Sun's Hot

Today we went into a castle. It was very very neat to see. There were a bunch of different rooms in it. The one I liked the best was the Royal Throne Room and the dining hall. The dining hall had lots of chairs that were covered in red velvet. In the throne room the part you sat on had a cushion that was red velvet and for the back rest it was red velvet too. In the Throne Room there were only two chairs and at the top that you didn't touch there were spikes (I don't know why). There were rooms with armour in it. I liked the one with the royal horsie in it. The Royal Horsie wore a red velvet cape. At the edges of the cape were golden tassles. We think the royal horsie was fed juicy apples every day ( not the ones that went to war). The horsie's that went to war wore lots of armour to protect them because the soldiers cared for them. I also like the ball room because the floor was shiny with polished stone and the roof was gold with a beautiful design on it.

The sun today was soo sosooo sososososo hot! After the castle we went to the campground pool. It was so nice ( my hair is still wet).

Pictures coming soon....

Adios Amigo (bye friend)
Emilia

Picos de Europa

As I sit in the early morning at the European style campground (big, pools, games, restautaraunts....) and look up at the vast and rugged peaks of the Picos, I reflect on how much we have already done in our few weeks so far. The two weeks in Iceland with the dramatic scenes and geology, connecintg with family and relaxing while the kids crabbed and played at the beach in England, meeting long lost family and discovering castles, pastries, medieval villages, churches and excellent wines in France and now in Spain discovering the less crowded beaches with their fascinating flycss rock formations and into the Picos for some hiking.

We struggle daily with how much time to spend in one place, with where to find soccer fields for Mattias, swimming for Emilia and considering dates and what we really want to get in before heading back to Londond mid Sept.

So far the traveling has been easy - but we have had our own car. We go and do what we want when we want. Very much ke a fabulous summer vacation. For now we will take it, come Mid Sept our travel will change. It will be interesting to see what is to come.

For now, the stunning peaks of the Picos await.

Happy rest of the summer to those of you at home.

Lots of stuff...

1. Puy Du Fou: We went to a theme park called Puy Du Fou. We saw 5 shows. One of them was called birds of Prey. They trained birds to catch food out of the air. they brought birds very very high up in a hot air balloon and then the birds came down and landed on some trainers arms. There were two bald eagles and one Golden Eagle that were in the balloon. They even had vultures and four types of owls.
There was another one called Gladiators.The Gladiators were very nasty people. They were like soldiers from the queen, except in the olden days there were emperors not kings and queens. The gladiators were nasty to the people they had captured. The gladiators captured random people. They made them fight against stronger and better at fighting people. They made huge stadiums just for show and they made some so big they battled ships in them. The gladiators fed the people they captured just enough to survive. They would have parades come through the stadium with other captured people from different countries all chained up. The gladiators would also put the people in cages and then stick their swords in the holes.
We watched the newest show about the French conquest over Spain.they were doing really crazy tricks on horses. They would make the horse gallop at top speed and then the rider would hang upside down and pick up a scarf. One person rode standing up on two horses hike they were galloping at top speed. They even did jousting and it looked like they hit the other rider. On one they were going top speed and the rider threw a spear that hit exactly the centre of a target.

2. Fishes and Dishes - a day in Spain.
We went on a hike to a beach. Some of the rocks and shells looked like dishes. Speaking of dishes, we had a huge lunch, and a yummy one too. We went to a restaurant in village from medieval times. On the lunch we saw lots and lots of crabbies. Back to the beach...at the beach we saw a dead jelly fish and we checked out some huge caves we saw from a telescope on the highway. Daddy almost got trapped because the tide came in so fast. We caught a fish that was about two inches long. It would suck on the ground so it was hard to pick up off the rock. It was very very colorful with brown spots on it and red fins. We were hiking back up to our campsite....it was very muddy and we were attacked by some goats. They were actually coming just to check us out, they were shy.lol. Once we were back at the campsite, we had some crazy weather, first it tinkled, then it got sunny and then it poured. We ran for shelter, so did mom and dad.

Written by everyone's friends- Mattias and Emilia

A great night's sleep

Yesterday all the campsites were full and we couldn't find anywhere to sleep. Finally we decided to stay in a cheap hostel and stay in a room with all the other people who were staying at it. There were three-deckered bunks and me and Mattias each slept on the top of one. The beds were so warm and comfy I couldn't stand it - compared to my therm-a-rest.

Today we went to the beach and had a great time. Me and Mattias would get wet and then roll in the sand and after that we would wash off by playing in the waves and Daddy threw us into the salt water. Me and Mattias also dug holes and would be covered in sand. We pretended were dead heads lying on the beach.

While we were driving to the campsite we are now at - non hostel- Mattias thought that there would be an interesting view point -so we pulled off and it was a beautiful view and we saw two caves that were formed into the rock at the bottom of the cliffs.

We are in Spain now, and guess what is really, really funny? Dad couldn't find rice in the store - so he bought tiny pasta balls that Mattias and I loved with an egg cooked into it when we were babies.

Through the year I am going to learn a new language - it will be a surprise when I get back - I am not telling until then!