Homering About

We've been hanging about in Homer, getting on with the mundane tasks of a settling into new place. New license plates, driver's licenses, voting registration, yada yada yada. 

Interspersed have been trips to Anchorage and Soldotna for food and whatnot. It takes all day to get to Anchorage and back, but the winter may make the roads a bit dicier to travel on, so we are planning ahead. We are doing some hikes around town, enjoying the fall colors (not seen in Southeast Alaska where we used to live), and breathing the clean, cool air. 

 Still a bit o'green around.

 A view of Grewingk glacier (across Kachemak Bay) and the spit.

Especially like "stomp the living daylights out of you" in the Word to the Wise section.

View towards Mt. Iliama.

We also took a drive over to Seward to see the Exit glacier, named because it was the exit off of the massive Harding Icefield by the first expedition to cross over it.

Exit glacier is one of two glaciers in Alaska that you can drive very close to (the other is Mendenhall glacier in Juneau).

This glacier has a history of fast retreats. The sign to the left is where the glacier was in 2005. It has retreated that far in 13 years. That's me missus on the right.

View from the 2005 sign. The melt hole at the bottom is probably 30 feet tall.

The next pictures are views looking back from the glacier.

All of the lower ground in these last two pictures was covered by the glacier in 1993.

The glacier was all the way to the white line in 1950!

Saw a moose wandering about town, but too quick for a picture was she! We expect more moose in town as the snow in the mountains drives them down.

Peace my friends!

Back to the Beginning

It has been a long and, most definitely, a winding road the last 8 years. I first headed to Alaska in 2010, arriving in Sitka on the Alaska Ferry Taku:

Now, in 2018, I am back in Alaska for the third time, arriving in Ketchikan on the Alaska Ferry Columbia:

It seems like this is where I belong. I've been seeing the world and enjoying every minute of it (well, almost!). But, it is time to come back to what we have been missing the most: green, cool and not too many folks.

We are in Homer now, and look forward to spending some time here:

To all of you that have been along for the ride, I have enjoyed having you with me. I hope to share a bit of Alaska with you soon.

Peace my friends!

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

 Or the Alps either! No more fresh alpine air for us. We took three trains to get to Paris, the last being the very fast TGV. However, it wasn’t running on TGV lines until the last hour and a half. Apparently the fast lines don’t reach the outer provinces. We did however reach 297km for a bit, so that was cool! Love the architecture in Paris:

One of the hotels we didn’t stay at.

 

The Opera House.

Galeries Lafayette store where the women’s shops are in the massive building on the right, and the men’s shops are in the massive building on the left. Can’t recall seeing that anywhere else on our travels.

The Seine with a view of the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned.
Well, we are wrapping up our little adventure in Europe. We are staying in Paris for a few days, then taking the Eurostar train to London, then another train to York. Two days later we fly to Vegas, baby! For our belated honeymoon. As you do.
 

See you in Vegas my friends!

Lazy Days

Not much to report from the Alps. We are enjoying the walks and scenery and the French bread and meats.

View from our tent. That is Switzerland in the distance.

Ditto

 We hiked a couple of kilometers across to the Swiss border. No border guards were seen.

Back in camp, working on our tans.
 

Peace my friends!

Birthday Fun

 My lovely bride’s birthday was upon us, so what better than to take the bus to Le Tour. Then the cable car from there up to Charmillon, where we hiked a bit until we came to L’Alpage restaurant for birthday coffee and treats.

L’Alpage de Baume

 Our view.

 Coffee and treats! 

Then we hiked over to another cable car station to take it down to Vallorcine.
Once down, we took the train back to Argentiere where we had birthday lunch.

Kirsty had a local mountain specialty called tartiflette. Potatoes, onions, bacon and Reblochon, which is a local, smelly cheese. I am told by Kirsty it is delicious. 

I had a delicious salmon cooked in a cream sauce. Not my birthday so no pics!

On the way home, it was so hot that Kirsty decided to soak her feet in the mountain spring water.

A good time was had by all!
 

Peace my friends!

Chamonix and Argentière

 Nice buildings abound in Chamonix. It is fairly crowded though and a bit too touristy!

 Postal delivery in Chamonix!

 

An extremely fast moving river runs through Chamonix. No way to get down to dip your feet in though, as it is too dangerous.

 Fresh springs are all over. They are very cold and taste great. This one is right outside our campground entrance in Argentière. We moved here after two days in Chamonix to see a less hectic part of the area. Lots and lots of mountain climbers camp here. Strange folks for sure!

Early morning view from our camp in Argentière.

Time for a beverage or two!
 

This is all I can squeeze through the internet at the moment. We hope to be up on a glacier early tomorrow morning, so hopefully some pictures from that hike!
 

Peace my friends.

Mont Blanc. As You Do.

 

Nice view of Mont Blanc from our campsite!
 

We took the train to Lyon in 95 degree heat and stayed there 2 days to get outfitted for hiking and camping in the Alps. We donated our bicycles to the hotel staff. 

We then hopped on the early train to Chamonix in the French Alps. We plan on staying a few weeks here in the cooler altitude. Then on to Paris for our last few days in France. 

More pics to follow! 

Peace my friends.

Anniversary in France

 So… I wanted to spend our wedding anniversary in France instead of Germany. 

Zee Germans don’t like it when you want to drop a car across the border, so we: 

Took the train from Passau to Munich, where we spent the night. Then we picked up an SUV, packed the bikes and all into it and Kirsty drove across the country to Freiburg, Germany. We spent a very nice night about 30km outside of Freiburg at the Gasthof Krone, then returned the car the next morning and took the train to Neuenburg, Germany. 

We hopped off the train and cycled 35km across the border to Mulhouse, France, crossing back over the Rhein river in the process. Easy peasy.

For our anniversary dinner that night, we had fabulous Korean BBQ. As you do, when in France.

We do love our Korean food, and didn’t want to pass up a chance like this. Beef for my lovely bride and shrimp for me!
We are going to stay in France and I will blog what we are up to soon! 

Peace my friends!

Danube Cycle Trail Photos

 As promised, here are some of the sights along the trail:

 

A send off from the swans at the start of the Danube.

Corn for days and days and days!!!!!!

Kirsty heading into a covered bridge leaving Donaueschingen.

Favorite camp at Hausen Im Tal.

His camping vehicle.  

 

Next pics are from Sigmaringen:

 

 

Loosely translated, I believe this sign means "eat at McDonald’s, then you fart." I could be wrong though.

For Ryan when she comes to visit Germany!

Rathaus (town hall), in Ulm.

Gummy Bears are a big thing here!

Names of people who have lived in the house Neuburg an der Donau.

This baby starts really fast off the line and hugs the corners!

Signs from some of the camps:

We came up this hill, and a few others like it. Supposedly this path had a few, minor hills. I would like to throw the guy who wrote our guide down this hill.

We had to take a short boat ride around the narrowest and deepest part of the German Danube at Weltenburg. We got on the little boat, with our bikes, at the Abbey.

See the fat man in the rocks above?

Hops as far as the eye can see here outside of Bad Gogging.

 Castle at Neuberg. Scale of place was impressive!

When in Germany, eat pizza!

When you sneeze a lot, you go here.

Huge double lock in Passau.
 

That should do for now! This adventure has been a hoot for sure. At times we felt like we were camping in a crèche, other times it was a dream. The hills were a challenge but once we got to the top, we got to go down! It was interesting to see all the different bike configurations and packing strategies of fellow cyclists. 

Sorry for any typos as I am trying to get this uploaded and done! Sure miss my old blog program! 

Who knows where we will go next?

Peace my friends!