OK, fine...I'll do Europe.

Well, since he is going to do Africa, i thought I'd do Europe. To start off, I'll do England, the heart and soul of Europe. To narrow it down, Great Britain can go from mountainous to rolling hills, from one of the largest, and most ancient cities on Earth, to places where not one living thing is in sight.

London, the capital, is a city more than 7 and a half million people, and it's one of the largest trading centers of the world. Not only in business, but also in clothing fashions and music and lots of other things.

My oldest brother spent this past semester in London so I will be posting a few more things about it.

Spanish Map

My Grandparents went on a trip to Avila, Spain this summer and here is a really neat map they saw there.

Invasion of Liechtenstein! (well not really)

Did you know that it is possible to accidentally invade Liechtenstein? Switzerland does. I didn't know until today but now I do.

Read the story here.

That One Country, Switzerland

That One Country, Switzerland

Switzerland is a very special country with many features, like chocolate. Do you like chocolate? I do. But do you know what country produces the most chocolate? Can anyone guess? It's Switzerland. You all know that Switzerland is a very mountainous country and I do not think that very many cocoa trees could grow there. Honestly, I do not know how they make their chocolate so well, but I love it. In fact, chocolate lovers around the world order Swiss chocolate for special occasions or even to just to lie around in their fridge.

There is one downside about this delicious treat. It is expensive. But if you go to any wedding or something like that, you will probably find that kind of chocolate, so eat all you can.

Chocolate is not the only thing that makes Switzerland such a special country. In Geneva, there are more banks within the metropolitan area of the city than any other city in the world. Switzerland is where many millionaires deposit their money to keep it safe because Swiss banks are high-security so they can not be robbed.

These are only a few things about Switzerland, out of at least a hundred more. Personally, I would greatly enjoy a trip to that one country, Switzerland

The Map in The Schoolroom

The Map in The Schoolroom

essay written by GeoGuy for Writing Workshop

In my schoolroom, there is a National Geographic map of Ireland and Great Britain pinned on the wall. When I become distracted I always seem to gaze up at the map. Most of the time I notice something new or something that I had never noticed before. On the Ireland map, which I believe is where our teacher is from, everywhere I look there is some strange new name of a city, river or mountain that I missed. Do you know what the longest river is in Ireland and the UK? It is the Shannon, a 240 mi long river. That is pretty short for the biggest river in any area.

Next I skip over to England to study it. You may not have known this, but the island of Great Britain is actually one of the largest islands in the world. Scotland's northwestern coastline is jagged and rocky which has a remarkable resemblance to Norway, only about 300 miles away. Then I look down to view England and Wales. But before I can, my mom yells out: "Thomas, get back to your work!" Great, I was just getting to the best part.

Is it Mine or Your's

Frank and I were looking at a globe I pointed to South America and said "That's South America" then I pointed to Africa and said "That's Africa". We reviewed those for a while. Then I pointed to Europe and said "that's Europe" and then he said "that not my up".

Google Earth is Smarter Than We Thought (Europe)

I was installing Google Earth and I noticed that there was a tour of places in The Da Vinci Code.
Here is the description they have for it.

Da Vinci Code Tour: Real-life locations of note described in a little-known, obscure book/movie called "the Da Vinci Code".

Ria and I thought that it was really funny that they called it "little-known".

The Orkney Islands (Europe)

Today I was reading Our American Catholic Heritage for my history and in it I noticed that it talked about the Orkneys in a part about the Vikings. I happened to remember them from The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow. The Orkneys are just off the north side of Scotland.