Socks in Scotland

Hello, my friends I am back to tell you some more about my amazing adventures. After leaving England, we set off in our car and drove all the way to Scotland. The whole trip took 5 hours. Luckily, I was able to sleep in Ally's bag for most of it until we reached our home in Gretna Green.

I was surprised to see these funny animals that had a white face and fluffy white bodies. Ally said they were called something like sleep. Is there an animal that sounds like sleep? She also said that they use the white stuff on the bodies to make socks and wool blankets. Can you imagine that??? She said the wool socks and blankets could be quite warm as well and I think she whispered to Meg behind my back that the clothing I am wearing is made of wool.

Did you guess what kind of animal they were?

While we were in Gretna, Ally and Meg competed in some Highland dancing competitions. We had to wake up pretty early to get there. Meg danced in the morning. She said the floor was really slippery and she almost fell down! Both Meg and Ally are really good dancers. Meg got a 3rd, 5th and 6th , while Ally got a 4th. Ally tried to show me how to dance but it was really hard. She said I could not compete because there weren't any monkey dancing competitions. Too bad!

Ally and I at the Highland Games in Dunoon

After a week in Gretna we headed out to a small apartment near Glasgow; a big city in Scotland. The apartment was very small and I did not even get my own bed. I had to sleep with Meg. Ally, Meg , Mark, Lisa and I like walking around the city and looking at all the little shops. Too bad that none of the clothing fits me!

My family at the World Bagpiping Championships, there was

even a rainbow in the background.

This is me and some new friends having a spoon balancing contest, they were from England 

and had never tried peanut butter before, this is what we did with the spoons afterwards.  I 

won the contest! And can you believe they didn't like peanut butter, I love it with bananas! They also 

told me I looked like the P. J. Tipps tea monkey. 

Our next stop was a house in Edinburgh. During the day my family and I liked to look at the street vendors. There was a big festival on so we could see some shows. My favorite show was a magic show. It was very funny and cool.  We also got to see lots of magic shows on the street. The magicians even made coins teleport! On our last day in Edinburgh we got to see the Edinburgh Tattoo! A tattoo is a big show with lots of performers like motorcyclists, musicians and bagpipers. The show even ended with fireworks! I love fireworks!

This was my favourite part of the Edinburgh Tattoo, so pretty!

Look at me with Young and Strange, the best magicians in the world, at least

that I have seen live!

Another of my favourite parts of Scotland was exploring the mountains and castles. One day we woke up really early and decided that we were going to spend the day hiking up a mountain called Cat Bells. It was a lot of hard work and my paws were very tired at the end of it, but when we reached the top we saw the most amazing views! We also got to hike up Caringorm , one of biggest mountains in the UK and even got to see a weird brown animal with long antlers called a reindeer.

Ally and I at the top of Caringorm, I'm half asleep in Ally's pocket, that was a long hike!

For a few days after, we got to camp next to Loch Ness. Lock Ness is where the Lock Ness monster lives. Some nights it was pretty cold and there were these little bugs called midges that like to bite you. We also got to see some Highland cows which are furry with big horns, they kind of scared me. We also got to see a river called Earn.  Ally said when you get to Middle School at HSC, you get divided into houses.  She says Earn is the best house and that is why she wanted to visit that river.

This is the Loch Ness can you see the Loch Ness monster anywhere?

Ally and Meg in the Earn River

After camping we went to a hotel for a night so we could get close to where our ferry would take us to Ireland the next day. I will miss Scotland but I am exited to go on a ferry for the first time. A ferry is a big boat that carries people, cars and big busses too!

Written by Socks in monkey, translated by Ally.

Socks visits England

          Today I would like to tell you all about England and what I did there. The highlights of my trip to England were visiting London, Cambridge and Audley End. I did many amazing things while in England, but these events were the best.

