Socks in Belgium

            For the last week I was in Belgium. We were accompanied by Mark’s brother Dan. Dan is a prankster, so we knew we had some surprises in store. Two things I really enjoyed in Belgium, were going to the Menin Gate to see the last post, and the chocolates. I will also tell you about the research Meghan’s uncle did on his great grandfather.

Menin Gate is the main gate into Ieper, it holds the name of almost 55000 fallen soldiers whose bodies were not found or were not identified in the First World War. In remembrance of them, they have a ceremony at 8:00 pm every night, where the last post is played and wreaths are laid. Every day there is a large crowd of people there to listen to the last post, but I was the only monkey. The song was so polished and clear, it sounded astonishing and to top it off that night, there was a piper that played Flowers of the Forest. I really enjoyed listening to the last post, and I don’t think many monkeys get to experience that.

The Menin gate at sunset.

 One day we went into the city of Brugges, about every other store was a chocolate store.  Did I mention I am absolutely in love with chocolate? We tried a couple of different kinds of chocolate. My absolute favourite was a dark chocolate that we got. Meghan said that I was not allowed to eat a lot of chocolate, but they let me have some because Belgium is famous for chocolate. I have to say, that week I think I saw more chocolate stores than I had in my entire life. I won’t complain, because I love chocolate.

Ally at a chocolate store

When Dan was younger he found out that his Great Grandfather was in the war, and he started researching and found out a lot of information. He knew that one day he wanted to come and see his grave and where he fought. So when it turned out that the Mitchells would be travelling, he decided to come and visit. While we were in Belgium we visited many cemeteries, one of them being his Great Grandfather’s.  We also visited Vimy Ridge, where he died, hill 60 and 62, and trenches that he would have fought in, Flanders Field, Flanders Field Museum and many more war related places.  It was incredible to know that almost a hundred years ago, Meghan’s Great Great Grandfather was there fighting for our country. Private William Mitchell died at war, but was definitely not forgotten.

Dan and Mark's Great Grandfather's grave 

Belgium was a great place for a stop on our world trip, and I think it is really important that we remember the soldiers that have fallen for their country. It also has great chocolate.

Written by Socks in monkey, translated by Meghan.

Sock's in Holland

After a 10-hour drive from Paris, France, we arrived in the Netherlands, on Wednesday the 16^th of October. For the next 2 days we would be exploring the city of Amsterdam, one of the most popular cities in Holland. The Netherlands are known for their tulips, windmills, clogs and cheese. We explored these areas and more, and had very adventurous 2 days here.

One of our first stops in the Netherlands was a cheese factory. The factory was on a farm and a long time ago, the milk to make the cheese would have been from the animals on the farm. Now a days the operation is so big, that the animals cannot produce enough milk to supply the factory.  It now comes from other farms around it. There was a lady who worked in the factory and told us the steps of how the cheese was made. The first step to making cheese is bringing the milk to the right temperature. After the desired temperature is achieved, an ingredient called rennet is added to the milk. The rennet creates little curds of cheese that separate from the milky water. Sometimes you can just buy cheese curds at the grocery store. I have had them before and they are good! After this, the milky water is drained off and the curds are put into a press for a few hours. After this stage is complete, the now solid cheese blocks are put into a bath of water and salt, which gives them their main flavour. The cheese is then coated in wax and left to sit on a shelf. Once the cheese has been sitting on the shelf for the desired time, the cheese is then packaged and sent to grocery stores in bulk. At the end of the process, for every 10 pounds of milk used; only 1 pound of cheese is made.

 

Ally and Meg with one of the factory workers. 

Ally beside the big milk container. 

My Family outside of the cheese factory.

Quiz Question!

What kind of milk is cheese made of?

      A)       Cow’s milk

            B)           Sheep’s milk

      C)  Goat’s milk

For answer look and the end of the blog.

Another interesting place that we visited, was a clog factory. Clogs are wooden shoes that people from the Netherlands used to wear all the time. You may have seen them before; they are wooden and kind of look like the genie’s shoes from Aladdin. They are pretty popular over here, and in our travels throughout our stay in Holland; we saw many clog factories. One in particular had clogs hanging from the ceiling!  It was very neat, we even found a pair of clogs that would have fit my paws!

 

Look at all the clog's on the roof!

Meg and Ally in a big plastic clog!

Apparently if you come to the Netherlands in the summer there are rows upon rows of tulips. Sadly, since we visited here in the middle of October the tulips were not in bloom. Ally said she saw lots of pictures that showed a windmill with many different coloured rows of tulips in front of it. Most people have also told us, that there were many windmills in the Netherlands. We did not see many though, as we were in the city most of the time, but we did see a few.

One of the main reasons we wanted to visit the Netherlands, was to see the city of Amsterdam. We spent most of our time wandering around the little shops and looking at the little canals, which can be seen from almost every turn. There are also tons of cheese shops all along the streets. We liked visiting them and trying free samples of cheese and a cookie called a Dutch biscuit. We were also surprised at how many bikes there were. There were almost 15 bikes for every car we saw, which is very different from in Canada.

 

The canals 

The biggest french fries I have ever seen!

