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Welcome to Brett William Davis's Blog

Please send me a note! I can be reached at my mom's email: ksldavis99@gmail.com.

Wednesday September 24, 2014. In New York City.
Yesterday was boring because I didn't get to do anything I wanted to do. I wanted to stay at my apartment, but my mom dragged me to the car and then to the museum of the Twin Towers. We saw this short video about them. People talked about when the Twin Towers fell. We looked at some pictures, saw another short video, had a little snack and went to the waterfalls at the base of the Twin Towers. After that, we celebrated the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) at my uncle's apartment. We ate apples and honey.

Wednesday October 1, 2014 In Barcelona.
We actually stopped in New Jersey to see my Dad. We stayed there for a week and then flew to Barcelona. Barcelona is 7 hours ahead of Wisconsin. Sometimes we hear people speak other languages. French, Spanish, German, Catalan and a bit of English. There are a lot of bakeries. Yesterday we went to the Barcelona Zoo, famous for the only albino gorilla in the world. He died 10 years ago. We saw spider monkeys and endangered two-humped camels and we went on a really fun play set. We saw a dolphin show too but we didn't understand it because it was in Spanish.

This is Snowflake, the albino gorilla. Albino means that he has no pigment (color) in his hair, eyes or skin.

This is me with two female peacocks. Many peacocks and
pigeons roam the zoo freely.

Thursday October 2: The Aquarium

The aquarium was fun. We got to see all sorts of fish, eels that weren't electric, jellyfish, manta rays and sting rays. They even had a really weird sting ray that was giant. We saw octopuses, walked through a shark tank and played under the manta and sting ray tank. We even saw penguins! It was cool. After snack we went to the gift shop and I got a cool lizard.

I took this photo of a penguin swimming myself! (For my friend Robbie!!)

This is a really cool eel.

The apartment

We have two bathrooms and four beds in three bedrooms (my mom and dad sleep in the same bed). Lauren and I share a room. We have two couches. The neighborhood is really pretty. We have weird showers that don't look like the ones at home. There are lots of shops and bakeries. They have really good food. My favorite food so far was the pizza we had at an Italian restaurant.

Tuesday, October 7: Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia was very pretty. It is a famous church. They have been working on it for almost 140 years. They will finish it in 2026, or at least they hope to. There were a ton of steps coming down from the tower We got a 1,000 piece puzzle from the gift shop.

Left: Inside the Sagrada Familia
Below: The colored light from the stained glass windows
Right: The staircase coming down from the tower. Scary!

Left: You can see part of the construction
Below: The view of Barcelona from the tower.

Another thing we did this past weekend was go to Parc Guell. This was designed by the same architect who designed the cathedral. His name was Antoni Gaudi. He is a famous artist. It was really cool. We actually went to two Gaudi museums. This is one of them. I like his art. It is made out of broken pieces of pottery like plates and tiles that are glued back together. He made a lot of buildings too, like houses. We"ll see some of those soon.

In this photo, I am lying down, but my eyes are open.

This is Gaudi's famous lizard. It looks a lot like the lizard we saw on our way home!
(see the photo below)

Friday, October 10, 2014

Today we went to another famous church called the Barcelona Cathedral. It was much older than the Sagrada Familia. It took 600 years to build, although it is finished. We also went to a chocolate factory that had lots of sculptures made out of chocolate, like the one below of Snowflake, the only albino gorilla in the world. After we finished that, we got a little treat of churros y chocolat. It is a Spanish treat of ripped up donuts dipped in thick hot chocolate.

Here is a close up of the churros. They were really good!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Today we went to Camp Nou, Barcelona's soccer field. This is where they practice and play games. They have a lot of trophies there because the soccer club is more than 100 years old. We learned about some really good players, saw the locker room and the press room and we sat in the seats.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

We took a big walk on La Rambla. We walked almost to the beach. It was very long and we almost got lost. Barcelona wants to split into its own country because it wants its independence. They speak Catalan, a different language from Spanish. We saw a big protest for people who wanted to keep the country together. Not everyone feels this way. Also on the walk we saw lots of people selling flowers and plants. These cactuses were blooming!

