We've been putting this one off a little while we get over the jet lag, but we are finally home on Canadian soil and loving it. We met Nick's parents in Germany and it was wonderful to be able to travel around with them for a couple of weeks. We stayed with some of Nick's mom's relative near the Black Forest and Bruchsal. This was a beautiful area which we were able to explore because Nick's parents had rented a van. We got a personal tour around the Bruchsal castle, toured around Freiburg and even went for a short walk in [View Full Entry]

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Grüss Gott from Aalen! We're in southern Germany, and that's how you say "hi". (Really, just say "goose guts" really fast and they'll think you're a local). We are now hanging about with Nick's relatives in a small town called Unterkochen, close to a slightly larger city called Aalen, in the south of Germany. To find it, first find Stuttgart, then slide your finger east until you are roughly halfway between Stuttgart and Munich. We're in the more rural south, where churches dominate every town, no matter how small. There's an Unterkochen and an Oberkochen, both named for the Kocher riv [View Full Entry]

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Hi from World Cup land. We have made it to the soccer-mad city of Leipzig, and are awaiting the big France-Korea game to be played here tomorrow. The French and Korean fans are flooding the city, thank goodness neither are known for their hooliganism. It´s not often you hear "Watch out for those rowdy South Koreans!". Since we last wrote it has become summer here and the World Cup has started. We finished a lovely visit with our friends Cydney and Peter (and Peter´s parents) by watching the exciting first game between Germany and Costa Rica. The next day Cyd and [View Full Entry]

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We find ourselves now in this little sleepy town of Bad Godesberg, situated just south of Bonn, in time for the start of the World Cup. Our grand farewell to England with our British hosts included both a beer festival and a fair in Chalfont. Funny coincidence at the beer fest -- the Brits found us a souvenir plate from none other than Victoria, British Columbia, Canada! The only thing we could think of doing with it was to get them all to autograph it and now we will bring it home and put it on display as a memento of [View Full Entry]

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Since we last wrote we have absolutely fallen in love with Scotland. It is a beautiful place with friendliest people you could hope to meet. We continued to have a wonderful time with Bonnie and Graham and can't thank them enough for touring us around and showing us all the area has to offer. We went for a few hikes which was always an adventure due to the ever changing weather, but hey we are from Vancouver if we can't handle a little rain who can? We very much enjoyed the day Bonnie and Graham took us up to Braemar for [View Full Entry]

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Hello from the land of sheep and whisky. When we left Slough (the land of pork roast, wine and Jaguars) our only aim was to strike north for York. For Canadians used to long distances, places here are so close that you find yourself saying “Well, we’re already in York, so we might as well see Edinburgh while we’re here…” …and soon enough you find you’re in the middle of Scotland, surrounded by sheep, pheasants, Englishmen and the occasional Scot. We have found long-distance transportation here to be expensive, but we found ourselves the handy Br [View Full Entry]

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Oy. We defy you to find us on a map. First find Slough, just west of Heathrow Airport, then you do the rest! A whirlwind trip around southern England has seen us take the ferry from Le Havre to Portsmouth, where we stayed for only a night, and then hook up with our friend Eve in Reading. If you cannot recall Eve, look back into our Ecuador blogs at the beginning of the trip! Amazing to see her again on the same trip, only 8 months later. We stayed with Eve for a few days, during which we saw parts of [View Full Entry]

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From Belgium we headed into France which was a nice change for us because we could understand much of what the signs and people say. As a Canadian it is embarrassing to admit that our French is less than good. Nick used to be close to bilingual and Sarah was okay, but now we have a hard time even stringing a sentence together, but we can often understand what somebody is asking and after a second can give a half-ass answer to get our point across (this was definitely not the case with Dutch or Flemish). We first went to Rouen [View Full Entry]

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From sweaty to sweaters! We left Tanzania where it was so hot and humid that we were sweating constantly, and arrived in northern Europe where it's still early spring --- our clothing is barely cutting it here. In Amsterdam we managed to secure a hostel for one night, but the city (SOOO beautiful) was fully booked for the following night. We secretly believe that Amsterdam is the Vegas of Europe, with its red light district and cannabis cafes --- combined with Easter vacations for the continentals, the place was crawling with european tourists. It was wonderful just walking around the city, [View Full Entry]

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This is what Tanzania looks like when you get your cameras and valuables stolen the day after you arrive in the country. We arrived in Dar last Wednesday already missing South Africa, but looking forward to some new experiences in Tanzania. We had no definite plans, only the cell phone number of Nick's friend from grad school, Emmanuel, and the name of a hotel plucked off one of the internet travel sites at the last minute. Things immediately looked to be going our way - we phoned and booked a room from the airport, and after settling in at the Jambo [View Full Entry]

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