Day 5 & 6 - Mediteranian Coast

We took a plain over to Barcelona from london. From here we went south and payed almost 10 Euros to use the road down south. It seemed a bit steap. But then on the way back to barcelona we took the old road and i see why. The toll road had alot of tunnels and was a very smooth ride. But no views. The old road was very windy and hugged the coast and mountains going around the mountains that the toll road went thru. We spent the morning on the beach. It was great the water was so clear you could see down. Almost too much joe and I went out into the water and i saw a bright blue fish swimming around. I dont care much for fish neither swimming with em or eating them. One funny story was we went walking down the beach looking for shells. Quinn found one as a wave came up and grabbed it with some sand. Opened his hand and he had actully caught a crab. He jumped and dropped the crab and it burried it self in the sand. Was very entertaining but I'd have been a little more dramatic he was rather calm. Once we arived in barcelona we walked up las ramblas to the statue of chrstopher columbus. We were all very entertained by the street acts. There were some real unique creations. One guy was on a toilet, here was another dressed as an alien and many others.

Day 4 - London

Quinn was able to ride his first train called the tube in london. After checking in we headed over to the national gallary where we were able to see lots of art. Quinn found the naked people in the paintings rather interesting. I was surprised he didnt have the same reaction the next day with the greek statues in the British Museum. Those guys had it all hanging out. We went to the tower of london.

Quinn enjoyed seeing all the armor but not so much the crown jewels. Go figure. :-) From the tower of london we took the boat down the Thames to Westminister. Saw Big ben and walked over to Buckingham Palace. Didnt get to see the changing of the guard but did see them marching back and forth. On the way back to the hotel we had a nice walk thru green park. The next day we before heading out we stopped at St Pauls Cathedral.

Very impressive ceilings and then we found out you could go up to the top. so we went up it was 250 steps or so. but then there was even a more up section by the end of it we went up 500+ steps. The stairs at the bottom where wide with two way traffic. The next section was old castle style, whindy deep stone steps. Then the last set were metal spiral staircases all the way up. The views made it worth the excercise.

England Day 3

Busy day just relaxin. Gotta love it. In the morning we went and ate.. oh i mean picked fresh strawberries and rasberries. The stawberries were yum-me. Its amazing what type of road they consider a wide road. Glad im not driving, too many cars, wrong side of the road and roads smaller than our dirt roads with card parked everywhere so they are even skinnier.
After getting a lot of fruit we went back for a family get togeather. Quite a large group there were 3 generations of cousins. Quinn played cars with his gen cousin, then they also played some lawn janga. They then played an interesting bowling sticks lawn game. Should try to find one for phoenix it was quite fun. There were 12 sticks counting from 1 to 12 and then a bigger stick you would throw at them. if you knock one down you get the value of the stick if you knock more you get the number you knocked down. you have to get exactly 25 to win. and if you get none three times in a row your suppose to be out but they just start your points back at zero. Tommorrow off to London bright and early. Quinn will get to ride the tube (their underground) should be interesting.

Day 1 to 2 - Kent, England

We left phoenix about 15 minutes late so around 8pm AZ time. I ordered special meals on the pain so they were actually half way decent. Quinn slept most of the way, feet on one person and head on the other. Must be nice to be that small. Joe and I were able to catch up on some movies. Each seat had its own private theater on the back of the seat in front of them so you could watch whatever you felt like. and stop and start it as much as you wanted. Worked out well. I watch Clash of the Titans, Valentines day and the bounty hunter. so that took up 6 hours of the 9 hour flight. Sleep didnt take up the other three. Oh well. So the second day we went over to Bodium Castle. Quinn really got to step into midevil times. Almost literally. He put on some kids chainmail, breast plate, sword, shield and helmet. After being dressed we had 30 seconds before he said it was all too heavy. So we ditched the shield and had a few more moments of pictures. Quinn also tried his hand at the bow and arrow. Not so impressive, the animals got away but the grass had a beatting. But he stepped up in history and tried out a machine gun. little better aim there he actually hit some of hte buildings.


The castle it self is very good for kids. The middle is all open but it still has some towers intact. You walk up very tight windy stair cases to the tippy top tower and get a great view.
On the way up you see some old fireplaces and the original pit toilets. but in this case instead of a hole in the ground it dumps out into the moat. yuck.

The moat looked very moat like, green and slimy with gigantic fish. they were so big they looked like they could eat you hand or foot. After our fill of the castle we were able to watch a demonstration of a caterpolt. They say they use to use hot white sand in the old days but inorder not to hurt anyone they use water bombs and cantelopes today. They fired it off into the moat. something you wouldnt see here. No lines for safty just a warning that they have been known to fire backwards so he told the people behind they may want to move. But it was up to them.

After a picnic lunch we went off to see where Winnie the Pooh is from. We took a nice walk down to Pooh bridge thru the 100 acre woods (alhtough the map said 5 acres or something like that). We had some pooh sticks but the water was a bit low so we just contributed to the damb building up for the most part. It was a nice walk. Today we relax and hang with the family after we go pick some strawberries and rasberries. Yummy im looking forward to that. Yesterday we polished off a big ol basket of fresh cherryies. Gotta love summer in the country.