Stockholm

Stockholm I'd say is the one city that has almost every thing to do with boats. First of all, when we got off the ship we got on a tour bout that slowly made its way through the canals showing us al the wonderful houses, hotels and a few royal palaces. We even saw a few house boats.
Now you don't see that in Westport country do you? After the Venice tour, as Alex calls it, we went to see THE VASA, the mightiest battle ship in the Swedish armada. This monster was equipped with two cannon decks and a massive hull, as needed to carry 300 bronze guns and crew.

The engineer said that the ship would be invincible, and it definitely would have been if it hadn't sunk 10min. after leaving dock. On the walk back to the ship we walked past the famed gay pride parade. Millions of gay people from all over Europe were dancing to music. Now, gays are very interesting people, but drunk gays are a completely different question.

Our trip to Berlin

When we got off the boat to Berlin we headed not to the city we were docked at but to the train station. This particular German train, an average train, was much more spacious and much more convenient than the average New York subway. It was beautiful as we sped by the German countryside in our luxurious locomotive. We even saw some cows.

When we got there, Berlin was instantly one of my favorites because it was so modern. It was a shame that it got bombed flat by the allied forces in WWII. Just imagine living in a pile of rubble. At the end of the war, the allied forces kept flying over Germany but this time for different reasons. They dropped food over Berlin while it was rebuilding itself and during the terrifying time of soviet rule. They even dropped candy. But the city is now almost completely rebuilt. Some fellow Germans feel that Berliners will never give up. Speaking of Soviets and their German occupation of East Berlin, they were so precautious about the other side managed by the allied forces. The Russians hated the allied forces so much they built a deadly wall between the two sides and surrounding the entire city. On top of that wall were posted hundreds of guards, dogs and tank barriers. The guards had orders to shoot anybody who tried to escape to the other side of the city and they did. But some people did escaped. Some of them were guards themselves.

In 1989 when the Soviet Union fell and Russia became Russia and Estonia became Estonia, the whole city began chipping away at the wall and blasting it and knawing away at with chain saws. When the wall came down the two sides met each other like old friends. And after the horrible reign of the U.S.S.R., the city has rebuilt itself once again.

Danish Resistance Museum in Copenhagen

During our trip to Copenhagen,we went to the Danish Resisistance Museum. Most of it was pastry samples, diet tips and before and after signs. :) The rest of it was nazi flags and big guns. The Danish resistance was not actually much because the Germans, in WWII, felt the Danes were a pure country and didn't bother them much. But they did resist the Nazis and so anyone who resisted the Nazis deserves a memorial or two. Especially the fact that mostly young people resisted.

One of the guns was a large anti-tank battery. As you can see from the photo this gun is equipped with a bullet proof sheild to protect the gunner. It used explosive shells. Next is a Mocoson 1847 turret machine gun. It was designed for, of course, turrets. These particular model used 13 caliber bullets , the museum also owned an anti-aircraft gun this weapon also used explosive shells.

In conclusion, I learned lots about the Danish Resistance (and pastries!).

First Day on the Boat

The first day on the boat was absolutely thrilling. The seas were calm and the wind was not rough. It may be cold but inside it is a nice temperature. While we were docked we had a beautiful view of the Cliffs of Dover. They are quite large and now I know why people make jokes about falling off cliffs. The crazy thing is that these particular cliffs are white and even stranger than that is there is about 50 different cliffs and a castle at the end of one.

Off to Birmingham!

We then went to Birmingham to meet our English family (sister of Grandma). To begin with the picture above shows a large piece of bomb shrapnel.. as you can see, it is about the size of my hand. It came from a bomb much, much bigger than that piece of shrapnel. In fact it would have been a little bit bigger than a vespa.

The picture below shows me holding a piece of shrapnel and Alex holding the bottem of an incendiary bomb or fire bomb. The person in the middle is my Great Aunt June who grew up during WWII. She herself collected these artifacts during the horrible, German bombing raids of Birmingham. In fact she just picked up this shrapnel out of her backyard and found the incendiary bomb on the street. As you may have known, the Americans bombed the Japanese with almost the same kind of bomb that the Germans used to bomb England. The only difference was that the Germans eventually loaded explosives as well as the gases used to ignite the flame upon contact of ground.

Also, when visiting Birmingham I met some of my relatives for the first time. They are Aunt June, cousin Helen, “little” cousin Ben (he is 6 feet 3inches) , cousin Bob and cousin Julie (they are second cousins and like our uncle and aunt). It was also nice to see Grandma and Grandpa. We went to see the house that Grandma grew up in. During our stay there, Aunt June took us to the house of the man who was in the Royal Navy. He has a real sea mine as a souvenir sitting in his front yard. The mine was as big as me and had small spikes on it. These mines were dropped from the sky by bombers into the sea. The spikes were sensors that set off the explosives inside when a ship made contact with the mine.

All in all, I think the most enjoyable part of my visit to Birmingham was rolling down a large steep hill and resting under a tree and looking at the clouds.

Visit to the Churchill Museum in London

My first day in London, I went to the new Churchill Museum with Theo and Alex. Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of the UK during WWII. He is very famous for all the good things he did for the people. One of the most famous things he did was not that he went to watch the bombs on top of his bunker roof but that he liked cigars. The museum is in the old bunker where he stayed during the war and broadcast his speeches through the wireless (or radio) to the world.

Landing in London