Coming Home

We are headed to Chicago tomorrow, I am flying to DC on Sunday, and I start work on Monday (my start date got moved up, yay!). Reid will be joining me later in the week. See everyone sooooo soon!

Oktoberfest - Day 1

A couple photos from our first day at the 'fest. We've been back twice since then and are now simply recovering (and doing job applications and various other tasks). More pictures of us plus beer coming soon.

Final Stop

We are here in Munich--our final stop on our travels. We are enjoying ourselves so far and heading to Octoberfest on Thursday.

Drizzly Dubrovnik

We had planned to drive south to Montenegro today, but woke up to rain. We decided that driving on unfamiliar mountain roads wasn't the best idea, so we are holed up in a cafe catching up on various household tasks instead. So far we've etched up a budget, discussed where we should live, and Reid is now working on updating his resume. A good use of our time. But it's sad that we are no longer enjoying the carefree life of few responsibilities besides what sights we'll see and what hotel we'll sleep in. I think we're up to 63 hotel rooms over the course of six months. It's been nice not having to clean a bathroom in that long, but we're also looking forward to not packing up our bag every third day or so.

Vatican City

When in Rome... you must visit Vatican City. Which we did and somehow avoided the lines, although there were plenty of crowds, especially on the way to the Sistine Chapel. But it was well worth the hassle (of course) and we were more than impressed even with our high expectations!

Dashing Dubrovnik

We've had a wonderful couple days lazing in beautiful Dubrovnik's old city walls, getting lost on its winding streets, and gazing at the turquoise water. We have a couple more days here and plan to take an excursion to a couple islands for some beach time and visit a few more museums, but we are definitely winding down our vacation. We spend more and more time chatting about our plans for our return than for the next ciy we'll visit. It's inevitable, I suppose, and good that we are excited to come home, but it's a little sad to watch the end of our great journey fast approaching. Until then, we'll keep taking pictures and updating our blog with along the way.

In Croatia

We arrived in Dubrovnik tonight and are safely ensconced in a hostel for the evening.  Tomorrow we are off to discover the old town, which we got a hint of on our bus ride from the airport and it looks pretty amazing! We are excited.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

I LOVE Rome. What can be better than gorgeous city with ancient ruins, charming fountains, and as much pasta and pizza as you can eat?! On our first day here we visited the Forum and Palatino and the Collosseum. After seeing the ruins of several Roman cities on our trip it was pretty cool to see THE Roman city. Plus Reid got to do some cool poses at the Collosseum

Cappadocia in Photos

Here are some photos from our lovely time in Cappadocia. We woke up early on the morning of our anniversary and watched the hot air balloons taking off (first photo). Although we considered going, it was a bit cost prohibitive. We celebrated instead by renting a motorbike and touring around the area, including a hike up Uchisar castle.

Arrived in Italy

After an eight hour layover in the Istanbul airport yesterday, we arrived in Rome. It's beautiful here and we are really enjoying the cooler temperatures. We wandered by Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona last night (along with many other tourists) and grabbed some food before crashing for the evening. We'll post more photos soon.

Ephesus Photos

Istanbul Photos

Here are a few photos from our time in Istanbul with Tim and Jen. We were there for three nights (Tim and Jen stayed an additional night before we arrived). We stayed in a lovely apartment in Beyoglu that Tim found and we had a great time exploring the nearby area. We also made it to the main tourist attractions: Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, the Haigha Sofia, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, and, of course, the Cistern. Siblings, you will all be glad to know that I had everyone saying "the Cistern is theese waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy" by the time we left. We also took a ferry across the Bosphorous to the "Asian side" for breakfast on our last day before dashing out the door to the airport for our flight to Izmir. All it all, it was a great time and here a just a few photos (mostly from Topkapi Palace) from our time there.

In Cappadocia

This blog is in serious need of some photo updates and I promise they are coming very soon. We arrived in Goreme this afternoon after flying to a regional airport yesterday. It's lovely here and we are appreciating the slightly cooler temperatures. We had a wonderful time on our sailing trip and hope that some of the pictures we took capture the absolutely beautiful water and pristine harbors that we visited.

Happy Birthday

We're here on the island of Nisiros in Greece celebrating Reid's 30th birthday. Sunsail provided a cake for his birthday and we celebrated with our other flotilla members at a group meal this evening. We only have a couple days of sailing left and then will update with photos and perhaps some good stories of our adventures.

