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Update…Where we are

July 24th, 2006

Yes…We are still alive and kicking. Here is the latest update on our past and current locations!

Dec 24, 2005 – Jan. 2, 2006 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Jan. 2 travelling from HCMC to Mui Ne, Vietnam (headed north to end up in Hanoi in a few days)

Jan 2 – Jan 7 Mui Ne, Vietnam. just up the coast from HCMC.

Jan 7 – Jan 11 Hoi An, Vietnam. great little town full of art and tailors

Jan 11 – Jan 16 Ha Noi, Vietnam. just got here and really like it

Jan 16 – Jan 22 Bangkok. few more days in BKK before going to NZ

falling behind again :()

Jan 23 – 28 Christchuch, New Zeland (south island)

Jan 28-29 Kaikoura, New Zealand (headed north now)

Jan 29-30 Picton, New Zealand

Jan 30- Feb 2 Abel Tasman National Park, (nortwest, still south island)

Feb 2-3 Barrytown, NZ (headed down the west coast)

Feb 3-4 Fran Josef National Park

Feb 4-7 Queenstown, NZ

Feb 8-9 Milford Sound (back on the coast)

Feb 9-11 Te Anu, NZ

Feb 11-13 Invercargill, NZ

FEb 13-15 Dunedin, NZ

Feb 15-17 Christchurch

Feb 18 Flew to Auckland took a ferry to Waiheke Island

Feb 18-22 Waiheke

Feb 22-25 Bay of Islands

Feb 25-28 Rotorua

Feb 28- March 2 Taupo

Mar 2 – Mar 4 Napier

Mar 4- Mar 8 Wellington

Mar 8 – Mar 11 Sydney

Mar 11 – Mar 17 Forster-Tuncurry

Mar 17-18 Brisbane

Mar 18-27 Gold Coast

Mar 27-Mar 31 Perth

Mar 31 – April 4 Mandurah

April 4- April 20

SW Australia: Margaret River, Augusta, Denmark, Freemantle, back to Perth

April 20 – May 20

Italy:   Rome, Montepulciano, Sienna, Firenze, Lucca, San Gimingano, Pistoia, Bologna, Venezia, Parma, Cique Terra, Milano

May 20 – June 15

Spain: Madrid, La Manga, Valencia, Barcleona, Logrono, Bilbao, Gernika, San Sebastian, Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla

Portugal: Lisboa

June 15 – June 20

France: Paris

June 20 – June 23

The Netherlands: Amsterdam

June 23 – June 31

Germany: Cologne, Dortmund, Trier, Germund, Dresden

June 31-  July 17

Czech Republic: Prague

Hungary: Budapest

Croatia: Zagreb, Dubrovnik

July 17 – August 7

UK: London

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Monthly update…

July 22nd, 2006

So this is what we’ve come to. from writing several times a week to struggling to get one post out per month. oh well 🙂

In London right now with Terra’s Mom, Sister and Niece. They just got into town today and we have a fun packed 8 days ahead of us!! 

 Have been in a bunch of places since my last post

Amsterdam – Really cool city despite the obvious attractions. great architecture, Ann Frank House and the canals are very Venice-esque but cleaner.

Germany – The World Cup was awesome!  I know, I know SOCCER??? I finally Got It. To see 100 German soccer fans at a truck stop (don’t ask) cheering their team to vitory proved to me that this is, indeed, the biggest sporting event in the world.  The war history is also amazing.

Luxembourg –  spend a whopping 4-5 hours there. Luxembourg City to be precise. Watched one soccer game in Germany earlier in the date and the second game in Luxembourg. 2 games, 2 countries!  LC is a very pretty city 🙂

Amsterdam – O.K. so we went twice, what about it???

Czech Republic –  Prague is a fantastic city. Great architecture, food etc.

Slovakia –  only touched the ground for about 6 seconds but…those 6 seconds were fun.

Hungary – Budapest. one of the top 5 cities we’ve been to.

Croatia – Dubrovnik deserves a visit. a Unesco site not to be missed.  Zagreb was also very cool. The resiliency of the people is amazing. Hard to believe the region was thoroughly war torn not long ago.

Now having a great time in London seeing the sights. Has been especially challenging considering the heat wave. No complaints though!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

 

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Paris in the Summertime!

June 16th, 2006

Is just as beautiful as the spring! Made it here yesterday safe and sound. Are lucky enough to be hosted by our friends Laura and Gary who have made us feel right at home under the Eiffel Tower. Will be getting our sight see on for the next few days.

Have added some more photos! The rest of Australia and about half of Italy are up. Go to the “Pictures” heading under “Categories.” Hope you enjoy them!

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Viva La Rioja!

