San Francisco

San Francisco
In San Francisco we did not stay at a hotel so we stayed with our cousins. They were very nice and fun.
We tried lots of different foods and drinks and we even had donuts for breakfast.
In shops we saw so much things we wanted to buy in one candy shop they had so much candy they had Bertie bots every flavored beans from Harry potter duff beer from the Simpsons and more.

Dizzy at disney

Disney world
At Disney we stayed at the beach club resort with the other Starretts.
The resort was very fancy.
The first afternoon we went to Epcot and did something called a Kim possible mission. You could do them in different countries because in epcot there's little sections that look like the real countries. We did Kim possible Japan. After we did the mission we went in Japan to get dinner.
And at the hotel my mum said that it was her birthday on halloween so they gave her a badge that said happy birthday halloween and in the restaurant they saw the badge and they gave her a chefs hat.
The second day we went to magic kingdom. In magic kingdom we did space mountain a fast,dark and fun ride.
Then we went to fantasy land with more kiddy rides: Peter pan,the tea cups and it's a small world which everyone goes on.
Then we went to big thunder mountain railroad. Splash mountain was closed.
Then we went back to the hotel to have a swim.
The next day we went to Hollywood Studios. I rode Toy Story Mania, the Rockin Roller Coaster and the tower of terror. Mum and dad left us with the other Starretts to have a special lunch. We had lunch at the Prime Time Cafe. Josh and Nan got yelled at for putting their elbows on the table. 
On the third full day we went to Animal Kingdom for a little while. Then our family went to put put golf. I got three holes in one in a row and another one later. After a swim at the hotel we went to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner. It was an African Buffett but there was some other food if you didn't like the African. At that hotel they had giraffes and zebras running around outside. After dinner we went to Mickey's not so scary halloween party. We did trick or treating and a few rides and we watched the parade.
On the last day we did all the things we wanted to do before we left. First we had breakfast with Jamie Gordon. The water park  was pretty good. We also did shopping and we went to Epcot to do Kim Possible Missions. We did all of them except China. 

Hard fun at the hard rock

Flynn here.

I drank Butterbeer. It tasted like butterscotch - tasty! There was a simulation ride where you went through a castle. There were mechanical creatures and one touched my foot. I went to a show where someone got chosen to get a free wand. I was right next to the boy who was picked.
The rest of Universal was good. I liked the Rip Ride Rockit best. It was a very fast ride with big drops. Every corner you turned it felt like something would hit you in the face.

Menace in Venice

We arrived in Venice by boat. There were lots if Indian salesmen selling useless toys. There was a clock tower which we had to walk under to get to our hotel. On the top there were metal men ringing the bell every hour. Some of the streets are very narrow and there is the smell of garbage around every corner. There were lots of shops selling masks, gelato and glass animals. The hard rock cafe was just around the corner from our hotel. We went there for lunch on the first day. We also went to the island of Murano to see how people make glass.

Roaming in Rome

After a sea day and a day at Palma, we disembarked the ship and flew to Rome. Josh here:
Here are some of the highlights that we found in our three days of Rome
* exploring the streets and finding gelato shops. We had a LOT of gelato.
* Walking through the bone church and discovering all the decorating choices for bones. There were chandeliers, chairs, window frames and a coffin all made of bones. There were also dead bodies, some still standing in their clothes.
* going on a ghost tour through Rome at night with true stories of happenings around Rome.
* When I come home, expect me to try and sell you stuff. I have picked up the techniques of the many Indian salespeople who sold useless items all over Rome.
* going to the Rome Hard Rock Cafe. This was the third Hard Rock we ate at on the trip.
*Guess what- I finally found a pizza I would eat: a pizza entirely covered with Nutella!
* In Piazza Navona there was a cowboy statue with a money can in front of it. When you put money in the can, he moved. Later that day we saw the same cowboy moving, not because there was a coin in his can but because he wanted a cigarette. There was also a dodgy statue of liberty with white clothing and silver skin.

Pompeii by all all three boys

We caught a train to Pompeii. Here are some thoughts:
Flynn: The dead bodies that were there were very cool and weird. A volcano erupted and they were covered in ash and died. There were lots of wild dogs in Pompeii. A sign said they had diseases.
Campbell: I liked all the rooms with the different artifacts. There was a building which was the public baths. One room was a sauna, another room was the pool. We walked further up and we saw ruins that were a bread shop with an oven that looked like a pizza oven. Some of the bodies were quite creepy. Most of them were covered in dust and plaster so it looked like fake bodies but some of them the plaster had worn away so you could see the bones. There was one with the teeth showing.
Josh: All of the dead bodies were in the potion they were when they were covered in ash. To help keep the positions they filled the holes of the bodies with plaster. Because of this you could see how they tried to hide or cover their mouths when the ash came through.

Roaming in Rome

Josh herer again. After having breakfast at Topsiders, we hopped off the boat to discover Rome. We tried the Disney Tours for the first time. Our first stop was the catacombs. We came through an entrance in a church and instantly the smell hit our noses. The smell was explainable as this was the burial ground of 5000 Christian men, women and children. The Romans knew that the catacombs were a Christian burial ground but what they didn't know was that deep within the tunnels there was a room where they could go to pray.

The next part of our adventure was the great building of the Collusium. The line up to get in stretched down blocks and blocks but the thing about going with the Disney tour was that we skipped the whole line and walked straight in. As well as getting some of the best photos ever, we saw how the Collusium had changed through the years.

