Silja: Vegas, Baby!

 Yesterday we arrived in Las Vegas early in the afternoon. It has grown a lot and we recognized very little from our visit 20 years ago. In a way it seemed more tasteful this time, but even wilder and more decadent!
I was suddenly not so sure that it was such a good idea to take the kids here. They have never seen so many drunk people but say they did not find that scary. The whole pace did not make as deep an impression on them as I expected. The Belaggio's water-and-light-show fascinated us all and when it got dark it all looked even better with all the lights everywhere. However, then it really got crazy and it was time to leave.
It what then, when we left the citylights behind us that we could see how vast the "city of sin" in the middle of a desert had become.

Lisa: Disneyland

 Vi var i Disneyland og ble fotografert med Mikke Mus. Vi kjørte også Indiana-Jones-bane, som var veldig farlig. Først kom det en diger slange, som plutselig kom veldig nærme oss og strakk ut tunga. Plutselig stoppet vi og måtte kjøre litt bakover. Så kom det en diger kule imot oss og når den var kjempenær suste vi ned en bakke. Mamma skvatt og hylte.
 Det var en fin dag!

Wir waren in Disneyland und wurden mit Mickey Maus fotographiert. Ausserdem fuhren wir die supergefährliche Indiana-Jones-Bahn. Erst kam eine grosse Schlange, die plötzlich ganz nah kam und die Zunge rausstreckte. Plötzlich hielten wir an und fuhren ein Stück rückwärts. Dann kam uns eine riesige Kugel entgegen und als sie ganz nah war, fuhren wir einen Abhang hinab. Mama zuckte zusammen und schrie. Das war ein toller Tag.

 

Niklas: uke1 /Woche 1

Nå har jeg vært på tur i en uke. På første flyet var vi i to timer, så var vi i London.

Vi var hos en dame som het Angela i to dager. Så fløy vi en hel dag til Los Angeles i U.S.A. og vi fikk mange opplevelser.

Vi kjørte bus til et hotel, hvor vi ble en natt for å sove og så hentet Pappa bobilen vår . Fra en campingplass gikk vi til Disneyland. Det var det veldig morsomt der! Vi kjørte med mange morsomme ting, men noen var litt skummle. I hulene vi kjørte inn i var det morsomme figurer. Lillesøsteren min kunne dessverre ikke være med på vannbanen «Splash Mountain». Da vært det bare meg, Lisa og Pappa. Vi ble veldig bløte fordi det sprutet kjempe mye i fossene.

Så kjørte vi gjennom Mojave-ørkenen. Der finnes det klappperslanger, men vi så ingen. Jeg hadde gjerne sett en men ikke blitt bitt.

I går var vi i Las Vegas. Vi så et show med vannfontener som sprøytet høyere enn Eiffeltårnet. (Det var egetlig ikke det ekte Eiffeltårnet, men veldig kult å se på!)

Nå er vi på vei til Zion Canyon.

Jetzt sind wir seit einer Woche unterwegs. Der erste Flug dauerte 2 Stunden und dann waren wir in London. Zwei tage lang waren wir bei einer Frau, die Angela hiess. Dann flogen wir einen ganzen Tag lang nach Los Angeles in den U.S.A., wo wir viel erlebten.

Mit einem Bus fuhren wir zu einem Hotel, um zu schlafen und dann holte Papa unser Wohnmobil ab.

Von einem Campingplatz liefen wir zu Disneyland. Da war es sehr lustig! Wir fuhren viele lustige Dinger,aber manche waren ein bisschen unheimlich. In den Höhlen, in die wir hineinfuhren waren viele lustige Figuren. Meine kleine Schwester durfte leider nicht mit auf die Wasserbahn «Splash Mountain». Da fuhren nur Papa, Lisa und ich. Wir wurden ganz nass, weil es in den Wasserfällen so viel spritzte.

Dann fuhren wir durch die Mojave-Wüste. Dort gibt es Klapperschlangen, aber wir heben keine gesehen. Ich hätte gerne eine gesehen ohne gebissen zu werden.

Gestern waren wir in Las Vegas. Wir haben eine Show mit Wasserfontainen gesehen, die höher als der Eiffelturm spritzten.(Das war eigentlich nicht der echte Eiffelturm, aber echt cool!)

Jetzt sind wir auf dem Weg zum Zion Canyon.

Silja: Disneyland

Today was the big day, when we dragged our jetlagged kids through Disneyland ;-)
Actually, they enjoyed tremendously and I have the pictures to proof it! First off a picture of our huge RV, which really isn't all that huge compared to what else is parked here around us. It has a "slide out", so once we are parked, we can move halv the wall with our sofa/dining section out a meter, which leaves us with a lot of space inside.

