Here we are we are in Athens with my old friend (Emi) Damianos who I have not seen for 6 years!! Nice to be back in Europe….

Acropolis, Athens

Yia mas!! With our friend Damianos, Athens

Yes, we did it! We have arrived to New York after driving 13.000km all over the country. Our last main stop before NYC was Chicago were we spent 3 days with Seyi. For Emilie it was nice to be back as she has been working there three years ago. We enjoyed strolling and shopping in that great city, really loved it!

Since ten days we are in New York and thanks to our friends Sybille (Jersey City), Erin (Fairfield) and Maggie (Brooklyn) we could stay in 3 different places in and around the city. It was amazing to have their help and be able to stay with friends we know! Thank you very much Charlies Angels :)

A great moment was meeting up with Jatin who we met in India on our motorbike trip, really great! Unlike the different cities we were visiting before NY was not much sightseing. Here in NYC we enjoyed spending time with our friends and chilled out.

In a few hours we will be taking our flight to the last destination, in Europe that is….

Eager to see more wildlife Al recommanded us to drive to the Canadian Rockies and that was the best advice ever! Along the road to Jasper we saw our first black bear (quite far away) and could not believe our eyes. The next day just before entering the national park 2 coyotees crossed our way. This officialy was the beginning of our wildlife adventure!!

The Canadian Rockies are just breathtaking. They made it among our TOP3 highlights on our around the world trip. It is the combination of stunning scenery and the unbelievable wild wilderness. As we were there during the low season most of the lakes were still frozen and the mountains were covered with snow. In 2 days we saw 2 black, 1 brown and 1 grizzly bear. Besides that many elk, deer, mountain goats, squirrels and birds.

From the Canadian Rockies we drove south to the Yellowstone National Parks in the US. Spotting the wildlife there was very easy! Before entering Yellowstone we hoped to see one or two buffalo. Well, Yellowstone is full of bisons and they are liturally everywhere! We also did see 7 black bears and 2 grizzlies! A very special moment for us was watching a black bear mother with her 3 kubs. They were approx. 3 weeks old and very cute!! At one point a deer approached the bear mother and quickly she pushed the 3 little ones up a tree- just amazing!!! Besides animals Yellowstone offers greats waterfalls, canyons and geysers and is a great park to visit.

Below photograpah of the wildlife Emilie took and additional photographs under PORTFILIO I

Hugs

Unusual for our age (avarage is 95 :)) we have taken a cruise ship to visit a part of Alasaka. This one week journey was recommended to us by Carlos and Marcela who we have met in New-Zealand. It was a great experience and the few places we saw of Alaska make us want to come back one day.

The first place we visited was Juneau, the capital of Alaska which you can only access by boat or plane. We continued to Glacier Bay National Park which was our highlight. We were sailing through ice fields and came really close to the bluest glacier of Alaska. A unique experience to hear the ice cracking and crushing down into the sea called ice calving. We were surrounded by sea lions, seals, sea eagles and Humpback whales during most of the trip, pure nature!

One of the other stops was Sitka, a cute town where we decided to do a nice hike along the river. We were all alone and came very close to a sea eagle. Luckily a grizzly didn’t cross our way. At one point though we got very scared as a trunk fell down so we started making a lot of noise to scare away whatever was out there.

Kitchikan which is the raniest city in the south of Alaska was not that spectacular and very touristy so we very much enjoyed our last stop in Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada. Victoria has a British touch and a very nice flair with the waterfront and its nice parliament building.
Before te cruise we were prepared to face a lot of rain and low temperatures but we were really lucky with the weather in Alaska making it a great trip!
Are we going to do another cruise soon? Probably not now as we prefer being on the road and having more adventure feel.
Right now we are back in Seattle staying with Al, a good travel friend who has shown us as much as possible in the area around Seattle. With him we did a very nice treck in the Olympics!

We are now ready to move on without knowing yet where next….

Hug

We spent the last 10 days in Portland with Kim and Kjell where we were hosted. It was so nice catching up on old friendship and getting to know Portland really well. We appreciated staying at one place for longer and getting the home feeling, thank you very much to both of you!

The drive to Portland coming from South California (San Francisco) through Oregon was scenic, rainy and kind’a romantic :) We stopped at different towns on the way and went to the Sequoia and Redwood National Parks where we saw the tallest and largest trees in the world. They are also one of the oldest trees (3500years old) on the planet. We felt very little and nature is and remains impressive!

Here a few pictures we took:

Double O trek, Arches NP

We are now on the road since 2 weeks and we are positively amazed by the country’s national parks. They are much more impressive than we thought and are totally different with what we have seen so far.

