The Highlight Reel

OK, this was hard but fun. It was really great and a little emotional to look back through some of the shots from the beginning of the trip and begin to reflect on everything we have seen and done over the past 11 months. It has been am amazing journey and an experience we will cherish forever.
Thanks for joining us!
Alys and Alex

Coolest Cities:
Paris, France
Stockholm, Sweden
Beijing, China 
Melbourne, Australia
Istanbul, Turkey
Kyoto, Japan
Barcelona, Spain
 
Coolest Towns:
Queenstown, New Zealand
Luang Prabang, Laos
Nikko, Japan
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Ljubljana, Slovenia
 
Most Beautiful Places:
Queenstown, New Zealand
Bay of Kotor, Montenegro
Oia, Santorini, Greece
Cinque Terre, Italy
Aegean Coast, Turkey
 
Greatest Adventures:
Hiking the Milford Trek, New Zealand
Hot air balloon ride, Cappadocia, Turkey
The Gibbon Experience, Laos
Campervanning, Australia
Relaxing in a cedar bath after a day of hiking through fall foliage, Nikko, Japan
Four-wheeling through the countryside, Cambodia
 
Worst (therefore best) Moments:
Freezing our butts off in Huangshan, China
Exhaust and nausea on the worst roadtrip ever, India
Dodging 18-wheelers in our sidecars, Beijing
Getting lost, Anywhere and Everywhere
 
Best Shopping;
Hoi An, Vietnam
Paris (Marais), France
Marrakech, Morocco
Aix-en-Provence, France
Tokyo, Japan
 
Best Museums and Galleries:
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
House of Terror, Budapest, Hungary
Te Papa Museum, Wellington, New Zealand
Vitra Design Museum, Germany
798 Art Zone, Beijing, China
Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Roppongi Hills Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy

Views from Above

Tokyo, Japan

Seoul, Korea

Shanghai, China

Hong Kong, China

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Northern Laos

Sydney, Australia

Blue Mountains, Australia

Mackinnon Pass, New Zealand

Mumbai, India

Cappadocia, Turkey

Aegean Coast, Turkey

Fez, Morocco

Porto, Portugal

Provence, France

Paris, France

Frieburg, Germany

Venice, Italy

Cinque Terre, Italy

Lucca, Italy

Florence, Italy

Santorini, Greece

 Athens, Greece

Skopje, Macedonia

Ohrid, Macedonia

Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

Sveti Stefan, Montenegro

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Split, Croatia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Lake Bled, Slovenia 

Vienna, Austria 

Budapest, Hungary

 Bergen, Norway

Flam, Norway 

Giant's Causeway, Ireland

London Town

Ahh, more lovely weather in the British Isles. Thank goodness the weather is incredibly erratic so although we were swamped with rain one minute, it was bright and sunny the next.

This will be our final post as tourists. I can't believe it. We basically decided to avoid all of the typical tourist spots and opted to slowly stroll the streets and enjoy London at a leisurely pace. 

First stop, Alfie's Antiques. I could have stayed here for hours. Amazing antiques. Great great fun.

I love this. Only in London.

Elizabeth, Amy and Marilyn in Notting Hill. 

Very cool and very fun Brick Lane and Sunday Up Markets. Hipster central.

And may the reunions begin! Alex and I had an awesome dinner with our friend Lauren Collins, one of my dear friends from NYC. Lauren is amazing and hilarious and (as we dined on middle fat) entertained us with some of her own stories of globetrotting with Donatella.

Great to see you Lauren!

The next night we caught up with our great friends Maria and Stephen who we met in Xi'an, China. It was so great to see them again and catch up on the rest of their travels and get some advice on re-entry.

After dinner they took us on a drive through London, by the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and to see some local color outside of the Battersea Power Plant.

Y'ALL, awesome to see you again! Thanks so much for dinner, keep in touch and we hope to see you again soon!

I thought this would be the perfect picture to end on....dog lounging on a quiet street corner outside of Spitalfields Market.

It made our day.

You Are Now Entering Free Derry

Guest blogger this post...may I welcome to the podium Mr Alexander Protzman...

For years now I have suffered the same condition that many other Americans with Irish sounding names are afflicted with.....a complete and utter fascination with all things Irish.  For me it usually centered on the the fight for Irish independence and The Troubles.  There is probably no need for a history lesson here, although a synopsis may be of import.  It is a story that Alys and I have seen countless times on this trip.  Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro.........this same war was waged.  People want freedom, human rights and the means to meet their own needs.   Religion is often thrown in, and certainly Catholic/Protestant tensions run high in Ulster, but usually it is really about human rights.  Things have calmed down greatly here over the past few years, although there was a car bombing in Derry a few days ago.   This conflict has left a number of scars, both physical and mental.  It has also left some of the most powerful political murals in the world. 

Ulster Defence Association sniper, near Shankill Road in Belfast.  This is a Protestant neighborhood so many of the murals depicted English heroes of war.

Oliver Cromwell, not very well liked by many Irish, as he and his troops ravaged much of the island.

More Cromwell.

One of my favorites.  Done by two groups of school children, one from each of the neighborhoods.

The wall that was built to separate the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. 

The Catholic side of the wall.  Notice the cage, to prevent Molotov cocktails and fire bombs hitting the house.  That would also be the reason the wall is so high.

An Irish Republic hero, Bobby Sands.  Died as result of a hunger strike while in a British jail.

Frederick Douglass is often referred to in Irish political discourse.  He spent time in Ireland.

We also visited Derry.  This mural stands at the edge of Bogside, the neighborhood where Bloody Sunday occurred.  Also home a great museum on The Troubles.

Awesome mural depicting the struggle for human rights for Catholics in Northern Ireland. 

Made from a photograph of a young Irish Catholic man getting ready to toss a Molotov cocktail.

It has been an amazing experience to see all of this firsthand.  With all the blood lost on both sides, you can still feel some of the tension but it pales in comparison to the sense of relief and hope that now resides.