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| Home Sweet Home In 12 hours |
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| This was our final road traveled on our journey (except for our plane ride home, which is what we are doing right now). The Glenfinnan Arch and steam train are the same ones as were seen in the Harry Potter movies. (The Hogwarts engine was different, of course). The trek took us from Ft. William to Mallaig in the Scottish Highlands.
We'll be adding wrap-up journals and oodles of images over the next few months. Stay tuned.
Thanks for sharing our journey with us. |
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| Home on June 11th! Did Anyone Really Know We Were Gone? |
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| We are on a plane for our last leg of the jouney. Home.
Tune in for photos and journal wrapups. We'll add many images from the entire trip over the next few months.
Thanks for sharing our family's journey with us.
Image taken near Avignon, France, in Provence. I loved the South of France. The lavendar and sunflowers were not in bloom yet; but it was lovely. It will be a perfect location for Robin to hold a photo workshop next summer. Does anyone want to join us? |
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| The Gang in Spain Stays Mainly On The Street |
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| The Nebraska Restaurant ... in Spain? Go figure. But for Lynn..there is no place like home.
Tricia, Becky, Lynn, Holly and Jenna. |
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| Luigi and France |
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| So who are they, you ask? As we were stopped in our tracks, studying our map on a side street of Pisa, Luigi asked (in a univeral language)if he could give us a ride.
We spoke no Italian except "grazie," and they spoke no English except "no capese."
Thanks for saving our tired piggies. |
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| Another shopping bag |
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| Tricia and I have this uncanny ability to find local color and bargains everywhere we go. |
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| London |
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| On our first two days in London the weather was warm and sunny with spectacular blue skies. So to get a perfect view of The Tower of London Bridge was refreshing. Every day thereafter was rainy and cloudy. Lunch with the queen went exceptionally well. We helped to celebrate her birtday with a parade. We all used the correct utensils for the proper food. Only once did I drop some lettuce on the floor. No worries, the royal dog ate it.
We're on trek north to Scotland now. Lots of car snacks and map in hand.
Miss you,
xoxoxoxo |
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| The Sistine Chapel |
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| Beautiful -- Vibrant -- Magnificent
The Sistine Chapel was built between 1475 and 1483 in the time of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere. The chapel is rectangular and measures 40.93 meters long by 13.41 meters wide (the exact dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as was cited in the Old Testament). The wall paintings were crafted by Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Cosimo Rosselli, Luca Signorelli and the artisans in their workshops.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was commissioned by Pope Julius II della Rovere in 1508 to repaint the ceiling; and I'm sure glad he did. It's overwhelmingly beautiful. The ceiling was completed between 1508 and 1512. He painted the Last Judgement over the altar between 1535 and 1541.
The renovation was finished last year that brought the colors to the original vibrancy of Michelango's original.
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| Anyway You Spell It... |
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| Tchotckes can be sold in any language! |
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| Poseidon Swam Here |
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| At Piazza Navona, which was built on the foundations of Domitian's Circus, you see the Poseidon fountain. This romantic square, designed in the 17th century by Bernini, has lots of artists (and tee shirt sellers)on the square.
Rome, Italy |
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| Colorful, huh? |
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| We loved buying snacks from local market vendors. At least here you can eat the fruit without worrying about what is in the water they used to wash the fruit.
Rome, Italy |
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| The Tiber River |
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| The first day in Rome we sailed down the Tiber River (Ital. Tevere). We were really tired from our long flight in from Vietnam and all we had energy for was to sit a watch the Roman ruins pass us by. It flows through Rome to empty into the Tyrrhenian Sea by two mouths and is connected with the Arno River by the Chiana Canal. No dead fish like in 2002 and no floods anymore since the banks of the Tiber are diked. |
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| Time For Gelato...Again |
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| Tricia and I had to taste test many flavors of gelato. Tarmisu was our favorite. |
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| Can Tricia Stop The Leaning Tower From Falling? |
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| We're in Brussels now. We cannot find an Internet connection that will allow us to hook up our laptop or USB. We'll try from London when we get there on the 27th. Sorry for the delay in sending new images. |
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| Buon giorno. We made it to Roma. |
| The Coliseum, of course. |
| Im posting a current image of Rome just so you can believe that were here. I will back track and post Asia when we settle in Florence in a few days. Our Internet connection here is as reliable as if you used the aqueducts today.
Ciao.
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| This is not a Motorola Commercial |
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| This is for real. A newly married couple, fresh over the threshold on their cell phones...Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?
We're at the airport in Vietnam right now in the lounge, Daaalings. Just finished with our pre-flight snacks of tofu (yummy!)and green tea. I just got my back end off of a massage chair. Robin is recuperating from food poisoning. Tricia is watching a movie.
