STAR WARS,the science museum and the best toy shop EVER!!!

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 9:31 PM on Wednesday the 23rd of December  2015

Recently,the world has been covered in advertising and merchandise for the new Star Wars film,The force awakens and Since its theatrical release was during this trip we decided to go to the London science museum where we would be able to see it in IMAX and also have a look around at the usual exibhits at the museum.  And trust me, it was amazing.

The setout was amazing.

Laid out over three floors there was Stuff on the beginning of the universe,mobility and reusable energy.  It was,as I already said,amazing.  Probably better then the film itself,which was actually definitely more violent then its predecessors.I actually would give it a measly 5/10.

After the science museum we had a quiet night at home and got take away Turkish at the shop below our air bnb

So,in my opinion,The science museum was underrated,the new Star Wars film is overrated.

Remus Brasier out

In the house of King Henry the VIII Tuesday 22nd December

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 8:56 pm on Tuesday the 22nd December 2015.

King Henry the eighth was and probably still is the most famous King in English history.  He invented the Church of England, came up with the British navy and revolutionised the British army.  An athletic man in his earlier years and a food eating machine in his later ones (don't tell him I said that, he might cut my head off!), Mr Henry Tudors life would be an interesting one to live.  And to find out more about it, what better place do so than the location of where he lived: Hampton Court Palace!

Hampton Court Palace looks amazing.  Residing just next to a clear, beautiful river and sporting lush greenery just adds to its visual grandness.  When we entered the massive mansion, we headed to the information office where we all (except Rafferty, because he was a bit cranky this morning) put on coloured robes.  Mine was purple, indicating I was king.  Dad chose green and so did mum, making them prince and princess. First we headed to the Kings hall where the higher ranking servants and visiting lords would eat but the King would eat in his private apartments which we got to see later on.  Nevertheless, it looked very grand with massive tapestries and on the table cloth was the standard Tudor list of eating manners.  Then we moved on to see the kitchens and they were quite interesting.  They were a lot of different pots and pans of all shapes and sizes.  But they needed that much.  To feed not only the King and the queen but the advisors, servants and maids they would be on their feet working ALL day.

Later after we were finished at the palace we got something to eat and drink we went to the maze and it was complete and utter disappointment.  So, we headed back to the station and went back to the place we have been staying at.

King Henry certainly lived in style and Hampton court palace seems like a perfect sample of that.

That night mum and dad went out to dinner at a flash restaurant and Felicity took us to Honest Burgers for dinner, I loved the mint lemonade 

A very good museum and a brilliant day - Monday 21st December

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 9.15pm on Monday 21st of December 2015 

Today we probably experienced the life of a British child in the Christmas holidays.  Today we went to the Princess Diana playground in Kensington Gardens, the London Transport Museum, Somerset House and absolutely all of it will be recounted in this, today's blog.

Let's start at the beginning (some say, it's a very good place to start) we got up out of bed and got dressed.  Not a lot of action in the first part of the morning, and I think you will agree.  What we did, whilst Mum and my favourite Aunty Flis went to Borough Market, we walked to the rather good playground.  It was amazing, the actual playground isn't just swings and slides but rather designed as an old fashioned ship made out of wood in which you can climb to the top of the crow's nest and from there it is a brilliant view.  I think it might just be the best playground in the world (and I'm not exaggerating).  So the time flew past whilst we were playing sword fights mainly.  

Then we (Raff and me) went with Aunty Flis to the London Transport Museum whilst Mum and Dad went to the Imperial War Museum.  Although this was actually my 2nd time going to it I was still looking forward to it very much. When we entered the desk lady gave us a stamp trail where you had to got to checkpoints throughout where you had to "stamp" the piece of paper in the designated place.  The stamp was actually a cut out of different shapes.  We started at the highest level and worked our way down.  We started at public transport for the 1800s which meant the underground (aka tube) hadn't been invented yet.  Then we worked our way down via the first double decker buses, early horse drawn carriages and many other exhibits, all the time collecting new stamps on the stamp trail.  

When we finally made it to the bottom we had the pleasure of driving a simulator, which we were responsible for driving a virtual tube between stations.   It was lots of fun.  After that we read a little bit more on the London taxi and its drivers needing to learn something called "the knowledge", which is the study of all London streets, pubs and monuments.  My favourite part of the museum (probably) would in fact be the exhibit from students from the London Academy of Arts study on future public transport.  It was absolutely brilliant and whilst most of the ideas will never come to real life, we can still dream.  

