Hello Batman!

7-12 July

We are in Paris because we came to see our grandparents. They go to Europe every 2 years. When we we got to our apartment we went out to the music shop because Jack wanted a guitar to play. When Jack got his guitar (it's a cross between a guitar and a ukulele - a guitalele) and we were walking out, I spotted a tiny piano. I had a go  at playing it, I was not very good. Later in the day we went for a walk around Notre Dame. We did not get time to go inside but we were going in tomorrow. We walked along Seine and did a wall climb, there were lots of activities set up for summer in Paris. Jack wasn't very good at it.

After that, Poppy and I went to a Lego shop that had Lego figures bigger than me. There was also a big snake that went into the ceiling and came out in three different spots. Some other things that we did during the next few days were: we went inside Notre Dame, I liked the model of the building and windows; we climbed the Notre Dame tower that had 868 stairs; I went to the St Martin Canal with Poppy and went paddle boating - he nearly fell in! While Jack was steering, we were bumping into the walls and crashing into canoeists. When I had a go at steering, I was a bit better than Jack, but not much. When we were getting out, there was a group of tourists, and a little boy ran off the pier into the canal and a lifeguard had to jump in to rescue him.

We also went to the Paris Aquarium and the Musee des Arts et Metiers where we saw lots old things, from stained glass to gramophones, models of rocket ships to early cars and bikes. We took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe and walked along the Champs Elysees. I got creme brûlée and Jack got a bowl of ice-cream as big as a fish bowl. It was ridiculous.

Movie Making

Before we left home Jack,  Dad, and I got a go-pro. We took a lot of video of Shanghai. If you want to check that out click on one of the links. You might get Jack's or Dad's video.

Jack Shanghai Day 1

Jack Shanghai Day 2

Jack Shanghai Day 3

Adam's longer Shanghai video

Too Many Stairs

5 July

We got up early that morning because we were going to Hangzhou. When we got to the train station we went to Maccas for breakfast. We got hash browns, which Jack was excited about. It was the third train station that day and we weren't even on the fast train yet. We went on a bullet train to Hangzhou that went 320km an hour. The Shanghai station was absolutely massive. It looked more like an airport.

In Hangzhou, we got on a bus. On the bus, I don't think we got the smoothest driver. It was very bumpy and fast. We drove around the lake and up into the mountains to a group of temples, there were five. When we arrived inside the temple grounds, we saw ice-cream shops and lots of temples. We started to walk along the path and came to a cave. I didn't see anything in the cave because it was too dark but when we came out of the cave, there were lots of buddhas carved into the rocks and a stream. There were big fish and turtles in the stream. Someone climbed over to the other side of the stream and was poking one of the turtles with a stick. 

When we went up into the temples there were lots of big statues of buddha. Some had blue hair and had gold bodies. They were enormous, the biggest statue seemed to be about three stories high. Inside the temples, people were praying and singing. We had to be quiet and respectful.

It was extremely hot and humid and to get each temple we had to climb about one billion stairs. When we got to the fifth and final temple at the top of the hill, I was very, very hot. On our way down we got ice-cream. 

When we left the temples we went down to the lake. We had dinner at a pub which had a pool table and a dart board. There was a band playing; they were not very good. I had chips and Jack had pizza. Jack kept stealing my chips, so I ended up having pizza as well.

After that, we walked along the lake and saw boats. The lake was big and pretty. We went back to the station, this one was even bigger than the big Shanghai station. My mum said that it looked like the underside of a spaceship. There was a storm with thunder and lightning. We got Maccas (again) and went home. When we got home at 10.30pm I just about collapsed!

Back In Time

4 July

We woke up in the morning and went to breakfast making sure we went to level 8 this time. When we got there Jack was devastated because there were NO hash browns. He had toast (which was yet again burnt). I had juice and 2 boiled eggs and some unburnt toast.

Next we went to get frozen yoghurt in the French Concession area.  On the way we stopped at the fruit shop,  I watched Jack use his best sign language to buy a cup of fruit. In the cup, when Jack finally got back, was a mysterious spotted fruit with little black bits. There was also grapes, nectarine, cantaloupe, honey dew and watermelon. The mysterious white spotted fruit was called dragon fruit.

We kept walking and when we got to the frozen yoghurt shop we went inside. Jack and I got plain frozen yoghurt but Dad and Shayne got wafers. I stole Dad's wafer, it was yummy.

Later in the day we went to the Propaganda Museum. It was full of posters of a guy I didn't know the name of. Shayne told me that his name was Mao Tse-tung. After that we went to the Natural History Museum. We saw lots of dinosaurs and dinosaur skeletons. Some of the dinosaurs moved and made me jump. Other things at the museum were petrified wood, different types of rocks and crystals, and information about space. My favourite thing was the dinosaur skeletons in the rocks. I also saw a sabre tooth tiger called Smiladon the Devastator.

Up In The Sky

3 July 

Day one in Shanghai...

I woke up in the morning at 8.30 am. We went up to breakfast which Mum claimed was on the 5th floor, but when we could not find it, we asked a staff member. It was on the 8th floor. So we went to the elevator, it only went to floor 7 so we went to floor 7 and found another elevator aka the smell-e-vator, and we finally got to breakfast.

When we got to breakfast we looked in the food tubs. There were hash browns, hard boiled eggs, rice and pickled vegetables, fruit, beans, sausages, cereal and no milk. We had to ask for milk, which was peculiar, to have to ask. On the table with the cereal they had drinking yoghurt. We thought it was normal yoghurt at first, before we tried to eat it with spoons. That did not go well.

I ate two hash browns, one boiled egg, two glasses of mango-orange juice and toast. Jack ate seven hash browns, toast (which he burnt), juice and chocolate cereal. Mum and Dad had the Chinese breakfast and had rice and vegetables. They thought it was good, but I thought it was disgusting.

After breakfast our friend Shayne (who lives in Shanghai, but is from Ballarat), took us on a big walking tour around the French Concession area in Shanghai. We ended up at the riverside and we got a ferry to the other side of the river and went up to the top of the Shanghai Tower. Shanghai Tower is 632 metres tall. It is the second tallest building in the world. When we got to the top we saw all of Shanghai. The population of Shanghai is 24 million people. The population of Australia is about 23 million. We could fit all of the people in Australia in Shanghai and still not have as many people as Shanghai.

I got a crystal model of Shanghai Tower.

Ugg boots on the road

Sunday 2 July 2017

It was very early in the morning when we got up to go to the airport and I was super sleepy. It was cold too, actually, it was freezing. At our house it was -2 degrees. It took a while for the person who was driving us there to arrive so I sat in front of the heater. (The photo says -1.1, but the sensor  is attached to the house where it's a bit warmer.)

In the car on the way to the airport, we played I Spy for a bit until Jack said, "I spy with my little eye something beginning with u." I could not find it at first but then he said, "Look down," so I did. I suddenly realised that i was wearing ugg boots. I was flying to China. The temperature in Shanghai was 35 degrees. Too hot for ugg boots. 😖😕😟😓