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?
What is the highest floor you have even been on? In London we don’t have too many high-rise buildings, so when I went to 39th Floor of Sushi Samba restaurant – it felt really high. The view after sunset was very magical – lots of lights as far as I can see. I have seen London from the top a few times, but during the day the view is not as dramatic as at night. The sushi I had were nice, I liked the view much more!!!
On Sunday, I went to a place called Beachy Head. By the time we got there it was a bit dark and very foggy, so it felt like we are on a different planet, very spooky. Since it is next to the sea there were cliffs around. Parents were telling me scary stories how the edges of the cliffs break off sometimes, so I did not go to close to the edge. Here are some photos we took.
This beautiful view is from a hill in London. It is called Primrose Hill, and is in the north side of Regent’s Park. On a clear day, you can see quite a bit of London from the hill. Be ready to walk uphill for about 10 minutes! It is a little hard, but once you get to the top, you can sit and relax, and enjoy the wonderful views! I took this picture from the top. What do you think?
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!
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.
Like me if you are a child, you know that we are often surrounded by people and objects that are much bigger than us. What if I told you I have been to a place where I was a GIANT! Everything around me was smaller than me. Yes, it is true! Houses, People, Cars, Trains, Planes, even Airports were smaller than me.
You want proof? Look at the pictures below. They are real. The place where children can be giants is real – And it is called – Beconscot Model Village!
Recently, I went for a drive with my parents. After about an hour we stopped in an area with lot of greenery. We decided to explore the area and after some walking we ended up in a large park, almost the size of a forest. There was even a lake inside. There I found something very interesting. I saw these plants with huge leaves. Each leaf was larger than my whole body!
Have you seen leaves of this size? Tell me if you have!
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