Slovenia and Prague and a hearty Thank You to everyone!!

Well this is officially the last blog of the WorldRamblers. We spent our final adventures in the beautiful countries of Slovenia and the Czech Republic. In Slovenia we enjoyed both Ljulbjana and Bled. Bled was our favorite and is nestled nicely in an outstanding mountainous setting. With mountains, rivers, lakes, caves, cliffs and so much to do we are definitely planning a return visit! We passed the days walking around the river, enjoying the delicious and inexpensive pizza and taking a boat to the island in the middle of the lake. We enjoyed it so much we extended our stay. For all you outdoor adventure types this is someplace that we absolutely recommend! I think also I will be looking into buying retirement property here.

From there we hopped on the train and headed to the Czech Republic. We decided it was going to be too difficult and too stressful to hit another country and we had heard so much about Prague we wanted more time there. My friend from High School, Alison, was living there and she said we could stay with her so off we went! We had a full 5 days in this city and it truly is as wonderful as everybody says. It's clean and full of character. With winding and endless streets to explore it is the perfect spot for the avid wanderer. And if you ever tire of the city there are several places outside of Prague to visit as well.

Tara and I spent a solid THREE days just wandering around the city. We couldn't get enough! At night it was totally different than during the day and even taking a different street often delighted with some new statue, building or fountain. We also rented a peddle boat and cruised around the river. The best was when we chased the ducks. QUACK QUACK! We also visited the island in the middle of the river...and I um got us stuck in the sand for a good 5 mins which was pretty funny business!

Well, that's about all from us. Tara's flown back home and with that concludes the ramblings of the WorldRamblers (for the time being!). We will leave the site up and use it for our future travels together. From the bottom of our hearts thank you to everyone for your support, care, emails, comments and everything else that let us know we were not forgotten!! It made all the difference in the world. I am heading to Spain to study and will make my way home after that.

Slovenia Pictures

Czech Republic Pictures

RAMBLE ON!!!!

Love,

Jonathan and Tara

"We are strong enough to do this, we are just stronger when we are physically together"

BerlinKrakowBratislavaVienna PHEW!!!

Sorry about the link posted in the blog, I am not so computer saavy and Jonathan is sleeping!

Berlin

Wow we really loved this city! It has a long and lengthy history, but also is a relatively new city. Only about seventeen years since it has been reunited into one Berlin, no more East and West. We spent two days journeying through the past and experiencing the present. Amazing. We took a free walking tour that included quite a history lesson, I tried to include some of what we learned in the history lesson underneath the corresponding photos.

Berlin Pictures

Krakow

We were met at the train station by our wonderful couch surfing hosts, Lukasz and Agnieszka! It was so nice to be met upon arrival into a city! We havent had this happen since Shanghai, where someone was there waiting for us! They were amazing hosts. Every night we ate a meal together, got to eat wonderful home made Polish dishes. Agnieszka was a wonderful cook! Lukasz and Jonathan had much in common with computers and technology and spent many hours sharing and learning from one another! What an experience! We definitely left Krakow feeling wonderful about the city, its country and the people!
We did get a chance to visit Auschwitz. It was something that we were very glad that we did, but something that we could not say was “great” or that we had a good day. It was heavy on the heart. Really heavy and it felt more real than just seeing photographs or reading about what had happened. It is real and devastating. We only posted three photos on the blog, because we didn’t want to force the photos upon anyone. Of course we would share our photos with anyone who wanted to see them when we are home. The photos need an explanation and a little bit of information.
Overall Krakow was a wonderful experience for us! We fell in love with our couch surfing hosts and the culture in Poland!

Krakow Pictures

Bratislava

The weather here was absolutely beautiful! For the first time since we have arrived in Europe it was sunny and warm enough that we wore tshirts during the day!!!! WOOHOO! We covered the major sights in one day! We were not expecting that at all. The city has become quite the tourist destination because it is an hour ferry ride up the river from Vienna. Swanky shops and restaurants line the streets. All the buildings have been refurbished and painted. It looked much more new and modern than the historic beautiful town we were expecting. We had a good time enjoying the sun and walking around the town but decided the next morning to head over to Vienna.

Bratislava Pictures

Vienna

BEAUTIFUL. This city is breathtakingly beautiful. The architecture, sculptures, gardens are all just beautiful. Our first day we spent walking are the Old part of Town. We walked around and marveled at all of the glorious buildings. We had Viennese coffee in front of the Hofburg Palace. Frolicked down the streets and raced go-karts at the famous Prater Amusement park. The next day we walked through the gardens of the SchonBrunn Palace and avoided the crazy rains in the afternoon. The last day we ventured to the Zentral Freidhof, the largest Viennese cemetery. We had lunch with Beethoven, Mozart, Shubert and Brahms! WHOA! We felt a little unqualified. Vienna was absolutely wonderful! What a wonderful time!

