Norway Fjords

The fjords on Wednesday were beautiful! We left by boat from _______ and traveled along the Sonjfjord for awhile and then turned off onto another one. It started rain. I saw something fluttering from my slightly sheltered spot by the engine (the air was cold, the engine warm) and figured out that it was a moth! I ran over and helped it on to my finger, and took it over to the engine to warm up. I ran over to tell my mom, and someone who apparently thought it was a fish (because obviously, I'm going to pick up a fish, try to make it warm and not throw it back in the water? Really?) So she came over and tried to pick it up but the moth flew away from her. It left. 

The fjords were starting to have that paradise look, really green vegetation, big waterfalls. We arrived in Bergen a little before that, and went out to see the town. We saw some really old houses turned shops, and an interesting art sculpture (a tall one that blew light steam out the top and continued for several yards. I'll post pictures. Afterwards, caught our sleep train and *whump* out like a light.

-Sage

Norway

Hi there! So, from Denmark we took the ferry to Oslo, Norway where our friends the Rices were waiting to meet us. We've had a great time so far, relaxing and visiting museums. Mr.R took us to a couple of GREAT view stops. And had some magnificent apple pie, hot chocolate and pomegranate flam. We went to the Frammuseem, the Kon-Tiki museum, and the Viking museum (where there are some awesome old ships and free wi-fi :) Next stop today is the Folk museum. I'm very excited. Just so you know, I'm now on foursquare, so if you want to see where I'm going and when I was there, check it out.

Some of you may be excited to know that I've started watching Dr. Who. I think Matt Smith is best, but David Tennant is good too. I also got to see Monster's University (thanks Rices!) and found it very funny. My favorite part is was "we'll be watching those two. Always watching." Ah,the glory of inside jokes. More on the folk museum when we get back!

-Sage

Denmark

Switzerland

Switzerland was great!! I've never been before, but I would love to go again! The mountains make me feel at home. The lakes  and waterfalls were amazing. I was surprised to learn that every Swiss man is drafted into the military. He has to serve 2-3 years, but can retire to the reserves after that time. Here was our route...

The lakes were beautiful. The view of the glacier was breathtaking... just wow... and we didn't even go all the way to Jungfrau.

Firenzia

Firenza was very crowded by at the same time, beautiful. We went to the Uffuzzi, which was interesting, and then to the Ponte Vecciro which was exteremly awesome :)

We had some great gelato at Groms. I had stracciatella, and raspberry. Gelato gelato gelato. 

Mostly what we did was relax.

Pretty uneventful...

-Sage

Rome

Rome was suave :)

From the grand Colosseum to the majestic forum, Roma was a great place to be. Wow. That sounded like Rick Steves :D Could you tell I've gotten into a thesaurus? :P First day was our beautiful walk around Rome. 2nd day, we were well rested and ready to go. Did you know that there is a breathtaking view from the top of the Colosseum? There is. Not only is the view great, there are stories!! It's so fascinating to think about all the things that happened millennia ago.

Our B&B owner's daughter has the same birthday as me! She turned 23 when I turned 14! How cool is that? Another fun thing is that there is a Moleskine shop in the Roma train station. Walking the forum, climbing Palentine hill, and just enjoying Rome was a great experience.

The gelato shop Giolitto's in Rome, is absolutely the best, most amazing gelato ANYWHERE if you go to Rome, got to Giolitto's. My mom had caramel and chocolate, daddy had amaretto and bailey's (genuine bailey's none the less) and I had... wait for it... mango with cocoletta (that's watermelon with chocolate chips) Yummy!!

More pics later. (Blogger is having some technical difficulties)

Ciao!

-Sage

Santorini & Sunshine

Oh my! Santorini was gorgeous! All dry, but with the ocean all around, it didn't matter. Sigh. And the ocean just felt amazing! I had a great time swimming. Picked up some gorgeous rocks (I know, I know,  I have to carry them) and saw some really rockin' fish. The last day we were there, we had lunch at a GREAT place called Nikki's. I said I wasn't hungry, but when they food arrived, it looked like this...

but when I was done eating it looked like this

Also, I accomplished one of my life goals! Only at 13! Here's the story;

17 years ago, my parents visited Santorini for the first time. They were there for a week, during that time, my dad bought my mom a a ring. A gorgeous gold one with a greek key design. Then they went home. Soon after, they were moving. You know how it is. Anyway, my mom and dad were staying in a hotel, and my mom was putting on some lotion, so she took off all her jewelry. She put back on her wedding and engagement rings and as she straightened the bed spread to look for the greek ring in the folds, it popped up and flew off the bed. Mom and Dad looked for days, practically turning the place upside-down.

Ever since I heard that story, I've been looking for a ring like the one she lost. So during the trip (on Santorini) I was checking every jewelry store window. Then I found it! We went into the store (it was owned by a German couple, the man owned, the woman managed :) and tried on a few. We found one that fit, and Daddy and I bought it! What a great thing! Here's a pic...

We saw some donkeys too! 

Both real...

And not real.

All of them cute.

More later,

Sage

Athens

When in Athens... oh, wait.

