liamsophiefensom

07/12/2023

Monday morning, Eloise and Lachlan were jumping up and down before we gave them the nod to sprint down the stairs and bug Lucy. They were all over here before showing her where to put the bed.

Eloise was quite excited to show Lucy her nursery as they shuffled over the ice to get there. After dropping Eloise off, Lucy had to step up a few gears to keep up with Lachlan’s fast-paced Glasgow tour. After catching the train into the city centre, Lachlan decided he had done enough to earn a morning babyccino and showed Lucy how he does “dunky dunkies”.

We pushed on along the mural walk to show Lucy Glasgow Cathedral, Lachlan knows his way around here well now.

Lachlan was only getting started though and turned on his afterburners. Super Mum and Lucy had no hope on the ice. Lachlan’s low centre of gravity makes him perfect for running on ice.

Now that all the weekend snow has started to melt it really was challenging on foot. We were not sure how safe it was climbing to the top of Batman’s Necropolis.

Thankfully the rain was holding off. We headed back down, however, that was not straightforward. We were skidding down, it was a bit dicy. Lachlan then suddenly decided to pause his tour while he took a quick nap. “North facing ‘ice rink Monday’ as freeze hits roads”.

Eloise was thrilled to see that all four of us had come to pick her up. Lachlan decided to do his usual dash to play, he always gets a few chuckles from the nursery staff.

Eloise had been a bit disappointed that she missed out on Lucy’s tour today and demanded she tell her everything that she had been up to, “Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy”, we don’t think she has heard her name so much.

On Tuesday, after dropping Eloise off at nursery we jumped in the car. It was day two of Lachlan’s tour. We figured we better show Lucy one of our family’s favourite castles, Stirling Castle as we headed off to the fake Stirling. Good to see all our visitors have made good use of our Historic Scotland cards.

Meanwhile, CG was working hard!

After a terrific trek through the castle, we slid down the hill into Stirling Old Town to find some lunch.

As you can see in the above photo the centreline of Lachlan’s hair grows rather quickly, not sure what is happening out wide but he has started to get a bit irritated by his narrow fringe flopping about, it was time to get a haircut!

After a few days home to partly recover from our fabulous Polish family holiday, Liam was back in the car and after a long drive battled peak hour traffic around Manchester before arriving at what I was expecting to be a quiet Huddersfield, it was pumping. Although sadly by the time we arrived, we had missed the majority of the Christmas Markets.

If we thought the bell tower in Gdansk, Poland was a bit over the top, it had nothing on the Huddersfield bell tower, which went off every fifteen minutes between 07:00 and 21:00! Yes, I was going slightly mad by the end of it.

I was not entirely sure how long I was going to be trapped in Huddersfield. It is always difficult being away from the kids for a few days and a bit unusual being able to hear yourself think. Wednesday morning it was nice to hear what Eloise and Lachlan’s plans were. They told me they had rushed downstairs to jump on Lucy early in the morning, but she had gone, they were concerned. Don’t worry readers, we will see Lucy again soon, unless she gets lost in the Highlands.

Thursday, our Christmas Elves were working hard, we were starting to worry their cards would not get to Australia in time. However, luckily Lucy can hand-carry them back for you all. Speaking of which, 2024 Christmas calendars are on their way, Nali will distribute them to the Nicholls Clan and Hugh and Jamila at some stage.

Liam had made big promises to Eloise and luckily got home just before midnight ready for her busy day tomorrow.

03/11/2023

This morning Liam woke up suddenly around 06:00 with sudden breathing difficulty only to find that he had a four-year-old sitting upright on his chest giggling at him. Eloise was in the mood for games with Lachlan and asked if she could wake him up. Super Mum was not having any of that and sent her downstairs with Dad. As soon as Lachlan started to stir, Eloise dashed up to help her wee bro downstairs.

