Den Haag (The Hague)

On tuesday, June1st We went to the Hauge, But we went on a train to get there. Then we went to the train station and my dad went to Voorburg to the International Criminal Court for dad to teach. We went out of the train station and it was windy and cold. Then, We went to a fountain and took a picture of my mom and my sister. Next, we went to the Ecster art museum and we learned that he is known for is that he likes to confuse people and get them frusterated and there were three floors of confuson of paints,scuptors and drawings. Then we went back to the train station and rode to Voorburg to pick up dad. Then we went home.  


          

Amsterdam and Kinderjik

Happy birthday to my grandpas! Grandpa John and Grandpa Dick have the same birthday and that day is today.

Over the weekened, my family and I went to Amsterdam and Kinderjik. In Amsterdam, we walked along the 16th Century canals, took a long canal cruise through the lock system, and took lots of picture. We saw the Anne Frank House from the outside where she hid from the Nazis. The first picture below is her house. We also visited the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and viewed his works of art.

In Kinderjik, we saw all of the old windmills, which were really great. See the pictures below for more. The Dutch are known for making wooden shoes. See the picture down below. It was cold, windy, and very rainy. On the way home, we ate dinner in Utrecht where there is a really old university.

Tomorrow we are going to The Hague (Den Haag) with my dad's class.We are going to the International Criminal Court.

I hope everyone is good at home. I will be back in Pennsylvania on Sunday. Bye everyone!

Trip to Maastricht Fortress and Caves

Thursday, we went to a fort and the caves and in the fort, we saw stuff from a long time ago. We saw a cannon ball from a cannon and we saw a lot of old buildings that lead underground and I saw the 3 story high fort and we saw the top of it and the guide told us there was tunnels underground every which way we went to. Then we waited for a while for the cave's tour person to come. When the person came, we went into a mountain and we were in the caves. It was dark in there, but it was freaky at the same time. Then we saw some fossils from a dinosaur called “The Mossasauris”. It was an animal at the time of dinosaurs were around and was extinct millions of years later.

Then the guide needed people to volunteer for the lanterns in the caves. I raised up my hand and the person said I am now responsible now for making their way out for the cave. The guide took the lanterns because we were going to do an experiment without the light. He said that we had to hold the wall and walk down the long hallway and it was a scary one. I was so freaked out, Mom pulled out her phone and shone some light and we were behind and that freaked me out even more. Then we caught up with the group and we saw the entire caves and passage ways. It started off with 20,000 kilometers. 12,000 kilometers was either collapsed or used for the Quarry we saw before. 8,000 kilometers is left of the cave and when it started off, it went off the map and went to Belgium. Some person made the map of the cave using charcoal as the black line. Then we got out of the cave and went back home. I was so tired after a lot of walking I passed out at the apartment. The End.

Yesterday, Tuesday we went to a church called St. Jan’s in Maastricht and we went up a 218 step staircase and 436 up and down. At the top, it was beautiful at the top I saw the entire city I found a piece of artwork. But, I can’t tell you what it is until you go up there. Then we went on a solar panel bus/train ride on road and saw a church that was unfinished and it was one of the 52 churches in the Netherlands. 31 are still in business and 21 are not used like a church from the tenth century church that looked just fine. But, they just re-fixed the building and then we got tired and went home.

Last Friday, we traveled to Brussels and went on a really long walking tour of the city. The Grand place was really nice. My dad ate snails there. We visited the Parliament of the European Union with dad’s students and saw the floor where all the representatives make European laws. We also stood next to a piece of the Berlin Wall. We saw lots of information about World War ll. The next day, Saturday, we visited the Parliamentarium centre, which gives information to people about the European Union. Then on Sunday we went to Brussels airport to pick up my sister and my mom. But it so long to wait for them and it took an hour and a half to wait for them and went back on the train and we had 2 transfers on the train. We missed one transfer at Leuven and we had to wait an hour to wait because of the train we were on was waiting so long. Then we went on the train and stayed on there for 10 more minutes and did our transfer again and almost missed it again, but we made it by 30 seconds and we were on the way to Maastricht. Then we went to the train station and walked a long way home to the apartment. Today, we took mom and my sister on a tour of Maastricht and crossed two bridges. I am very tired now.

The last 2 days I spent my time with dad in his class. Down below there is a picture of his students doing some work and learning something about violence in the world. He says the world has lots of bad people who fight wars and do bad things to people. There are good people too and good-bad people as well. He has the college students write a lot, but he says it isn't bad in Maastricht. My dad likes writing about the world. We took pictures of another medieval fortress in Maastricht. Also, the other day, a parade just marched down the street. I don't know why.

I am reading my books and doing my homework as well. Also, writing the blog. See down below for the picture.

Today, we woke up, had breakfast and I did 6 sheets of homework (which I do every single day in the morning) and went to the University of Maastricht and dad talked to important people. We all then went to a restaurant with Dario and his boss Joerg who work at the University of Maastricht with my dad. We had lunch. Dad ate lettuce with something called melted cheese from a goat and Dutch dressing. I had franse frietjes- you may call them French fries- and croquettes, which are really Dutch.  After that we went to an Ice cream place called Pinky which is all pink inside. I had something called after eight and smurfen flavors on a dutch waffle cone. Dad drank cappuccino coffee because he won’t eat ice cream. We went home. Dad is doing work and I have decided to read my book again. It also rained today.

Yesterday we went to Aachen, Germany a town in there that had lots of birds and stores and of course, lots of smokers. We saw an old church called Aachen Cathedral, where one of the world's greatest emperors is buried. His name is Charlemagne and his empire was The Holy Roman Empire. He started building his cathedral in 796 AD! We also saw St. Follian Cathedral next door and the museum of Charlemagne. Then we got some German chocolate and went back to the train station and the apartment.