We'll be in Italy by morning. I better brush up on some Italian during the flight. We'll catch up with you all when we can from Internet cafes.
Okay, so we are now safe from bird flu and other sundry airborne diseases. We went through a lot of hand sanitizer in the last couple weeks. Now to get away from all of this cigarette smoke. I cant wait to get on the plane; its the only place where people cant smoke.
Miss you all.
Ciao, Marla
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| In deliberation |
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| Tricia and I debated whether we needed more postcards. This little guy in his little suit coat jacket swayed us. How could we pass him by. Suckers! |
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| It's Tom and the girls at Terra Cotta Soldiers |
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| Without Tom, our wonderful guide and new friend, in Xi'an, we would not have been able to seen or learn so much about Chinese history. Tom is studying for his PhD in aeronautical science. Hell do cool things one day. Kind of like Howard Hughes, but hes not crazy. Hes really smart and he uses really big vocabulary words. |
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| The Huaqing Pool |
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| More great shots. No, not the ones targeted at Chang Kai-shek.
Xi'an, China |
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| New photos to be posted the next 24 hours. By the time we get to Italy, you may be updated. Love, Photo Uploading Goddess |
| The Huaqing Pool located at the foot of Lishan Mou |
| This was the winter palace for the Tang Dynasty imperial family, surrounded by hot springs.The Emperor Xuanzon took his favorite concubine Yang and some high-ranking officials here to spend the wintertime. It was damaged during the An Lushan Rebellion in the middle Tang period; so it was rebuilt. The Xi'an Incident took place in the Dec. of 1936 (very modern Chinese history). Patriotic generals captured the KMT head, Chang Kai-shek, in order to influence him to stop civil war and fight against the Japanese invaders together with the Chinese Communist Party. At the site (for tourists, of course) they preserved the spot where they shot through windows and walls at Chang Kai-shek. Talk about touristy
there was even a Chang Kai-shek lookalike with whom you could take your photo (for a few Yuan, of course.)
Xian, China
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| Big Goose Pagoda |
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| The Big Goose Pagoda in the Da Ci'en Temple is 7 stories high. We climbed up (no big deal after the Great Wall). Built in 589, during the Sui Dynasty (581-618) which has a bell that was used for telling time to the monks in ancient times. Stories have it that the monks living in the Da Ci'en Temple had no meat to eat so they prayed for the Gods to bless them. At that exact minute, a group of wild geese flew over the temple. Their heads dropped to the ground and they died. The monks were all astounded and thought it was because of the Buddhist spirit so they decided not to eat meat forever. Hence the name "Big Goose Pagoda."
Xian, China
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| Who is that white man? |
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| Robin met some new penyos (friends, in Chinese) at the Xi'an city sqaure.
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| Tai Chi |
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| No, this is not a celebrex commercial. People in China really do exercise in public parks and squares.
Xi'an, China, city center |
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| Flag Lowering in China |
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| Every morning and every evening the Chinese flag is raised and lowered. All passersby stop to watch and sing the national anthem. Uh, could someone pass the song sheet, we don't know the words. Tricia does, however, know all verses of the Australian national anthem. Oops, wrong country. |
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| Another Cute Baby |
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| Xi'an China |
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| This isn't even rush hour |
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| Driving is not an easy feat in Xian. Motorbikes, people, cars and buses ebb and flow
and no one flinches. Except the Pendergrasts who have white knuckles and lots of photos.
Xian, China
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| They'll be coming 'round the mountain |
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| Rich, Wendy & Anne, you should be happy that your goats have a palatial estate. These goats roam with their owners in order to graze daily; and then travel back home at the end of the day.
Xian, China
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| Ming Tombs II |
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| Springtime at the tombs.
Beijing, China |
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| Ming Tombs |
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| More dead emperors. They're everywhere. 50 kilometers northwest of Beijing lies the Ming Tombs - mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
To us...pretty pictures. After a while your brain gets turned to historical information overload. |
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| Not Your Average Friends on the Street |
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| Believe it or not, we met friends in Bangkok who live 10 minutes from us in McHenry. We also met up with Miki, Julia, Mel and Betty in Hong Kong for dinner. This photo was taken by a passerby on a Hong Kong street corner who happened to live in Naperville, Illinois. It's a small world. |
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| Starbucks and KFC
Theyre everywhere |
| In some social circles, people believe that Gloria |
| What airport did we get off at? Let me look at my passport stamp. Let me search for an information counter. Let me figure out what language is spoken here. Nope, not necessary, let me just go to Starbucks. Airport, Beijing, China
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| Hong Kong at Night |
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| A beautiful, colorful night skyline hides the pollution and overpopulation of Hong Kong.
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| They give crocked, I mean cooked, a whole new meaning. |
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| Swimming while intoxicated. These shrimp were brought to our table flopping and swimming in alcohol. They drank. They got drunk. They were cooked. Right at our table. Dinner anyone?