 

Silja: Los Angeles

The 12-hour flight to LAX went surprisingly well - mostly thanks to the in-seat-entertainment, good food and the "sky coach" (3 seats that can be turned into a double bed.) However, as soon as we had landed we felt like leaving again. Customs were a nightmare and we felt treated like cattle.
A dog "discovered" our apples in a bag, so the officer made a note on our form, asking us to hand them over once we got to the end of the line. That line was so long, that we had plenty of time to eat apples, which of course caused slight troubles later when asked to hand over the evidence. It took us over 2 hours to get into this "land of the free".
Once at the hotel, which was spacious and nice, things started to lighten up again. After a looong breakfast the kids and I made good use of the swimming pool, while Axel went to get the RV, which will be our home for the next 3 weeks. The rest of the day went to unpacking, shopping and finding Disneyland. The latter was a real challenge, since there are no road signs! The kids fell asleep in their seats and we were glad to find a parkinglot with RV-lots of which just 2 were taken. We were turned away because we were not old enough (Pensioners only!) but eventually we did find an RV-park that would have us. Tommorow we will visit Mickey Mouse!

Lisa: LONDON

Det var veldig fint i London. Vi skulle bo hos ei gammel dame i 2 dager. Damen het Angela. Hun var veldig snill. Det var veldig vanskelig å forstå det hun sa, fordi hun snakket engelsk. Hun hadde veldig fine skåler der.
Vi så pariserhjulet "London Eye". Hver kveld måtte vi lete lenge etter en restaurant der jeg kunne spise mat. Vi så på Big Ben. Vi var i verdens største lekebutikk (Hamleys) og jeg kjøpte meg magiske tusjer.

 Klinkisparadis på Hamleys

Kokosnøtthilsen fra Lisa

In London war es sehr schön . Wir wohnten bei einer alten Frau für 2 Tage. Die Frau hiess Angela. Sie war sehr lieb. Es war schwierig sie zu verstehen, weil sie English sprach.  Sie hatte viele schöne Schalen. Wir sahen das Riesenrad "London Eye". Jeden Abend mussten wir lange nach einem Restaurant suchen, wo ich essen konnte. Wir haben Big Ben gesehen. Wir waren im grössten Spielzeugladen der Welt (Hamleys) und ich habe mir magische Filzstifte gekauft.
Kokosnussgrüsse von Lisa

Silja: LONDON

Siden det er so tungvint å skrive alt på to språk, går jeg over til engelsk og håper det er ok for alle. Barna kommer fortsatt å skrive på norsk og tysk.
Es ist so aufwändig alles auf 2 Sprachen zu schreiben und daher bin ich auf Englisch übergegangen und hoffe, dass das für alle in Ordnung ist. Die Kinder werden weiterhin auf Deutsch und Norwegisch schreiben.

Finally we have said our good buys (- that bit was much harder than expected!) and off we went! We start out in London. I have been here many times but it has been quite a while since I have last been here. I was shocked to read that the London Eye was set up for the millenium and I had never seen it. Has it been that long?! 
Since England is so much about traditions, it is still "Good Old England" and a lot is so familiar, like the smell of Angelas house in Baron's Court, where we are staying. She is the lovely landlady we expected and especially Lisa fell in love at once and asked after 5 minutes if we could stay for longer than the 2 days. The love is obviously mutual, since Angela has bought bread and several kinds of glutenfree bisquits for her as soon as she heard that Lisa has celiac disease. Everyone was very happy at berakfast, as you can see!

Breakfast at the B&B

I do not remember London as quite so busy and overcrowded (and I suppose October is off-season)!   Angela backs me up on that one. The tube is always full and we rarely got a seat. We constantly seem to be moving in a mass of people - and everyone seems to be Italian, French or German...

Since the kids had never been to London, we showed them the most obvious tourist attractions: The London Eye ;-), Westminster with Houses of Parliaments and Big Ben, St James Park with all the ducks, geese and squirrels ,the British Natural History Museum, Holland Park (which has an adventure playground and Hamleys (- a huge toy store that I knew about thanks to my students who mentioned it in their talks about London. A great success with the kids, so thank you guys!)

 Tomorrow we will have to go back to the British Natural History Museum because we could not get in to the dinosaur exhibition today. We just did not have the stamina to stand in line for an hour and instead found a lovely place in South Kensington called "Muriel's kitchen", where we had lunch.

In the afternoon we will be flying to LA from Heathrow.

Silja: Pakket og klar! / Das Gepäck

 

Det ble forbausende lite bagasje, tatt i betraktning at vi skal være på tur i over 4 måneder. 
Wir haben erstaunlich wenig Gepäck, wenn man bedenkt, dass wir über 4 Monate unterwegs sein werden.
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Silja: Vaksinering / Impfen

Da har vi ikke dratt engang og allerede er budsjettet sprengt... ;-)
Vi var ikke klar over hva det ville koste å vaksinere seg og nå har vi brukt over kr 10 000 for å oppfriske grunnvaksinen og beskytte oss mot hepatitt A&B, typhoid fever og cholera. Choleravasksinen hadde i grunnen ikke vært nødvendig, men beskytter i tillegg mot bl.a.e-coli. Bra å slippe sånt!