Then we went to a bar in Covent Garden where we met up with Kate, after a quick drink there we headed to M&S where we were looking for hilarious Christmas jumpers.  I do believe we found something even better....a Santa style hat with a beard.  

Then we went to the arranged meeting place, which was in fact Somerset House.  A grand building with a beautiful ice rink for Christmas which was great to look at.  

And that was today's blog. You may have noticed that today's was very, very big.

When in Britain (Saturday 19th December)

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 7:53 pm on Saturday the 19th of December 2015.

The Eurostar.

The mighty train with capability of starting in Paris, speeding along the French countryside and in to a tunnel for a while.  When it comes out on the other side, you're in England.  And today I was lucky enough to experience all of that.  Yes,for the third and final leg of my European trip,My trans-Paris-London trip we chose to do it with the three S's: Speed,style and something else I can't remember.(That was a bad joke.Sorry)

When we arrived we caught a Austin TX5 A.K.A London taxi in order to go to Ladbroke grove where the location of the place we would be staying at was.After a look around it we headed to my mums friends Kates(you'll remember her from my German posts.)birthday party which was a bus tour of the tour with a twist - it was on a double decker bus and we got an afternoon tea. 

Kate's other friends on the bus let me and Rafferty have the best seat on the bus - the front seat up the top. We also got 2 hot chocolates.

We saw all the sights as we drove around having our afternoon tea. We also saw lots of great cars including a Bugatti. 

It was a great first day in London. 

Remus Friday - Food in France

From the pen of Remus Brasier on Friday the 18th of December 2015 at 8:45 pm

Today started out as a average day.  Well,I mean, I'm in Paris, yes, but we(referring to mum,dad,Rafferty and       Flis plus me) were just sitting there in our hotel room,basically doing nothing,waiting for 3:00 to come around.

'Why were we waiting for that certain time in the day?' I hear you ask.Thats a good question,but there's an equally good answer for that. Let me explain.At three,there was to be a person who would meet us at a part of Paris called St Germain des Pres who would show us around one of the best places in Paris to shop for food including shops dedicated to just just one thing.

At 2:45,we took the metro to go to the Saint Germain des Pres station where would meet the lady who was to take us on our tour.When we met her,we started almost immediately.

Firstly,she showed us a old style of a French shop.  Inside we had a taste test of a delicious Fois Gras. IT WAS BRILLIANT!

We walked a bit more and did the same with a shop dedicated to honey.  Actually, that's the funny thing about Parisian shops;Some have a great variety of products and some sell variants of just one thing.

See,at the honey shop there was chestnut honey, chocolate honey and much, much more.  And similarly,there was a jam shop where the best selling product was champagne and raspberry jam.  Of course,my drunkard parents just HAD to have that one.They said it was very nice.

The other food shops we went to included the oldest chocolate shop

In Paris, a boulangerie which is a bakery, a seafood shop, a cheese shop, a fruit and veggie shop and a crazy ice cream shop. 

Later when we had finished we went to an old fashioned diner where guess what I had for entree..Yes, earlier today I had some actually very nice indeed snails.

Remus Brasier out.

Napoleon's tomb

From the pen of Remus Brasier on Thursday 17th of December 2015 at precisely 9:56(Parisian time)

It goes without saying that N.bonaparte was and still is an entrepreneur of modern warfare.

A genius at planning offensive and defensive strikes to be carried out in battle.  An example of this would I be the legendary battle of austerwiltz which he won with flying colors.

Me,dad and Rafferty all saw this at the Paris museum of Invalides. Yes,this is my recount of my first full day in Paris for this trip.So let me start from, well, the start.

In the morning I woke up, reluctantly,(because the beds at the hotel we are staying at are magnificently comfy indeed) and got ready to go.

Mum and Aunty Flis planned to go shopping and do other girl stuff for most of the day.  Dad,Rafferty and me, as I have already said, decided to go to the museum Invalides. 

Once we got there we headed to the medieval to pre 1860's exhibits and saw many examples of artillery and armour of that time.  There were cannons and computerized recounts of battles.  I can say this:If you ever get the chance to go there I would definitely recommend it.  The World War One and two Exhibits are brilliant as well.  

The cafe there was amazing,I had a baguette with chicken, tomato and mozzarella.  We also had a look at the world famous napoleons tomb which, if you ask me, is a bit overrated.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel.  Raff,dad and me all went to a crepearie in which we had both savoury and sweet crepes.  THEY WERE BRILLANT!!

