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.