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Overview of Our Round the World Travels

Posted on June 30, 2014 by abcdworldtravels

We’ve been back in the United States for a few months now, settling into our new home state of Michigan. We found a house, perched on a hill, with a view of the bay. During our travels some of our favorite locations were by the water, so we made that a priority in our home search! We’ve been busy with unpacking and settling in, but every once in a while the trip will come up, and we will recall some of our favorite or memorable experiences, which already seem so far in the past! It was a wonderful experience…one we hope to repeat at some point in the future.

I thought I would conclude this blog with a short wrap up of our trip for our faithful followers, and anyone else who might stumble across it at some point, perhaps when planning a trip of their own!

We traveled from late June 2013 to mid April 2014. We followed the sun, trying to avoid cold weather, which we succeeded at for the most part. We visited 21 countries on 4 continents along the way, staying in 47 different lodgings (hotels, vacation rentals, camp sites, homes, and a cruise ship).

Our journey included stops in Ireland, Scotland, England, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Italy, France, Croatia, Turkey, Jordan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and Ecuador. Some visits were only a day, as a part of our cruise in the Baltic. Generally we spent at least a week in each country, but in some cases we stayed a month or more.

We traveled via plane, train, automobile, camper van, cruise ship, ferry, water taxi and modified fishing boat, with shorter jaunts on camel, pony, subway, bicycles, funicular, bus, raft and horse-drawn carriages.

We traveled as light as possible, which meant 3 large carry-on sized bags, 1 small carry-on suitcase and two back packs. I started the trip with the intention of always keeping our luggage with us, to avoid loss. We quickly realized how much trouble that would be, so we generally checked the larger bags. Fortunately, most of our flights were only one leg, and even when we had multiple legged trips, we never had a problem with our luggage.

I used the Trail Wallet app on my iPhone to track our expenses on the trip. This was a great tool, which I continue to use as a way of tracking day to day expenses at home.

So what did it cost?

Transportation: Our 18 flights came to around $21,000, plus 190,000 United Airlines frequent flier miles. Both kids were 11 or under, which meant discounted fares for them on most international flights! We had additional travel expenses of around $7,000 (trains, taxis, car rentals, ferry tickets, etc.). I used a San Francisco-based company called Air Treks, which specializes in multiple destination flights, to book some of our longer flights. Others I did myself, generally using the airlines’ websites. http://www.Skyscanner.com was a great resource for finding the best fares on a given route. We accumulated lots of frequent flier points on our credit card while traveling, which got us free flights from Croatia to Turkey and Ecuador to Michigan.
Lodging: $28,770, or just under $100 per night. We stayed in vacation rentals as much as we could, avoiding the expense and limitations of hotels. Most were booked through homeaway.com. When we did need to stay in a hotel, I found booking.com and Orbitz.com to be my favorite sites for finding a deal.
Food: $12,700, or around $44 per day

We had entertainment and miscellaneous expenses on top of these, but these are the big three expenses you need to worry about. We were fortunate in our travels, with no theft or loss of note (other than an inexpensive video camera that was left in a seatback pocket on one of our early flights), and no medical expenses.

We are often asked what country was our favorite of those we visited. That’s a tough question, as we had a great time in each location! Bill and I were particularly impressed by Jordan, with its ancient ruins, vast deserts, biblical links, and great food. The kids were happiest when we were in a country where everyone else spoke English, so Ireland and New Zealand were two of their favorites. But again, each location had something great to offer, and left an impression on us. We did our best to pick up the language while we were in a given spot, and experience life as a local. We met some wonderful people along the way, and caught up with some old friends as well. But in the end, we were all excited to return to the United States, and settle in our new home. We look forward to catching up with friends and family in the months ahead.

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End of the Journey

Posted on April 22, 2014 by abcdworldtravels

Buying a car, looking at houses, shopping at Target…we are back! We finished up our trip last week, after a great month in Cuenca, Ecuador. Here are a few shots capturing the highlights of our last two weeks.

A parade featuring native dancing groups

The view of Cuenca from the Mirador del Turi lookout point.

A skilled weaver that we visited one day on a tour of the artisan villages near Cuenca

The street market that appeared outside our apartment as a part of the anniversary festivities.

Llamas spotted by the side of the road on our way to Guayaquil, through the Cajas National Park

The drive through the Andes was beautiful!

On the way to Guayaquil, we saw sugar cane, banana plants, cocoa trees, and rice paddies!

After a one night stay in Guayaquil, we flew back to the US, via Panama. Thanks to all the frequent flier points we had earned, we were able to fly in business class, which was a nice treat. We had nice visits with family enroute to Traverse City, our final destination.