June 5th, 2006

Have been in Northern Spain for the last few days with my harem (Terra, Kathy, and Leslie). Let me first say that, as a man of average height, appearance and intelect, I get a lot of looks entering a room followed by three beautiful women. My status is raised instantly:)

Have had a great time exploring one of the great wine regions of the world. The Rioja region is well know for its red wines and we have made a valiant effort to try them all. Found the ¨wine experience¨to be quite different here than in the Willamette valley at home. Most, if not all, of the wineries here are large operations housed in big warehouse type buildings. Not quite as quaint as we would have expected but just as fun.

Prior to the Rioja region (the town of Logorno and Haro mostly) we spent 4 days in Barcelona. What a wonderful city! Stunning architecture (see Gaudi), culturally diverse, great food and liberal beaches (you know what I mean RD). Had a great time exploring the famous Bar-THe-lona. Yes, they say it with a ¨TH¨ sound.

Are now planted deep in the heart of the the Basque Country. Spent last night in Bilbao (home of the world famous Guggenheim Museum). Today, we went to Guernika. For those of you in the Treasure Valley, Guernika is the namesake of the popular bar in Boise. Did not know until the other day that Guernika was leveled by German bombs (ordered by Spain´s dictator Franco) in 1937 to ¨test¨the idea of carpet bombing. Leveled the city and killed 2000 Basque citizens. Mainly happened because the Basque people were openly critical of the Franco dictatorship. Picasso later painted ¨Guernika¨which was housed in NYC until 1978 as Picasso refused to let it reside in Spain until a democracy had been established. It is now house in Madrid.

Writing this entry from San Sebastian. Another great city on the Bay of Biscay. Back to Madrid tomorrow!

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Highlights of Italy

May 29th, 2006

we`ve been so bad at adding blog posts that I’ve had to resort to this ¨highlights of¨stuff but…so it goes. 

We had an amazing month in Italy. Have only great things to say about all of it. The people were so friendly and helpful. Glad to help when we got lost. Not that I ever did, of course. Always smiling!

 Here are a few highlights:

The Vatican. St. Peter´s Basilica, the Vatican Museums

The Coloseum

The Roman Forum.

Montepulciano. The coolest little walled village you will ever see

Florence- The Uffizi Gallery, The Statue of David

Venice. Grand Canal. beautiful hand made glas from the nearby island

Cinque Terra – A big favorite. one of the most beautiful places on earth

Did I mention the Wine, Cheese and Meat!!!!

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Cool new feature

May 29th, 2006

just discovered this on our Blog. Bootsnall (the publisher of this website) now has a ¨maps¨feature on the right hand tool bar. If you want to see where we are, you can choose from several interactive maps.

Now we´ll have some idea of where we are. 🙂

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Highlights of New Zealand

May 29th, 2006

As I think I shared with you earlier, we loved NZ (sound familiar?). The best way I can describe it is that alot of the best landscapes in the States have been crammed into these two small islands. That’s NZ. Many of the landscapes remind me of the Northwest in the states. For example, one day while riding in our tour bus, we notices landscapes similar to Idaho forests, the high desert outside of Bend and the Oregon coast. All in a stretch of about 3 hours drive time. Some of the highlights for us were:

Hiking the Tongariro Crossing (seeing the infamous Mount Doom)

Swimming with the dolphins in the Bay of Islands

Paddling the Milford Sound AND being greeted by dolphins all around the kayak

Forging our owns knives from a piece of steel in Barrytown

Hiking and swimming in the Abel Tasman National Park

Seeing real live Kiwi birds!

The bus tour around the South Island with all of our great new friends from around the globe.

As with most of the places we´ve been, we highly recommend going to NZ. It is a fabulous country with tons of fun things to do and see.

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Look Out Spain

May 29th, 2006

We have travel buddies!! Kathy and Leslie (from Portland) have joined us for our tour of Spain and Portugal. Although we are only a few days into it, we have already ¨partied¨more in the last few days than we have in the first 7 months 🙂 Has been great fun having them along and Terra is thrilled to have someone intelligent to talk to…finally!

We are headed to Barcelona today for about 4 days then up into the Rioja wine country. We`ll go north to the Basque country for a bit and then back to Madrid where we will see Leslie off.

Terra, Kathy and I will then make our way south toward Sevilla and into Portugal before saying good bye to Kathy in Lisbon.

The Iberian Peninsula will never know what hit ’em.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend at home!

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Friendly Faces

May 12th, 2006

Were lucky enough to meet up with our good friend Andy Quintenz here in Italy. Both in Rome and in Florence we had a great time seeing the sites and just hanging out. Was really great to see him and a great reminder for us of how lucky we have been to be blessed with such great friends.

miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon. well…not too soon. take care and Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers!!!!

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The Joy of Family Travel

May 12th, 2006

Although some time has passed since my parents joined us in Australia, I wanted to say how great it was to have them with us. It takes a lot of courage to make that first trip over-seas and we were so glad they chose to do it with us!

We have a great time hiking, fishing, eating, hiking, more eating, wine tasting, kangaroo petting, playing cards and generally enjoying the Aussie culture. Hope to see them again before the trip is over 🙂

 

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