  

After that, we decided to go back to the hotel and get some well earned rest. 

Wednesday: On to Paris

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 8.20pm on Wednesday the 16th of December.

Much to my annoyance, Mum came into Raff and my room and woke us up BEFORE 6am! Can you imagine that? 

You are supposed to be on holidays but there is no such thing as a sleep in.  We walked to the train station, the streets engulfed in darkness.  Normally you wouldn't think that was so amazing because in Winter in Europe even at 8.20am when most people would be off to work or school, it's still dark and freezing.  Anyway, we headed to the very same train station that only a few days ago we arrived in Wurzburg at.  We waited for 10-15 minutes on the platform and then when the train finally came our carriage (carriage 29), we had to run to it in order to get on because the train had pulled up too far along the platform.  Everyone, even business people, had to run to get onto their carriage.  Even while this was happening the conductors whistle was blaring out, obviously driving panic into everyone's heads (most of all Rafferty's!)

Because we had got a very good deal on it, we got to stay in 1st class.  You should've seen the speeds the train hit, at one stage I saw it reach 286km per hour!  But at least a third of the way there we had to stop in order to get something repaired, at the time we didn't know what was happening but it seemed to be so bad it took around 66minutes to investigate and then we had to transfer to another train.  That seemed to be good because that train hit speeds of 315km an hour!!!

When we arrived at the Paris station, we were startled to see young men with camouflage uniforms holding semi automatic weapons.  A little confronting.... Rafferty kept asking questions about them, most I didn't know the answers, for example: One I do know;why are they here?Answer;Security:and ones I don't;What type of gun are they holding?

After arriving at our hotel, called the signature, we decided to go for linner (it is technically a cross between lunch and dinner, like what brunch is for breakfast and lunch).  We decided to go to a recommendation given by the hotel to go to a place called Cafe Verenne.   Raff and I both had duck and chopped up potatoes, we were both tempted by the snails though.  Flis and Dad both had French onion soup and Mum helped herself to steak tartare.  Mum often likes to think her pronunciation of French words is unbeatable.  That was proved wrong by the very nice waiter, when she ordered Tar-tear instead of what,apparently,is pronounced Ta-ta.  We all enjoyed laughing at her mistake for the rest of the night.

Now we move onto one of the most brilliant and special museums in all of the world, The Louvre.  The Louvre is a grand former palace, famous for now being the most famous museum in the world, having one of the biggest collections of art works EVER! Amongst the art works in the collection is the world famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci (more on that later).  First we headed on to Napoleon III apartments, not to be confused with Napoleon Bonaparte who is famous for being very short and for winning many battles including the battle of Austerlitz.   The amount of space and the amount of decoration - the grandness, those statutes and paintings - was amazing, just to think Napoleon III woke up to that every day! After that we headed through a few  different areas including the ancient Egyptians.  We also went downstairs and walked inside the former moat of the Louvre when it was still a fortress and a castle (the moat was empty of water though...don't worry!)

Then we moved on to the FAMOUS Mona Lisa.  Many theories go on about this wonderful painting.  Normally people would line up for miles and miles just to test if those theories are true but because we went in December and late at night there were literally no lines.  These theories include whenever you walk around the eyes seem to follow you and that her face is actually of Leonardo Da Vinci's himself.

If this is a show of what my next few days in Paris will be like, I can't wait to see what happens next! Remus Brasier out.

Tuesday: Christmas Markets Wurzberg

From the pen of Remus Brasier at the hotel Wurzburg at 10:05pm on Tuesday the 15th of December 2015

Have you ever heard of kinderpunsch?

It's technically just hot green apple juice.A bit sour so that you can have a few of them and a bit sweet to make it  bearable.  

It has been the greatest thing yet in my trip around Europe.

So that's why I was making the most of it on my last night in Germany(tomorrow I head off to Paris) by drinking it out of a boot.No, not an actual boot, just a cup in the shape of a boot! 

(If you go on to my mums Instagram you can see Rafferty drinking out of his:@marikamcmahon)

After an absolutely brilliant breakfast we headed to Marienburg Fortress which is a big castle overlooking the town of Wurzburg.  It is high on a hill, so steep that when I was having a race with Rafferty fell over.  Quite a lot.  It was also fun in the courtyard when Kate and I pretended we were Knights, galloping and swinging our swords in battle,obviously inspired by the ancient swords in the museum.