Now we are busy starting our new life up north (where it is still freezing! Argh!). We are happy to be back, but had a fabulous time. At some point we’ll do a final post summarizing the trip, covering highs and lows and any helpful hints we can pass on. Stay tuned!

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Singapore, Oct 31 – Nov 6

Posted on November 17, 2013 by abcdworldtravels

We arrived in Singapore after a looong night of travelling from Jordan, including a 6 hour layover in Doha, Qatar. It was so nice to see lush greenery after our 10 days in the desert. Not that there was much where we were staying, but we saw some on the way from the airport! We stayed in a cool hotel in Chinatown, near the Night Market (lots of shops and eateries), Buddhist and Hindu temples, and across the street from a mall. We took advantage of the mall and replaced some of our clothing, which was getting a bit “tired” after 4 months of continuous wear!

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Chinatown

We didn’t feel compelled to get out and see too much in Singapore. We enjoyed roaming about Chinatown, experiencing different Asian cuisines at each meal. We also checked out the Little India section of Singapore.

The kid’s favourite day was our trip to Sentosa Island, which features hotels, Universal Studios, beaches, and lots of fun activities. We got the Day Pass, which gave us admission to a great museum about Singapore’s multicultural heritage, a ride up the sky tower, admission to a kid’s waterpark, luge rides, segway rides, and a laser battle at an old army base. Exhausting, but fun!

The lodging in Singapore was pretty pricey, compared to other places we have stayed. Otherwise, we enjoyed our visit, and wish we had given ourselves a bit more time to explore the area. We did carve out part of our time in Singapore for a trip to Indonesia, which is a relatively short ferry ride away. More on that in my next post!

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Jordan, October 19-30

Posted on November 2, 2013 by abcdworldtravels

Camels, impressive Byzantine, Roman and Nabataean ruins, delicious food, resorts with awesome swimming pools, endless deserts, castles, significant religious sites, and gracious, welcoming people. Jordan has a lot to offer, and we made the most of our ten day visit.

Jordan sits to the east of Israel, south of Syria, and west of Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It has few resources for export, so it relies heavily on tourism. Unfortunately, the violence and instability of other countries in the Middle East has decreased the number of tourists visiting Jordan in recent years. It’s a shame, because it really is a great place to visit, and we felt safe the entire time we were there. That said, we did use a Jordanian travel agency: Jordan Direct Tours, to arrange our trip, and we never regretted it. They arranged all our lodging, and we had an excellent driver who transported us everywhere, facilitating our tours at each location. There would have been a lot more stress and confusion if we had tried to do this on our own, and we were able to cover a lot more ground than we would have otherwise.

We stayed a few nights in Jordan’s capital, Amman, which was a large sprawling city with little to interest us. We did spend a nice morning at the Citadel, a hilltop spot with great views, and remains from the Roman and Byzantine times.

While in Amman we travelled north to Jerash, one of the best preserved Roman towns in the world. It was hidden under the sand for centuries. It was rediscovered some 70 years ago, and work to restore it continues (and will continue or some time!)

Who knew?

We didn’t opt for the ride…just the photo op

Oval Forum

Hadrian’s Arch

About an hour west of Amman is the Dead Sea. We spent a lovely three days relaxing at the Holiday Inn Dead Sea Resort. There were very few guests, so we often had entire pools to ourselves. We did the mandatory dip in the Dead Sea, where due to the 33% salinity you float quite well, without any effort. Caroline and I slathered on the Dead Sea mud, which is supposed to have amazing health benefits (or it’s just a gimmick to make tourists look like goofs). We also spent an informative morning at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, which was the spot where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. The actual baptism spot is a dried up tributary of the River Jordan. The river itself, which marks the border with Israel, was once 120 meters wide, but it’s now quite narrow. There was a large group on the Israeli side doing full-body baptisms while we were there. Our side was crowded with local school children who were gathering up samples of the water in plastic baggies.

Wonderful sunset over the Dead Sea

Baptism on the Israeli side of the Jordan River

Baptism site mosaic, on which Daniel spotted his name! (Daniel was a pilgrim who’s writings were used to help identify the location)

Baptism Site

Not sure the mud helped me much

Restored and refreshed, we journeyed on to Petra, stopping at Madaba (the city of mosaics), Mount Nebo (where Moses was buried), and Shawbak (a crusader castle) on the way.