After a delayed flight due to a lack of a pilot, they don’t always come standard with Ryanair, best friend of the blog, Lucy, was on her way from Dublin. We dashed off to the airport to pick her up. Luckily there was no drama landing as “snow disrupts travel as cold and icy spell persists”. On the way to the airport, Eloise and Lachlan were staring out their windows screaming “Lucy, Lucy, where is Lucy?”. Lachlan was asking if Lucy would have a bath with him and was then surprised to hear that Lucy was not another Lachlan-sized kid, we were not sure who he was expecting.

After Lachlan had finished throwing his socks at Lucy while laughing at her we offered her Scottish Irn-Bru and Tunnocks. We thought it would be the perfect time with the remaining snow to select a Christmas tree to cut down. Plus, we now had Lucy on hand to help with the hard work. Lachlan was glad to be reunited with his beloved bear suit.

Eloise was first to dive in between the trees, she had to make sure we picked the perfect one, it is a serious decision.

We found the perfect-looking tree. At this point, we thought it was a lovely size and shape. Don’t worry Marina, we had Lucy working hard for her keep.

It was hard work so we all had a shot, when Dad started cutting Eloise and Lachlan thought this was the perfect moment to warm up their little hands with joyous laughter.

After Dad needed a breather we released the uncontainable force. Lachlan could not believe that he got to have a go but did not like the snow falling on his nose.

All quite happy with our efforts we made our way back through the pretty snow trees to the car. At this stage, we were still happy with the size of the tree we had selected.

As we approached the car, it became clear that the tree was not just going to fit into the boot like it did in 2021. Mmm, guess it is going on the roof box. Eloise thought it was hilarious that we had to strap the tree down to the “car hat”.

With a bit of difficulty we managed to get the tree off the car, shake off the snow and lift it through the house, it was reasonably heavy. Dad was fighting off the masses who were trying to decorate it before we had even secured it in position. The kids were excited to decorate their second real tree. It was then over to Eloise and Lachlan to lead the decorating. Eloise insisted that Lucy had to help too which was becoming the common theme of the day.

After a fiery debate, Eloise put the star on the top of the tree before Lachlan also had a turn. It was a bit larger than we had planned but seeing as we had Christmas in Australia last year it was fair enough that we got a large real tree for our last Scottish Christmas.

Lachlan was much more helpful decorating the tree this year. Eloise remembered all about Lachlan eating the baubles a couple of years ago and made sure that Lucy heard the long rendition of the story.

To celebrate, Eloise thought we should all watch the Grinch while marveling at our new Christmas Tree.

Lucy was fast becoming the most popular in the house with two little shadows chasing her about. Hopefully, she did not come here for a rest. Lucy very generously brought the kids books from her recent Iceland adventure, thank you, Lucy.

Lachlan was not going to bed without a Lucy book, there was a bit of tanty thrown when we told him that Lucy had to go downstairs. I think she may be getting the mandatory early wake-up call.

Keeping up the pace, Lucy was then whisked off by Super Mum to Bounce Back to Netball a handy Aussie fill-in.

02/12/2023

… Exhausted we could finally relax in the air. Eloise was quick to fall asleep around midnight, she had done an impressive job through Gdańsk Airport. Now the race was on! After a delayed take off due to a frozen plane we were all hoping we could touch down in Edinburgh, “a fresh yellow weather warning for snow and ice has been issued by the Met Office for large parts of the UK”, flights had already started to be canceled into Glasgow Airport. By the sounds of things, we were bringing the Polish snow back with us. Luckily after three hours, around 03:00 Greenwich Mean Time, we touched down in Edinburgh. It is always difficult juggling four bags and two sleeping children. We assembled the pram and it was a fast-paced sprint to our frozen car, although Lachlan had arisen and was having a jolly good time.

It was nice to be in the warm car however after half an hour heavy snow started to fall and the roads were especially slippery. Our Spanish car does not handle snow well. We were lucky that our plane had not been an hour later or we almost certainly would not have landed. At this stage, we were unsure whether we were going to make it all the way home but cautiously pushed on slowly.

