We took the train to the seaside resort of Jurmala for our last day in Latvia. [View Full Entry]

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When we arrived in Riga it was Lativian Independence Day (the 1990 one) and we took in a parade in old town. There was also a festival on the river. The next couple of days were spent exploring the old town. [View Full Entry]

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We started the day picking up supplies from a local supermarket in Sigulda, and buying breakfast from the bakery attached to our hotel. This turned out to be a game of chance, with many sweet-looking baked goods containing meat, savoury-looking ones containing fruit and some apparently containing both... Our first stop was the medieval town of Cesis. First up, we visited a castle where we were given hard hats and candle lanterns and pointed in the right direction to explore dungeons and towers. In one room we found a archeologist in a smithy using authentic methods to recreate ancient meta [View Full Entry]

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After a very early morning start, flying out of Liverpool, we arrived in Riga in time to meet our friends Craig and Julia. They had been in Lativa an extra day and after picking up a hire car, had spent the night in the coastal resort of Jurmala. We were headed for Sigulda but first had to drive straight through the middle of the capital. It was snowing. After about a hour's drive, we arrived in Sigulda and after a quick search of the area, booked into a couple of rooms at the "Melnais Kakis" (Black Cat) hotel (a choice swung [View Full Entry]

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We just spent a weekend in Brussels, the exciting capital of Belgium, which served as a good central point for a reunion with some of the European-based guys we travelled across America with. After a day enjoying the city we took a day trip out to Bruges which was just as thrilling. [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's 7.20am in New York and I've been up since 5am. Emma's somehow managing to sleep but I think my body has already switched back onto GMT. Today is the last day of our world tour and the end of 10 months on the road. We've completed thousands of miles journeying and had more experiences than it's humanly possible to take in. We've visited 8 countries (China, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and the United States) whilst travelling across (in some cases literally) 3 continents. We've seen the most amazing natural wonders and met some incredible wildlif [View Full Entry]

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On Wednesday, we took the train to Greenwich Village, found the Friends building (the exterior shot used at the start of the show) and walked to Washington Square and through NYU. Afterwards, in the strangely warm weather (21 degrees celsius), we did a little shopping on Broadway before taking in a movie (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr.) and heading back to the hostel (in some amazingly heavy rain). We grabbed a giant New York pizza on the way home. The next morning, winter arrived in the form of the cold, crisp temperatures that we we [View Full Entry]

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On Monday, we took the Subway with Craig, Eleri and Nadine to the site of the World Trade Centre and looked at "Ground Zero" from the observation areas. There are some signboards which tell part of the story and provide quite a moving experience. Across the street we visited St. Paul's Chapel which miraculously escaped unscathed. The chapel is beautiful and houses a pew once used by George Washington. It was used as a base for rescue workers during the WTC clean-up operation and there are displayboards in place to tell part of their harrowing story. Afterwards, we (sombrely) [View Full Entry]

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Leaving DC, for our last drive of the trip, we headed into Maryland (where we ate an amazing last breakfast in a really old diner in Jessup). After driving through Baltimore we crossed the northern tip of Delaware and into Pennsylvania where we skirted Philadelphia and crossed into New Jersey at Trenton (where we said goodbye to two of our group). We arrived in New York in time to grab an early curry with the rest of the group and say our goodbyes...sob! Yesterday evening (Sunday), after taking a cab to our hostel, the se [View Full Entry]

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On Veteran's Day we drove through Virginia and arrived in the nation's capital, Washington DC by early evening. Our hotel was centrally located downtown, just a stone's throw away from 'dubya's' place (but no, this time we didn't try to measure by throwing stones!). After dinner, Fitz took us on a night tour of the National monuments and memorials which included the Capitol building, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial (FYI Lincoln's statue is saying his initials in American Sign language!), both the Korean and Vietnam War Memorial's (which were quite harro [View Full Entry]

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