October 14, 2014

Here I am at the apartment building Gaudi built called Casa Mili. It was really fun, although we had to listen to a boring audio guide. It was weird because it had a lot of things about the life of Gaudi, not the apartment. Even so, it was fun looking at everything.There were a lot of good photos, but I chose the best one.

October 15-19th, Vienna, Austria
This is us outside Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. This was the summer home for the kings and queens of Austria. We were in Vienna for four days. After we toured the palace we ran through the mazes. There were three different mazes. They were not like corn mazes in Wisconsin because there was no corn, and it wasn't on a farm. After we did the mazes, we climbed up a tall mountain to view the palace. This is the first photograph. Then we ate and went to the children's museum.

The view of the palace from the back.

The front entrance of the palace.

At the lookout from the middle of one of the mazes.

The children's museum at Schonbrunn Palace. I got to dress up in 18th century costumes and pretended to dance with the fancy ladies. My brother and sister got to dress up too. We learned how children lived at the palace.

Zoom Children's Museum. This was next door to the Leopold Museum, which has art. We did a printmaking workshop here where we learned different ways to make prints.

We got to play for a while before the workshop.

This is one of my prints! It is called a monotype.

These are the screen prints my brother, sister and I made. Mine is the one with the heart and the cat. I made it because I miss my cat, Storm.

Kitchen at Demel - this is where they make the treats.

These are our final days in Austria. We ate sachre torte, which is a famous Austrian chocolate cake at a restaurant calle Demel. We also toured the royal treasury. The king and queen owned a lot of precious objects. The last photo is of the metro with its evil eyes! That is my sister standing next to it!

Vienna was really pretty. Although I am back in Barcelona today. I wish I could go there again. Thanks for reading my blog! I really appreciate that!!

Back in Barcelona...

Today was a good day! I did a fun thing in school today. I flipped a cup of water upside down with nothing but a piece of paper to hold the water in! Then we played at our local park. The tree that we are sitting on is called the Tree of Love!

October 25, 2014: Museo Blau (The Natural History Museum of Barcelona). This day was kind of weird. We spent our entire day at the Natural History Museum. It was fun, but not as good as the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC because there weren't as many things to see. Here is what I saw: There was a lot about the development of the earth and dinosaurs. There was also a lot about animals. Here are my favorites:

Me and a pelican

Wisconsin Badgers Rule!!! This is a real badger.

This is a crocodile from Africa and my sister.

October 26, 2014: Today we had chocolat y churros again in the old section of Barcelona. It is called Barri Gothic. I was the one who found the restaurant. It was really cool. Did you know they have Angry Birds juice boxes in Spain? (That is the red box in front of me on the table).

These are the ancient columns for the Temple of Hercules, a
Roman god.

Chocolate, churros y Angry Birds juice box.

October 29, 2014: Today we went to the park of the city (Parc de la Citudad). It was very beautiful. Some of it was fun. We got to feed the ducks, pigeons and geese. We fed them bread, as you probably guessed. We also climbed to the top of the fountain.

This is the famous fountain. Gaudi helped design it.

This is something that lived during the ice age. I am not going to tell you what it is because you probably already know!

There were pigeons swarming on the side of me. You can't see any ducks or seagulls, but they were farther out in the water. I fed this goose, as you can see. It was very pretty.

October 30, 2014: Today we went to the zoo, as you can tell from the first photo. We are now members of the zoo. We saw the dolphin show and we went to the play set for about an hour and a half.

They have a great dolphin show. The people sitting in the front row get very wet.We didn't sit in the front row this time, but we did the first time we saw the dolphin show.

This is the play set. This isn't all of it, though. It is very fun. I spent most of my time in the back of the play set going on a spinny-merry-go-round thing.
This is s zip line, and I am standing on it. You could sit too.

November 7, 2014: Here are photos from the past week
Halloween at the Magic Fountain.
Here we are at the Magic Fountain. It was a fountain with a light show and music. We got very wet (you can see my pants). It was pretty and noisy. This was the worst Halloween ever because we didn't even get to trick or treat! Instead we got chocolate eggs with a surprise in them and came here.