The Tree of Life, in mosaic

Shawbak

Shawbak interior

We spent a full day at Petra, Jordan’s most famous tourist attraction. Petra is a large ancient city that was carved into the rocky cliffs by the Nabataeans over 2000 years ago. It was an important stop for the trade routes that linked the East with the West. First you travel through the Siq, a long narrow gorge, where you can still see the troughs and pipes used by the Nabataeans to channel water to the city. At the end of the Siq you arrive at the Treasury, which is well known for its appearance in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” You can then explore the other features of the valley, which include tombs and temples and an amphitheater. There is apparently an impressive monastery, but the kids weren’t willing to climb the 900 steps it takes to get there. We had a very knowledgeable guide who led us about for the first two hours, filling us with the history of this incredible place.

As you would expect, the place was crawling with tourists. That wasn’t too bad. What did get old was the need to dodge out of the way of the horse-drawn carts and donkeys that the local Bedouins rode up and down the narrow paths, looking for tired tourists who wanted a ride. Kids as young as five charged about on the donkeys, beating their sides with electrical cords or cut off pieces of water hose. We declined all offers of assistance, preferring to walk, but we had a few close calls with the animals.

The next day we visited an area known as Little Petra, which was where the caravans visiting Petra would eat and sleep. In contrast to Petra, this area was practically deserted. Just a few locals offering to show us around, and one or two other tourists wandering about.

We came across this lone musician, sitting at the end of the canyon, and the kids joined him for a song (one a bit more enthusiastically than the other!)

Our next stop was Wadi Rum, a beautiful desert where Lawrence of Arabia helped the Arabs revolt against the Ottomans in World War I. We took a tour of the desert in the back of a 4 wheel drive truck. The kids were thrilled with the idea of riding in a truck bed, unimpeded by seat belts. After the sun set, we returned to our lodgings for the night, a Bedouin tent camp. It wasn’t a terribly authentic experience…our tent had a tiled floor and private bathroom; but hey, it was still a tent in the desert. The guys running the place had fun teasing Daniel, and teaching him to dance.

After our night of roughing it, we rode camels back to the parking area where our van awaited. It took about one hour, which was plenty of time for all of us!

Next stop, Aqaba, which is on the Red Sea, at the south end of Jordan. We stayed in the resort area called Talia Bay, which is about 10 kilometers out of town, with several hotels, and a nice complex with shops and restaurants. It had a bit of a southern California vibe to it. The hotel was full of French and English tourists and their kids. Must have been a school holiday period. We spent our two days vegging out by the pool.

The last stop of our Jordanian adventure was the Dana Biosphere Preserve, Jordan’s largest nature preserve. It’s a great area for hiking. Or so I hear. We didn’t get too far on our guided hike, due to Daniel’s lack of interest. We did have a nice cup of tea with our chatty local guide, who had a great sense of humor.

So as you can see from the pictures and the write-up, Jordan is a fascinating place to visit! If you ever go, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to see the whole country, and break up the touring with some relaxing days at the resorts!

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Farewell, California!

Posted on June 15, 2013 by abcdworldtravels

The day of our departure has arrived, at long last. We are heading to Michigan for two weeks before we begin our trip round the world. Everyone is experiencing the usual range of emotions that accompanies any big change. We plan to settle in Michigan once we return from our journies, but California will always have a special place in our hearts. Bill and I met and married here in the Bay Area back in the late 1990’s, and we’ve had great tours with the Coast Guard both here and in Southern California. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our three years here in the Oakland Hills, thanks to the many fine groups of people we have had the joy of knowing.

For Bill, this has been a wonderful place to finish his Coast Guard career, serving as the attorney for the Pacific Area Commander. Bill started his career with the Coast Guard here 21 years ago, and it was a real honor for him to be able to finish out with many of the people with whom he worked back then. He took great delight in his incredibly hardworking and gifted staff of attorneys and assistants, and will miss the camaraderie and friendships that the service provided.

We all enjoyed the vibrant, supportive family communities at Montclair Elementary School and Little Fawn Play School, where our children have grown and thrived. Thanks to Ms. Seltzer, Ms. Pearson, Ms. Brookes, Ms. Erin, and all the other teachers and staff at Montclair, and Heather, Sara and Rocio at Little Fawn. What a wonderful, caring group of teachers!

We will truly miss our association with Girl Scout Troop 32871 (thanks Jennifer and Suzanne), The Montclair Soccer Club U10 Angry Birds Team (thanks Nick and Stacy), and St. Mark’s United Methodist Church of Orinda (special thanks to Pastor Hubert, Marcia, Laurie, and Joyce Ann).

And so, to all our friends in California, adieu, adieu, to you and you and you, and in the immortal words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch!

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