The first day, up and around the Acropolis and had some great dinner. The next day we went to the Parthenon (which is part of the Acropolis)!!! WARNING: FICTIONAL PROBLEM!<Granted, I felt kinda bad, cause I was where Annabeth had always wanted to be, and here I was, while she was going through hell and worse.. what a nice fictional guilt trip.>

We had a great time. When we got back to the hotel, my dad and I headed off to find the pool. Guess where it was! On the roof! Woohoo!! AND it had a view of the Acropolis! Woah...

-Sage

Venizia to Bari

We woke up early and hurried to catch our vaporetto (water taxi) and caught our train. One of our stops was Bologna (hi grandma and pop!) then continued on to the Port of Bari. Along the way, I saw a little Italian boy, and (this being my natural instinct), waved. He waved back, and we had a fond exchange. The grandpa mimed that I was the first person to wave to him while they had been sitting there! Port of Bari is beautiful! We had just caught our big vaporettos, to go to Greece!

-Sage

Rhein trip

Don't you just love water? I know I do! Just sit me down with horizontally running water and I'm set for at least a couple of hours.

On the 4th of July, I was in Germany. On a boat! Awesome! I like boats. And trains. And pretty much anything except planes... planes are fast means of transportation, but I don't really like them.

The trip down the Rhein (a main river in Germany) was gorgeous!! We saw tons of castles including, but not limited to: Cat castle; Mouse Castle; and a really-cool-castle-that-put-chains-across-the-river-to-collect-toll-but-I-don't-know-it's-name-castle. That one is fascinating. All the castles were very cool. When arriving to Berlin, we headed straight to our hotel and saw some cool sights along the way.

- Sage

Praha

On the 6th and 7th of June, we were in Prague!!

We arrived and were able to dump our bags at our hotel (after 4 flights of stairs :P )  and we headed out to explore!

We walked to Old Town Square, and saw the (Astronomical) Clock Tower ring with all the little people coming out and turning to face the audience. We continued walking to about a fourth up the Charles Bridge. The next morning we explored the marketplace that was practically right outside our door. We finished walking the bridge and looked at the castle. Exploring the castle was fun, but the cafe that had a view of all over Prague was even cooler.

Overall we had a great time. Prague is a great place to go!

-Sage

Monet and Beret + Eiffel and Lisa

Soooo. It's been a while. Happy 4th of July! A little belated but... well, we haven't had very good wi-fi. :) On the 3rd of July, we traveled away from Paris! We had some funny sounding doors on the train. They sounded like geese every time they closed (being automatic) and since then we have had (sounds on the train) aliens, bagpipes and Edelweiss. :D The Edelweiss was me... but more about that later!

On the 1st of July, we went to Giverny. There, is Claude Monet's house, studio and gardens! How cool! We walked over to the beautiful water garden, where they have the waterliles and bridges that Monet painted.

The next day we went to Notre Dame. You may or may not know this but when I was 5 we came to Europe, going to Paris, Germany and Austria. There is a shop just down the street from Notre Dame where I bought a beret when I was 5, I bought one again this year! That night we went to... The Eiffel Tower! I had a gorgeous view and a good crowd. We stopped at a stand and got creeps later on the way back to the hotel. What a great way to spend Paris.

-Sage

Things in Paris #1

Lots of poppies in fields

Kharpoi grass fields (For all my PJO/HOO fan friends) you know, Hazel, field grain? Jog your memory yet?

Yesterday I was posing for a picture, and a man (French) was riding by. As he passed, he said "Ooh la la!" Awesome! I received a French compliment!

Saw some con people hiding from cops. One ran and hid behind some bushes, another kinda jumped a wall and hid there.

Looking at all the graffiti as we left Paris, I thought "What if everybody used sign language? It would be quieter, and, instead of words there would be dots!" For Braille you know? I understand that people would still be able to read and see, but the way I see it, they graffiti artists would have to draw dots... or hands.

That's all for now!

-Sage

Photo time!

Big Ben, with sunlight!

London Eye

Rosetta Stone

Buckingham Palace

Stonehenge 

Tower of London

First time on the Eurostar!

Monet's water lilies

Thank you all for watching!

-Sage

Lilies & 'lectricity

Good evening!

Early this morning we caught our train from London to... Paris! Woohoo! Eiffel here I come! We all had a great time on the train. Our train had a 'technical difficulty' with the electricity but that was only a 30 minute delay. Sleeping, snacking, watching Merlin & playing cards with the nice British lady at our table. That was fun.

When we arrived in Paris, we jumped off the Eurostar and caught a train/bus to Giverny, where Monet painted his famous water lilies. We even saw his actually water garden! Plus I was able to take dozens and dozens of great pictures in his garden (which he laid out and planted all by himself!) That was also very fun.

We got our adorable hotel room and my daddy and I had a great dinner. We have a cardboard art store, library, multiple cafes and an antique store all within a half-a-block!

Here's my view! I really do like it.

I'll post picture when I get a turn at the computer. :D

-Sage

Stonehenge and Stories

This morn, we got up early to take a tube/train/bus trip to Stonehenge! 