We decided we wanted to go and see the city of London, we hopped on the subway and headed in. First we went to see Tower Hill, where the Queen’s crown is kept. Then we went to Buckingham Palace. That is where the Queen lives sometimes. We wanted to see the changing of the guard, but sadly it was cancelled so, we decided to go to the Royal British Museum instead. It was very interesting because it had parts of the Parthenon on display. The Parthenon was a famous Greek building that was destroyed a long time ago. I had the best time in London.

This is me at Tower Bridge, right beside Tower Hill

Another interesting place we visited was Cambridge. We went to the Geological Museum and I saw the most amazing rock and fossil collection. My favourite was a big brown rock with tons of fossils in it. Then we went and looked at the shops and bought a souvenir. We saw Cambridge University, one of the world’s best universities. I think one day I will move to England and go there. I was starving so we had fish and chips for dinner, I have never had that before and let me tell you it was great - far different than Canadian bananas. Cambridge was a great place to visit and I would go back in a heartbeat.

This is my human Dad at the Geological Museum - he loves rocks!

            We also visited a huge house called Audley End. The house was built in 1603, that was a long time ago. First we went to the service wing where all of the cooking and laundry was done.  It was all very different from how we do things today. There was no washing machines or dryers and all of the cooking was done by hand.  There weren’t any mixers, bread machines or refrigerators, what would we do without those today?  Then we went for a tour inside the house, unfortunately we were not able to take pictures but it was spectacular. There were rooms full of books and they had the fanciest beds. It was such a big house it even had its own chapel. It also had a large garden where lots of fruits, vegetables and herbs were grown. That was definitely the biggest and fanciest house I have ever been in.

Me at Audley End

            England was a beautiful place and I think if you were to come here that you would absolutely love it. In my two week stay in England I have visited the most castles and been on more roundabouts than I have in my whole life. Even though there was a lot of windy roads and roundabouts, it was a gorgeous place to visit.

Written in monkey by Socks, translated by Meghan.

Hello from Iceland!

Just dropping in to say Hi!

Hello my friends! My name is Socks the sock monkey. I am currently travelling around the world with my human family Ally, Meg, Mark and Lisa - for a whole year. I will be sharing my travels with you through this blog and when my journey is complete I hope to come and visit you in your classrooms. 

Our first stop on our world tour was Iceland. Iceland is known for its geothermal hot pools, waterfalls and glaciers. This past week we explored these things and much more.

 

My human family!

One of our first stops in Iceland was a geothermal hot pool. Geothermal hot pools are like pools in Canada except they are warmed by energy in the ground. One of the main hot pools in Iceland is called the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is amazing because the water is bright blue. I could not go in the water because I did not want to get by monkey ears wet. My family told me that the pool was very warm.

 

I took this picture of the Lagoon while my family was slipping into their bathing trunks.

I chose a massage while Ally had a silica mud facial!

Another really popular attraction in Iceland is the stunning waterfalls. Since Iceland has many glaciers in the mountains, there are tons of waterfalls.  When we were driving along the coast we would see many waterfalls coming out of the mountains.  Some were just tiny but some were very big. One day we hiked up to the top of a waterfall, it was called Skogafoss.  When we were visiting the biggest waterfall in Europe, called Gulfoss, we saw a rainbow form from the mist spraying up from the falls.

The mist and rainbows. 

 

We hiked all the way up this waterfall!

As we travelled through the mountains we got to see many glaciers. Glaciers are layers of ice piled on top of each other that formed millions of years ago - in the last ice age. They are grey at the bottom because the ice gets mixed with rocks, and white at the top. Sadly we could not climb them because none of the spiky shoes that you are required to wear would fit my paws, but we did see some interesting blue ice at the bottom of the glacier.  At one stop we saw icebergs floating in the lagoon water at the base of the glacier. 

 

The icebergs were floating in faster then I could eat a banana!

The hot pools, waterfalls and glaciers are very popular in Iceland and if you plan on going to Iceland you will get to see them too. I have to catch my plane to England now. I will write again soon.

Written in monkey by Socks, translated by Ally.