Vienna Pictures


Tomorrow we are going to Slovenia to see what it has to offer! Enjoy the photos! Don’t forget to leave comments. There are only ten days left of our traveling together and we would love to have some more comments written on our blog!
Love,
Tara and Jonathan

Belgium, Luxembourg, and Holland!!

Ok we are going to get this blog caught up right now! We are currently en route to Berlin, Germany and have been to Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland in the last eight days.

In Belgium we tried out this phenomenon called “Couch Surfing!” It is a really neat community of people who have traveled, are traveling or want to travel and are willing to let people stay on their couch or spare bedroom free of charge for a few days. People create profiles with descriptions of themselves and their couch and you send out requests to say “I would like to surf your couch!” They respond back and you make arrangements to meet up! We now have a profile and have successfully completed our first couch surfing experience! We stayed with a great guy name Lukasz, originally from Poland but living in Brussels at the moment. He was a great host! He was working while we were there but was really great in pointing out places of interest to go and see!
We spent one day in Brussels. We thought that was plenty of time to see the sights and get a taste for the city. We had delicious Belgian waffles and hot chocolate! YUM! The next day we went to Brugges, a romantic picturesque town, with amazing architecture and even better waffles…. It was a quick train ride and even more than what we were expecting to find! We had a wonderful time walking around the city, taking lots of pictures of the buildings in the town. We went to the Church of Our Lady and saw Michealangelo’s “Madonna and Child” sculpture. We ate a basket of frites otherwise known as French fries, and they came from Belgium not from France. And they were the best fries we have ever had! Turns out my habit of liking mayonnaise on my French fries is not so weird, because that is the custom in Belgium! We had an even more delicious Belgian Waffle, this time covered in caramel sauce. So delicious! Not to mention that the guy that sold us our waffle had actually been to Albuquerque, New Mexico and he had been to Carlsbad Caverns twice!
The next morning we took a train to Luxembourg. We went right into Luxembourg city and stayed in a hostel that was in a really pretty valley. The weather was really cold and rainy, but we made the most of it! We explored the casemates, which are a series of tunnels that extend all around the city. The city is actually still surrounded by a huge wall, through which the tunnels run. It was a neat little town and quite pretty we had a great time walking around the city. We didn’t have much time here because we left midday the following day to go to Amsterdam.
Into Holland, we arrived right as work was letting out for the day, needless to say the city of bikes, had turned into a sea of bicycles and the public transit was packed. People were not shy to try to shove us and our backpacks out of the way so they could get on the bus. Unfortunately for them we have been doing this far to long to be shoved out of the bus. After finding our hostel, we walked around and saw the sights. Spent the next morning doing the same thing. However, what I really wanted to do while we were in Holland is to go see the tulip fields and the windmills. We also decided that one night in Amsterdam was good enough for us and headed out to a town called Haarlem. It was a pretty little town and we got a steal on our room for booking it at the last minute, quite cheap compared to the weekend rates in Amsterdam!
We explored the town, had THE BEST Dutch cheese, enjoyed walking through the flower markets and seeing all of the people. We did get to see lots of tulips and daffodils fields as well as a few windmills!!! Yesterday we went to Keukenhof, which has tons and tons of bulb flower displays. It was really beautiful! Exactly what I wanted to see! Even better was behind the gardens there was fields and fields of daffodils! It was perfect! This was the Holland that I really wanted to see!
Jonathan and I are excited for Berlin! It is definitely a country full of history. We have about two days there before we head to Krakow, Poland to do some more couch surfing!
Love to all,
Tara and Jonathan

Check out the pix: Belgium, Luxembourg, , The Netherlands

Tokyo and Paris!

We have been moving so fast that we've got a bit of catching up to do! Tokyo was AWESOME and we both had a really good time there. It is UNLIKE any other part of Asia! It is clean, crisp, the people are lovely, expressive and eccentric. We saw some crazy outfits and there are no boundaries for how people can express themslves. The technology is truly world class and is a mustdo experience for any technophile. One of the main reasons for visiting Tokyo was to see the Cherry Blossoms. They were as beautiful as we had hoped and we walked through the imperial palce, found many shrines, and enjoyed the healthy food of many street side vendors as we walked other various parks and streets. Of course there is also the anime - which we spent a day at the International Anime Convention center. Tara was a good sport - good thing there is shopping in Europe! haha.

So after Tokyo we headed to Paris, France. We had a CRAZY flight with British Airways. They opened a new terminal and it's all a mess at the moment. After hours of delays, a near * miss * on the runway (we almost rammed our nose into the back of another plane while landing) and over running our parking spot at our final destination we made it. Exhausted and a little jumpy we greeted Paris and boy oh boy did it greet us back! It is a city of beauty and the architecture. It is difficult to put any of it into words, so I'll let the pictures do the talking for that. All I can say is a day spent walking in France is a day not wasted! We spent 3 days there and met up with my cousin Kevin who is teaching elsewhere in France. He is fluent in French and we had great fun roaming the city. He knew all the shopping spots', good places for food. It was a good time and we finished it off with the best hot chocolate ever at a place called Angelene's! It was seriously like drinking a candy bar mmmm. We also did our best to eat lots of pastries :)

We will be updating again soon!

