Berlin wall

Today I a going to write about the Berlin wall as it is a very large part of the history of Germany.

After the second world war Germany was split into four parts each run by a different country, France, England, America and Russia. France, England and America were allies at that time and together created West Germany while Russia created east Germany. Although Berlin was inside of east Germany it being the capital was split up between France, England, America and Russia. Up until 1961 East german citizens were allowed to enter west Germany. It became much more difficult in in 1952 when the inner German border was created to stop people from leaving east Germany as the conditions there where not very good. The Berlin wall was created in 1961 because nearly 3 million people had migrated from east Germany to west Germany from 1949 up until 1961! *1, *6 and *7

Construction on the Berlin wall started on the 13th August 1961. It was built by the German Democratic Republic (East German government.) *2

In case anyone tried to pass or climb the wall there would be armed guards at the top ready to shoot. If you tried to pass the wall you would be shot immediately and killed.  Over 80 people were killed while trying to escape! *3

Finally in 1989 on the 9th November after weeks of civil unrest the East German government granted permission for all GDR citizens to enter west Berlin and Germany. As soon as the news got out hundreds and hundreds of people from west Germany and east Germany all crowded round and climbed on the wall and celebrated. The demolition of the wall officially began on the 13th June 1990 and finished sometime in 1992. *2

One of the most famous checkpoints is checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was the only checkpoint where there would be queues of people waiting to cross. *5

The East side gallery is a 1316 metre long section of the Berlin wall that is still standing covered in over 100 paintings from artists all over the world! *4

This is one of my favourite parts of the Berlin wall

Here are some of the links I used:

*1     http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/why-the-berlinwall-was-built.htm

*2     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

*3    http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/east-germans-kill-man-trying-to-cross-berlin-wall

*4    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side_Gallery

*5    https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Checkpoint_Charlie

*6    http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/wjec/history/pdf/berlin_blockade.pdf 

*7   http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/berlin-wall-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-barrier-that-divided-east-and-west-9847347.html

Berlin

Today as my first blog for my new topic, Germany, I am going to write about Berlin.

Berlin was made the capital of Germany in 1990 although the government headquarters were moved from Bonn to Berlin in 1991. *4

The population of Berlin (in 2017) is 3,593,000 people! That means the population has increased by 30,000 people since 2015!

The city's name comes comes from a West Slavic word meaning 'river rake,' a scaffold of beams built over a river to prevent logs from jamming. *3

Berlin is probably most well known for the Berlin wall. The Berlin wall was built on the 13th of August 1961 to separate the east of Berlin from the west of Berlin because people where trying to leave east Berlin because the conditions where bad. After weeks of civil unrest on the 19th November, 1989 the east German government granted permission for all GDR (the German democratic republic) citizens to enter west Germany and Berlin. Crowds of Germans from each side came and climbed on the wall and explored each side. Later on in the night the wall was knocked down. (I will learn some more about the Berlin wall later this month as it is a big part of German history.) *2

The Berlin wall

Here are some facts about Berlin that you may have not known:

1. It has over 1,700 bridges (that's even more bridges than Venice!) and more than 180 kilometres of navigable water.
2. It has the longest open air gallery ever! The gallery is actually a 1.3 kilometre part of the Berlin wall called the East Side Gallery that has 101 paintings by artists from 21 countries.
3. It is home to one of the tallest pieces of architecture in Europe, the Berliner Fernsehturm (the Berlin TV tower) is 368 metres high with a 207 metres high viewing floor. 
4. Berlin is the greenest city in Germany! About 44% of Berlin is made up of parks, recreational areas, woods, and rivers.  
5. Berlin is the only city in the world to have three active opera houses! *1

Here are some links to the pages used,

*1  http://www.globalblue.com/destinations/germany/berlin/top-10-facts-on-berlin/#slide7

*2  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

*3  https://www.ancestry.co.uk/name-origin?surname=berlin

*4  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_on_the_Capital_of_Germany

*5  https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Berlin

The history of the Euro

Today I am going to write about the history of the Euro and how it has changed along the way.

The euro was first introduced in 1999 but was only actually used for electronic payments until 2002 when 12 countries in the EU abandoned their currencies and all started using euros.

Imagine well over three million people from various countries all trying to change there money to one currency? This was ranked the worlds largest civilian project in the history of the world!

At one point there was an era called the transition period were you were able to spend your own currency and the euro at the same time. This came to an end in 2002 when the euro was officially entered into circulation.

Since then many different countries have joined the eurozone including Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

There are seven different euro notes each one a different size, colour, and face value: €5 (grey), €10 (red), €20 (blue), €50 (orange), €100 (green), €200 (yellow), and €500 (purple).

There are also eight different coins: €0.01, €0.02, €0.05, €0.10, €0.20, €0.50, €1, and €2.
Each countries euro has the same thing on one side but on the other side is usually some kind of mint to match the country and/or the countries history.

The Euro sign is € most people describe it as a capitol C with an = in the middle of it.

The Euro sign in its original colours

    

The battle of the Beanfield

Today I visited Stonehenge for the second time and although I have already written a blog about it (which you can find here) I am now going to write about the Battle of the Beanfield.

The battle of Beanfield occurred on the 1st June, 1985.

It all started when about 600 new age travellers and their families were heading towards Stonehenge for the annual free festival when they came across a roadblock. Due to the damage to the stones at the previous year's free festival the police decided that the festival should be cancelled and that the people attending should have no permitted access to the stones from then on.