From Las Vegas we drove to the Zion national park and did a great hike “Angels Landing” in and above the canyon….what a view! It was a nice first encounter. We continued our road and had to cross the Red canyon to reach the Bryce Canyon. The Bryce Canyon is smaller than the other ones but it remains one of our favorite parks. As we were quite early in the season the park was covered by snow….what a change after French Polynesia! On the road we got snow and hale and were freezing!!! From Bryce Canyon we continued driving into the Arches National Park. On the way we stopped at Capitol Reaf, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point. All of them are really worth a visit as they are different one from each other.Yet, if you have to make a choice then without hesitation Arches is the one. We did 2 great treks there. One was to the Double O Arches and the other one to the Delicate Arch. The views during those treks are stunning!

After a couple of parks in Utah we decided to continue to the Antelope Canyon in Arizona. For those who are into photography this canyon should be on your to do list. Finally we made a stop at Horseshoe Point. This is one of my favorite places.(Emilie) The view onto the canyon and the Colorado river is just amazing! Last we arrived at the Grand Canyon and it is impressivly huuuuuuuge!! If you can we do recommand to visit the canyon by helicopter. We looooooved it….it was unforgettable!!

The colours of the main national parks are beautiful, a mix between orange, yellow and red and it is becoming more impressive during sunset or sunrise. Besides that you also have a chance to see wild animals. We were lucky and saw a coyote, elks, prairie dogs and deer.

We finished the Grand Circle Road trip by taking the mythic Route 66 back to Las Vegas in Nevada. After almost 2 weeks in the national parks we enjoyed the one night in Las Vegas. It was good to eat something else than burger or pizza….we ate Chinese hehe!!

Yesterday we were crossing the Death Valley and it is fascinating how the temperature increased so fast. We were close to 40 degrees celcius in the middle of nowhere and where praying that nothing happens to our car ;)

Here the pictures we have been taking on our journe. MORE under PORTFOLIO I //

Our last 5 days we spent in Moorea with Eva and Gordon, a polynesian couple who hosted us. Patrick fullfilled one of his wishes and together with Gordon went deep sea fishing. The first time in his life he cought a big Yellowfin Tuna. Although he liked it and learnt a lot from it Patrick could not become a fishermen as he felt too sorry for the fish beeing cilled. Nevertheless thanks to the catch we got a great dinner :)

French Polynesians are very friendly and hitchhiking was lots of fun and easy! We always met nice poeple and got something to eat or drink.

These 3 weeks here passed crazily fast and we like to thank a special person, Chris. Thanks to him we could spent time with 2 wonderfull families who we will never forget!

Now we are packing our things for the next adventure as our flight is tonight….

Here again some pictures and have a look under PORTFOLIO I

Emi and Patrick

We are back from the second largest atoll in the world named Rangiroa in French Polynesia. We were staying with a local family and were spoiled to the maximum!!! Every day we got served great food, mostly fish, spent time with the children or went fishing…its difficult to describe how happy we felt being in this warm loving family!!! A huge thank you Orphee and your entourage!!!!!

When we were not at home we went snorkeling and diving which was incredible as well! World famous and unique – a school of dolphins, sting rays, turtels, lemon sharks, white tip, black tip and grey reef sharks were on our diving menu.

To get a better idea here some photographs under and above the water.

Tongoria Alpine crossing

We spent the last 2 weeks driving through the North Island of NZ and we are happy to have spent more time on the South Island. We liked the South better as it was more wild and remote then here up North. Nevertheless also the last 2 weeks have been filled with highlights. In Wellington we happened to be in the middle of the opening cerimony of the Arts Festival. It was a beautiful concert with percussions and 200 children drumming, a choire and a funk and soul band – emotional and incredibly nice to see!!!

We really enjoyed one of the “Great Walks” called the Tongario Alpine Crossing where we had to climb part of the Tongario volcano also known as MT DOOM of Lord Of The Rings and continued to the wonderful Emirald Lakes.

Last week we were in the volcanic area of Rotorua where all rivers and lakes were perfect thermal baths! We also found a hot waterfall where we spent hours warming up.

A really pleasant surprise to finish our trip in NZ was meeting Sam. We met him for the first time in India 9 month ago and spent around 1 month together in the Himalayas driving our motorcycles there. All 3 of us went to the far north called Cape Reinga where the Tasman see meets the Pacific ocean. It was impressiv to see the waves crashing into each other!

The past 7 weeks we drove 9000km and slept 39 nights in our dear “White House”.

NZ is landscape wise so far the country we like the most together with the Himalayas. Its incredible how such a small place can offer that much! The pictures help you to understand our enthousiasm but you have to come yourself to witness it. For us it was unbelievable and magical.

THANK YOU NEW ZEALAND FOR THIS EMOTIONAL AND WONDERFUL TIME…

We are now in Auckland and our next flight is in 2 days time to…..see you soon again here on our blog.

Emi and Patrick