Once we had reached Glasgow we were very thankful for the gritters, without which we would not have made it. The last challenge was trying to get up the hill to our house. We were relieved when we reached the top. Even after sending the kids across the GlasGlobe five times, this had felt like our biggest challenge yet. For those thinking of flying across the Iron Curtain overnight with two sleeping children and then driving across the country through a blizzard take note! It had been a truly incredible week and a fantastic family holiday, we truly loved Poland however we felt like we had met our match today as we rolled in around 05:00 Central European Standard Time, well and truly ready for bed.

Around 09:30 we all woke up, the kids had a solid sleep from when we had got home, no surprises there. We drew back the blinds to see a decent covering of snow, looks like we had brought it back with us. The big problem Eloise was facing was that our kitchen was still freezing and she could not spread the Nutella, it was frozen.

Before snow play, both Eloise and Lachlan had catchup to play, it is finally advent calendar month! They have been patiently waiting. They were quick to rip into their first two chocolates. Lachlan was quick to gobble down his two chocolates before asking if he could have a cheeky third.

Eloise was the fastest out the back door always excited to play in the snow, she ensured that she had put sock mittens on Foxie.

Lachlan managed to find his beloved penguin mittens in our messy living room before joining Eloise out the back. Lachlan enjoys a short snow walk before he dives in and starts playing.

The chopping boards were out and we started to pile up the super fluffy snow.

As the snowman started to take shape Lachlan kept doing back-to-back checks to make sure that he was still taller than the snowman.

Eloise wanted to quickly throw some clothes on their new friend to warm them up.

It was good fun building the snowman together but Lachlan’s fun was only just beginning as he chucked the snowman’s nose across the yard and legged it with his beanie, much to Eloise’s surprise.

By this stage, Lachlan had had enough of Mr Snowman and it was time to go. Eloise then tried to make the “World’s biggest snowball”.

After lunch, we wanted to head out to go sledding but we could not find the energy to do so. We had to tip the whole house up the right way for the masses soon to arrive. By midday, there was the good news that “Glasgow Airport: Flights resume following snow cancellations”.

Snow Patrol are a rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland. The band currently consists of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), and Johnny McDaid (guitar, piano, keyboards, backing vocals); Lightbody is the band’s sole remaining original member.Their major-label debut album, Final Straw, was released the following year. “Run”, the record’s biggest hit, saw the band rise to national fame as part of the post-Britpop movement. The album was certified 5× platinum in the UK. In 2005, McClelland left the band and was replaced by Paul Wilson. Their next studio album, Eyes Open (2006), and its hit single “Chasing Cars”—reported in 2019 to be the most-played song of the 21st century on UK radio—propelled the band to greater international fame.

01/11/2023

This morning we found Lachlan, packed our bags, found Lachlan again and then checked out of our apartment. The snowmobile was loaded to the brim with the odds of this pram lasting us another six months rapidly decreasing. Eloise and Lachlan were keen to head back into the Old Town to hit up the souvenir scene.

Neptune’s Fountain is a historic fountain in Gdańsk, a mannerist-rococo masterpiece, and one of the most distinctive landmarks of the city. The fountain is located at the Długi Targ (Long Market), in front of the entrance to the Artus Court. It was constructed in the early 17th century. Kashubians use a nickname Krësztof for the sculpture.

We ventured around to the southern side of the Old Town which had even prettier buildings. Eloise got some great snaps. Even with the perpetual bullying, we were enjoying our lovely stroll along the canal.

We finally got a good view of the iconic Crane Gate which was worth the walk.

Don’t let the sun fool you, it was still about -4°C at this point. Eloise was insisting that she did not need a beanie or gloves, she just bizarrely does not get cold.

This morning we thought it would be fun to check out the National Maritime Museum. Once Eloise had conducted her mandatory cannon inspection we were safe to enter.