November 1st - a walk to the Botanical Garden and Olympic Grounds
The Botanical Garden smelled good! It was very pretty with plants we don't often see, like cacti. The Olympics were held in Barcelona in 1992. They built a huge complex to house the Olympics. Now part of it is a gym where people go to swim and exercise.

November 3: Whiskey cake
Today we had a cake that actually has alcohol in it. This is a special Catalonian treat called whiskey cake. I didn't like it very much because my taste buds are too sensitive, but Daddy loved it!

November 4: The Egyptian Museum
There is a small Egyptian Museum in Barcelona. I love Ancient Egypt. We saw things like a real mummy of a 17 year old girl, an exhibition of the discovery of King Tut's tomb (he had crooked teeth!), and the gift shop. I didn't buy anything because all of the books were in Spanish.

I took this photograph myself!

November 6, Museum of the History of Barcelona
In the history museum, we saw what the city was like 2000 years ago when the Romans lived here. It was very cool. The Roman ruins are 10 feet below the city streets, so we went downstairs to the basement of the museum to see the ruins.


This is the face of a boy who died 2000 years ago. When an important person died, they sculpted their face out of marble or stone. My mom thought he looks like me.	Cool graffiti outside the History Museum.

Week of Nov 9, 2014
Montserrat, Spain - one hour by train outside of Barcelona

Today we went hiking. It might not look like it, but we actually got a little lost. We made it back though we didn't go all the way down the mountain. We had to take a funicular to get there which is a yellow car that runs up the mountain on a small wire.

Cats, cat, cats. Who likes cats? We saw them on our hike. These are wild cats. They are really pretty too. We might see more cats, although probably not today. We named the grey striped cat Pepper, and the black and orange cat Pumpkin.

Who likes hiking? This is on the real hike. Today was a perfect day and our hike took a long time. This is the only hike I have done here because we live in the city. It was fun.

Santa Caterina Market, Barcelona

Markets, fruits, vegetables. What do you want? You can find it all here. This market is really big. The meat and fish sections were not my favorites because they smelled yucky. As you can see in the left my sister is with olives, while on the right I am with fruit. They have tapas here, which I am not going to tell you about. (Mom's note: tapas are small dishes to share.)

MADRID
November 12-15
We spent 2.5 days in Madrid. We got here by airplane. It took 2 hours (plus time to get through security and baggage claim.) It was colder here than in Barcelona. We had to wear our fleeces zipped up.
Brett: "I felt like I might blow up. Just kidding Mom, don't write that, please, I was just kidding. Don't you dare write that."
Mom: "Sorry, Brett, I just had to record exactly what you said."

Pictures
Reina Sofia Museum, which is where we saw Picasso's "Guernica"
Mom: "Tell me what you thought about Guernica?
Brett: "Mom, stop!! Seriously, Mom, don't write this. Not again!...Ok. We liked the glass elevator. It was so cool I could explode!"
Mom: "Explode? Is that really what you meant me to write in your blog?"
Brett: "Um, sorry, maybe not. People, Class, Friends and Family, I hope you don't feel annoyed because this has been going on. I hope it won't happen for the next photo."

Next photo
Brett: "Here we are at the next Palace. You will see there are only two pictures because photos were not allowed for most of it. My Dad had to sneak the photo of the cello"
Mom: "What is the next palace and why did Daddy sneak that photo?"
Brett: "OK, Mom, can we stop writing this way and get along with the real blog? Let's get on to the photos: We are at the Royal Palace (thanks, Mom for reminding me). Cello is my nickname, and it is a large violin. It makes a very pretty noise."
(Note from Mom: This is a Stradivarius Cello from the Spanish Royal collection - very important.)
Brett: "Ugh, Mom!"

Reina Sofia glass elevator

Staircase, Royal Palace, Madrid

Stradivarius Cello, Spanish Royal Collection

Next Photo (still in Madrid)
Brett: "This is the Angry Birds Store next to our hotel. I know some of my friends will love this."
Mom: "Agreed!!"

BUBBLES!!!

