Category Archives: Days Out

My Irish Holiday 2019 – Part 3 Londonderry and Portrush

After we left the Giant’s Causeway and Belfast, we went to Londonderry (Derry). When we arrived in Londonderry, we went to a small house that was nice and cosy with an electric fire with images of flames on the front of it, and comfy couches.

When we left the house, we went to a bustraunt (a bus that had been converted into a restaurant) called Pyke ‘N’ Pommes, that was next to the river (Foyle).

The bustraunt

A statue next to the bustraunt

A bridge over the Foyle

There were really nice views over the river and terrific tacos to go with it. I had squid, steak and cauliflower tacos, which were all delicious!

Squid taco

Then we had a walk around the walls and saw the Peace Flame (unlit) and lots of murals. We also saw the Bloody Sunday Memorial.

The peace flame

The path leading up to the peace flame

A sign near the Bloody Sunday memorial

The Bloody Sunday Memorial

The next day, we went to a museum about the walls of Derry and why they were made.

The Walled City

A mural from when the wars were happening in Derry

The walls were built in 1613-1618. They were made to defend people who settled in Derry in the 17th century. There was lots of interesting information including a detailed timeline of the history of Derry.

Me next to a cannon on the Derry walls

Then we drove to Portstewart Strand, which is a beach over 2 miles long. We wanted to go for a nice walk over the beach, however we couldn’t as it was raining really hard!! Instead, we went and had some delicious bread and Camembert-like cheese in a restaurant called Harry’s shack nearby.

Harry’s shack

View from Harry’s shack

Afterwards, we went to Portrush, which is a town near Portstewart Strand, where we went to a nice house for the night.

Portrush sign

It was a really nice house and was very homely. We then went to a small amusement park where we played 2p machines for hours. We got lots of tickets and cashed them in for a BB-8 lamp. We also went on the wheel outside a few times and we saw some nice views over Portrush.

The amusement park

The wheel

Me on the wheel

BB-8 light

It’s really nice and looks amazing on my wall!

BB-8 in my room

BB-8 in my room (slightly better quality)

Then we went for a walk along the coast and saw dolphins! They were quite far away behind a canoe. They were really cute and looked amazing!

A view of the coast from when we were looking at dolphins.

Me on the rocks on the coastline when we were looking at dolphins.

We then went to a nice tapas restaurant for tea and had lots of lovely food including oysters and mussels.

Some really nice tapas

Sadly, we had to leave the next day to drive back to Dublin and get on the ferry to home.

When we got off the ferry, we went to a really nice fish and chip restaurant called Enochs in Wales. It was really tasty and I loved the hake that we had along with some amazing chips, fantastic frickles ( battered pickled gherkins) and mushy peas.

Fish and chips at Enochs

Some frickles at Enochs

This is the end of my lovely holiday in Ireland and I loved it all. Ireland is a place that I definitely want to go back to.

My Irish Holiday 2019 Part 2 – Belfast

When we left Dublin, we drove over the border to Northern Ireland and went to Belfast. Once in Belfast, we went to a flat with the most comfortable beds that I’ve ever slept in!

From the flat, we could see some H&W cranes, which I learnt were shipyards and that the Titanic was made in one of them! They are enormous and look really cool.

H&W shipyard in the distance then went to Crumlin Road Gaol, which is now a museum after it closed.

The gaol

Me as a prisoner

Stocks at the gaol

When we went in the museum, I got locked in a holding cell and was stuck in a tiny enclosed space. Then we went into a tunnel which led under Crumlin Road and to the court building.

In the underground tunnel

Out of the tunnel, we went up to the Governor’s office where we saw the Centre Circle where all of the wings join together next to the Governor’s office.

Circle where the wings meet

We then went down the C wing and saw where prisoners would live, eat and work.

Wing C

If prisoners weren’t behaving, then they got beat with a birch rod 18 times if they were under 18, or if they were over 18 they could be hit by the cat o’ nine tails (the cat) or the birch rod 36 times. The cat was a rod made of nine ropes of cotton twisted together. It was a type of whip. There were some old army vehicles outside as well.