Nearly to Greece

We are here in Datca, Turkey heading to Simi, Greece tomorrow. Until today the wind has been a little less than expected, so we haven't had much challenging sailing. Today the winds picked up--there was a storm predicted and we were afraid we'd be storm-bound. The storm wasn't as bad as predicted, so we made it safely to Datca sailing most of the way with some intense wind and a lot of heeling (or, as I say, we were very tilted). Anyways, we are having a great time with Reid's parents and the flotilla. It's wonderful to have someone else planning the itinerary. Our skipper is very laid back, but we really appreciate having someone tell us where to go and how to dock up. We're looking forward to Greece and hope to take more pictures there. So far it's been pretty consistently beautiful--the name "Turquoise Coast" says it all. The water is at times navy blue and at others brilliant teal, but everywhere it's crystal clear. It's hard to say for sure, but I think it's one of the most beautiful places we've seen in all our travels. I hope we'll have some pictures to prove it when we get home. But, I'm not sure the experience can be captured in photos.

Still here

We're still here in Turkey. Reid's parents arrived without incident last night and we got Tim off to the airport bus this morning. We're sitting at the marina eating brunch trying to figure out which sailboat we'll be aboard for the next two weeks. After lunch we'll head to the store to stock up on some provisions before getting settled on the boat this evening. We're doing well and will try to update with some photos soon.

Still Good in Turkey

We're hanging out in the Bodrum Penninsula with Tim (Jen left a couple days ago) and will meet up with Reid's parents tomorrow night. We leave on our sailing trip on Thursday. It is beautiful here and we are having a great time with Tim and just relaxing at the beach.

Turkey

We arrived in Istanbul and successfully met up with Tim and Jen. After three nights in the city we flew to Izmir this morning and got on a train for Selcuk. We are hanging out at a hostel here and plan to explore Ephesus in the morning before heading to Bodrum to spend some time on the beach and exploring the nearby areas.

On to Turkey

We spent the last couple days in Madaba resting up for our Turkey adventures, floating on the Dead Sea, and exploring some amazingly preserved ruins at Jerash. It was great and I'll post photos soon. Tomorrow we get on a plane at 6:40 and land in Turkey three hours later. We're meeting up with our friends Tim and Jen and will travel around with them for about ten days before we meet up with Reid's parents for our sailing adventures. We are so excited. Okay, now off to bed with us... it'll be an early start tomorrow.

King's Highway

After finishing up Petra this morning, we showered, packed our bags, ate lunch and headed up the King's Highway to Madaba. (We rented a car in Aqaba, which was relatively cheap and has really allowed us to maximize our time here.) We stopped off at Shoback Castle--a crusader castle built in 1189 AD. We drove by the Wadi Araba desert and took some cool photos out of the car window. We also drove down to a scenic viewpoint over Dana Nature Reserve. And tried to stop at Karnak Castle, but it closed early for Ramadan, so we just took a few photos outside. We then passed over the Wadi Mujib, aptly called the Grand Canyon of Jordan. We were there for sunset and the views were just spectacular. We then drove on to Madaba where we settled at the Salome hotel where we'll stay for three nights before our flight to Istanbul on the 15th. From here we plan to explore the ruins at Jerash, float on the Dead Sea, and perhaps visit some hot springs.

Right now we are sitting at a bar in the basement of our hotel enjoying a couple beers (hard to come by in Jordan) and watching Indiana Jones, the Last Crusade, which was filmed, in part, in Petra. Reid is (basically) in heaven.

Petra - Day 2

Photos to come soon.

This morning we woke up early and headed in to Petra. We opted to enter via the Wadi Muthlin trail (instead of through the Siq), which Lonely Planet advertises as a relatively easy "scramble" that requires you to lower yourself down some boulders. Well... it was interesting. It started out through a river bottom--rocky and not easy to walk on. Then it narrowed and we had to start lowering ourselves down boulders and making our way through corkscrew turns of rock. It was beautiful. But a bit daunting -- I (Dyanne) was afraid we'd somehow wandered off the trail at a number of points. We hadn't and ended up by the Royal Tombs. We wandered around them and got a great aerial view of the Theatre. We walked out via the Siq as the tour groups were arriving and were back in our car by 11:00.