Brett: "Here we are at the Park of the city"
(Mom's note: Buen Retiro, Madrid)
Brett: " UGH, MOM, not again! I am looking at something, climbing something, and that duck wiggled it's you-know-what at Jackson."
Mom: "Is this really how you want to remember Madrid?"
Brett: "I had a good time in Madrid."
Mom: "Oh yeah, how so?"
Brett: "Well, I got Bubbles, the Angry Bird. I took his picture."

This is me looking at the fountain

This is me climbing a tree

This is the duck who shook his you-know-what at Jackson.

Brett: "This is going to be my favorite one! Cute and funny. Let's go to Mom's story about this."
Mom: "Um...this isn't my blog."
Brett: "Well do you wonder how my sister is falling? I tackled her from behind. She went flopping to the ground! And the middle one is me jumping over something, Maybe a water source or a cat-attractor."
Mom: "Cat-attractor?"
Brett: "Yeah. Why else would we see so many cats in Madrid?"

You can barely see me in the back knocking Lauren down.

Me jumping over the water source/cat attractor.

Pretty baby kitty.

Brett: "By the way, if you like this I could go on all night, but if you are annoyed by this blame my mom. Love, Brett."

Cosmo Caixa (Barcelona's Science Museum) Nov 21
"Brett?"
"Yes, mom?"
"Are you ready to write your blog today?"
"I am. Let's begin. Ok you are going to get shocked by lightning."
"Lightning?"
"Yes, mom lightning. Actually not really because this is just a blog."
"What are you going to tell us about today?"
"Some interesting stuff I saw Cosmo Caixa which is a place with a lot of fun things like 3-D printers."
"What else?"
"Like technology stuff."
"OK, let's tell everyone about your photos below.

This is us going down the spiral ramp 5 floors into the museum.

Seriously, I don't know what that is behind us.
(Mom's note: it is a foam peanuts being blown into the air to describe the movements of atoms.)

This is a ball of lightning, and I am about to shock everyone. Stoughton friends: Do you like my shirt?

Ok, everybody, here is a cool fish.

Here we learned that light is made up of many different colors.

More cool fish.

Cheep cheep cheep! There was an Amazon rain forest display with live birds.

LONDON - Nov 24-30
We spent a whole week in London. I got sick there. No fun. The good news is that they speak English.

The London Underground
The London Underground is like a metro with a bunch of stops. It's different because they say "Way Out" and we say "Exit". They also tell you to "Mind the Gap", which is funny.

My mom challenged us to find the funniest name of an Underground stop in London. Lauren won with Tooting Bec. This one is funny too.

We walked up all 193 steps to exit the Underground. It felt like a million steps.

The British Museum
You know about the British. This is their museum. It has amazing stuff and big stuff inside.

Paddington Bear

This is my favorite section of the museum: Ancient Egypt. Me standing with a model of the Sun God named Ra.

Eyes of Horus are watching you!

More eyes of Horus

I love mummies.

This is a special exhibition that had eight mummies that had never been unwrapped. They all had CT Scans so that we could see what was inside on computer screens.

Have you ever seen a Samurai Warrior?

Me with Bog Man, a 2000 year-old man found by a farmer in his field in England.

Hand's on exhibition. The white things are a bunch of dolphins teeth strung onto a necklace

Kensington Palace
This is a palace where Kings and Queens of England lived. There were cool exhibits like a bunch of jewels because the kings and queens were wealthy.

Me and Jackson looking out the window into the gardens.

Lunch at Kensington Palace. I got my kids' lunch in a Very Hungry Caterpillar bag.

Kensington Gardens
Outside the palace was a huge park. The highlight was feeding the birds. There were geese, ducks, swans, pigeons, seagulls and others.

This guy was sassy!

He's giving me a sassy look.

Matilda, the musical
It was about a little girl who was very smart but had mean parents and a mean principal.

Thanksgiving in Wivenhoe, near Colchester, England
For Thanksgiving, we traveled an hour outside of London to Wivenhoe. I lost my top front tooth at the dinner table! Instead of a tooth fairy, they have a tooth mouse that takes the teeth. Kids leave a piece of cheese for him to nibble on with the tooth. I got one British Pound 50 and 1 Euro.

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park
Winter Wonderland is a carnival that is supposed to be all winter-like and exciting. Exciting, yes. Winter-like, no. I'm from Wisconsin, after all.