Military helicopter

We then went to a restaurant called Mourne Seafood Bar, where I had langoustines, a lobster burger and a buttermilk panna cotta with strawberries and really crumbly shortbread.

Languistines

Lobster burger

When we were going back to our flat, we saw lots of murals on the walls of houses and other buildings.

A mural

The next day, we went to the Titanic Belfast Experience.

Titanic Belfast

There were lots of parts of it including the makers Harland and Wolff and how they made it. It took over 10 months to decorate the inside of the Titanic with furniture, carpets, etc. We also went in a 360° cinema to take us on a tour of the Titanic in her beauty days. After she set off from Dublin she went to Southampton then to Cherbourg, France and then to Cobh, Republic of Ireland then the bottom of the ocean when she sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean. We went in a cable car and had a look around a shipyard that was built into the museum. Finally we went to the cinema and saw what she’s like today, resting under the ocean.

A map of where the Titanic was made in the shipyard

View of where the Titanic was put into the water from the Titanic Belfast Experience

H&W logo

Me using a morse code telegraph transmitter

When we got back to the apartment I saw the film Titanic for the first time.

Titanic

The next day, we left for Londonderry, but on the way we went to the Dark Hedges and the Giant’s Causeway. The Dark Hedges are made up of beech trees and look really interesting.

The Dark Hedges

The Giant’s Causeway is only 12 miles from Scotland and if it’s a clear day you can even see part of Scotland from the Giant’s Causeway. The Giant’s Causeway is a lot of hexagonal shaped rocks that were made from lava fissures but look like they have giant’s features in them. The main giant was called Finn McCool and got into a fight, which was how the Causeway was made. He had a camel as well to ride home on. It was really interesting and I would love to go back again.

Giant’s Causeway welcome stone

Lots of stones

Me with a view of the sea behind

More basalt columns in different colours next to the sea

Me climbing on some basalt columns

Some basalt columns

Finn McCool’s Camel

To find out what happened in Londonderry and Portrush visit my blog again next week!

My Buttony Birthday – 2019

On my birthday, when I woke up I ate a delicious breakfast of a baked peanut butter pancake. I loved it.

My peanut butter baked pancake

Afterwards, I opened my present and got a lot of amazing things. Here are just a few of my favourites.

A new pair of headphones
Some fun games such as ColourBrain (You have 11 colour cards and have to answer a question with 1 or more colour cards. An example question would be ‘What colour is the lid of a Marmite jar?’or ‘What colour is Mace Windu’s lightsaber in Star Wars’)
LEGO sets such as a Forklift and Tow truck
Sphero Chariot (For information about a Sphero click here) (A sphero chariot is a car for a sphero to drive.)
Lots of exciting books such as My Cousin is a Time Traveller and The Train to Impossible Places

Me with my balloon and presents

Then we went to the train station to take a train to Sheffield, unluckily for us, the train we were supposed to be on was cancelled because of the extremely high temperature. It was the highest recorded temperature in the UK.

We went and had a drink in the bar next door, whilst playing a game of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Top Trumps that I got for my birthday.

When we arrived in Sheffield, we went to the National Videogame Museum (NVM). It was the Summer of Buttons. The Summer of Buttons is where there’s a workshop on how to make a button, (like a controller for a video game) and other button themed things like a 4-player Pac-Man.

4-player Pac-Man

They had loads of old arcade games and some newer modern games. It was a brilliant place. I got to play Miss Pac-man, which is the same as normal Pac-man but Pac-man is a woman and has a bow on her head. I also got to play Donkey Kong and the original Tetris! I loved the NVM and want to go back.

Sonic games on a Megadrive and other consoles

Me with Sonic the Hedgehog

Me playing a gravity game

Some other old games

Me playing a light game

Then we went to Tamatanga which is an indian restaurant. I had lots of small dishes that tasted very nice and were new to me. My favourite dishes were the prawn tempura and the Gunpowder Paneer. I also had a pistachio lassi to drink. It was unusual and very tasty.

