Weez n Wife

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 river (here it's more like a fast-moving creek that cuts through the town) in this land of low hills and valleys. We are in Swabia, and here they speak a dialect of German called "Schwabisch" (shway-bish). ... read more

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 our trip. It was sad to say goodbye, but as we have managed to do all year it was time to look forward to our next destination, back to the European continent. We flew to ... read more

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 BritExplorer 7-day bus pass for around £75 each, and actually ended up saving money while getting ourselves up to Edinburgh. York After a 5-hour bus ride we rolled into York, and we were in awe of one of the most atmospheric ... read more

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 which is a beautiful old town with many churches and characteristic northern French architecture (what we might call Tudor style). Rouen is where Joan of Arc was tried and burnt at the stake by the ... read more

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 Inn Hotel we were referred to a tour agent next door about planning a camping safari to Ngorongoro and Serengeti National parks. The following day, however, just as we were planning to head out to ... read more