The museum was a great way to get out of the cold for a couple of hours with lots for the kids to play with. It was a bit tricky as it was all in Polish though.

The National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk is a maritime museum in Gdańsk, Poland, established on 1 January 1962. It is dedicated to gathering, researching and preserving artifacts and documents concerning ship transport, international trade, fishing and culture of people working at sea, rivers and those ashore – as well as the dissemination of knowledge on maritime history of Poland and its economy through the ages.

Lachlan fell asleep as we left the museum, it had been our fifth massive day in a row.

We passed through Jarmark one final time before heading to the airport a few hours early because it was not -5°C there. Lachlan unfortunately had an accident in his beloved bear suit so we had to rug him up in the snowmobile, he had done an impressive job this week!

With a few hours to kill at the airport, which was fairly empty, we gave Lachlan the licence to zoom. We figured we would try and let him get all his zoomies out before we needed to board.

Eloise just stood there with her hands on her face, in utter disbelief at how Lachlan was not listening to Super Mum and Dad before lending us a hand checking in.

After a short flight delay and a long plane deicing delay we took to the skies just before midnight Central European Standard Time. Eloise was somehow still with us, skipping along and helping carry our backpacks. Lachlan was doing well but clonked out just as we boarded which was probably good timing. When midnight Central European Standard Time ticked over we were all completely exhausted, we suspect we were somewhere over Scandinavia and it was only about to get a whole lot trickier…

30/11/2023

This morning Lachlan was very much in an Eloise mood and wanted her to get him dressed in his bear suit, he thought he was very funny.

Today Super Mum had the cracking idea to venture inland a bit further so we maneuvered the snowmobile to Gdańsk Główny train station. On the way there our Snow Bear had his tongue out trying to catch as much snow as he could.

It was not the most scenic train ride, there certainly was a lot of snow.

Eloise was happy when we arrived at Malbork station and there was still plenty of snow, she was concerned we were taking her away from the snow.

We followed the masses through Malbork until we spotted a castle…

… A really really big castle, in fact, Malbork Castle is “the largest castle in the world measured by land area [45 acres] and a UNESCO World Heritage Site”.

Eloise was thrilled to receive an audio guide as we made our way through the first of half a dozen odd gates before crossing the first of many moats into the mega castle.

Without a doubt, it was the largest castle we had ever seen. Eloise enjoyed repeating the castle facts to us. While our Snow Bear was making the most of sliding around in the snow.

The audio guides were mandatory as they directed you around the ginormous castle and grounds. We were glad to have them, there were some seriously large doors that we had to open. Everything was closed up to keep the cold out. It was not always straightforward to work out how to open them, Eloise was on the case.

It was a fantastic tour that we could take at our own pace, Eloise thought it was hilarious how we had to keep going inside and outside.

Besides the impressive castle interior, Lachlan’s favourite area was the main courtyard full of snow and he let out an excited shriek every time we crossed it.

After a couple of hours inspecting the castle, Eloise’s legs were getting tired, luckily it was easy to drag her about the snowy paths much to her amusement.

One of the countless exhibitions happened to be an Amber Musem, the kids were quick to point out that we had already seen all of this yesterday. To be honest, we have seen enough Amber this week so whizzed through.

Eloise was excited to hear that the next exhibition was the armoury and sped off past the large willow tree laughing at us as we struggled to keep up on the snow and ice.

We were surprised to hear that the restaurant was well underground and headed down to order some Polish food which surprisingly came to us in wiener form.

Eloise was having a jolly good time in this castle so promoted herself to leader while repeatedly telling us we could not go ahead of her. Luckily for Lachlan she let him have some more snow time before we pushed on up to the High Castle.

It was a slow walk around the High Castle as some of the snow was quite powdery and our Snow Bear kept getting stuck.

The artwork in the castle was equally as large, after a few hours we managed to find our way out again.

The Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork is a 13th-century Teutonic castle and fortress located in the town of Malbork, Poland. It is the largest castle in the world measured by land area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was originally constructed by the Teutonic Knights, a German Catholic religious order of crusaders, in a form of an Ordensburg fortress. The Order named it Marienburg in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. In 1457, during the Thirteen Years’ War, it was sold by Bohemian mercenaries to King Casimir IV of Poland in lieu of indemnities and it then served as one of several Polish royal residences and the seat of Polish offices and institutions, interrupted by several years of Swedish occupation, fulfilling this function until the First Partition of Poland in 1772. From then on the castle was under German rule for over 170 years until 1945, albeit largely falling into disrepair as military technological advances rendered the castle a mere historical point of interest. The construction period is a point of debate, however, most historians generally accept the 132 years between 1274 and 1406 as the construction time. The castle is a classic example of a medieval fortress and, on its completion in 1406, was the world’s largest brick castle. UNESCO designated the “Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork” and the Malbork Castle Museum a World Heritage Site in December 1997. It is one of two World Heritage Sites in the region (north-central Poland), together with the “Medieval Town of Toruń”, which was founded in 1231. Malbork Castle is also one of Poland’s official national Historic Monuments (Pomnik historii), as designated on 16 September 1994. Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland.

With our brains scrambled by the incredible castle the girls declared they had earned themselves some more Polish treats before we started the long cold trek home.

29/11/2023

In Gdańsk, there is a loud series of bells that start chiming at 06:00 each morning. It must wake up the majority of the city whether they like it or not. It does actually sound fairly pleasant. However, on the flip side, we have a Lachnado who was firing on all cylinders at 04:30. He was bouncing around and even woke up Elosie who was very diplomatic “ohhhhhh come Lachlan it’s very earlyyyy”. Super Mum who had already been wrestling Lachlan for the past hour had resigned to the line “fineee, that’s it Lachlan, do what you want just don’t break any bones, they don’t speak English here”. Lachlan furiously agreed, another demonstration of his expert haggling skills before he moved his party out to the living room. He is lucky he is a funny one, he says some hilarious things. The 06:00 bells eventually sounded and Lachlan came sprinting back in to make sure we had heard them, he was eager to get the show on the road.

After we had finished breakfast we only made it halfway down the street before the kids found a cute spot for their second course of breakfast.

Once Eloise and Lachlan were full we let them loose outside in the snow to try and slow them down.

Lachlan was excited to climb on up when we saw Jan Heqeliusz, the inventor of the polemoscope, the prototype of later periscopes.

We then walked around the old mill which had been refitted for the Amber Museum. Amber is massive in Gdańsk which is sold in most tourist stores.

The building was just as speccy inside as it was outside, we thought it looked like an evil lair.

“The city of Gdańsk in Poland can now officially declare itself home to the largest lump of amber in the world after specialists including representatives from Guinness World Records authenticated, weighed and measured it yesterday. Weighing in at 68.2 kg”. However, Eloise seemed sceptical and did not trust it.

Like what it said on the packet, there sure was a lot of amber here. Eloise and Lachlan were like magpies darting around to check out the bright-coloured amber.

Lachlan thoroughly enjoyed the ceiling as it was his favourite colour, he would have happily lay on the ground staring at it.

We passed through the large amber jewellery store, Eloise had a quick look at some earrings but nothing caught her eye. We then grabbed more pierogi before heading back for much-needed naps.

Amber Museum in Gdańsk – craft museum in Gdańsk , founded in 2000, branch of the Gdańsk Museum; documents the history of amber and the history of amber craftsmanship in Poland. The museum was opened on June 28, 2006 in the Prison Tower in Gdańsk on the Royal Road. On July 24, 2021, it received a new headquarters in Wielki Młyn. By then, they were visited by over a million visitors (119,000 people per year – data for 2019).

After solid nap o’clocks, we loaded up the snowmobile and headed out. It was noticeably cooler today than the past couple of days, dropping to -8°C early in the morning.

