Italy

Bonjurno and hello from Italy. We stayed in ltaly for two weeks and visited many cities’ including Venice, Florence, sienna, Pisa and Rome. As a monkey, I usually only eat bananas but since we were in the country of food, I thought why not try something different. My favorite food of those I tried was gelato.

            After a long drive in Meghan’s bag from Switzerland, we finally were in Italy. All of my monkey friends that had been to Italy told me how amazing it was.  I was so excited. We first went to the city of Venice. Did you know that Venice is an island? There are canals that run all through the city and there are boats and gondolas that can bring you where you want to go. Meghan explained to me that the gondolas are fancy wooden boats with one man standing up with an ore paddling.  They are famous in Venice. We walked all around this wonderful city and went to the Saint Mark’s Square. I was told about the Italian delicacy gelato so I was eager to try some. Even though it was a cold and rainy day, nothing stopped me. I think they should add something to monkey’s diet of bananas. I think that gelato would be a marvelous meal. Venice was a great start to our Italian experience.

The Gondolas 

            The next stop was Tuscany, Florence, Sienna and Pisa. We were staying in a little Tuscan villa with an amazing view of the countryside. One the first day, we ventured into the city of Florence. The day started with a warm cup of hot coco and a scrumptious cream filled pastry, yummm! Then we ventured to a leather factory that a family friend had recommended. In Venice, I noticed there were a lot of leather stores, so I was very interested to see how they made the various items. My people family love to go to markets, to see the local crafted items. To top the day off, we went out for a traditional Italian meal.  I enjoyed some bruschetta, pasta and gelato. I had a perfect day in Florence and I bet all of my friends are jealous.

The girls enjoying there meal

            In sienna, we went to the famous zebra stripped Duomo. A Duomo is a church. There were no animal’s allowed in the church, but Meghan snuck me in. I was amazed by all of the detail put into the church. The entire floor was inlayed marble and there were statues of all of the popes. If you have ever been in a church, you know how much detail they put in the altar but in this church, there is that much detail in everything. I was so impressed with this church. We also visited a square where they used to have horse races. Sienna was well worth the stop.

Inside the Duomo

            We also visited the city of Pisa.  This is the home of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. When we walked around the bottom of the tower, I was afraid it would fall and crush my little monkey body. Luckily it did not. I am glad we were not there in the summer time because it would be so crowded. I really enjoyed Pizza I mean Pisa.

The leaning tower

            The last stop on our Italian adventure was Rome. We were met by our hosts Franca and Maro and they treated us to some more Italian food. The olives, cheese and toasts were delicious. Sadly, the first two days it poured rain, so I stayed tucked into the little camper trailer with my bananas. Finally, on the third day, we went out and explored the city. We visited the Forum and the Coliseum. I was amazed by the effort that was put into the Coliseum It must have been so difficult to make it so big without machinery. We also went to a church service lead by Pope Francesco at the Vatican.  Even though it was not in English, I could understand some parts. It was much different than the church services I have been to before.  After the service we visited an amazing gelato store called Geolitti.  The gelato was so delicious and on the top, they put a scoop of whipped cream. I thought the other gelato was good but nothing can beat Geolitti. They even had a banana flavour!  We liked it so much that we went back three times over the next week. I didn’t know that one place could have so much history.

The Coliseum 

            I had an amazing time in Italy and can’t wait to go back. I wonder what adventures are to come in Spain.

Warmer Weather

Hello, and welcome to the world traveling monkey blog! The last leg of our journey took place in Italy. I still don't think I ate enough gelato! We sure will miss all the delicious food available in this wonderful country. In this episode, I am going to tell you all about our amazing adventures in the beautiful cites of Barcelona and Marbella, Spain, as well as the unique city of Tanager in Morocco.

After leaving Italy, we had to find a way to get all the way to Spain. If you look at the map below, you can see that the two countries are pretty far apart. Do you think we drove all the way from Italy to Spain (route 1), or do you think we took a ferry across to Spain (route 2).

If you answered route 2, you are correct. We decided instead of wasting many hours in a car twiddling my monkey thumbs, we were going to take another overnight ferry! I love overnight ferries! Looking out the window and only seeing water for miles gave me feelings of excitement. Also, I heard that this ferry had a swimming pool. Sadly the pool was closed because it is winter. After traveling across the Mediterranean Sea, we finally reached Barcelona.

The first word I said, when entering the city was WOW! Barcelona was one of the prettiest cities I have ever seen. There were palm trees everywhere and a huge beach, right near our apartment! Have any of you been to Florida? Barcelona is like a newer Florida. The streets were very clean and there were new structures everywhere. We spent three days wandering around and seeing the sights. My favourite part about visiting Barcelona was seeing a HUGE church called Le Sagrada Famillie. This church was created by a Spanish architect named Gaudi. The church looked modern even though it was started almost 100 years ago! The most amazing part was, that it is not complete and still has anywhere for 30-80 more years until it is done. The church will be absolutely stunning when it is done, and I will have to remind myself to come visit it.

The next stop on our journey was Marbella, Spain. Marbella was also a very beautiful city. We spent most of our week relaxing and visiting the many beaches along the seashore. One day we decided to go over to Morocco in Africa. The tip of Spain almost touches Morocco, and the ferry ride is only 14km. One of the highlights of our day was watching a snake charmer. Do any of you know what a snake charmer is? A snake charmer is a person who can charm snakes using music. We saw a snake charmer dancing a cobra. It was pretty scary, but also very cool. Another highlight of our day here was riding a dromedary (which looks like camel but with one hump). Have any of you ridden a horse before? That is what riding a dromedary feels like, but you sit much higher up! I can’t believe I actually got to ride one!

