Visiting the land of the sausage

Germany and the Kiel Canal.

We have just sailed all day and through the night to get to the Kiel Canal.


Fjord outside of Kiel

On our first day there we stay outside the lock we will have to go into in the morning. We are very excited to go through the lock. When you get inside some huge doors close behind you and the water level rises or drops inside the lock depending on what the level is inside the canal. We had to use the lock with the big cargo boats because the yacht lock was not working. It felt strange being so close to those really big boats.


Going into the first lock at the Kiel Photo by Jack

We watched while out boat rose up higher and higher before some more huge lock doors opened in front of us to let us continue into the canal.
We really like canal cruising. There are no waves and the boat never leans over.
We stayed for one night in a town along the canal and we found a brass playground of animals, boats and people in the middle of town. We could sit on or play with all of them and they looked really real.

A brass playground!!

When we got to the end of the canal we had to go through some more locks and then we were in the North Sea.
We didn’t stay long in Germany but we did get to try the sausages which were very nice.

School in the canal


Our next country is the Netherlands which is famous for windmills, tulips and clogs.

Talk to you from there.
Jessica, Jackson and Neisha

Daisy chain production

Visiting Princess Marys new home.

Hello every one,

We have been sailing this week in Denmark and arrived in Copenhagen to spend some time looking around.

Copenhagen is a very nice place and a lot of the houses, buildings and streets look very old.


Photo by Jack

We visited a castle called Rosenberg Castle which was built in the early 16th centaury.



There were lots of things to see there but we mostly enjoyed seeing the crown jewels and the royal thrones. There were also some gigantic silver lions that were sitting in front of the thrones.



Jack with the royal throne!!

Marys castle is still in the center of town but it is much newerthan Rosenburg castle. We did not get to see her when we were visiting as she was away at their summer home with the Queen and King.


Photo by Jessica outside Marys palace


There is a beautiful botanic garden in the middle of town which has a very big conservatory.



Photo by Jack

The conservatory was modeled on the Crystal Palace which was built in London and held the world fair a lot of years ago.

Photo by Mum

We really liked the conservatory because there were a lot of things to learn about. We saw lots of plants that are used for food and medicine. One of the plants we recognized was a pink flowering bush that also grows in Sunshine Beach and it is used in the treatment of cancer. In Queensland it is a declared weed though.
Some of the plants we saw for food included, cinnamon, paw paw, pepper and licorice.

While we were staying in Copenhagen we went to a music shop and all of us kids bought a keyboard and a guitar with our savings. We are reallying enjoying playing them too. So is Dad and he went and got a guitar as well.

Photo by Jack

We did loads of walking around Copenhagen and were are glad to have a rest and be going to Germany now.

At the summer spring opening of the sailing season

Talk to you from there.
Love
Jackson, Neisha and Jessica

Gotenburg Sweden

When we visited Gotenburg June came to pick us up with Mummy and took us to a big park with a playground and animals.

Photo by Jessica

The playground was really big and we had lots of fun. Then we went on a walk to see the animals and find an ice-cream.
The park had lots of animals we had seen before like horses, pigs, peacocks and goats.

Photo by Neisha

The one animal we hadn’t seen before was a moose, so June took us on a moose hunt.

Photo by Jackson

They weren’t very hard to find because there were signs and they lived in an enclosure. They are very big with very, very, long legs. So long we could walk under their whole body.

June bought us all an ice-cream and we sat outside the café and ate them.

Dad was spending a lot of time working on the boat so the next day June came and got us again and we went to a big indoor playground with Mum, June, Harry and Connagh.

It was really fun in the playground and they had a great ball pit with lots of foam ball shooters. Their were really big slides there and Neisha lost her sock on one of them and we never found it.
After the playground we all went and picked up Daddy and went out for noodles for dinner. This was really yummy.
We really like Gotenburg and would like to go back to the playground again. That was our favorite bit.

Photo by Mum

We are going to Copenhagen now which is in Denmark and we will send a blog from there.
Bye, from Neisha, Jackson and Jessica

Hi From Sweden

Hello everyone,

We have been getting Grace ready to sail to the Med this week. When we left the yard where Grace spent the winter here it was acctually snowing. So we are glad to be going South where it is warmer.
We have seen some friends while we have been here.

Harry and Connagh who we know from Melbourne and
Emil and Ludwig who are from a island in Sweden called Knippler.

Where we are staying in Gotenburg marina there is a great indoor playground and we hope to get a chance to play there this week.

We are having to write this in a internet cafe and mum is doing the typing. We are taking some photos and will put them on the blogg hopefully later this week.

We are missing you all and would love to hear from you.

Thanks to Cody for the email.

All our Love Neisha, Jackson and Jessica.
Crew of Grace.

Lifes a Beach

Today we went to the beach. Instead of sand the beach was pebbles. The water was freezing but we still went swimming.