstien Castle ( for those small few who recognise that name, I'm sad to say I've read that book too, but you haven't, it's from the third book in a fairytale series that's written by an actor from Glee). Walt Disney copied it, and now every time you see a picture of the castle at DisneyLand, think, "that's neuschwanstien castle. I read about it on Nate's blog. Someone should sue Disney". 

The castle was built at some point during history by the King of Germany,  Ludwig (yes! My favourite character on Mario Kart!) Ludwig was obsessed with fairy tales and decided to build a fairy tale castle. Most historians say he's a bit loco. I agree. (I wasn't joking, there's a real character on Mario Kart called Ludwig and he's the BEST!) 

At the place where we went to Neuschwanstien, there is a lake that people were swimming in. IT WAS FREEZING. You may be thinking, it's your fault for swimming in there you idiot! But I have to admit, it was really refreshing having a swim in a hot day. 

Later that night, we were finished with Neuschwanstien, and having dinner. We realised that I was having my sixth pretzel that day!

The next day we explored Munich, and spent most of the day in a massive park that had Rapids. There were people surfing in the centre of the Rapids, and they did amazing tricks, while trying to keep their balance. There were also multiple rivers branching off from the Rapids, going all throughout the park. Many people were swimming in it, even though it was FREEZING! (Again) we decided to swim in it, and it was even colder than last time! Except this time, it was apparently more "cultural" because there were old guys walking around completely naked and swimming in the rivers. Thankfully, there were only a couple of them, but it was still a bit of a surprise. Today's lesson: "cultural" is not always a good thing.

We then left Germany, and headed to Venice, but I'm going to leave it on a cliff hanger to make it more dramatic.

Amsterdam: 'the dodgiest place on earth'

When we went to Belguim we didn't really do much because we were only staying there for one night, so I'm going to skip that and go straight to Amsterdam. If you had read the title ( which for your sake I hope you did because it's massive) you would think that Amsterdam is dodgy. It is. It's beautiful, I'll give it that, with all the bikes and the cute rows of houses as well as the canals, but the fact that some the houses could sink at any moment, and that marijuana is legal there kind ruins the image.

My first impression of Amsterdam wasn't very good either. We drive in in our new Mecedes Benz hire car,

when we suddenly found ourselves amidst a massive crowd. After reading signs, we realised that today was euro pride festival, which meant that the population doubled.

We did two main things in Amsterdam. A bike tour and the Van Gogh museum. Both of these I thoroughly enjoyed.

First was the Van Gogh museum, which houses most of Vincent's artworks. My favourite was sunflowers, as it was very messy, but at the same time vibrant and beautiful. There were also many other artworks, including multiple self portraits of Vincent. I was surprised with how many artworks he made: more than 500. This is even more amazing when you realise he was only an artist for about ten years.

We also did a bike tour of most of Amsterdam. It was chaotic. Even though bikes had priority over everything and their own lane, everyone was everywhere and people kept getting lost. It was funny because our tour guide was in dad's terms:'a pothead'. In between breaks he would be seen smoking marijuana. One of the highlights was a giant windmill that was used to make bread in the olden days. It had recently been converted to a bar that made nice Apple juice.o

We also went to Germany, but that's another story for another time.

The Post With No Name

After Ireland we headed off on a really fast train called the EuroStar to Paris. We stayed in Paris for four nights. 

On the first day we just wandered around getting our bearings and not doing very much.

The next day we went to the Pont Neuf, which is that famous bridge with all the locks on it. If you've seen the movie Now You See Me, the final scene in it is based on this bridge. After that we went on a hop-on hop-off bus around Paris and ended the day by climbing the Arc of Triumph, Which has a good view of Paris from every angle.

    (Queue corny tourist photo)

The next day we went to Sacre Couer, a church which had another view of Paris. (I thought this was a bit unnecessary but we did it anyway) We also went to Notre Dame, which I shouldn't need to explain to you because it's super famous. Actually, I don't even know what was famous for so I probably should explain it to you. It's another church. The end. But it's not because after that we went on a tour to the Effiel Tower. The views were great because it was sooooooooo high. I think it's around 320 metres, which is actually a lot higher than you would think. Then at night we watch it light up which was also very cool. 

