Jason and Tracey Louis
Jason and Tracey Louis Joined: October 5th 2007
Logged in: December 19th 2010
Logged in: December 19th 2010
Travel Blog Posts
Monk at Wat Chalong Temple
We’ve been back in the U.S. for about 5 weeks now, and as you can see are very behind in writing our final travel blog entry. We hope it will not be the last of our journeys, rather just the beginning, but for the time being we will be back in our native land. We relished our final days in Phuket. We did much lounging around, indulging in our favorite food fare and seeing some more of the local sites. We also took advantage Gai’s (the owner of the bungalow where we stayed) offer to show us how to cook our favorite Thai dishes. We haven’t had the chance to replicate them yet, but we look forward to making Masaman Curry, Pad Thai and Basil Leaf Chicken…DELICIOUS! We also showed her how to make barbeque chicken ... read more
Lazy Days in Thailand
VISIT THIS LINK TO SEE UPLOADED VIDEO CLIPS OF OUR TRAVELS: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=louistravels&search_type= After Egypt, we headed to Phuket, Thailand, our final destination. Yup, sadly, the adventure is coming to a close. For various reasons, we cut our travel time, and destinations, short and we’ll be back in the U.S. the last week of March. Rather than try to see a whole bunch of places at breakneck pace, we decided to settle into a place for our last 6 weeks and just rest, get back in shape and eat well again before returning back to the States and reality. So on February 4th, we arrived in Phuket, Thailand, after a brief stop in Bangkok. We had a long layover, so we headed to the market district, where there is just row after row of clothes and shoes. ... read more
The Giza Pyramid just before sunset
We decided that it would be a huge shame to miss out on the Giza pyramids, especially when flights to Thailand were much cheaper from Egypt than from Greece. So we flew from Athens to Cairo on February 1st, excited to see the famous pyramids, but also bracing ourselves for the aggressiveness of the people pushing to sell their products and services (trust us, we learned our lesson in Morocco). It was interesting flying into Egypt, because while you’re over the delta area, it is all a lush, pretty green. Then suddenly, it just stops and then there is nothing but sand as far as you can see. The airport was a nightmare. Our hostel offered free airport pickup, so we had a ride arranged, but our flight arrived early so we were sent into the ... read more
Typical Hillside Street in Hydra
At a tourist office in Patra (the city our ferry landed), we asked the girl helping us if she could recommend a restful, quiet place to stay for a few days. She thought about and told us we should go to the Sarconic islands, a short boat ride from Athens, and in particular mentioned Hydra, a small little island with no cars, only donkeys for transporting goods. Perfect! So we zoomed off to Athens to get the first boat we could to Hydra, figuring we’d catch the Athens sites on the way back. If you can’t find some peace and quiet on Hydra, you just can’t find it. The little village never has more than 3,000 residents, and the winter is very, very quiet as far as tourism goes. One boat a day arrived with a ... read more
Norero Family Tomb
When Mary and Bobbi were visiting us, we found we loved Italy so much that we decided to return on our way back from Poland. We decided to save ourselves and our rear ends two solid days of sitting in a train and fly from Krakow, Poland to Milan, Italy. The plan was to see Rapallo, where Tracey’s great, great, great grandfather came from, Florence, and then Venice during carnival. 1st stop, Rapallo. We spent the night near the Milan airport then took the train to Rapallo. We were only there a day, but it really was a neat little town. It was a small, seaside town with a quiet marina (and some fancy looking boats!). The town was always bustling with people, and they were always visiting with each other…a non-stop social hour. The pretty ... read more
"Work Will Set You Free"
Our travels have taken us as far East in Europe as we will go; to Krakow, Poland and the site of the largest death camp built by the Nazi's. Our words can in no way describe this place where an estimated 2.25 million people were murdered so we will not even try. With all the suffering, pain and torture inflicted here, it is the most sadistic place a person can imagine. Suffice it to say that this place needs to be visited to even grasp the slightest scale of what happened here although only the survivors will ever really know. The camp is actually 2 camps, Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2-Birkenau. Auschwitz 1 was the first camp and was built in an old Polish Army barracks. Today, in the barracks are exhibits describing what happened here. ... read more
Nordhausen Crematorium
We just spent the last 5 days in Eastern Germany. We’re still on our WWII journey, although we didn’t manage to make to Bastogne, Belgium after all. This time of year, many of the outdoor sites are closed, and that combined with our lingering flu just made it seem like a bad idea to go tramping around the forest in Belgium in the dead of winter to see the Battle of the Bulge site. However, we did make it to Nordhausen, Germany to see the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp. We came here trying to retrace some of the steps my Grandpa’s tank battalion. He was in the 759th light tank battalion, and while he didn’t go into very much detail (it was very hard for him to have to relive what he experienced), we do know that ... read more
View from Inside a German Gun Position on Pointe Du Hoc
A lifetime of waiting has finally brought Jason to Normandy, the region in France where the D-day landings, codenamed Operation Overlord, took place and the subsequent Battle of Normandy. Without a doubt this has been one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had. Not just because Tracey's grandfather was among those soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach and bravely fought through Normandy, Belgium and Germany. And not just because this whole real life conflict of good vs. evil has fascinated Jason since he can remember. It's because when you are here, the stories you hear, the battle fields you walk, and monuments you see involve every human emotion there is and capture the imagination like nothing else. While here we visited the two American beaches, Utah and Omaha. These are open beaches that you ... read more
Mediterranean from the French Riviera
We didn’t think we’d ever be able to say that we’d had breakfast in Tuscany and dinner in the French Riviera! We had to take a train to Nice, France in order to stand a chance of catching a connecting train to Paris, so off we went. After a really pleasant train ride, one of the nicest so far (this time first class actually did mean something, including nice, large bathrooms and big cushy seats), we arrived in Nice in the evening. We quickly found seats two days later to Paris, and found a hotel, so then we were off to explore Nice. It’s a very pretty town, right next to the ocean and the water is gorgeous. It isn’t turquoise blue, but lighter than that, and the beaches and walkways are very nice. Lots of ... read more
Jason and Tracey at the Roman Colosseum
Our Rome adventure started out as a true adventure! Mary, been the prepared planner that she is, made sure she got directions from the airport to the hotel. The hotel staff nicely gave her instructions on how to catch the train, what stop to get off on, etc. So the four of us set out from the Rome airport, caught the train into town, and waited for our stop….only when our stop came, we could not get the train doors to open! We tried everything from pushing the buttons to trying to pry the doors open, but nothing worked. So then we decided it would be better to just get off at the next stop and try to catch a train going back the other direction. Sounds simple enough, right? WRONG! Turns out, that particular train ... read more