Ally getting food  from a vending machine! Who would have thought there would be a hambuger vending machine!

At the end of our trip, we were very glad we ended up spending a few days in the Netherlands. We learned lots of new things that we did not know before and had lots of fun visiting the city of Amsterdam.

Quiz Question Answer

Surprisingly, cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk can be used in the process of making cheese.  

Bonjour From France

Bonjour from France

For the past few weeks, I have been traveling around France with my family. After our long ferry from Ireland, we finally arrived in St. Malo. After our first week in St. Malo we ventured in to Belgium. Then back to France for a week in Paris.

The tidal pool. 

St. Malo from out of our window.

St. Malo was a very beautiful city. We rented a little apartment right in the city centre, so we could walk and see a lot of the town very easily. We could also walk 10 minutes, and see the Atlantic Ocean. They had a little swimming area on the ocean that kept the water in a large pool, even when the tide was down. We never went swimming though, because my fur does not dry very easily. We spent most of our time in St. Malo walking around to all the little boutiques and shops that line the sides of every street. My favorite part about St. Malo was being able to pick up fresh baguette and croissants from the local bakery. They were so delicious, that we picked up fresh bread almost every day! One of the first nights in the city, we went to a little creperie to have crepes for dinner. Mmmm they were so good!

 

St. Michel

On our way to Belgium, we decided to stop at a place called St. Michel. St. Michel is a church built on an island. In the past you could only visit during low tide, but now there is a bridge that you can walk out on, during high tide. The church is surrounded by a small village. There are lots of tourist shops on the tight little cobble stone streets. We spent a lot of time walking around and seeing all of the little shops. We had lots of fun in St. Michel, and I suggest a visit there to any of you who will be visiting France soon.

 

Ally's Uncle Dan

When we were in Belgium, Ally’s Uncle Dan met us. He came over to visit us for 2 weeks. Ally’s uncle is very funny, and he made my ears wiggle because I was laughing so hard. Ally and Meg were very exited when he came, and they had a fun two weeks visiting with him.

 

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower at night.

The Mona Lisa. 

After we visited Belgium, we headed back to Paris for another week. We visited many places in Paris, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the L’arc de Triomphe. The Eiffel Tower is a big tower that stands in the middle of Paris. You can climb up the tower, all the way to the top if you want, but my family only climbed to the second level. The view out the side of the Eiffel tower was beautiful, you can see the whole city from it! We also got to see the Eiffel Tower at night once. It was all lit up and at 10 pm at night it started to sparkle, it was very pretty. Another of my favourite things to visit in Paris was the Louvre Museum. The Louvre Museum holds the famous painting, the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci. We got to see that along with many other paintings by famous painters. We also got to see many other neat and interesting places around Paris such as L’arch De Triumph and Versailles Palace.

We sure had and amazing time visiting all of these places, and can’t wait to see what is in store for the next leg of our journey.

Written by: Socks

Translated by: Ally  

Socks in Ireland

Hello from Ireland. Today I will be telling you about my three favourite things about visiting Ireland. They were the Titanic exhibition, Giant’s Causeway and the Cliffs of Moher. Ireland has a bad reputation for always raining so they made up a saying. “If it isn’t raining now, it will rain later.”

My first favourite thing was the Titanic Exhibit. When we got there I did not know what the Titanic was, so I asked my family. They told me that it was a big ship that transported people all around and that it had hit an iceberg and sunk. As a monkey they never told me about the titanic so I wanted to learn more. On the ship there were places to sleep, called cabins.  There was something about classes for the rooms that I did not understand but Meghan told me that the classes indicated what was in the room and how fancy the room was. On the Titanic ship they transported mail as well. Another interesting thing about the exhibit was that they had a ride that told you step by step how they built the Titanic. The exhibit was very accurate and it seemed like you were getting all the information from the captain himself. The titanic exhibit is a must see in Belfast.

Meghan and Ally outside the exhibit.

The Giants Causeway is a group of hexagonal beams formed by a volcanic eruption. The beams are all different heights making it seem like it is from a book or movie. Being a monkey I had never seen something so extraordinary, formed by nature. We walked on the beams and Mark went to the top and played the bagpipes, that was awesome. There is a myth of how the beams got there. There were two giants on either side of the water, but giants don’t like to get their feet wet. So, one giant put all of the hexagonal beams down so they could meet. The one giant ran across and saw how big the other giant was and got scared, so he ran back to his house where his wife disguised him as their baby. The other giant saw the baby and thought if the baby was that big how big was the dad, and he ran away breaking the causway. Can you find me in this picture? If not the picture underneath will give you a clue.

When we went to the Cliffs of Moher it was so windy, there was 100 km/h winds. I almost blew over a couple of times. Right when we got to the Cliffs of Moher it was foggy, so you could not see the cliffs.  After a couple of minutes it cleared up and I got a good picture on my monkey camera. Did you know that the cliffs are 700 feet tall? From the cliffs you have an absolutely astonishing view.

The Cliffs of Moher

I had an amazing time and cannot wait till when I get older and can bring my monkey family and friends back to Ireland. Well I better go I am going to watch the Titanic movie with my family.

Written by Socks, translated by Meghan