That was very cool. I loved the train ride and even took a nap as it was only just after 8 you know ;)  Once we got there, we to Salisbury, we took a bus to Stonehenge. It was very busy but fortunately our driver was able to take us around the short way to get in faster and receive free audio tours. Stonehenge is actually meaning "hanging" stone, as 'henge' means stone. We walked around a distanced perimeter and then hopped on the bus, on the way back, we stopped for an hour or so at Old Sarum.

Old Sarum is the ancient ruins of a castle, built for Henry III. It's base was a mixture of the traditional stone blocks and "flint cement" (basically a medieval cement that had large chunks of flint in it). You can tour and touch this piece of history, surrounded by wide views (it's on a hill) and gorgeous wildflowers in the summer. 

Just before the train we stopped and saw the other Magna Carta at Salisbury Cathedral (in the chapter house). Also picking up some lunch :)

Tonight: We just finished the Ceremony of the Keys. Turning the final lock was a great way to end the time in London. 

-Sage

*click*

Phantom and Carta

We got to see the Magna Carta today at the British library along with some early bibles, the original Alice in Wonderland (Alice's Adventures Underground), some original Beatles lyrics and Beethoven's tuning fork :)

We saw the Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Theatre where it debuted in London :) The play had some GREAT singing but in my opinion, it was very creepy and I don't ever really want to see it again.

Just as a note. We came across a gay (and not the happy meaning of the word) parade. Now, I'm not for them, but I'm not against them either. I'm not the type of Christian who says "you'll burn in hell for this!" But I'm not the type of person who's all "Yay! You're gay? Cool!" either. I do believe its wrong, and that you need to straighten up and fly right. But I'm not going to condemn you for it either. It's against my religion. That's all.

I have no clue if the police or the activists were in charge of traffic control. But whoever was did a HORRIBLE job. We got off the tube at Picadilly Circus station and had to walk all the way down to Pall Mall then cut over to Trafalger, then around to Haymarket JUST to get to our theater. And instead of being on time (like we would've should've there been no parade) we were at least half a hour late.

Tomorrow we all get to go to Salisbury and Stonehenge. Woohoo!

-Sage

Things in London #1

Saw two boys who pretty closely resemble Josh Hutcherson. One lady who could've looked more like Katniss than the person who plays her and a British taxi cab that had a Mickey antenna decoration on its antenna! When I fan girl scream over the Rosetta Stone.

A store sign that read, Life Savers, dagger canes & sword sticks (plus it made umbrellas!)

The corner of a building looked like ships prow

Swatches!

A giant Disney store, (that I sadly have not yet been able to go into)

Wafflemeister (Assumedly, a place that made waffles. Drew this is for you)

Mind the GAP (you know, the store :)

I'm not perfect, I'm limited edition (On someone's t-shirt)

Lets face the music and dance (quote from Tophat)

Parliament and Plays + Flights and Views

A rather long activity went on yesterday, and the day before that! It was called a 'flight across the pond' (please feel free to say that in your best British accent darling) and boy were we jet lagged. After finding our hotel, and dropping off our luggage and connecting to wi-fi... we sat and played and updated our dear electronics, sucking off the hotel's executive suite wi-fi. Ahhh, the good old days. Yesterday, we trekked around London quite a bit. We tried out the tube (I didn't see Merlin or Arthur, which, was rather disappointing.) We even got to try out the double-decker buses! (The roofed ones that is) and the sun even came out! We saw it shining on the glorious Big Ben and parliament building. (Sigh)

Upon returning to our hotel room, we immediately collapsed onto our beds (it being that you're not supposed to sleep where you are, so that you adjust quicker, resulting, in fact, in me even falling asleep with my eyes open 😟) then got up, mum and I put our jammies on sent Dad to find food! (In our defense, we all hadn't eaten and he offered.) He came back with some delicious strawberries and a croissant and rice! My dad and I ate and then fell asleep. (Mom was already out :)

So... Now for the evening news. This morning, we walked up Jubilee Drive and past Buckingham Palace, St. James palace and the National Gallery!  This afternoon and evening I saw ( in order) the plays, Top Hat and One Man, Two Govners. This first one, Top Hat, was great! Kind of White Christmas meets Twelfth Night. But better :) second one, One Man Two Govners, is okay a lot of the humor was fantastic but one poor volunteer had water dumped on her and fire extinguished (and no, she wasn't on fire) poor thing... Apart from that, the play was rather funny. 

Now for some pictures...

      The view from the executive lounge!

More tomorrow!

Goodnight to you all!

Sage

Finally!

Hi there! We finally started our trip to Europe! We are currently in London, and let me tell you, it has been VERY fun, though exhausting. This is our second day after the long flight from the U.S. of A. Yesterday, we saw the outside of the prime minister's house, the outside of Big Ben, the London Eye and the outside of the Parliament building (where it appears to has been a garden party yesterday too! Along the Thames). This is just going to be a short post with no pictures because we're about to head off again to... Buckingham palace! 

More this afternoon,

 Sage