The kids were excited to visit the European Solidarity Centre which was designed to look like “the walls evoke the hulls of ships built at the Gdańsk Shipyard”. It looked quite hip inside so we blended in perfectly. Lachlan just saw it as a large non-slippery place to run without his bear suit on.

We were not actually here to visit the Shipbuilding exhibition, the kids know all about that, Super Mum had found an epic Play Museum and the kids were well overdue for some climbing action.

They had a cool pneumatic post system that Eloise loved sending messages and drawings back and forth with the ladies on the front desk.

The European Solidarity Centre is a museum and library in Gdańsk, Poland, devoted to the history of Solidarity, the Polish trade union and civil resistance movement, and other opposition movements of Communist Eastern Europe. It opened on 31 August 2014. The design of the building, by Polish firm FORT Architects, was the winner of an international competition held in 2007.

By the time we left it was fairly dark. Eloise and Lachlan noticed the Amber Sky on the horizon which we were all excited for. We had a terrific view yesterday after climbing to the top of St. Mary’s Church, it was time for the night view.

AmberSky Gdańsk is a 50-meter tall ferris wheel in Gdańsk. It opened to the public in June 2016. It changed locations and reopened to the public on December 1, 2018…The Netherlands-based Dutch Wheels designed and constructed the wheel. It is a model R50SP-36. It has 36 climate controlled gondolas that can accommodate eight people each. A VIP gondola features a glass floor. It weighs 440 tonnes.

28/11/2023

This morning started with Polish Bluey, both Eloise and Lachlan thought it was very funny.

The kids were both excited to suit up and get out and about today in the snow. We had only crossed the road when Eloise declared it was “snowman time”. Lachlan was having fun throwing snow in all directions.

We pushed on along the canal where both the kids were focused on getting covered in as much snow as possible. Super Mum was trying to keep them dry but had no chance. Eloise and Lachlan were having the time of their lives. It was a particularly slow leg with more throwing of snow and snow angels than actually walking forward.

We passed under the famous Crane Gate, the buildings in Gdańsk are so large and epic they are tricky to take pictures of.

Brama Żuraw, Żuraw – a historic port crane and one of the water gates of Gdańsk , located on the Motława River , at the end of Szeroka Street. It is one of the branches of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk and the largest and oldest of the preserved port cranes of medieval Europe. A gate of unknown appearance existed in this place already in 1363, and from 1367 there is a Latin mention of a caranum crane . In its current form, the Crane was built in 1442-1444. Two massive brick towers and a wooden crane mechanism were built, which were later raised. Even though the facades of the gate from the Motława and city sides look different, the entire structure is in the Flemish Gothic style. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Crane lost its military importance. Over time, the brick towers were inhabited and craft workshops were established, and as the rooms were rebuilt, window openings were broken.

Lachlan made sure we paid a quick visit to his beloved snowy lions, he had to update them on the plan for the day.

We walked between the majestic buildings until we found the biggest of the bunch, St. Mary’s Church

Buildings in Gdańsk are so large they often have smaller models at the bottom so you can imagine what they look like. Our perfectionist, Eloise, is always concerned by the snowy roofs on the models and makes sure she cleans them off.

We followed the snowy tracks back to Gdańsk Old Town as we wanted to see the colourful city, it looks like the perfect Christmas City. It is an incredibly beautiful city, we were not expecting this from Poland. Definitely worth the visit!

We were getting fairly cold by this stage, luckily the World’s most colourful Costa’s magically appeared in front of us and we headed in for coffees, hot chocolate and babyccinos to defrost.

After we managed to withdraw some Polish Zloty we headed back to St. Mary’s Church, it was time to climb! Impressively, Eloise climbed the full 330ish stairs to the summit. Lachlan started strong but was having mobility issues as he was stuck in Bear Mode and requested a high-speed carrier to the top, shouting at Dad when he dared start walking up.

We were tired when we all managed to get to the top, the view was worth it though, especially with the snow.