I  also pretended to behead Raff

At night, before the markets, all the others decided to go onto the bridge where there were lots of statutes of holy figures of the same time that the bridge was built,Including one of st kilian, the man who my school is named after!

The hotel we've being staying is called hotel Wurzburg and it is magnificent.Very olde-worlde as my aunty would say.It's the best temporary home we've had yet and it's going to be hard to beat.But my favorite Christmas market would be Stuttgart's.

And if was to live some where in Germany for the rest of my life, nothing could beat Frankfurt.

And so, with that, I announce the ending of this leg of a very big trip.

Monday - Stuttgart to Wurzburg

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 9:22 pm on Monday the 14th of December  (German time).

Germany is extremely cool.

Let's start with the fact that in Australia, we have cars used for taxis like the ford falcon and Holden commodore which are,let's face it,pretty darn terrible.It is here though, in Germany, whether it be Stuttgart or Frankfurt, they have MERCEDES-BENZ E-CLASS'! Cars that have all the latest luxury and technology are used as TAXI'S!!!

Now, on to the blog.

Today I woke up,put on my new Mercedes racing team t-shirt and all my other clothes and went to the train station, hopped on a train and headed to Wurzburg, an old town built around the river Main. 

And once we got there, we headed straight to somewhere I was very exited to go to indeed: St kilians church in Wurzburg, the original one in his home town

It was very nice indeed and I recommend going there.

There is also a statue of St Kilian on an old bridge over the river.

There it is. My shortest blog so far but my experience was no less fascinating.

Did I Like the Mercedes Museum

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 7:56 pm on Sunday the 12th of December(German time) 

If you can remember, my blog post From Frankfurt to Stuttgart was all about my trip from, well, Frankfurt to Stuttgart and also, mainly, my trip to the Porsche museum.

Well, today I went the Mercedes museum,which is apparently more popular with critics and the public then the Porsche one.

So,let's get started! While on the way to the museum I got to see a mule!  A mule is a test car that is covered in a wrap, which is a camouflage that is put on at the factory to make car journalists  first, we(me,mum,Rafferty,Aunty flis,and dad) headed to the section where we got a template and created our own Mercedes!

We got to draw it and for inspiration there were real Mercedes concepts,factory made clay models and actual designers,well, designs.I called mine the 2016 Mercedes AMG SLR mark 3.(there are actually 2 real life SLR's.Search them up:just without the AMG)

We have the pre 1900's where the Karl Benz patent mobile resides(1).Then, we head on to the before 1930's section where there is this 1926 Benz Hoff duaxmobile is on display(2)

Along the way,there are many interesting facts not only about cars but in between exhibits there are short walkways which have,on the walls,short paragraphs on what was happening out side the car world right then.

And even more car facts;did you know that Karl Benz (in around 1886)actually invented the car,just two months before Mr.daimler,and Henry ford invented the assembly line in 1908 to make the production of cars faster.

The museum itself is made in a spiral formation so that you take a lift to the top and work your down with cars on display that include AMG SLS',300 Sl's,safety cars that have actually served in real F1 and the entire silver arrows racing team.  After making it to the bottom we had lunch go to the souvenir shop and buy a Mercedes racing team T-shirt and a model 300 SL.

So concludes a day of brilliant experience's.

But  as good as it was, against the votes of the critics,I preferred the Porsche museum more

Remus Brasier signing out.

Hey hey it's Saturday

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 9:11 pm on December Saturday the 12th.

Never in my life have I been so disgusted.Okay,I'm exaggerating a lot.But your dad teaming up with your brother against you in a life size game of chess making it a two against one is extremely unfair.This all happened today at around midday after lunch(German time).Me and Rafferty were playing fairly but about 5 minutes into the game dad started giving Rafferty advice therefore giving him a advantage against me.After that they made it official that they were teaming up.They won after a huge hour and a bit and lots of encounters.Afterwards dad claimed that he only joined Raff to make it even but that just makes it even more unfair and I'm sure you'll agree.

 

Instead of writing to you from my bed at motel one I author this from a table at a beer hall called Bauhaus and dug  into my delicious pork snitchel and chips.It is my mums friend,Kate's,birthday today and she's turning forty.This beer hall or restaurant,whatever you want to call it is a classic showing of how seriously Germans take their food.It is a wonderful place and should you ever be in Stuttgart I highly recommend it. 

Hey,hey that's the end of today's blog apart from the post scripts you see below.

