Where in the World is Mrs McGhie Day 3

Hi Room 20

Today we took Ronan to the Tower of London - which is not just one tower but lots and lots of towers and buildings. Its name comes from the original tower (known as the White Tower) that was built by William the Conqueror almost 1000 years ago.

There were LOTS of people there and some areas were very crowded. Most of the buildings were very old and had big, thick stone walls. Ronan measured a couple and estimated that they'd be about 1.5m thick!

We walked up and down hundreds of steps. My mum and Ronan decided to sit down for a while and have a little rest.

We looked at the ravens who were very hot so weren't interested in doing much apart from sitting in the shade. If you are keen you could research the legend of the Tower ravens and find out why they are so special.

Ronan and I had our photo taken with a Beef Eater - they are special soldiers who work at the Tower. You might like to see what you can find out about them too.

Did you know that the tower used to house a menagerie (like a little zoo collection) of animals such as: a polar bear, baboons, lions, leopards and even an elephant! The elephant was given to the inhabitants if the tower in 1255. I was also horrified to hear the polar bear had had a long rope attached to his leg so he could go fishing in the Thames.

Have a super Market Day tomorrow.

From Mrs McGhie and Ronan.

Where in the World is Mrs McGhie Day 2

Hi Room 20

I had another busy day today. We started our morning with a bus tour around London central city to help us get familiar with where things are. 

We spent a few minutes visiting Trafalgar Square where we got to see Nelson's Column and the ENORMOUS lions at the bottom. You might like to find out who Admiral Lord Nelson was and why he is so important. 

There were a few pigeons at Trafalgar Square but not as many as there used to be. Apparently they used to make a huge mess all over the place so these days they have a trained hawk that gets released to fly around the square and scare the pigeons away.

The next thing we were lucky enough to do was to visit the Household Cavalry - these are some of the soldiers on horseback who guard the Queen and the royal family. We got to see the horses in the stable and some of the heavy uniforms the soldiers wear. 

They had some old uniforms from almost 200 years ago there as well. Some of the hats from that time looked like the ones in The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins! A couple of them had such large plumes that they were over 2 feet tall!

Ronan and I had our photo taken outside the Household Cavalry building with our fabulous tour guide, Maggie. She carried a big pink umbrella over her head every where we went so that we could all find her and follow her easily. Maggie was really impressed that Kirsty made Ronan - that's what we were chatting about when the photo was taken.

We also got to go to Buckingham Palace and watch the Changing of the Guard, which was really cool. My mum and I were really close to the road and had a great view. There were literally 1 000s of people there. 

We had a wee rest underneath the London Eye. It is HUGE! Ronan insisted on having his photo taken with the Eye.

We walked past an M&M store that had delicious chocolaty smells wafting out the doors and into the street. I thought several of you would love the store as it was enormous! We didn't go in though because we were in a hurry to get somewhere else.

Everywhere we go there are these bike racks full of bicycles that you can pop a coin into a rent for a while. I thought this was a good idea.

One interesting fact I learnt today is that the UK emergency number is no longer 999, it's 101 so that it is the same as the rest of Europe.

I hope you are all working hard.

Bye for now.

Mrs McGhie and Ronan.

Where in the World is Mrs McGhie - Day 1

Hi Room 20

Ronan and I have arrived safely in London. Ronan wasn't too pleased to have been in my suitcase for the whole trip. 

We flew over all sorts of interesting places such as Afghanistan, Poland and Germany. The plane was cruising at 40 000 feet and the outside temperature was -47 degrees Fahrenheit - see if you can find out what those are in metres and degrees Celsius. 

We arrived here in the late afternoon, it would have been 3:00am your time.

Tonight my mum and I went for a walk along the River Thames, which is beside our hotel. We saw the clock tower where Big Ben is

the London Eye

The Houses of Parliament 

and Westminster Abbey ( I'll put photos up of this later as they are on my proper camera and not my phone).

Hope you are all working hard.

Mrs McGhie

Zombie takeover part 2

We looked all around and found a piece of barbed wire we made a grappling hook and hooked James.  We were scared. Luckily the sun came up again.  We were safe again .We used every thing we could. We made some weapons. Only I got one.

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