Tamatanga dishes

When we got back I saw my amazing cake. It was a Minecraft cake.(For a blog about Minecraft click here.) It had a pig, creeper and lots of TNT. A creeper is what Notch(the developer of Minecraft) accidentally created when trying to make a pig. They run towards you, sizzle then blow up in your face if you don’t kill it fast enough. It was an extremely tasty cake! Probably the best I’ve ever seen and eaten!🎂😋

My recreation of the cake on Minecraft

The cake with candles

Me holding the cake

II had an amazing birthday and loved every minute of it.

My Birthday – 2018

On my birthday, I opened some of my presents off my parents. These are some of the amazing things I got:

Wembley board game
Lots of books
Some Lego
A mechanical laboratory
Sphero SPRK+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me opening presents

Next, we had French toast made with brioche with bananas! It was delicious and I would love to have it again!😋

French toast

Afterwards we went to a place called Conkers which is an enormous country park with loads of activities, walks and trails to do!

An instrument in the sensory trail

Me in a pedal go-kart

Me on the Conkers train

There was even a high ropes course with a climbing wall, a descender (where you step off the edge of a platform with a length of wire holding you and you go down really fast and slow at the last second.) and a giant zip wire 110 m long. It was brilliant!

The high and low rope course

The zip wire

the zip wire and descender

Me on the climbing wall

Me coming down on the descender

Mee about to step off the platform on the descender

There were also den making areas and a 4D cinema. Next, we went to Five Guys and had some burgers. They were really tasty. Then we went home, and I had a magic smarties cake with a bag suspended in mid-air and smarties pouring out.

My cake

I really enjoyed my birthday and if you bought me a present thank you again.

Fantastic Foxton Locks

A few months ago, we went to Foxton Locks for a picnic. It was beautiful weather and was quite busy. I opened a few locks for different barges; it was really tricky.

view of Foxton Locks

There is a museum there as well that has a coal game in where you have to put the coal in an engine to move the boat forward. If you don’t put enough in, you have to start again. It also has things that explain how locks work and a barge that you can go in to listen to a story. I really like the Foxton Locks museum.

inside a barge at the museum.

I really enjoyed my time at Foxton Locks and want to be a lock keeper one day.

Foxton Inn

barges

My Grand Trip to Germany 🇩🇪 – Part Two

This is the second blog the first one is here.

The next day we went to the Jewish memorial for the murdered jews of Europe. It was about World War 2 and had lots of facts and extracts from letters and diaries. Then we went to get some falafels from Da-Da: they were delicious!😋 After that, we went to Princess Cheesecake for some…cheesecake! I had a blueberry cheesecake; it was delicious! I also had some homemade lemonade. When we had finished our cheesecake, we went to Checkpoint Charlie which had helped over 5,075 people cross from East Germany to West Germany. The office even had a man wearing a uniform outside! Then we went to the Deutsches Currywurst Museum. It was really interesting! I had a quiz to do and got most of it correct. Then for tea we went to BRLO a really nice restaurant and brewery.

The day after, we went to the Computerspielemuseum which is a computer game museum. They had loads of computer games on display; many of them were English. Most of them you were allowed to play, however others were just for looking at.

pac-man

ps4

video cube

When we had had enough of computer games we went to Sheeso for some delicious burgers. I had a cheeseburger. It was mouth-watering.

Sadly, it was the last day of the holiday we had one of the best things to do… go to the Reichstag, the German parliament building. As we went up the dome I had an amazing panoramic view of Berlin. You could see right to the edge of the city, it was terrific!!! Then we went to the zoo. Here are some of the animals we saw.

penguins

Then we went to Seaside for our tea .We had fish and it was all laid out on the counter so you could just ask for that to be cooked. We had load of fish.

oysters

Sadly, that was the last day of the holiday. I loved it in Germany and want to go back. This was probably the best holiday ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Grand Trip to Germany Part 1

In the summer holidays, I went on a fantastic holiday to Germany 🇩🇪 here are the highlights:

Day 1

When we arrived in Germany, rented a car and went to a lake beach.

lake

We relaxed for a bit, then we went to a park called britzer garten. I got into a load of water sprays and got soaked, then we had a wiener (Pronounced v-ee-n-ur.) A wiener is a hot dog.

park

When we got in the car we were all looking forward to having a schnitzel.

