Golden Eagle Festival – Getting There – Mongolia 10-2014

Yes, we know. If you have been trying to following us from Greece to Turkey to Georgia to Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan to Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan and across all of China—-well, travel has been a bit hectic. Keeping up with visa entry deadlines and just life on the road has left little time and […]

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Taklamakan Desert, China – August 28, 2014

August 28, 2014 China! We finally arrived in Kashgar, the Magical City of the Silk Road. Our cute guide, Zhang Zhiqiong, was waiting for us. An English major, she chose the rather unusual name of “Green” as her English nickname. Why? Because she was born on Earth Day. Our 30-day driving schedule across China arranged […]

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Wakhan Corridor #2 – The People, Tajikistan 7-2014

People in the foreign countries we are visiting are part of the joy of overland travel, and for sure, the children are the most fun. They have no fear, no set opinions, no religious or political concerns. They are just curious that strange people in a strange vehicle from a place they may never have […]

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Wakhan Corridor, Tajikistan 7-23-14

Ever since we began planning our adventure along the Silk Road, the Wakhan Corridor had been an intermediate goal. It was part of the route that Marco Polo took on his journey across Central Asia in the 13th century. The Corridor itself was created during the Great Game era (1800′s) by the Russian and British […]

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Georgia 6 – Food, 6-2014

Years ago when we traveled in Mexico we used to laugh at people coming south with their motorhomes, cupboards full canned food, on the assumption that people in Mexico didn’t have any. Now, as we travel through some of the most remote countries in the world, some may wonder how do we survive? What do […]

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Georgia 5, 6-2014

 We had been looking forward to Georgian wines since we had our last sip of Italian Nero d’Avila. To our disappointment, most of the stores in Georgia stocked plenty of beer, vodka and juices, but rarely more than a few wines. Much of the table wine we found in the country was either homemade or […]

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Georgia 3, 6-2014

Certainly one of the more pleasant things about driving into Georgia was that it is a Christian nation. We were no longer woken up before sunrise by amplified loudspeakers throughout town calling us to prayer. In fact, driving by villages there were often one or more church steeples, and as we noted before, the dress […]

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Georgia 4 – Our Hearts Beat the Same, 6-2014

If you pick up a handful of dirt in Los Angeles or a handful in Istanbul, it’s the same stuff. Part of what makes travel fascinating for us is the people and their lives in the unique countries they live in. But there is something else interesting about these individuals, whether adults or children, regardless […]

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Corinth Canal, Greece 2-2014

Leaving the Peloponnese and heading to Piraeus, the Athens harbor, we had to cross the famous Corinth Canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Aegean Sea. Cut through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, it effectively makes the peninsula of the Peloponnese an island. Several rulers in antiquity dreamed of digging a water passage […]

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Mycenae, Peloponnese, Greece, 2-2014

Going way back to Greek history classes in high school, Monika has a vivid memory of the Lion Gate at Mycenae, so naturally this was a must-see stop. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilization, a military stronghold that dominated much of southern Greece. According to legend […]

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Georgia 1, 6-2014

Time warp!! The faster we go the more we get behind with our blogs, so we thought we’d bring you all up-to-date, since we are now getting deeper into places where anything can happen and often does. We will still be adding some of our experiences from Greece and Turkey as we go along. Georgia!! […]

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Kosmás, Peloponnese, Greece 2/2014

Driving north towards Mycene and Corinth, we could have followed the freeway, but we had read in one of our guidebooks about the little alpine village of Kosmás on the coastal route.  It was a pretty easy choice. Heading into the Párnonas Mountains, the tortuous two-lane road was very steep. Second and third gear travel […]

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Dimitsana, Peloponnese, Greece 1/2014

On our way to famous Olympia, we detoured briefly to spend the night near a village called Dimitsana. We had heard of a unique open-air Water Power Museum. Always interested in learning about how people lived and worked in the old days, we were eager to find out what the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation […]

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Kalávrita, Peloponnese, Greece 1/2014

Returning from Delphi we again crossed the beautiful Carilaos-Trikoupis Bridge over the Gulf of Corinth and headed more or less south into the Peloponnese peninsula. It was then that we noticed a page in one of our guidebooks about the old narrow gauge Kalávrita railway. Trains are an interesting way of overland travel. You always […]

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Delphi, Greece 1/2014

This is an introduction to Greek Mythology. There will be a short quiz when we leave Greece and Zeus will be watching you! Leaving our peaceful overnight camp at the small fishing village of Monastiraki, we drove to Delphi, the most important Ancient Greek site of Oracles. If you glance at a map of Greece, […]

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Ancona, Marche, Italy 1/2014

We had been playing Blog Tag with Rob and Nina Blackwell for months as we made our way across the US, shipped to Belgium, and proceeded to drive through Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Meanwhile, Rob & Nina had started in Vladivostok, Russia and had come over many of the roads we would […]

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Rome #4, The City, Italy 1/2014

There are a few Cities in the World that truly stand out; San Francisco, Istanbul, Beijing, London, St. Petersburg. Rome, living, breathing and constantly changing, saturated with history, much of it dating BC, is surely among them, but after the Coliseum, the Forum and the Vatican, there is the City itself. It was sound advice […]

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Pompeii, Campania, Italy 1/2014

Heading south from Rome we were basically looking for a nice place to spend Gary’s birthday. The ancient city of Pompeii had always been on our list of areas to visit. Monika had been there with her parents many years ago and had fond memories. Pompeii rises on a plateau of Vesuvius’ lava overlooking the […]

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Rome #3, The Forum, Italy 1/2014

Aside from the Colosseum, the Forum is where all of Ancient Rome happened: Temples, market, craftsmen, debates, justice courts and even murders. Walking through the ruins that had been built, torn down, destroyed by earthquakes, rebuilt, vandalized, robbed, covered with centuries of rubble and finally, what was left, excavated and to the extent possible, restored, […]

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Rome #2, The Colosseum, Italy 1/2014

Like the Vatican, there is only one. There are many sports arenas and coliseums in Italy, but there is only one “Colosseum”. Since the Middle Ages it has been a symbol of Rome, the Eternal City. It had been written, “While the Colosseum stands, Rome will stand but when the Colosseum falls, Rome shall fall, […]

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