back in NL

we are back where it all began, well for john at least. our tour de europe has ended :( we flew out of nice this morning at 8.15, which meant getting up at 4.45 (i haven't been up that early since my last day at starbucks). we flew into brussels, belgium then took a train into rotterdam, holland where paulina met us at the train station. john and i were so excited for the belgium waffles we had planned on getting for breakfast at brussels central station, but didn't have enough time... so upsetting. the stoop waffles on train slightly made up for it though (i'm bringing home a crap load of stoop waffles!!! so tastyyy). then to top it off paulina (who had just been in poland for a wedding) brought us home made perogis!!! so upon our arrival to her apartment she made us a delicious lunch!!! we will celebrate my birthday here in the netherlands (don't worry, you can give me my gifts when i get home;) ) then fly home the following day... while we are here in NL we have a lot of work to do in terms of gathering all of johns things, repacking them, and shipping them back to the US...

it's so nice in Nice...

from genoa our next stop was menton. it is an adorable coastal city just across the french boarder. we found a cheap hotel, showered, then went out and explored the city. we figured that since we were now in france we had to get crepes, so we asked around then were guided by a local (she seemed to be a local celebrity, she knew everyone in this small town) to the best creperia in town and got us a table! it was magic. the following morning we rode through monaco and into nice! our first stop as tourist information... we needed to get the location of a few bike shops in town so that we can take apart our bikes, box them up and fly then to holland. well the woman at tourist info was a life saver! not only did she find and book us a 48 euro a night hotel, she also called a few bike shops for us and inquired about boxes. this women saved us hours of work!!! nice is a beautiful city. yesterday we layed on the beach for a bit, hit up some museums then, walked around the city, then found the perfect restaurant for our celebratory dinner. i mean we have just completed le tour de europe. the location, the ambiance, the staff, everything was great... the meal was intended for dads credit card, his treat to us after almost three months of hard riding (hahah, love you dad). after a fantastic meal we throw down the plastic only to be told they don't accept credit cards!!! but this was our celebratory dinner, didn't he know what we had just accomplished and what our father was going to treat us to!!! the nerve. today we will go into monaco and rub shoulders with the rich and famous. tomorrow morning we fly to belgium then take a train into rotterdam where we will see paulina!!!

pisa, cinque terre, genoa...

after our time in florence we rode in to pisa the following day. i hate to say it, but i wasn't that impressed with pisa. i mean they have a tower that leans (actually quite significantly to my suprise) but besides that, there isn't a whole lot to see in the city. it's a big college town, so i guess that makes it fun.... but otherwise it's a bit shady. we did stay at a guesthouse with the most peculiar host. his name was michelle and he loved talking to us.. the next morning we left pisa and made it to levano, a city just north of the cinque terre national park. we left our bikes at our hostel and hiked 4 of the 5 villages. cinque terre was so beautiful!!! we had a lot of fun there, and tried to imagine what it was our parents did and talked about when they were there less than two months ago. much to our surprise there was a religios prosession in the 4th town with fireworks and all. i think it was a little treat the city planned for us. the following morning we started to make our way to genoa. the first 10km of the ride out of levanto was all uphill!! it was the hardest ride we've had yet. we had no idea italy was so mountainous. it was beutiful none the less. from the mountain top we had beautiful views of the coast. we are now in genoa. we were so tired last night fromm the days ride we got some pizza (pesto pizza/ pesto anything is my new crack!)and went to bed. today we will ride through the city a bit, see a world herritage site and continue our ride towards nice. from nice we fly to the netherlands... our trip is coming to an end :( it is so strange, we've been traveling for so long yet it has all gone by so fast. it wil be so strange to be back at home... ( the top photo was taken on our ride towards france... much of the ride had views like this!!! the bottom photo is cinque terre)

florence to vinci

so we actually made it to florence in one day (i know, we're that good). we found a hostel right in the city and went to bed. the next morning we went to town! i don't know if you know this, but florence has some good stuff to see ;) we've also never seen so many tourists on this trip. we spent the whole day walking around in the heat (100°F, perefect biking weather), and enjoying the beauty of the city. i also enjoyed a visit to the docter!! it's bronchitis. i'll tell you what i didn't enjoy though.... florence is one of the best places to shop in the world, and it would be impossible for me to carry anything else on my bike. talk about tragedy. being in shoppers paradise, and not being able to purchase. i know, heartbreaking! we had an overpriced dinner next to the duomo where we could people watch then went back to our hostel and hung out with our flat mates. this morning we began our ride west in the direction of Pisa but are spending the night in Vinci... as in Leonardo de Vinci. i think i'm a bit more artistic having just slept in the city of his birth. the ride here today was hot and hilly and because of the antibiotics i'm on for my little bronchi (that's what we named him) i can't be in the sun...so my body is fully covered in this 100 degree heat. i've never looked or smelt better!