After the park, we went to Felix Austria, a place for delicious schnitzels. Then we went to our apartment with our bellies full up of schnitzels.

schnitzels

Day 2

The next day, we went to a Peacock Island ( Pfaueninsel) and we had to get on a boat to get to the island.

sign to peacock island

boat

On the island, we had a picnic and went into a white castle.

white castle

The island’s peacocks were beautiful and shy.

peacock

peacock and me

When we went back to main land we went to the apartment for a bit and then went to The Bird for burgers. They were delicious. Afterwards, we went to BrewDog for a few drinks.

Day 3

We went to Mount Mitte, which was a really high climbing thing, and I really enjoyed it!

After that we went to a fast food restaurant to have currywurst (pronounced curry-vurst) – a sausage covered in curry sauce – YUM.

Next we went to Stone Brewing to go on a brewery tour.

stone

The restaurant was really fancy with fans and trees everywhere. One table was even carved into a tree. The food was really nice.

Day 4

We went to the wall museum on the fourth day and learnt about the German division.

wall museum

Later onwards, we went to Mogg & Melzer a jewish restaurant and had some delicious sandwiches.

Afterwards, we went up the Berlin TV Tower and got some amazing panoramic views of Berlin.

lift shaft

Then, we went to see part of the wall that was left up. For tea we went to a street food festival and had currywurst.

That’s it for now but I’ll be back soon with the next few days in Germany.

Star Wars Identities the Exhibition the O2

We went to London for STAR WARS IDENTITIES THE EXHIBITION at the O2 in London.

The O2

We had to wear a wristband and a headset. The wristband was so we could find out which Star Wars hero we related to the most; I was an Ewok and I chose to fight for the light side. Georgia was also an Ewok fighting as a bounty hunter for the light side. The headset was so we could listen to facts about Star Wars and some extracts. I really enjoyed the exhibition and looking at different designs of things and people from the past. There were also some models that had been used in the films and some costumes worn by the actors. There were also really cool pictures outside.

Cool pictures

Afterwards, we went for delicious bagels from Beigel Bake. It had on pickles and salt beef with mustard.

Sherlock Maize Maze? The Wistow Maze

In the holidays, we went to the Wistow Maize Maze, which was shaped like Sherlock Holmes’ head with three miles of pathways.

Wistow maze

maize field

I really enjoyed it and we had to work out who buried treasure under the paths out of six suspects. We worked it out by drawing an item that the criminal was wearing off boards. I got them all down on my sheet using a maze pen.

maze pen

I also got the overall answer right.

Finished

After we finished the maze we did some other mazes, which were fun. The shape of the maze changes every year. These are some of the other years mazes:

rocket maze

HMS Belfast maze

Sherlock Holmes maze

BFG maze

I wonder what it will be next year?

I would love to go back next year.

My Terrific Tenth Birthday

After I’d opened my presents , we went to Milton Keynes and I went on a Helter-Skelter, which was quite high.

Me opening my presents

Helter Skelter

It was really fun. Then we went to YO Sushi for dinner, I really enjoyed grabbing food from the conveyor belts.

YO Sushi

After that, we went to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden. I had a quiz to do and there were chocolate doors into the Solo gallery, where you can find out about his childhood.

Wonka chocolate doors

In the story centre, I made my own movie with figurines. In the Upper Babbling room, which is a craft room, I made a snail in a jar. Afterwards we did the village and countryside trails, the countryside trail through the woods and through a field was amazing, there were grasshoppers everywhere. It was very relaxing!

view

The woods were the ones that inspired Fantastic Mr Fox, The Minpins and Danny the Champion of the World. Along the high street were some old-fashioned pumps that inspired Danny the champion of the World The library inspired Matilda and the crown house Sophie’s “norphanage”. We also went and looked at Roald Dahl’s grave.

When we had finished the trails we went to the Black Horse for tea, I had a delumptiosly, scrumdiddlyumptious pheasant and mushroom pie.😋

Back home, I was shown my scrumdiddlyumptious IRN BRU cake🎂, it was the best cake🍰 I’d ever had!!

Thanks for all your presents, I loved them all! Hope to see you all again soon.