The next day was spent at the Louvre, a massive museum housing thousands of artworks. Apparently if you looked at every single one it would take you 14 days to finish, and I think everyone will agree with me when I say that no one is that interested in art. We did see the Mona Lisa there, but it was tiny! It was actually the smallest painting I have ever seen (and after being to the Louvre I have now seen too many to count). Even weirder was the fact that everyone was crowding around this tiny artwork when opposite it was this colossal canvas with an amazingly vibrant artwork on it that nobody is looking at!

Despite that, all of the artworks were very good and worth putting in a museum.

Then we moved on to Belguim, but you'll hear about that in my next post.

I kissed a rock and I liked it.......

A week ago we hopped on a ferry to Ireland. We landed in Dublin and we spent two days there. There was a pub with live music, and a cool interactive museum about the medieval and Viking history of Dublin.

Then we went to Doolin for a night. There I got this cool Irish drum called a bodrán 

(pronounced boar-on) that you hit with a double sided drumstick.

We then proceeded to Galway, where we were sort of just killing time. There was a cool amusement park there, and they had this really fast ride that went around in a circle while tipping you sideways. In short, I screamed. A lot.

Then we went to Killarney. In Killarney, we went on this massive 11 k walk. My legs are STILL HURTING! The next day we went on a horse and Carriage ride which was also cool.

On the way to the ferry that was going to take us back to London, we went to Blarney castle. At Blarney castle you can kiss the Blarney Stone. That's right, kiss the Blarney Stone. As legend has it, if you kiss the Blarney Stone you get good luck.

Now we are on the way to London, to catch the Eurostar train to Paris.

Ancient Donkey Kong

I have a feeling this is gonna be a big one, seeing as I haven't posted in ages!

A couple of days ago, we went to Madame Tussaud's, which is really big in England. It's a big building and inside there are lots of wax statues of famous people that you can take pictures with.

It was pretty awesome. Here are some pictures.

   

      

   

There was also a Marvel superheroes 4D experience there, (and if you think I would miss that then you don't know me) which was really cool.

The next day Dad and I went to the James Bond car museum. Lots of the cars were just decked out with missiles, machine guns, and wheel spikes. One car even had skis so it could ski down a mountain! Here are some more pictures:

    (This is the ski car)

    

   

   

Okay, if you were wondering why the post is titled 'ancient donkey kong', now you will be granted enlightenment, because two days ago we went to the British Museum. There were lots of interesting things there, so here are some pictures:

 

   

   

   

 

Now you may be even more confused about the title of the post seeing as I still haven't explained it yet, but that's okay because that was my plan all along. 

The post is called Ancient Donkey Kong because I saw an egraved stone that looked like the original donkey kong game.

 

   See! How can those people climbing up the ladders not look like Mario from the first donkey kong!

Harry Potter Studios

A couple of days ago we went to Oxford and Harry Potter Studios.

Now, you would think Oxford University would be super boring.

Most of it was.

But, I did learn that loads and loads and loads of scenes from the Harry Potter series was filmed there. The great hall, the library, most of the Hogwarts castle and a bunch of other random stuff was filmed there. They also filmed scenes from hundreds of other movies there too:if you have seen X-men days of future past, the scene in the pub was filmed in Oxford.

We also went to Harry Potter Studios. It was really cool seeing all the things they filmed in the movies, and how they created stuff. To make unicorn blood in the philosopher's stone, they used glycerin under a mirror, and hagrid's whole head is just a mask over a robot. Not to mention seeing the Hogwarts castle model that they use for wide shots of just the castle. There was so much stuff in the gift shop. I wanted to buy it all! We did buy some wands though. I don't have any pictures, so I'll just show you when I get back.

Historical stuff

This post is for people who want to to hear about things I've actually learnt on this trip.

