Roman Castles and medieval times

Last night we went to the supermarket to get some food and we saw this machine that gives you money for recycling all your glass and plastic bottles. Its great!  We got 16.78 Euro back for recycling our bottles, so we went and brought more sparkling mineral water.

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Now its morning time and its our 3rd day here. We’re just about to go up on top of Tom’s roof to clean it with brooms and cut down a dead tree to get the hanging vines off the roof as well.

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Its good to be having a home day because this place is really cool.

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A photo Tom took of Mum inside the big barn. It was pretty freaky climbing around in there with all the cobwebs and hiding wild cats. Underneath is a huge scarey cellar too, with dark little rooms off to the side. Freaky!

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Its an old farm with huge sheds and barns and it’s a bit overgrown, so we’re doing lots of ‘boy stuff’ like weed wacking and cutting lots of things to get it all cleaned up. Then we’re going to have a big fire one of these nights and invite some of his friends over for dinner and to play music outside.

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This is an old over grown silo, we climbed right up to the top of it.

These are some of the records that have been broken since I’ve been here in Germany.

1. I’ve had the best eggs and strawberries that I’ve ever eaten here.

2. I’ve been in a car going 197 Km per hour on the autobahn highway.

3.  I’ve been into my first castle ever. And we’re going to explore Frankenstein’s castle this week.

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5. I’ve seen the biggest bull ever in my life here.

6. I’ve seen my first windmill ever, and been up close inside it.

7. I’ve got my first leather jacket.
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This guy Udo gave it to me yesterday. It used to be his sons but it doesn’t fit him any more so he gave it to me. Its awesome and so warm and it makes crunchy leathery sounds when I walk. Its cool.

Anyway about the castle, we went to this Romen castle yesterday and I got this souvenir…..
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it’s a gold coin like the ones they used to use back then.

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The Romans were so smart they had under floor heating made from channels of hot water. They also had bath houses (like big hot pools) and saunas which they would of loved after a big day out in the battle field.

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I learnt alot about the Roman people, and also the Germans. The local German (bush people) out smarted them in the forests around here (Oldenwald) because they knew them like the back of there hands. They would dig holes behind trees and cover them with something like a leafy trap door (hatch) Then they would ambush the romans and take off and run back to their hiding places behind trees and under their bush covered hatches and be gone, totally disappeared. I reckon that’s pretty cool and I want to build some hide away huts like that when I get back home to NZ.

In the castle they had big catapults that could fire things over 300 meters from the castle walls. They also had cross bows and all sorts of other weaponry that they made from iron and wood.
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I learnt that oak wood is really hard and lasts a really long time.  They were very clever people and invented so many cool things. I liked seeing how they built bridges, houses, castles and weapons and everything they did was actually really smart.

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After that we went to this old medieval village outdoor museum place. And Wow!

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It was like we stepped back in time. All the buildings were made so long ago, they had old windmills and water wheel houses. A power station, a phone company building and they had people there showing you how everything worked. I got to use the old phones and see how the clickers worked, that was after the days when the operator plugged in the switches. We checked out the old kitchens and saw how they made butter and cheese, and the graineries and their flour mills.

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And their workshops and how they made their shoes.

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They had a transport area with trains and old cars, they had animals there that they kept just like in the olden days. They had gardens growing around their houses and everything looked really real, just like it used to. The kids bedrooms had a potty under the beds and it showed the ladies looms that they made all the clothes on. There was so much to see that we couldn’t even get all the way around and lots of the houses and buildings got closed because we were the last ones to leave. But that’s OK because we had awesome fun.

Anyway I have to go now and break some more records like going 200 km with our neighbour in his flash car. Nah just joking.

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By the way his car is a Volts Wagon and far out its fast! But the funny thing was it didnt even feel like we were going that fast. Nothing even changed outside because all the other cars were going around the same speed beside us. Everyone just drives super fast, not crazy and out of control  just alot faster. Its awesome. I love it. I took this photo on the way to the castle and I thought that we were going fast then, but on the way home, there wasn’t as much traffic so he went even faster but mums camera battery had died so I couldn’t take another photo. Oh well.

Mum will be uploading photos for all these posts now because we haven’t had any good Internet connection for ages. That’s why all these blogs have been saved as drafts and getting published now. Sorry about that.

Ka kite ano BYE BYE

THE END

Lukoia Coffey over and out.