WE'RE HOME!

Here's some pictures of our adventures! We have nearly two thousand so we'll just post a small portion of those!

New, NEW plan!

Alright, we've been neglecting the blog lately and we apologize. We have been quite busy with our new, NEW plan. There won't be any pictures in this post but we will try our best at getting some up soon. So... we rode our bicycles for about 200 plus miles and suddenly had an epiphony! We decided that although the workout and peace from bicycling was amazing, we weren't seeing much of the US in terms of major sites and attractions. So, after riding through Queens, Manhatten (aka New York City), New Jersey and Pennsylvania we decided to buy a car. We found a sweet Volvo station wagon right away and after a little "tune up" we hit the road. Although neither of us are big fans of driving and would like to see the US convert to more practical, economical modes of transportation such as bicycles and metro systems, we admit that having a car is an effective way of "seeing" stuff. Thus far, we've explored Washington DC, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Milwaukee and many others since we've had the car. A total of 12 states in a relatively (to bicycling) short amount of time. Next on our agenda... We're leaving Sioux Falls, South Dakota and heading to Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore. Then on to Yellowstone and down into Colorado. That's as far as we've gotten in the planning process as we're not very good at that sort of thing (obviously). We have a sweet bed set up in our car and all the luxurious amenities...i.e. Camp stove, ice chest, road atlas. We will return to California in about 3 weeks where we look forward to seeing you all and catching up.

A new plan is underway

So... we are now back in the United States!

...and these are our new modes of transportation...

We landed at JFK last Saturday evening. We then rented a small SUV and headed down to and REI in Marlton, NJ and then in Conshohocken, PA to purchase these awesome bikes and all the necessary gear.

We are now heading down the east coast towards Washington DC where we plan to spend a few days checking out the capital. After that our westward journey begins. We will be riding pretty much directly west towards Pueblo, CO before we turn northwest and pick up the Oregon Trail and ride it all the way to Astoria, OR. If anyone wants to check out our route check this link out:

http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/transamerica.cfm

If you or anyone you know lives along this route please let us know as we would love meet as many friends as we can along the way!

We've been riding for about 3 days now and having a great time. We rode through Queens and then into Central Park before crossing the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey. We then crossed some more bridges (a bit of a challenge) and are currently in Newark, NJ where we are picking up a section of the Atlantic Coast Route that will take us down towards Philadelphia and then onto DC.

We'll try and post some more pictures as we get a chance - but we're doing mostly camping now so will probably not be updating as often as we would like.

Wish us luck!

Looking down the Hudson at New York City from the George Washington Bridge on our way over to New Jersey.

Spain is Sweet.

Hello everyone!

Since our last post we have travelled through Biarritz, France and down into Spain stopping in St. Jean de Luz (France), Bilbao, Leon, Pamplona and now Barelona. We will be leaving Barcelona this afternoon and heading south along the Mediterannean coast to Valencia before heading back inland to Madrid later in the week.

Biarritz is the surf capital of Europe (according to all the tourist brochures) and a super sweet place to stay. Great pedestrian streets along the coast and some amazing coastal views:

Looking south along the coast from Biarritz.

We hiked down the coast along a cool trail from Biarritz to St. Jean de Luz. We camped out and enjoyed another crazy stormy and windy night with the rain lashing down against our tent... it only seems to rain really hard on the nights we decide to camp out...

Looking back north towards Biarritz while on our way to St. Jean de Luz.

Wildlife along the trail...

After the wet night of camping we made it to the train station in St. Jean de Luz where we took a short train ride to Irun and then a bus into Bilbao and we were in Spain! Bilbao was a pretty hip town with a very cool old town quarter and, of course, the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The building was the coolest part of the museum.

We spent two days in Bilbao and had some great Basque food. Then it was onto Leon. There is an older, more ghetto train line that runs along the north coast of Spain called Feve. Ryan had the great idea to take this train to Leon and ´really get to see some sweet scenery´... which we did - it just took a really really really really long long long time. Fortunately we were able to purchase a bottle of wine while on the train which made the last few hours pass nicely.

The cathedral in Leon. Has the highest glass to concrete ratio of any gothic cathedral. Looking from the inside out through the most beautiful stained glass we´ve ever seen was really amazing. All the colors were so bright and vibrant. Pictures weren´t allowed as it is still a fully functioning cathedral so unfortunately you´ll just have to believe us - or go here yourselves one day.

After Leon we took a regular, fast train to Pamplona. This is where they have the running of the bulls every year. The town was cool and we once again enjoyed some great local tapas and beers while sitting in the shade in the afternoon. That is what most people seem to do over here. The pace of life is so much different: nothing opens until 10, then everything closes again around noon and most places don´t open again until 5 or maybe later. And it is hard to find a dinner place that opens any earlier than 8:30. A very different pace - more sitting around drinking coffee and having a chat than you´d ever find in Cali...

We´ve spent the last two days in Barcelona. This place totally rocks! Great beaches and hot weather to go along with them. Buildings and parks by Gaudi are all over the city and were very cool to gaze upon.

View of the Temple de La Sagrada Familia. The oldest part is on the right while you can see some of the current construction on the left. On the backside of this is even more current construction. Once this is completed and all the cranes and scaffolding goes away this will be even more impressive than it already is.

Views of some of the crazy passages and walkways in the Parc Guell, where Gaudi lived for the last 20 years of his life. Leah made Ryan take the last picture ... I assure it wasn´t his idea... hehehe.... It is quite the trek to the top of this hill in Barcelona to get here - but the sights are well worth it.
We´ll share more with you once we get to Madrid... Laters!

