Home of The Martin
Shard is the tallest building in London, it has 95 floors. I have never been inside it, only saw it from outside. It looks very futuristic, especially in comparison to old buildings around it, but I am not sure I like because it looks unfinished on the top. Shard means a piece of broken glass with sharp edges. It will be interesting to know how the architect came up with this idea. And why? Here is a picture I took.
Have you ever been to Venice? No, I don’t mean the Venice in Italy, I mean little Venice right in the heart of London. There is an area in London that has a lot of canals and is called Little Venice, because is it sort of a replica of the real Venice. I have never been to the real one, but I can imagine it now. One weird thing about the Little Venice is all those boats where people LIVE all year around. London is not as warm as Italy, so I still cannot figure out how they survive inside. Can you imagine leaving in a boat 24 / 7, the whole year – sleeping, taking shower, cooking and eating inside little floating piece of metal? Hmm…
Every year in December we go to a small English town called Rochester. The people of the town celebrate the life and work of Charles Dickens who is a well-known writer of Victorian times, author of the Oliver Twist book. Apparently, many of his stories are base in and around that area and he was getting inspired by people living in the town at the time.
The festival is very unusual and always puts me in a Christmas mood. There are carols, market stalls, street performances, lantern parades and even a snowfall! The snow is guaranteed every year – because it is artificially made of foam (I figured it out a long time ago!). But the most interesting things are the people! The whole town dresses up in costumes, pretending to be characters of Dickens’ stories, some are even scary! I don’t recognise most of them, I guess I should start reading more 😊 Do you recognize any?
Paris really is the city of lights! I was always curious about France, its language and food. Then my parents took me to Paris! I stayed in the heart of Paris, so it was easy to walk around and see all the nice places. I really liked walking by the river. But I liked Eiffel Tower the most. I even went to the top. You can see all of Paris from up there. Night time on the tower is even more beautiful. Paris really is the city of lights.
As a family we LOVE traveling. Does not matter where really – in England or outside, as long as there is something new to see and experience. This time we went to … Brussels – the capital of Belgium. We saw some interesting things, but two of them were very memorable. One is the Manneken Pis – a small sculpture of a little boy peeing into the fountain – HAHAHA! But most amazing one was the Atomium! This was the most unbelievable and unusual structure I have ever seen
It was built in 1958 for the World Fair. It was designed to last for 6 months only, but became so popular that it is still around. The structure has a shape of an iron cell, consisting of nine iron atoms magnified 165 billion times! (Wikipedia said this!). People can go into spheres using the escalators in the tubes – one of them is the longest in Europe. When it was first built, the structure did not have any supporting columns on the side, but Wind Tunnel test concluded that 80km/h wind will easily topple it over and the supporting columns were added. Still the whole thing looks amazing like a spaceship!
I don’t know why they call England a cold country while there are other countries that are colder like Canada. Have you ever gone to Canada? I have! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I went to the CN tower! (The tallest building in Canada!) There is picture of it to the left. I also went to a place called Niagara Falls – which is a huge water fall that separates Canada and America. There is also bridge from America to Canada and you can change a country just by crossing the bridge. But it is the same cold on both side, so no need to change really.
Niagara Falls in winter
In London we have a huge wheel, called London Eye. It is basically a normal Ferris wheel but much bigger and has big glass capsules that fit many people in. It is moving very slowly, but I like that because it gave me more time to look at the views and enjoy the scenery. If you have not been there I suggest you go because it looks really cool especially at night with all the lights on.
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