A couple of days ago we went to Hampton Court Palace, which is where lots of kings stayed. It was a special medieval day where we got to see jousting! It was pretty awesome seeing the how the Knights would battle it out for the approval of their King. There was also a place where you could shoot a crossbow at pieces of wood. I WAS SO CLOSE! They also were cooking meat by turning it over on a stick above the fire. We also learnt the history of King Henry VIII, who stayed at the palace in the summer.

How to have an awesome day in London

Sorry guys that was a lot longer break than I first expected. Whoopsie! I'm sorry but I had to endure the torture that was such an incredibly amazing play. In case you haven't read my last post, (shame on you) we got tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two! (The incredibly amazing play as referenced before) But more on that later in the post. I still have to fill you in on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

I'm sorry to say that if any of you thought that Tuesday was going to be really exciting and blood pumping, there will be no compensation. If you guys remember the horrible first day in London, well that was yesterday, so...... We did not do much on Tuesday. We sort of just walked around looking at stuff like Big Ben and the London Eye.

Wednesday was much better. We walked around looking at lots of shops. (I got new shoes) And we found the markets were conveniently located very close to the theatre where we are whatching Harry Potter (now you probably don't care about the shoes). We took lots of photos.

Now for yesterday. Yesterday was Thursday, and Thursdays are always good days. We went to the Sherlock Holmes museum and that was really cool.

That's the end of my post, bye.

Why are you still here? There is nothing else to read. Shop's closed, mate.

Oh did I forget about the most important thing?

Here is the bit you've all been waiting for..........

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD: A REVIEW 

This is the best play I have ever seen. It is the best out of all the books and movies. Not only was there a good story but there was also humour, Scorpius Malfoy, awesome special effects and Scorpius Malfoy! 

Now I know what you're thinking 'but Nate the Malfoys are stupid annoying socks that just generally suck!' And yes if you were talking about Draco and Lucius, ( even auto-correct could not help me with spelling his name) then you would be right because Scorpius is nice and funny. He is the best character in the whole Harry Potter series. I'm not going to say much more because you don't want spoilers (excepting my cousin Zoe), but just be excited for when the book come out, because you will love it.

How to have a terrible first day in London

Here's a short Singapore recap

Day 1: we went to Sentosa, a small island incredibly close to Singapore. There we went to a awesome water park where we got to see manta rays! We also went on a luge (which is like a toboggan),and a cable car ride.

Day 2: this was spent basically killing time until the plane ride. We went to see some markets, where it was weird because you could annoy them until they made the price lower for something you wanted to buy. The best thing about the whole day was that we went to a DC superhero cafe. It was really awesome. There were wax statues of Batman and Superman, as well as all kinds of awesome memorabilia that you could buy!

So anyway, here's the bit you were probably all waiting for: the bit where I tell you how to have a terrible first day in London.

First, eat as much plane food as you can (I'm not just talking about the stuff on your plate, I'm talking about taking stuff from other people's plates as well).

Next, spend most of the time spent on the plane watching DC tv shows instead of sleeping as much as your mum told you you should.

This is what I did. And the combination makes something called 'really bad jetlag'. It's a scientific term that means you get not only really tired but also causes you to spend you first day in London vomiting. In short, it is not fun.😔

If you're thinking 'oh, I reckon Nate's going to lead up to something incredibly awesome and so amazing it'll blow my socks into the earth's atmosphere', then you would be right. (I don't think anyone could be right in this instance) 

There is an upshot to this story, and it is that (wait for it, wait for it)........

We got tickets to see Harry Potter!!!!!!!!!

And no if you were actually thinking that we got tickets to meet Harry Potter you are wrong.

I'm talking about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the stage production.

Queue the screaming with jealousy and rage.

 I think it's time for a break. You get up off your couch, and you go out and buy a cookie, while I start writing my next post. 

Plane Food = Yum

Yesterday we got on a nine hour flight to Singapore. IT WAS AWESOME! The plane food was really good (even better than normal). There was a funny moment where we were in a airport magazine store and we were just killing time waiting for the plane, and I saw the weirdest toy ever, so I asked dad to buy it. 😃

12 days to go!

Hi guys. This is my first post. There are 12 days until we leave, from today! It is very exciting. If you have any questions about the trip please comment.