Visiting Lena in London

At the end of November we flew over to London for a long weekend. I've never been there before, but I have to say: really nice city, I'm quite a bit jealous of Lena, because Limerick seems like a sleepy village compared to London.
But anyway, we had a great time there, thanks again Lena!

Westminster Abbey: We didn't go inside, too expensive...


Big Ben. When I first saw the building I was somehow disappointed because it was not that big. But of course, the title refers to the bell and not the tower height...


We visited Buckingham Palace, but couldn't get close to the funny dressed guards there, so we walked through the nearby park. There lived lots of different birds and it was fun watching them:


After that we visited the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The Tower was pretty cool, we even could try on some helmets, which were actually pretty heavy. I just don't want to know how the weight of the plate armour felt... Probably it would have just crushed me.




Tower Bridge:


Way along the Thames:


Very cool picture:


Last evening, in the train:

Killarney National Park

At the beginning of November my parents came over for a visit. The two weeks before they came over and the week after they went back were really nice, but of course, the weekend they were here was miserable, it rained nearly the whole time.
Anyway, we decided to go to Killarney National Park, and there we went despite the bad conditions.

We got some pretty nasty showers, but we also managed to be at the right place at the right time to enjoy some spectacular views.

We first went to Mucrose House and walked a while through the beautiful gardens there. Even though it rained the green was nearly glowing.



Then we went to see the Torc Waterfall which was quite strong because of the heavy rain.

Afterwards we just drove through the National Park and enjoyed the beautiful landscape.

USA 15: New York

As the last part of my journey through USA I spent a few days in New York together with my parents before flying back to good old Germany.
We took it easy and just walked through city, we've all been there before, so we didn't need to hurry through all attractions there.

The following picture was taken at the UNO headquaters:


The next picture shows my Dad Andy in front of Brooklyn Bridge Waterfall. That waterfall is supposed to be art, and there are more all around Manhattan, but we thought they were pretty lame. Not enough water to be impressiv but to much steel so it seemed like a construction site.


Of course we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge:



That's my Mum Doris while we were taking a rest at Central Park:


One day we booked a boat tour around Manhattan. There we got closer to the Statue of Liberty than with the Staten Island Ferry:


You also had a really nice view of Manhattan Downtown from the water:


We also went to the Broadway Musical Mamma Mia one night. Because we didn't want to spent an awful lot of money we bought cheap standing tickets for about 20$ each. It was really fun, and if you don't mind standing for about 2 hours it's a cheap solution.

Well, that was the last post about my journey through USA. I hope you enjoyed reading it and got a nice impression of the beauty and variety of USA. It was absolutely the most fabulous journey I've ever been on. We just booked our flights and did not plan much more, we just hit the road and decided what to do next. There are definitely more journeys like that to come!

USA 14: Florida: Familiy Party

After visiting the Everglades National Park we drove up to Jacksonville to visit some relatives there. I haven't met them before, we only had email and phone contact, so I was kind of excited to get there.


We had a late Birthday Party for my Cousin Debbie: (By the way, the cake was delicious)

There you can see the reunited brother and sisters. They really look alike, although they only have the same father. So from left to right: Uncle John, Mum Doris, Aunt Nancy:

Same picture together with my Dad and Dominik:

Did I mention that we had a fabulous room during our stay in Jacksonville? It was huge (to our standards) and came with the possibility of several acrobatic stunts. Here is only one of them:

USA 13: Florida: Keys and Everglades National Park

After three weeks of touring the West of USA we flew to Florida to spend a few days travelling around the state. First we made our way to the Keys and found ourselves a very expensive campground. At least the view was brilliant, but the mosquitoes were a real menace. Also, it was so hot during the night that we had troubles to sleep. On the next morning we decided: No more camping in Florida!


We went for a snorkeling trip at the coral reef, it was amazing. The water was comfortable warm and the reef was fantastic. The sea was only two or three meters deep at the spot were we went in. We swam through swarms of coloured fish and watched them glide through the water. At first I was a bit afraid of sharks, because Florida is a famous spot for all kinds of dangerous sharks, but as soon as I got into the water I really loved it and forgot about the sharks. It was a wonderful experience and I absolutely want to get a diver's licence!

After spending a few relaxing day's at the Keys and bathing at one of the most beautiful beaches of USA we drove back to Miami to visit the Everglades National Park. We walked through mangrove woods and watched out for aligators and turtles. We couldn't go on a real hike there and it was too late for canoeing, so we decided to visit an aligator farm.

We even got our hands on a baby aligator:




We were looking on these aligators for several minutes and they didn't move at all. At one point we were considering them to be merely dummies.


But when feeding time came all the gators gathered at one spot:


Funny that those lazy animals can get pretty acrobatic when it comes to a fight. So remember, never go near an aligator, they are faster than you think.

USA 12: Arches National Park

Back in Utah our last stop was Arches National Park. Most of the attractions in the park are accessible by car, as the Balanced Rock:


On the next picture you can see the Double Arch. That one was really big and we climbed under the second arch and rested there for a few minutes.



We decided to go on a hike through the Devil's Garden, were several Arches are, among those the famous and very thin Landscape Arch:



The trail should have taken us on a round trip through Devil's Garden, but just some days before our visit to the park one arch collapsed and therefore a part of the trail was closed. We tried to take the other way around which was merely walking over stones and through bushes to get a glimps of the Double O Arch, but eventually we lost the trail and turned back because there was a thunder storm coming near. That was a good decision because it started raining very hard on the way back and we were soaked by the time we came back to our car. Also, as we drove back to our motel we could see several lightnings hitting somewhere in the area where we just had been.


You might wonder why there is no picture of the most famous arch and state symbol of Utah, the Delicate Arch. That is because we were really exhausted and decided to skip that hike. We just drove to a view point but from there the arch didn't look as pretty as on most pictures. At least we've got some attractions left if we should return to Southern Utah.

USA 11: Horseshoe Bend and Monument Valley

The following picture shows a place that is often photographed. I really would have needed a wide ankle objective for that one...



Monument Valley is one of the places that look fabulous on pictures and in reality you think "isn't it supposed to be bigger?". We were kind of disappointed when we arrived there, but the pictures look really cool.
We planed to drive through the valley, but we couldn't use our car because the contract didn't allow dirt roads and we wouldn't risk loosing our insucrance because of that. So we tried to hitchhike the trail and stood about 15 minutes at the entrance. Didn't work though and we lost our patience, so we eventually took some pictures and drove away.

Monument Valley is nice to visit if you drive by, but don't make a huge detour because of it!

USA 10: Antelope Canyons

The Antelope Canyons are part of Navajo property and therefore extremely expensive compared to the rest of USA's National Parks. There are two canyons, the Upper Canyon and the Lower Canyon. We visited both, but if you don't have much time or money (100$ for two people and both canyons) you can just visit one. I recommend the Lower Canyon because you can go in there on your own and take your time. On the other hand, the Upper Canyon is darker and more narrow, but you need a guide and it could be that you have to wait some time before it's your turn.

On the following picture Dominik wanted to show off and just balance himself on his arms. Accidentely I cut off his feet while taking the picture, so now you can't see if he's really balancing himself on his arms or if he's standing somewhere... he was kind of pissed when he saw the picture. But I say it's cool anyway!