Once we were starting to lose feeling in our ears we began the slow and careful journey down. We say slow and careful, Lachlan decided he had no issues travelling downwards and tried to break the land speed record down the stairs, jumping three or four stairs at a time at the expense of Dad’s back.

Thankfully for Dad’s back, there were a series of Lachlan-sized nooks that he liked to check out as we waited for the more sensible girls to catch up.

We did a quick circuit around the spacious church and lit a candle for the great-grandparents. We were just about to leave when the clock struck 12 and the gigantic astronomical clock started dancing, Eloise loved the clock people.

St. Mary’s Church, or formally the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Brick Gothic Catholic church located in central Gdańsk, Poland. With its volume between 185,000 m3 and 190,000 m3 it is currently one of the two or three largest brick churches in the world. Only San Petronio Basilica in Bologna, comprising 258,000 m3 is larger, Munich Frauenkirche and Ulm Minster also comprise 185,000 to 190,000 m3. Between 1536 and 1572 St. Mary’s Church was used for Catholic and Lutheran services simultaneously. From the 16th century until 1945[2] it was the second largest Lutheran church in the world. It is 105.5 metres (346 ft) long, and the nave is 66 metres (217 ft) wide. Inside the church is room for 25,000 people. It is an aisled hall church with a transept. It is a co-cathedral in the Archdiocese of Gdańsk, along with the Oliwa Cathedral.

We picked up some lunch and paper and headed back to our apartment, Eloise was in desperate need of some drawing time. Eloise was not happy as we passed another snowy playground.

For lunch, Super Mum whipped up some Polish Pierogi which were absolutely delicious, Eloise and Dad were fighting over them. We will definitely have to have more.

With warm tummies and once we had found another burst of energy we headed back out for round two. Eloise was not quite done in the art department but was happy to take her art to the streets. Although she was finding it a bit tricky over the bumpy snow.

Lachlan fell asleep right on cue as we arrived at the Museum of the Second World War, one of the top attractions in Gdańsk.

The Museum of the Second World War is a state cultural institution and museum established in 2008 in Gdańsk, Poland, which is devoted to the Second World War. Its exhibits opened in 2017. The Kwadrat architectural team won an architectural competition for the building of the Museum of the Second World War… The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, opened the architectural competition to design the main building of the museum. The judging panel included such experts as Daniel Liebeskind and Jack Lohman, the director of the Museum of London.

Eloise enjoyed the children’s exhibition, pretending she was in school. Not long now Eloise.

We made our way through a series of rooms which were all staged as the same room at varying stages throughout the war.

The museum was enormous and an absolute labyrinth. We think we covered most of the main exhibition but to be honest we are not really sure. You would need to spend a few years in here to do it justice. There was an extraordinary collection from World War II. “On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany, beginning World War II”.

Eloise was the first to spot the Spitfire after constructing one last year. We were also excited to see an Enigma Machine which we had learned all about at Bletchley Park.

Day 66: ETPYLFKGZOQXCY

After walking through the powerful exhibitions we passed under Little Boy and then through the Iron Curtain.

The Iron Curtain is a political metaphor used to describe the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West, its allies and neutral states. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union, while on the west side were the countries that were NATO members, or connected to or influenced by the United States; or nominally neutral. Separate international economic and military alliances were developed on each side of the Iron Curtain. It later became a term for the 7,000-kilometre-long (4,300 mi) physical barrier of fences, walls, minefields, and watchtowers that divided the “east” and “west”. The Berlin Wall was also part of this physical barrier.

Again with the perfect timing, as we headed for the museum exit Lachlan was back in the game. We were surprised to see the Wartka Bridge lowering as we went past and took the invitation to cross to Ołowianka.

Once we had reached Ołowianka, Eloise and Lachlan were dashing about in the snow. Super Mum was trying to make sure they all didn’t get snow down their tops so it turned into ‘gangs up on Super Mum’ with a lot of giggling involved.