Geo: 51.0522, -2.78722 As a birthday surprise my wonderful wife Kim planned a surprise trip to the South West region of England. She did an amazing job planning a great trip including finding some great places to see and a incredible location for us to stay. What a wonderful trip we had. On our way to see our friends Justin and Maryann that live in Pitney and own Moore Beer Co. (http://www.moorbeer.co.uk/index.html) we stopped to see a crop circle that was made on July 19th. The Crop circle is located in Martinsell Hill near Wootton Rivers, Wiltshire. I have always been fascinated by crop circles and it was a thrill to see one in person. I am well aware that many people think that crop circles are created by people with a board and some rope. ... read more

Geo: 51.3333, 1.43333Hello Everyone!I thought I would write a quick note about the happenings here in the Garden of England... that's Kent County's motto. We have traveled a lot so far this year but I thought you might be interested in everyday life across the pond. Before I start though I am happy to say that TravelPod is getting a face lift! Finally! They have cleaned things up on the "inside" and will be updating the "outside" very soon. It is certainly an improvement! Anyway, 2009 has been pretty good so far. The winter seemed long but not as long as it seemed in Michigan! Hard to complain when we kept hearing about snow, snow, snow. In January a crazy thing happened here... a huge ship lost it load of timber. Ok, well what is so ... read more

Geo: 43.2983, 5.38322Our last day. Our flight leaves out of Marseille in the evening so we thought we would spend the day in Marseille. As it turns out this is one of those towns that doesn't have a ton to do. There are a couple of forts at the end on the harbor but neither was open for tourists. We did manage to get some good photos of the harbor. Marseille has a cool fish market, if that's what you want to call it. The fishermen leave at about 5am and return a few hours laterwith their catch. They simply pull up to the end of the harbor and unload their catch. They set up these rudimentary tables and sell the still flopping around fish. Doesn't get any fresher than that. It was hot that day. ... read more

Geo: 43.8346, 4.36086Today we are off to Nimes and Avignon via the Pont du Gard aqueduct. Nimes is a beautiful city. Very clean. They have a few Roman remains to be seen. The Maison Carree, a temple, the Arenes or arena and theTour Magne, an old watch tower. We hit the Maison Carree and the Arenes. In the Maison Carree they show a 3D movie about the important people of Nimes. The Arenes is still used today for bull fights, hence the 'bleacher' seats. After seeing those sights we wanted to hit Nimes market! Our plan was to buy some things for a park bench lunch. Bread, olives, cheese, sausage. We remembered to take a knife from the house. The market was starting to close but we managed to find what we were looking for minus ... read more

Geo: 50.0432, 19.2695We were initially unsure about whether to go to Auschwitz. We knew it would be awful and depressing. But in the end we felt we should go. We made the hour and a half trip. And it was awful and depressing. We opted to walk ourselves through the camp. They have it set up with information in many of the 'blocks' or buildings that housed the prisoners. I knew what these people experienced was horrible but I learned even more. It is really difficult to put into words what went on there. I don't think I can. We had visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the Jewish area of Prague and many other reminders of the Nazis horrific behavior all over Europe. For the first time after seeing Auschwitz, there was actually a ... read more