Utö Youth Hostel

The youth hostel on the island had great views in the rooms.


But the best part was that we got our own bed. It was great!

Taking the ferry to Utö

Bill and I took a ferry to an island called Utö. The ferry took three hours but it went past lots of pretty places. This is the inside of the ferry.


Looking out the window at the beginning we got to wave goodbye to Stockholm. That ferry in the picture was just like ours.

Wandering around Stockholm

We walked around the city and saw lots of interesting places on the waterfront.


Behind us is the Vasa Museum and an island which is mostly gardens.

That's the old town in the background there.

Arriving in Sweden

Dad took us to Sweden for a trip. We stayed at the airport the first night in a hostel made from a 747.


Here we are waiting for the airport shuttle to pick us up so we can take a bus to Stockholm.

Wasdale Head and nearby

The next day we drove on a windy road in the fog to get to Wasdale Head. Anna is holding us in front of Wast Water.


We also went to Muncaster Castle which was nearby. It was pretty cool.


Muncaster Castle has an owl sanctuary, so there were lots of owls. Thankfully they were behind cages so they couldn't try to eat us.

I liked this one because it had really pretty colors.

Down by the lake

After climbing the hill we went down to the lake shore to see the water up close.


I looked hard but I could not find any delicious water bugs swimming around on the lake. Maybe it was too rough for them. Maybe some other platypus had already eaten them.

Heading to Orrest Head

Once we arrived in Windermere we decided to go for a hike since it was good weather. We started up a hill to a place called Orrest Head which had a great view.


We stopped to rest on a bench at the top of Orrest Head and enjoyed the view.


Here we are on the bench again.


Behind us you can see the view we were enjoying of Lake Windermere. It was very pretty.

Off to the Lake District

Dad hired a car and we headed up to the Lake District for a long weekend with Great-aunt Anna.


Dad relied on us for navigation. Strange Panda thought the blue part was the land!


Dad let us drive a bit when we were in a parking lot. It's really hard moving the steering wheel and the pushing the pedals at the same time.


We stopped for lunch along the way. I had a healthy bunch of fruit, but Strange Panda just wanted crisps!

King of the Edinburgh Hill

The city of Edinburgh is actually quite tiny. We were able to play King of the Hill on the main castle hill. I was King of the Hill the longest.

Bill did his best to push me off the hill though.

Around Edinburgh

We spent the day going around Edinburgh. This is part of Holyrood Palace, where the Queen lives when she is in Scotland.


Bill was being silly and kept rolling off the ledge.


Here I am with Edinburgh city behind me. We went hiking up a big cliff.

Touring Scottish Parliament

This is me looking at the nicely coloured outside of the Scottish Parliament.


Here's another picture of me at the Scottish Parliament.

Great-aunt Anna took this photo of Dad taking my picture in front of the parliament building.

Our day as university students

Dad was graduating from the University of Edinburgh so we went up and got to sleep in the student halls for a couple nights.

We had a view of some of the residential campus from our window. It looked nice outside.

Hanging out with Sarah and Adam

Sarah and Adam were very enthusiastic to be photographed with us, especially as we are so famous.


Bill thought he would pose with a Zoolander-style Blue Steel look. They were very impressed by it.


I took a different approach and wore sunglasses to hide my identity from all the fans passing by.

Relaxing at the beach

We did a little bit of sunbathing, but we were sure to put on some sunblock first, as we both have white bellies.


I built a little fortress out of the sand molds.

Beach trip to Cleethorpes!

We went to Cleethorpes for the day. We got to each fish and chips on the beach with Sam, Svea, Sarah, and Adam.


I didn't much like fish and chips - not even plants in it, but Bill said it was similar to fried water bugs.

Immortalized again!

Dad has immortalised us onto another mug. I think I look a bit like a rabbit though.

Here is a friend from New Zealand, a kiwi bird on the mug too.

Conferencing in Swansea

Dad took us to Swansea for a conference.

We had an OK view from our hotel, but it wasn't that great.

He was busy at the conference all day so we just stayed at home and rested.

We did find out about something called room service however.

They bring all sorts of nice cakes and things straight to your room. Sadly there were not any water bugs on the menu.

Waiting in Singapore Airport

Halfway through our flight back we had a six hour layover in Singapore Airport. We got to see lots of planes, but it was quite rainy outside.

Looking around Waitomo

Grandma and Grandpa came with us on our trip to New Zealand, and here they were near Waitomo, a cave full of glow worms that Bill kept trying to eat. This was a natural land bridge not far away.

Also we drove to a big waterfall nearby. It was our last full day, and sadly we did not see any other platypuses or pandas during the whole trip! They really should come visit, because it was great!