The last stop of our tour was the Vatican. Just in case you don't know (I didn't), it is the head church of Rome. Although the Vatican wasn't a burial chamber, it still held hundreds of dead bodies including 158 popes (that's one of the weird thing I'm going to remember in life).

cinque terre

Campbell's turn. We had another breakfast at Topsiders buffet. I got in trouble from Mum and Dad for taking too much food. We took a small boat into the port and walked to the train station. Cinque Terre means five towns and we went to three of them. We walked on a track between town 2 and town 1. It was very strange as we walked along becuase every part of the fence had some type of lock stuck on to it. It is something that couples to to show that there love will always be. Cique Terre was really hilly and had lots of stairs. We bought Italian Pokemon cards and had lunch at a restaurant where they did not speak English. At the restaurant a man had a toy monkey and it had velcro on its hand holding a banana. When you took the banana away it started crying till you gave the banana back. The man also showed us pictures of his house. Back on the ship, Flynn and I saw Cars 2 in 3D

Frantic in France part 2

In Nice we wandered around and it was hot. We bought Gelato at a really good place called Finnochos, like Pinnochio but an F. I had a flavour called Galak which was white chocolate. When we went back on the boat I played Bingo but we didn't win.

Frantic In France Part 1

Josh speaking again. Day 2 of our Disney Cruise. We started the day off with a buffet breakfast at Topsiders (at the top, right side of the boat). After breakfast we went to the Buena Vista Theatre to wait for a tender boat that was going to bring us to Villafranche. We had already organized a car to pick us up and drive us around to where we wanted to go at 8:30. Unfortunately, the tender boat was late and we ended up getting there at 9:15 and when we arrived our driver wasn't there. We waited around for 15 minutes and decided to call him. It turned out that he hadn't even written down that we had booked him. He called the other drivers he knew and got one of them (Antonio) to drive us instead.

Antonio was the craziest driver we had ever seen. He speeded down narrow twisty-turvy bumpy-jumpy roads to get us everywhere we needed to be. Our first stop was Eze (pronounced Ez). We climbed through the village and explored the shops which were in caves dug out of rock. We then went to Fragonard, the home of crazy perfume lady. Fragonard is a famous perfume factory by the way. Crazy perfume lady talked so fast you couldn't understand what she was saying (not because of the accent) and sprayed all kinds of perfume over everyone. She walked fast too so we went through the whole 2-story building in under 5 minutes.

Next stop on the adventure was the medievil village of Saint Paul. As we wandered through this mysterious village, we were surprised to see that it was a place for artists. They were everywhere! Artists to your left, artists to your right, artists that are creating artworks and even artists that shove their artwork in your face! After the art fananza, we went to a dodgy little restaurant for lunch.

Flynn is going to continue “Frantic In France" with Part 2. See you next time!

The Cruise Begins!

Campbell here. Last week we boarded the cruise. We had to wake up early to pack everything in the suitcases and had to bring them down to the lobby of the hotel. There was one lady and one man to pick us up and the lady had a giant mickey mouse glove on and was waving it around to mark out where we had to wait. Then we got on a bus to the port and it took about 20 minutes. When we got on the boat there was a man calling out everyone's names like, "Disney Magic, put your hands together for the Starrett family!" We had been meeting kids on the cruise website on a blog kind of thing organized by a girl named Marika and we had a get together in a bar called the Promenade Lounge and we met Marika and her brother Rio and more people. That night in the Promenade Lounge I won bingo and won $115 but sadly, another person won as well so I only got $58. The restaurants were called Parrots Cay, Topsiders Buffet, Lumieres, and the special adults only restaurant, Palo. There is one more restaurant called Animators Palate where one thing happens that happens in no other restaurant in the world, the pictures on the wall change and add colour! Say there was a black and white picture of Peter Pan fighting Captain Hook. Eventually the picture would start simultaneously adding colour. We went there on the first night and it was awesome! Post soon.

Flynn's turn. I woke up and I was a bit sick. I had eggs and bacon and toast for breakfast in a place where they did not speak any English. I said Gratsias when the man brought my breakfast. We saw a building that looked like it was made of bones. The bones on the balcony looked like skull masks. The roof had scales like a dragon. Mum said it was a famous building by Gaudi. He built a church too that was very very very tall and weird. I bought a hat with horns on it like a bull. It has ears and a mouth and eyes. The hat says Barcelona and it is red. The horns, eyes and mouth are blue.

Singing in Singapore

Hello world! Josh speaking. Where to start? We've been travelling for nearly 2 days. We went from Sydney to Singapore to Munich and ended up in Barcelona. It's burning hot here which is lucky because we're staying at AC Diplomatic (get it?) where we have 2 rooms. 1 for the adults and 1 for the kids. We got here yesterday at midday-ish (Barcelona time) and brought our luggage to the hotel. We then went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and a local gelato shop for a treat. Afterwards we went back to the hotel for a swim. To finish the day off we crashed in our rooms (5:00 - missed dinner). Going to sleep that early got us up early too - 2:30!

You're probably wondering, why is the title “Singing in Singapore" when this is about Barcelona? Well, I've decided that through our travels I am going to have a theme. I am going to do something name related to the whatever the place is called. So far I've got Rode in a new car in Newcastle, Singing in Singapore, Munching in Munchen (German name for Munich), Drank from the minibar in Barcelona (Mum won't let us drink form the bar but luckily there was a free minibar in every room). And for the record, I did sing in Singapore.

Pre trip report

Flynn: I am looking forward to Italy and gelato.
Campbell: I want to meet different people and see Italy.
Josh is not home but we think he wants to eat Gelato and buy souvenirs.