Petra - Day 1

So, I think that Petra may have been our most favorite experience of the trip to date (I may be only speaking of myself though). It was the perfect combination of beautiful natural wonder and ancient man-made monuments. We got a late start yesterday, but were rewarded by weather that was not too hot. We walked through the Siq, viewed the Treasury, and then headed down past the Street of Facades toward the Theatre. Before we reached it, we took some steps on the left that led up to the High Place of Sacrifice. It was about a 45 minute hike to get to the top (second photo), but we were rewarded by some amazing views. We returned on the opposite side and saw more amazing stuff (including my seat in the third photo). At this point we headed down past a few more sights towards lunch in the Basin. It was an expensive buffet, but very good and provided a well needed rest and escape from the heat. We saw a painted tomb before hiring a couple donkeys to take us up to the Monastery (last photo). From there we climbed up to a couple view points and headed back down to the Monastery for some views close to sunset before heading down and back out of the park via the Siq. Boy were our dogs barking!! But it was a simply fantastic day and we enjoyed pretty much every moment of it.

On to Jordan

We FINALLY arrived in Jordan at 11:00 last night. Well, our ferry actually docked around 9:00, but it took another two hours to off load and pick up our passports and get through security. Somehow we missed the 3:00 fast boat. Don't ask us how, we arrived at about 1:40 and were told to wait. We waited around a dirty waiting hall until 6:00 before we were loaded on to the ferry. Yes, your math is correct. That's over four hours after Reid waited two and a half hours getting our tickets that morning. But, we arrived and got driven to our budget hotel proclaimed by the Lonely Planet to be the best budget option in town. Well, I guess we are spoiled, because with the peeling paint, air con that dripped through the bathroom ceiling, and a toilet seat that wasn't quite connected to the toilet we decided that we only wanted to stay one night. We checked out this morning and headed to the Movenpick resort. It's a splurge justified by (a) spending ALL DAY yesterday waiting to get here and (b) celebrating that Dyanne indeed has a job! And it's lovely. We are sitting right now looking at turquoise water that fades to dark blue on the Red Sea and eating lunch. We hope to arrange a snorkeling trip tomorrow morning before we head on to Petra.

Mt. Moses

We made it! Mostly. After an almost two hour delay, we landed at Sharm el-Shiek at 1:00 am. We brokered a deal with a taxi cab driver who assured us that Mt. Sinai (or Mt. Moses as the locals call it) was 2 hours away (not the three hours Reid had thought). In that case, we could make it by 3:00 am and make the three-hour climb before sunrise at 6:00 am. The taxi cab driver agreed to drive us to Mt. Sinai, wait for us to climb it, and then take us on to Nuweiba in exchange for cash instead of our first born child. Score!

We arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai at about 3:30 and started climbing at about 4:00. We were the last ones to start up the mountain and were assured by everyone that we couldn't make it to the top for sunrise. Oh well, we'd come this far. So, we set out in the pitch black alone except for our guide and the camel drivers who insisted that it would be much better to ride up the mountain. We declined and walked on. It was beautiful--the moon was barely a sliver and their were more stars than we had ever seen. About forty-five minutes in, the stars were being chased from the eastern skies by the sun you couldn't yet glimpse beyond the horizon. The advantage of climbing in the dark is that you have no idea how far you have to climb because you can't see more than one foot step ahead of you.

There are 8 rest stops/ tea houses on the way up and we paused for a quick break at each one. Our guide estimated that we could make it to the final tea shop before sunrise and was great at encouraging us at each stop to keep climbing further up. We made it to the last tea shop for sunrise with the tippy-top of Mount Sinai at our backs--it's 750 steps up to the top from where we stopped. And there were about 500 people on the summit. We had the same view and shared it with only our guide, the tea shop worker, and a handful of dozing camel drivers. It was perfect. And beautiful.

We decided not to stick around to tour St. Katherine's monastery and settled for a view from the outside before collecting our taxi driver and heading off to Nuweiba. We arrived at our hotel at 10 am and were graciously allowed to check in to our hotel room. We paid for a buffet breakfast and headed to our room, where we promptly passed out until... 11 pm. Luckily our hotel was still serving dinner and we roused ourselves to eat.

Delayed in Luxor Airport

Not too suprisingly, our flight to Sharm el-Sheik was delayed for over an hour and we are currently sitting in the Luxor airport waiting. Sigh! On the plus side, there is free wi-fi, so I posted a few photos from our last couple days and will try to upload more to our albums. The delayed flight may mean that we don't get to Mt. Sinai (we only have tonight/tomorrow to do it and it's too hot to consider climbing it at any time other than pre-dawn, but our fingers are still crossed that it'll work out).

Sunset on the Nile