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| New Photos Are Finally Posted-Check Them Out. I'll keep adding more over the 24 hours. |
| Terra Cotta Soldiers |
| I know we are in Vietnam and this is a picture of the Terra Cotta Soldiers in Xi'an, China. But I'm just now catching up on uploading images. I'm sorry for not being in real time; but if you lived back when these soldiers were created, 2000 years ago, you would not have seen these images, in, well, ever. So you are well ahead of the game. In the next few days I will try to catch up so you all can see what we see. But just think, you dont have to smell what we smell. Lucky you!
There are about 6,000 8,000 Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses
life-size figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had work begun on his mausoleum. In 1974, a group of peasant farmers digging a well found the archeological discovery.
A museum was built around the three pits. No. 1 Pit is the largest, first opened to the public on China's National Day, 1979. There are columns of soldiers at the front, followed by war chariots at the back. Thats what you are looking at. The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses were listed by UNESCO in 1987 as one of the world cultural heritages.
mgp
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| Tricia Makes Friends Very Easily |
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| Many of the Chinese who visit the big city of Beijing come from very rural areas and rarely, if ever, see Western people. Consequently, when they do, they grab them and take lots of pictures of them as souveniers. Maybe we can set up a sales booth on the Wall (with the other 300 hawkers) and hire Tricia out to make some money before we leave. |
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| Chairman Mao at Tiananmen Square |
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| Located at the center of Beijing City is Tiananmen Square, where we visited Tiananmen Tower, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, and Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. We never made it to the national flag raising ceremony, well quite honestly, it was too early in th morning for two out of the three Pendergrasts (can you guess which two?). The Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is at the south side of the Square. Their dear Chairman Mao's body lies in a crystal coffin in one of the halls surrounded by fresh bouquets of flowers and grasses. |
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| What a View! |
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| The Great Wall Of China as seen through Robin's eyes. |
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| The Great Wall Is Still Standing |
| Who invited 1.5 billion of our closest friends? |
| Climbing the Great Wall has been one of the most amazing highlights of our journey so far.
You are not a man if you have not been to the Great Wall." So the saying goes in China.
The Great Wall extends for a good 3,000 miles. The Great Wall was a gigantic defensive project used in ancient times as early as in the 7th century B.C. A workforce of nearly a million, representing one fifth of the whole labor force of the country, was used to build it. Hardship and cruel treatment brought death to many of the laborers, and tragic stories were told, from which folk-tales and legends came into being.
The section closest to Beijing city is Badaling. This is where we are. It offers awesome views, but it is also the most crowded.
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| Dunny Chinese Style |
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| These are typical. BYOTP. |
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| You Can Run But You Can't HIde |
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| They are everywhere!
Lantau Island, near Hong Kong |
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| Another New Friend |
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| We met Gerhard (from Germany) while we were touring around Macau. Hello to his daughter who is checking up on him. He's doing great and racing through town. |
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| Antique Shoes |
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| These are a pair of shoes that women wore when they had their feet bound in China. They are about the size of a two-year-old's feet. |
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| St. Paul's Church Facade |
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| The great ruined facade and staircase of St. Paul's was designed by an Italian Jesuit and Japanese Christians. Built from 1602 to 1637 and burnt down in 1835. We met some great folks from Melboune, Aus, on the Macau trip. Lynette and Julian are with us in the picture. It was nice to hear an Aussie accent again. |
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| Smoke & Prayers |
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| Outside a temple in Macau...more incense and more smoke. |
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| Hong Kong Skyline |
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| The Hong Kong skyline can barely be seen on most days due to pollution. I used to think that Hong Kong was one of the most beautiful places in the world. Actually, I'm very disppointed in the growth, congestion and pollution that has turned this harbor community into just another dirty megacity. (Marla's commentary of the day.) |
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| Parking At The Ferry Station |
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| Trnsportation on Lantau Island is very limited to cars. Only 1,000 cars, taxis and buses have permits to drive on the island. Like so many other places in China, Lantau residents commute on bicycle. |
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| View From The Bridge |
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| Lantau Island - Small fishing village |
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| Fish Market On Lantau Island |
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| The people of the fishing village at Lantau dry and hang their delicacies. |
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| Hanging Out At The South China Sea |
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| Lantau Island |
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| With Love From Buddha |
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| We took a side trip to Lantau Island, a rural land mass twice that of Hong Kong Island with 250,000 people. In Cantonese, Lantau means broken head, perhaps because of the rugged area dominated by Lantau Peak, which rises 3,086 feet above sea level. Up the mountain to The Po Lin Monastery is the world's largest, bronze statue of a seated Buddha (79 feet high). Tricia and I are in the picture to make sure you didn't think we copied this from a postcard.
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