riding through tuscany

after rome john and i started our ride through tuscany. this is by far the most beautiful region we have been in. this area is rolling hills and vineyards with these spectacular little villages perched on the mountaintops. it's been some hard riding, but the beauty makes up for it. we stopped at some hot springs the other day in satunia where we stayed at the most charming b&b. how often do you get kisses from the owner when you check out of a hotel?? i wish we had more time to relax in some of these cities rather than just stopping to eat and sleep, what can you do. another bonus of being in italy is that costs are so much less than they were in northern europe! the food and wine is so cheap here. john has been drinking his chianti every night, another reason i'm enjoying italy so much... johns more enjoyable after a half a bottle of wine!! haha. only slightly kidding. today we toured siena and tomorrow morning we will start our ride to florence which should take two days.

we're in ITALY!!!!

i know, the suspense must have been killing you!!! yeah.... it was pretty cold riding around the north sea, so after our little visit in poland we flew into rome! one of the most beautiful cities in the world!!! we spent two solid days in rome. i don't know if you are aware, but the obama's were in rome when we were! john and walked up to the panthoen to find it completely blocked off by police. michelle and the girls had just walked in along with all the other wives of the leaders apart of the G8 conference. everyone cheered when they came out. it's amazing how much europeans love and support obama. yesterday we biked out of the city and headed towards the coast. we are now going to ride through tuscany. things have been pretty great here except i've had a cold and my camera got run over by a car! hahah. it's okay though, he's still working!! it was just a little nick by a tire, close call though. so yeah... now we are heading through tuscany towards siena, florence, pisa, cinque terra, and then southern france. a little change of plans, i know... all i can say is "when is rome".

heineken open'er 2009

well, the festival is over and paulia has left us :( john and i leave poland tomorrow evening. as i mentioned, we came here to see paulina and for the heineken open'er festival. this is polands largest festival of the year. friday night there was an estimated 60,000 people, over the weekend there must have been over 100,000 people. it was insanity!!! europeans know how to throw summer music festivals. the four day event was incredible. the line up wasn't that impressive, but none the less we had a lot of fun. we saw moby, pendulum, duffy, basement jaxx, lily allen, placebo, kings of leon, faith no more, and prodigy to name a few. from where we were staying in sopot we took the tram to gydania central station. just outside the station the festival provided busses to the show. the first two days of the festival we didn't arrive until 9 or 10 pm so getting on the tram and bus was no problem. by the third and fourth day (also this was saturday and sunday so there were twice as many people attending the festival just for the weekend) getting there was much more of a hastle. on saturday we left our place at 4:30 and arrived at the festival three hours later! the tram station was packed, four or five trams passed us and they were completly full! there was no use in waiting so we ran across the street to try and get a cab but ended up hitchiking instead and got a ride from Thomas (lovin you) who took us all the way to the show! it was fabulous. poland has been a blast. our next destination is....

Poland, Paulina, and Pierogis....

(this photo is taken at the WWII memorial where the first shots of the war were taken, paulina and I are in the back)
WE'RE IN POLAND!!!!! hahah. i don't know how we got so far off the North Sea Cycle Route, but somehow we are all the way in eastern Europe?? Johns girlfriend Paulina whom he met while working in the Netherlands is Polish, and right now in Gdansk Poland there is a huge festival going on. So John and I decided that is was just too darn cold riding along the North Sea... so we flew into Poland to see Paulina and enjoy Polands largest music festival of the year. The three of us are staying in a city called Sopot. Sopot is a part of what is called the tri-city of Poland. these three cities that make up the tri are Gdansk, Sopot, and Gdynia. Gdansk is where the very fisrt shots of WWII were fired in 1939. this is also the city in which the Solidarity movement began. this summer they are celebrating 20 years of freedom in Polnad... it's quite an exciting time to be here. It's been an amazing experiance to be here... Of all the countries in which WWII had an impact, it's safe to say that Poland took the brunt of it. past generations have been through a lot. eastern europe is a very different perspective than western and central europe... so this trip here is very unexpected yet amazing. Paulina (aka bananna face) is pretty awesome as well!!!