Europe Adventure

We recently got back from an Adventure in Europe. We first packed, then we drove to a bus station. At the bus station we parked and got on the bus to Boston. We got off at the airport and discovered someone had taken our bag. We went to terminal E and took a Aer Lingus flight to Dublin that lasted about 5 hrs & 20 minutes. We did not have that one bag, but the bus company was searching for it. In Dublin we took a taxi to a fishing village , saw a castle there and ate at a cafe. We had about 4 hr layover so then we took another taxi back to Dublin airport. The currency in Ireland was Euro's but they drove on the left side of the road. So they had a bit of English culture left from the time Britain ruled Ireland. The taxi drivers did not really like England and one played a Irish rebel song when we asked him his favorite Irish music. We took another Aer Lingus flight from terminal 2 to Inverness Scotland. That flight was only an hour and a half. In Inverness we got a Mercedes rental car that turned off when you stopped ! We drove towards Skye after we got some food from a market. There were sheep and green hills everywhere!

 We stopped on our way and hiked up a hill and had a picnic on it. There were many small rivulets running through the hills too. We saw plenty of sheep on our way to Skye. We stopped at some castles like Eileen Donan and Urqhart

.  We also went to a town called Strontian, where strontium was discovered. In Skye we slept in a cottage, and explored many places, including Portree ( the capital ), and the fairy springs                  

next to the Cullens ( a mountain range ). Then we went down to Stirling, and saw Stirling Castle. After this we went down to Edinburgh and the surrounding towns. We saw Edinburgh Castle

and went to church in DalKeith. We also went through a flower field ( around North Berwick )                        

. We hiked up a The North Berwick Law ( or just the Berwick Law ), in North Berwick , it is a hill that has a whale's Jawbone ( now a replica , added in 2008, after one rotted away , and was removed in 2005 )  on the top. It also has ruins of an Iron age hill fort and military bases of many wars, including the Napoleonic and WWII. I got lost on it but, We found each other later. After this we had a Flight booked for London, but when we stopped on our way to the Airport , Our Sister's lip got slashed on the concrete. We went to the airport , and they told us that we should get it stitched, ( by the way the medical agent there was not very helpful ) But they couldn't do it, and there was a hospital 7 miles away or so. So we went to St Johns hospital and waited forever in the emergency room. Then after some more waiting in a patient's room, there came a facial surgeon and he stitched our sisters lip up. We had missed our flight from Edinburgh airport, and drove around, after getting some food at Tesco's, to find a hotel to sleep for the night. We went to hotel one hotel, they said no, then another ( that they recommended to us ), that said no , and another ( that they recommended to us ) , that said NO. But , finally we found one that said yes! and we slept there during the night. There was a deal if you book flights the day before them , before midnight, then they are cheaper. Our dad booked our flight to London , like 2 minutes before Midnight. We slept there that night, and then had a Breakfast there , for they had breakfast served there. That day we flew to London, we had lost some time, so we did not go to Oxford. But we took a bus tour of London, and saw Big Ben's tower              

, Parliament , and other buildings. We then flew to Bergerac, France, and then drove to Beynac.

There we slept in an old ( about medieval ) stone cottage of the hill that had the castle. The Cottage was refurbished on the inside for modern needs. We explored much of the Dordogne

, and some of the castles around it, I got my Sword in one of the Castles.

After this we drove to Paris in a rental car we had gotten in Bergerac airport. We lost a wallet at one of the tolls, but finally, after some 6 hours, we made it to Paris. In Paris we explored

, and saw Notre Dame

 ( there was a statue of Charlemagne near it, and many pigeons  ) , The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower

( I touched the base of this one ). From here we flew to Dublin, and after a 2 hour layover ( that was delayed some more ), we flew to Boston. It was great to be home, and we had a great time in Europe.

Pytheas the explorer

Pytheas was a man born in southern France. He acted like a Greek but he was not from Greece. The Greeks were the best civilization in Mediterranean Europe. So Pytheas considered himself a Greek. He was a merchant of tin and amber ( something like sap fossilized ). He traveled to England to trade. There are many routes he might have taken. But the two main ones are going through the Gibraltar strait and head north. Or go through France and then sail to England. He would have used many types of boats like the Greek trading vessel or warship and Celtic ships. When he got to England he traded his stuff. Then he kept going north to Scotland. He explored the villages in Scotland. Then he went farther north to Iceland or Norway. He went farther north to the Arctic ocean. The way he went north was with a stick in level ground and measured the length of the shadow. The more he went north the bigger the shadow got because the sun got lower and lower in the sky. After he reached the Arctic he went back home.

It is crazy to think that a Greek went to the Arctic.  








Sources: Into the Unknown . by Stewart ross , Wiki

The viking sword and Exploration

The Viking sword +ULFBERH+T
 We recently learned about the +ULFBERH+T sword. It is a sword that has crucible steel in it. It is a steel that has very few dots and slags as they call them in it. It is better then other steel of its time. To make it you would have to heat the iron and coal to a very high temperature, and in Europe it seemed that no one could do it. But in the middle east there was swords made with crucible steel. This means that the Vikings must have gone to there and got the Crucible steel. Historians think that they went on the Volga trade route. This is a route from Sweden to Iran it is mostly on water. It goes along the Volga river and lakes. Then it goes to the Caspian sea and past it into modern-day Iran and Iraq. Vikings might have got Crucible steel from here. I think they did and so do others. Then they would have gone back to Scandinavia in small rowboats. There they would shape the steel into the sword. But the inscription of +ULFBERH+T is still a mystery. No one knows who Ulfberht was. Christian Abbots and Popes put a cross in front of their name. Maybe this was a Christian Abbot who had made it. But the Christians were forbidden to Trade with the Pagan Vikings. Maybe a Christan viking had made it. Or maybe just a Viking had made it. Or it was a brand name. But it showed that the sword was made with Crucible steel. Other Ulfberht swords were made but they did not have Crucible steel in them. They were fakes. They had the letters +ULFBERHT+ on them. Someone was trying to copy +ULFBERH+T. If you had a +ULFBERH+T sword you would be highly honored as a great and rich warrior. +ULFBERH+T Swords were like the best kind of weapons. 

Exploration
The Vikings who originated in Scandinavia, explored from North America to Pakistan.
They were great explores on sea. They were not the best on land though. Proof that they had gone to North America and Pakistan is real. A viking ruins was found in North America and Statues of Buddha were found in Viking graves. The Vikings also went to Greenland, Iceland, Newfoundland,  Israel, Constantinople, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Russia, France, England, Ireland,Greece, Iraq and Iran. Like you probably know Vikings did not have horns on their helmets and there are also peaceful and economic vikings.