Paris and beyond...

First of all - apologies for taking so long between posts. We've been crazy busy making our way around France. After arriving in the port town of Cherbourg on the Normandy coast on Monday the 20th we headed to beautiful and amazing Paris where we spent Tuesday and Wednesday night. For those of you who have only experienced Paris with Hollywood assistance I can assure you that no movie has truly done this incredible place justice. Everywhere we turned there was something else to see or do. After spending our first afternoon checking out some of the architecture we ended up at the Eiffel Tower as the sun went down and the lights came up. It is so much bigger in person than I had imagined!! Here are a few picutures to enjoy:

The two of us from the ferry as Ireland drifts away in the background.

Arc de Triomphe Etiole in the setting sun.

Fountain in the Place de la Concorde with Eiffel Tower in the background.

The Eiffel Tower all lit up. This taken looking south from across the River Seine.

Looking down to some of the garden area from the Chateau de Versailles.

Back in Paris looking at the Glass Pyramid - the main entrance to the Musee du Louvre.

On our second day we took a day trip to Versailles to check out the cool palace (chateau) and even cooler (and ginormous) gardens. Then it was back into Paris where we went to the Louvre and checked out as much as we could - including of course the Mona Lisa and the statue of Venus. After the museum we headed east along the Seine to the Cathedral Notre Dame. And then had a killer dinner at a little cafe that we finished with French coffee (with Cognac) and a delicious crepe.

On Thursday it was off to Nantes (birthplace of Jules Verne for all you literature buffs) where we spent a night and checked out a very cool castle built by the Dukes of Brittany in the 1500's. We are now down further south in Bordeaux planning the next stage of our adventure... we'll keep you posted...

All smiles in Paris!!

Sunset in Paris on the River Seine.

More Pictures!!

Ryan in a passageway at Blarney Castle. (wearing shorts - which is a sure-fire way to stand out over here - nobody wears shorts!)
Blarney Castle from the lovely garden area surrounding it. The Blarney Stone is at the top of the castle on the left edge as you are viewing this. Quite a narrow set of spiral stairs all the way to the top.

If you look really, really hard you can see America through the fog... This was taken while taking the Ring of Kerry Tour out of Killarney.

The Cliffs of Moher. A bit of a tourist trap but it's hard to argue with scenery like this.

A bit of love on a windy day overlooking the Cliffs of Moher.

Leah at our our sweet campsite in in a farmers field while on the Burren Way between Ballyvaughn and Doolin. At this point the ground was only damp but after the stormy night it turned into a swampy marsh.

View from the Burren Way of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland.

View from the top of a hill on the Burren Way looking toward our next hill challenge.

The Burren Way before the climb just outside the village of Ballyvaughan.

One the road before arriving in Ballyvaughan on our way from Kinvara.

Traditional Irish thatch roof.

Leah at the harbor in Galway.

(I'm pretty sure these pictures are in reverse chronological order)

We've made it all the way down to the city of Cork. Another sweet place with tons of history - including the nearby town of Blarney wherein you can find Blarney Castle at the top of which one can find the famous Blarney Stone. Yes, Leah and I have kissed the Blarney Stone and will now be gifted with eloquence beyond imagination!! It was a super-touristy thing but worth it. The castle itself was really awesome because it has been kept in such great condition.

Ireland has been incredibly awesome. We enjoyed getting out of the big cities and into the little villages the most. The people have all been very welcoming to us, especially in Northern Ireland along the north-eastern coast. We have had dozens of offers for 'lifts' from people and tons of smiles all around. We were even invited in for tea on more than one occasion by people we met along the road. Although it is a pretty small island there is an amazing amount of history here. And the beauty of the place was more than I had expected - especially once we got into the hills with the ancient rock fences and clear streams.

These will be the last pictures from the island of Ireland as we are heading to France this Sunday via ferry. We have completed a fairly complete loop of Ireland and have jammed as much into every day as humanly possible. There are of course hundreds of things we've missed but we'll just have to save those for our next little trip. Hope you enjoy these pictures (including some of our faces per parental request) and we'll post again once we land in France.

doing the tourist thing...

Today we're in Killarney and will be taking the 'Ring of Kerry' tour. We've been making our way down the west coast after spending last Thursday and Friday in Galway we began hiking south in an area called 'The Burren'. It is a geologically interesting place with tons of exposed limestone. We camped out on top of a mountain after a couple of brutal uphill sections on Sunday night. It rained and blew really hard. We got a bit wet but were none the worse for wear. We then trekked down the mountain into a little town called Doolin where we treated ourselves to a nice night in a decent hotel. At a pub in Doolin we were again treated to some sweet traditional Irish music. It was then onto the Cliffs of Moher (which was a major tourist trap - but really quite beautiful) before ending up last night in Killarney.

We plan on spending the next couple of days here in Killarney and checking out the lakes and mountains around here. There is a national park and some great forested land all around this town. After this its on to Cork and probably will be taking a ferry this weekend sometime to get over into northern France. We'll post again with more details and hopefully some pictures from the west coast of Ireland!

Pictures!

View from the Ulster way just west of Ballycastle
There were dozens of these 'skines' that we used to cross fences.
Castle at Carickfergus
View down off of west point of Rathlin Island near bird sanctuary
Lots of sheep and even more baby lambs - so very cute!!
The basalt pillars at the Giants Causeway
One of the many murals in Free Derry
Yep - we took the tour and then drank some whiskey...

Just a note: these pictures are not in any sort of chronological order.