When everybody saw the police they all moved into a neighbouring beanfield. People expected that the police would leave them alone now but all the police got in the vehicles and drove into the field and surrounded all of the people.

There were about 600 travellers all in their homes with their pets and family and everything they owned. There were also about 1,300 police officers, all covered in armour and armed with truncheons, so that's two armed police men or more to each individual person!

The chief police officer eventually came over in a helicopter and ordered for everyone to be arrested.
Afterwards the police claimed that most of the travellers chucked rocks and threw sticks when only ten or so actually did so.

What happened next is horrible. The police came round smashed the windows of the travellers' homes and dragged out any people inside and arrested them, if anybody resisted (which most did) they would get hurt.

Here are some quotes from the people who where there,

'But it wasn't a battle, we offered no resistance.' - Rose Brash (above, with her baby).

'Police rushed out on foot, from behind their barricades. Clutching drawn truncheons and riot shields, they ran round to the driver's door of each vehicle, slamming their truncheons into the bodywork to make a deafening noise, and shouting at every driver, 'get out, get out, hand over your keys, get out!' - The Earl of Cardigan.

'I was trying to give first aid to people who'd been injured. An observation I made was the number of people who'd been clouted around the back of the head. They must have been running away.' - Alan Lodge, former paramedic

About 80% of the travellers were arrested! The people who weren't arrested were let go but without their vans or anything of theirs that they owned. It was the biggest arrest in British history. Once everyone was arrested the Battle of Beanfield was over and no one else was hurt.

Several years later about twenty people were awarded money for damage to their vehicles and wrongful arrest.
S

Today you aren't allowed to get near the stones and touch them except on the solstice and as long as you don't climb on the stones or bring in alcohol.

How to make slime

Today I made slime and I was soooooooo happy with how it came out and how satisfying it was to play with! I had so much fun making it and its really easy!

You will need:

PVA glue
Contact lens solution
Shaving foam
Food colouring or paint (optional)
A large bowl
A sealable contianer (like a jam jar or Tupperware)
A spoon
A large plate

To start you want to put about 125ml of PVA glue into your bowl and add and add about half  cup of shaving foam and mix!

Next add the contact lens solution to the mixture until it isn't sticking to the bowl.

If it is still sticking to the bowl keep adding bits of shaving foam and tiny splashes of contact lens solution till it is doesn't anymore.

At this point it should still stick to your finger a bit but to stop it from sticking to your skin you need to put al the slime on your plate (it shouldn't stick to the plate) and stretch it and play with it until it isn't sticking to your hands (you may need to add some shaving foam along the way.)

This is my absolute favourite step, Playing with it! It is so satisfying playing with the slime, mixing in paints or food colouring, mixing in beads and bits of styrofoam, mixing in glitter, Kneading in lip balms and lipsticks, blowing bubbles with the slime with a straw, cutting the slime with scissors or a knife, stretching it, and much, much, much more!!

The Hercules garden

Today I visited the grounds of Blair castle in Scotland near Pitlochry, Cairngorms national park and it was amazing! One of the most amazing parts was one of the gardens called the Hercules garden!

My guess for the reason of its name is probably because of the large statue of Hercules overlooking the garden!
I was so amazed by all the fruit trees and the big pond! It was all so beautiful!
It was quite big and i wanted to find out exactly how big it is and it turned out to be about nine acres! (If you don't know how big an acre is its about 4000 m² which is roughly 200 x 200m) There is a very high wall built around the garden and two large gates the enter and exit. One of my favourite parts of the garden is the Chinese bridge! (shown below)

Chinese bridge

Its not just the garden that is named after Hercules, the long path (which is a beautiful walk filled with lovely trees) that leads to the garden is also named after Hercules.

The most incredible part of Blair castle (to me at least) is Diana's grove. It has so many trees and how beautiful the scenery was is beyond words! The biggest tree in Diana's grove is a giant redwood planted from one of the seeds from one of the biggest trees in the world the Grizzly giant. the mount it is planted on (mount strange) was recreated in 1884 to show the volume of the Grizzly giant. This amazing tree is about 1900 to 2400 years old and is 64 metres high and 34,005 cubic feet!

We didn't do the tour but did pop our heads into the entrance hall and there were quite a couple of stuffed stags and we decided to just stay outside.

If you happen to be near and have some time on your hands definitely have a look because it is so amazing!

Loch Ness

Today as my blog I am going to write about the Loch Ness Which is probably most well known for the Loch ness monster (most commonly known as Nessie.) heres a link to a blog I wrote about Nessie.

What does Loch Ness mean?

The word Loch means lake but the word Ness is simply just  a name.

Is it fresh water or salt water?

The Loch Ness is actually fresh water and has more fresh water in it than all the lakes in Wales and England combined!

How deep is it?

The Loch Ness is 23 miles long, 1 mile wide, and 227 metres deep! Thats the height of nearly 57 double decker busses!

What gives it its colour?

The pitch black loch is actually given its colour by small bits of peat floating on the surface.

Does it ever flood?

Luckily no it doesn't flood but if it does look like it is going to flood the local power company can adjust it by several feet by pumping out as much water as possible.

Does it freeze in the winter?

No sadly it doesn't ever freeze over so put away your ice skates but when you go to the Loch Ness always bring a camera! You never know you may spot Nessie on your trip.

Fun facts!

1. Nessie is the most famous lake monster in the world and she even has her own roller coaster in Virginia!
2. At least 40 small rivers and streams run into the Loch Ness.
3. Some people think that Nessie is either a giant slug or fish or a family of monsters that got trapped there after the end of the last ice age!