Well, I better get back to my family, they will wonder were I have been. We have to get packed and ready to drive to Portugal!

I am so tuckered out! We have done lots of traveling and walking in the past four days. We traveled through two countries stopping in Prague and Salzburg. Can you believe that we could travel across two countries is such a short amount of time?  Mark says the countries in Europe are much smaller than Canada, and he would know because he is a Geography teacher!

We hiked up to the top of a hill and had an amazing view of the city of Prague. There were many church towers and domes sticking out above all of the regular houses. Being up so high you get a totally different perspective of the city. I could almost see the house we were staying at from the top of the hill! We also went on the Charles Bridge. All along the bridge there were brass Saints and it was believed that you would be blessed if you touched them. That was the first time I was blessed by a Saint. I think I was the first monkey to ever be blessed by the Saints! There were also many artists and photographers selling their work. I might like to be a photographer when I grow up.  Ally let’s me borrow her camera sometimes and I have captured some spectacular shots.  I’ll show you some of them!

 

 I took this picture of the city of Prague. 

Have you ever heard of the band The Beatles? There was a big painting of the lead singer, John Lennon on a wall called the John Lennon Wall. Over the years people would paint over the face of John Lennon, but there was always someone who would come back and re-paint it. I saw a picture of this wall on the Charles Bridge and was amazed so we decided to go and see it. It didn’t look as good as the photograph, because it had graffiti on it.  This wall was famous because people would protest and speak out against the government there. I thought we should protest against the price of bananas, but we didn’t want to make a scene. After all people don’t eat as many bananas as us monkeys do. Even though banana prices were high, I still enjoyed Prague.

My view of the John Lennon wall.

 

I took this picture of the girls on the Charles Bridge.

            Austria was the first time on our trip where we stayed in the mountains. The mountains were so high that they had snow on top! Too bad we weren’t here in the winter because we could have gone skiing, unfortunately there was not enough snow for us in November. I wonder if there is such thing as monkey skis; it would be an amazing experience to ski in the mountains. I bet I would have been the first monkey to ski in the mountains of Austria. Hmmm, now that I think about it…I should probably start out on a smaller hill.

My view of the mountains.

            We went into Salzburg one day to meet Meghan’s papa’s friend, Louisa. She took us on a ride up the funicular to a castle. I had never been on a funicular before. The funicular was like a little cart or train that went up a steep hill.  It was super fast; what would take us ten to fifteen minutes to walk took us two minutes on the funicular. There was a museum in the castle at the top, and we learned how the castle had grown and changed over the years. There was a look out point and we spent a long time admiring the city. I quite enjoyed looking at the city and mountains with the sun beating on my face. The mountains with the snow on top in the distance sparkled in the sun. At the end of the day we got a hot chocolate and a Mozart chocolate ball. The waiter looked at me funny, as if he had never seen a monkey drink a hot chocolate before. I guess in Austria the monkeys drink their chocolate cold - they are really missing out.  The chocolate balls were filled with chocolate and pistachio filling, mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm, they were delicious.

 

An oven in the Castle, we saw another one in a place we stayed at in Switzerland.

            I think if I ever come back to Austria, I’d like to come when I could go skiing.  I should probably have a couple lessons first though.  Maybe Ally and Meghan will teach me when we get home. I’ll have to ask them. I am glad that we stayed in Austria and the Czech Republic because now I am inspired to learn how to ski.  Watch out mountains….here I come!

Written by Socks, translated by Meghan.

Denmark

You would not believe where I just went, Denmark! We stayed in a cozy little cottage in a town called Hundested. The cottage even had a trampoline! I am a monkey and I like to jump, but I have never jumped on a trampoline before. I went so high!

 

This is a picture I took of Meghan on the trampoline.

Have you ever seen glass blowing before? They put the glass in a red-hot oven, then they blow the glass just like it was a balloon. If they make a mistake they just put it back in the oven and try again. I had to step back because the tip of my tail started to singe. We watched them make a vase and add different colours. I was so amazed. Amazed at the vase, that rhymes!

We had lots of time to relax and snuggle by the fire, and one day we decided to venture out to Copenhagen. Copenhagen was the first time I realized that I was really traveling around the world! It all just seemed like a dream before. One of the things we did in Copenhagen was visit a mermaid statue; I had seen the Little Mermaid movie and absolutely loved the characters. The mermaid was put there because a brewer saw a ballet performance of the Little Mermaid, and fell in love with the character. He got a sculptor to make a brass mermaid and she sits on a rock on the edge of the water.  She has been in the harbour ever since.

 

This is the Mermaid.

 We also went to a street called Nyhavn where a row of houses lined a canal. The buildings on the street were very colourful and there was a reflection in the water. There were so many different colours including yellow, red and blue. If I had a choice I would pick the green one.

 

Me at Nyhaven.

We stayed out in the countryside which was very different from the city. The houses had thatched roofs, which is weird because they are made out of grass. Have you ever seen a thatched roof before? One day we went to the beach, Ally and Meg made me a chair so I could look out at the water and watch the fish jump. There was a fly fisherman in the water.  Instead of having a reel he had to pull the string in and throw it out again to bait a fish. We went for a walk on the beach and there were very large round stones; because I am so little, it was like I was rock climbing!

 

Me on the beach.

            I was sad when our stay in Denmark ended but I am excited to head off to Germany. I hope to come back again to travel all around Denmark with my monkey wife and children one day, just like the Mitchells.

Written by me, Socks.

Edited by Meghan.