P.S Tomorrow we go to the Mercedes museum so stay tuned!?

PPS Feel free to comment!

From Frankfurt to Stuttgart

A From the pen of Remus Brasier at 6:59 pm on December the 11th 2015

Okay,here's how it went;this morning I woke up,the symptoms of last nights jet lag long gone,got dressed and headed to Frankfurt train station and ate breakfast.Today I had a giant pretzel, with cream cheese and onion.IT WAS MASSIVE!We got onto a train headed to Stuttgart, our destination.An hour and a half later,we arrived.

When we (Aunty felicity, me, mum,Rafferty and dad) got to our destination,we checked in to our motel, called motel one.Modest (NOT).After that,we had a look at the Stuttgart Christmas markets which included a ice skating rink and a (tiny) Ferris wheel.

Then, came the highlight of my day,The PORSCHE MUSEUM!!!!!!!!!!!!

From the type 360 to the 918 spider via the 911, there were hundreds of cars on display and at the time there was a exhibit on about the 959, a ex-fastest car in the world.I took many pictures as you can see.There was also a Porsche driving simulator.Me and Rafferty  both had a go around Spa, a famous Belgian racing circuit in a 991 911 GT3 cup cerrera.I set a time at 2 minutes 22 seconds and Rafferty did it at 2 m 45 s.I was also 34 seconds behind the best lap time, which Isn't bad at all.

 A 1962 Porsche 356 GTC.10/10

A 1975 Porsche 911 turbo. 8/10 

Sally, from cars,and my mum.Both are lawyers!

My mum in a Macan s diesel,a car dad hates!

Me crossing the finish line in a simulated 911 GT3 cup cerrera at spa.

And the sign announcing our arrival

I'm Remus Brasier and that was today's blog.

Airports, Jet Lag and Frankfurt

From the pen of Remus Brasier at 9:34 PM on December the 10th

Three things:

(1)Frankfurt is awesome.

(2)Jet lag is inconvenient and stupid and hard to understand.

(3)and walking straight in to a pole is a bad idea.

Yes, last time I broke my arm on the 2nd last day of my trip in London, now it's running in to a pole on the first day in Frankfurt.  

Frankfurt is a small, old city in Germany that has at least twenty churches.  And at least half of them are in the town square! Although we won't be here for long at all (tomorrow we catch a train to Stuttgart) Mum, dad, Raff, aunty Flis and me have had a look at the city Cristmas market, walk across a bridge and back and eaten at a very German restaurant called Paulaner (BEST POTATOES EVER).  But let's start back, from the moment we took off on Wednesday.

It is Wednesday the 9th.  You are on a QANTAS A380.  And now scrap all that, because I'll tell you all what happens next: we take off, (best feeling ever), I watch (thunderbirds and after at least 30 other things, I go to sleep.  

When I wake up, we are in Dubai airspace. It was there and then I decided that I HATED P.A announcements.  Just really annoying announcements that have no real reason.  We don't want to know whether you hope we will have a nice trip or not, we want to get on with the flight!

Anyway, jet lag is very annoying.  I hate it.  And it isn't a help for the fact that it starts going dark at 3:00.  And jet lag, my friends, is the sole reason I ran into a one-way sign in Frankfurt while looking for the restaurant.  It hurt quite a bit.  Okay, it hurt a lot.  But it made an amusing sound when I ran into it.  Sort of like this:TWAAAAAAAAAANNNNGG.

So that, my friends, is what I did today and now,I must go on and conclude this entry in my blog, and let you all go.

Oh, and feel free to comment.

---

The first leg of a big trip

From the pen of Remus brasier, at exactly 9:50 pm on the 9th of December 2015.

Right there is me and my brother Rafferty,who is also doing a blog of his own which WON'T be as good as mine but read it anyway,standing at Bendigo railway station, In front of the bus from the Bendigo airport bus operation that took us all the way from Bendigo to Melbourne.Since arriving at Melbourne airport,where I am now,I have gone through  at least agonizingly long lines to get through security and the ABF and more.

Actually,I'll tell you a story.After mum,dad,raff and me got through security,We realised that we were missing a bag.Then we saw a security guy putting it beside him.It turns out that the water bottle I had been drinking on the way to Melbourne on the bus was put into that bag and it was detected by the X-RAY so we poured it out and continued.  

That was today's entry.Feel free to reply

Yours sincerely, Remus Brasier

✈️🇬🇧

P.S This is probably going to be the only post that doesn't have a car involved reference.