LONDON

Hi Everyone, We are now in London and writing this blog in our friends rented apartment. We have spent the last few days at Legoland and Thorpe park. Playing with lego robots and riding some massive rollercoasters. London has been amazing we have flew the London Eye and spent an entire day walking round the streets and parks and riding the tube. We still have so much to see! Now we are going to Madame Tussauds and all the free museums and gallerys. We cross over to France on Monday.
The Nieuwys.
We'll post in more detail when we have time.

Old English Farms and Wild Roller Coasters

Hi Everyone,
After arriving at our friend's house and finding that she, Fiona had gone to Amsterdam we camped outside because her house sitter, Linda let us in to use the "facilities", Internet, shower, and the kitchen. William cooked a three course dinner for us, the garlic bread was a hit. Linda then invited us to her friends farm for an educational visit. So we went down a couple of narrow lanes and arrived at a small old English farmyard. Pigs, chickens and sheep running round. After a very long chat outside Sue showed us her milking operation. It's a bit fancier than ours her eighteen sheep were all well trained and they would walk up onto the platform so she could milk them with here machine. We need one of those Dad!!!
She then showed us her milk and cheese room and told us stories of her experiments, some have worked like her home made pasteuriser but just like us she has made a few batches that went to the pigs.
She told us about her little business. The sheep milk is sold at the farmers market fresh, frozen or as cheese!! She even sells lamb, pork and poultry which she raises on the farm. A real entertaining sight was a cuckoo hen brooding piglets in small stone building.We had lunch and a cup of tea and then had a walk around the farm. Maddy loved the chickens. By now it was early evening so we'd spent a little longer than planned at the farm so we decided to find a park and go to sleep.

The next day we began our first of three days at Alton Towers Theme Park. We got a map as you do and then found our way to one of the new roller coasters Sonic Spin-ball where we sat in cart and went around a track while our carriages spun separately.For three days we explored the whole park and many rides 3-6 times no wonder we were sick of them at the end. Because Maddy and Johanna were to short to go on some roller coasters and Dad gets severe motion sickness we sometimes split up and Mum,William,Thomas and Anneke went on all the big roller coaster and Dad and the girls found some of the gems of Alton Towers like Berry Bish-Bash where you shoot people with soft balls out of air guns. Here we had some family wars.It was great fun.After three days we learnt the tricks to minimize Que time we did the popular rides in the morning and evening and went in the single rider ques which they used to fill up carriages when they had uneven groups. Some of our favourite roller coasters were Oblivian a vertical drop roller coaster, air a roller coaster that felt like you were flying because you sat facing the ground on your stomach and Nemisis which went upside down with lots of corkscrews. Thirteen was a wicked new roller coaster that we could all go on. You went down a track through the woods into a dark room and suddenly dropped twice.So remember if you go down to the woods today you better not go alone. Even though it is summer here it isn't really hot but we still went on some wet rides. The conga river rapids were a wet and bumpy ride and the flume had plenty of drops as we went around in our bath tub. After three days of rides we were rollercoastered out and headed back to Chinley. We are now enjoying a few days with Fiona, Nigel and Flossy before we head for a big week in London.
The Nieuwys.

Travelling in Scotland

Hello Everyone
Sorry we haven't posted in a while as Scotland didn't have much internet so we could keep you all updated. But we have really enjoyed our time adjusting to living in our new campervan. Scotland is very much like New Zealand only with alot more history which is awesome and the summer is not exatly warm, weather t-shirts and shorts.

Once we got our caravan we started going north and stopped at the Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester. There we bought the Merlin Pass which will give us unlimited entry for the year into lots of attractions around Great Britain especially London. Legoland was interesting and there were piles of lego to play with and the 4D cinema and lego laser ride were real highlights. Our first night we spent in a Petrol Station carpark and had cold spaghetti because we couldn't work the stove. All good now though.

The next few days we spent driving and reached the lochs of Scotland. They are really deep and the water looks like liquid obsidian. We visited a couple of aquariums and sealife centres buy the Lochs. We also started fitting out the camper with cutlery, pots and all the necessities. We even stopped at Loch Ness and saw the Loch Ness Monster.

After driving passed an impressive ruin on the shores of Loch Lomond and not visiting it because its cost an arm and a leg we decided we need to get the Historic Scotland pass. So our first site with the new pass was Fort George a big English strong hold build by King George the 2nd after an attack from Bonnie Prince Charlie.We were very lucky because here we saw pods of dolphins jumping in Firth of Moray.
From Fort George we had a big day where we vistied three great sites.
We started the morning at Dallace Dhu Whisky brewery where we learnt the long and complicated process of making barley and water into Scotch Malt Whisky (Scotland's water of life). Plus Mum and Dad got there free Dram. Next we went to the ruins of Spinney Palace, an old palace of the Bishops of Moray and then Elgin cathedral.Where we also lucky that right after we visited the cathedral, we caught the end of the local fair and watched an entertaining show with a local farmer and his sheep dogs. We then camped by a golf course and found about fifty golf balls in the grass and gorse but didn't know what to do with them

The following day we visited Duff House in Banff. A hidden gem. It was an old mansion that had been restored after originally being built by a member of the wealthy Duff Family. It was full of an elaborate and beautiful oil paintings worth millions of pounds, beautiful furniture and the walls and roof were decorated. It was flash and grand. It was really amazing

Our next stop was the museum of Scottish lighthouses and the first Scottish lighthouse at Kinnard head. Here we learnt about the history of Scotlands lighthouses. Then we went to Tolquhon Castle which was a favourite castle even though it wasnt the biggest. It was a castle for looks rather then defence like most other castles. It had a bakehouse and kitchens with ovens and a slopdrain, great hall and lots of nooks, crannies and secret stairways to discover.

The next day we visited an unusual site. It was a small museum of Pictish stones. The Picts were a religious people who had carved there lives in stones that are still here today. There was carvings of the Picts, monsters and lots of crosses.Maddy and Johanna even dressed up as Picts Then we went to Arbroath Abbey which once was inhabited by Grey Monks. Here everyone dressed up as monks which was a laugh.

We then visited Stanley Mills an old cotton mill that had once employed most of Stanley town. We all enjoyed the interactive exhibits like mini waterwheels and what it might have been like working in the mill.
The older ones were then inspired to sew seat covers to protect the seats while we abuse then for a year. After the mill we went to a canal and saw the Falkirk Wheel, an engineering marvel. It is a perfectly balanced wheel which lifted canal boats 35 metres up from one canal to the next and could be turned by a single Horse power motor.

We then went into the Capital City of Scotland-Edinburgh. After finding a place to park we walked up the Royal Mile-the bustling centre of the city-to Edinburgh Castle, With it's grand Defensive Battlements and Armoury sitting on the top of a volcanic rock, overlooking the city. We were frightened by the One O'clock gun and saw the Crown Jewels of Scotland! There were lot's of men dressed in traditional kilts playing the bag pipes around the castle! After learning about the history of Edinburgh Castle went to the Edinburgh Dungeons. It is a spooky tour with live actors that tell a stretched story of Edinburgh's gruesome history.
We watched an artist create amazing paintings with newspaper, spray paint and a craft knife and another guy juggle chainsaws and lay on beds of nails on the Royal Mile before parking up beside the Royal Britannia Yacht on the Leith harbour for the night.

We then made our way back to Chinley, England via York where we went to York Dungeons, like Edinburgh Dungeons, We learnt the story of Guy Fawkes that our teachers didn't tell us, got lost in a labyrinth of mirrors and got burnt at the stake for practising witchcraft.

The Nieuwys