Jonathan and Tara


Tokyo

Paris

So long New Zealand - Konichiwa Tokyo!

Ahh New Zealand was such a refreshing visit. We had a blast finishing up on the west coast and truly enjoyed the country. Our stop to Milford Sound was amazing. It's a truly unique area b/c the water there is part fresh water and part salt water! There's a layer of fresh water approx 4m deep that sits on top of the salt water. As a result the scuba diving is amazing b/c it simulates a deep sea environment. The freshwater is all murky and light can't penetrate it so the stuff that's on the bottom comes up closer to the surface!

We really enjoyed seeing all the areas where Lord of the Rings was filmed. There were also some incredible Mirror Lakes that looked as as though a sheet of glass were over them. Water so still you'd think it were fake!

Tara and I enjoyed cruising around Milford Sound on a boat and were a bit sad that we had to give up our camper van.

We've got a short stop in Tokyo before heading off to Europe. We decided to break up the flight since it was going to be 30 hrs =p

Keep on truckin'!

Jonathan and Tara

New Zealand - numero dos

Welcome to Middle Earth!!

NEW ZEALAND!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Where to start?! This country is breathtakingly beautiful and we are IN LOVE with this place!!!
It has been a while since our last update so we will try to do our best to give a good update on our travels.
WE RENTED A CAMPERVAN!!! Haha! This one is the super deluxe suite of campervans!!! We have a toilet and a shower! So we are able to travel wherever we want whenever and it makes seeing New Zealand that much more enjoyable!
We went to Hanmer Springs and enjoyed the hot springs on our first day! The second day was amazing! We went to a town called Kaikoura and went whale watching. We saw 2 sperm whales!!! AND a pod of about 200 dusky dolphins surrounded our boat! WE COULDN’T HAVE BEEN MORE LUCKY!!!
The next day we drove up to Mt Cook! Fabulous views and scenery and also wonderful photos! We walked through the valley and had such a good time we didn’t realize that more than half a day had already passed! Oops! On to our next spot… We saw the Tasman Glacier and walked through the Tasman Valley!
Then to Oamaru to see the penguins! We were really excited to see yellow eyed penguins and we did…we saw 1… Of course we thought they would show off like the dolphins, flaunting themselves, ASKING to be photographed but no luck.
Off to Dunedin to see KELVIN AND SOOHEE!!! WOOHOO!!! We were so glad to see them, how cool to meet some of your friends in one country, than another and than in another! PRETTY DARN COOL! We spent the weekend with them and their friends at Kaka Point where they had rented a house for the weekend. We also got to meet up again with Mike and Laura, who we also met in Malaysia! We had a great time getting to meet some different people and learn new things. We learned how to play cricket!!! Turns out I am not so bad and got a few compliments about my cricket skills! We had a delicious barbeque at a friend of Kelvin’s! Jonathan also got to experience super cold water snorkeling and they tried to find some abalone! However, the water was really rough and the waves were huge that they didn’t get any abalone but had a blast! After swimming Jonathan and I went our own way and headed towards the west coast of the island.
We ventured to the southernmost point on the South Island! Only about 4000km to the South Pole! We had a good time adventuring through farmland and taking photos of the many sheep and cows!
Last night we camped in Middle Earth! Actually we camped right where they filmed many of the scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies! Check out the photos and see if you recognize the scenery!
Today we arrived at Milford Sound, one of the 8th wonders of the world! Pretty impressive! It is beyond words beautiful! Tomorrow Jonathan is going diving and than we are going to explore the waterfalls and unique landscape of this location.
Bottom line: New Zealand has been our favorite country so far, it is beautiful and you should come visit!
Love to all!

Tara and Jonathan

Check out New Zealand!!!

The end of an era -

We officially sold our campervan today for $6800! An English couple put a $200 deposit on it a week ago and slowly but surly they’d been taking the rest out of their accounts to pay us today…in cash. Nothing like walking around the city with 132 $50 dollar bills in your pocket !#$!@ But hey that’s ok b/c we had my two body guards – Mr. Right and Mr. Left. Haha. The sale was rewarding, but also sad – especially as we watched them drive away…IN OUR VAN!! After the sale we went and checked out the Sydney Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House which was absolutely fantastic. They played songs from West Side Story and both Tara and I really enjoyed it!

Tomorrow we fly out to New Zealand where we will explore the South Island, meet up with some friends and explore some of the greatest untouched areas in the world!

Adventure on!

check out the pix:
goodbye lollie

Jonathan and Tara