So how's about a re-cap of everywhere we're been. Are ya ready?

England - London, Canterbury, Windsor
Scotland - Linlithgow, Edinborough, Dunbar, Glasgow, Sterling, Inverness (Loch Ness), Aviemore, Boat at Garten
Germany - Berlin, Dresden, Meissen, Pilnitz
Czech republic - Prague, Ceske Budejovice, Cesky Krumlov, Cesky Trisov, Cesky Hlubokov
Austria - Vienna, Bregenz, Lindau
Lichtenstein - Vaduz
Switzerland - Zurich, Bern
Italy - Bologna, Florence, Venice, Rome
Egypt - Cairo, Luxor, Edfu, Esna, Kom Ombo, Aswan
Ireland - Dublin, Killarney, Dingle, Blarney, Cork, Cobh,
Hawaii - Oahu, Waikiki, Ko Olina
Japan - Tokyo, Inari, Kyoto, Takayama, Kanazawa, Yudanaka (Nagano), Osaka

Not bad for a couple of months wandering without any game plan. There were times things could've been planned a little better, but then, that was the idea, not having any plans.

Booking Europe, well there are enough places that it's pretty easy to find a place, (Exception - Rome when the Popes' in town is a tuffy, but we still found a room 3 blocks from the vatican:-)

If you decide to go to Japan, book ahead of time. Finding hotels on the weekend is tough. If you're going to travel at all, day trip etc, buy the Japan rail pass, it makes life very easy. Be prepared for the train terminals, some of them are small cities and it's real easy to get turned around.

It would be a tuffy to choose our favorites but, Japan first, Ireland second, Lake Constance Austria 3rd (Lindau / Bregenz). Does it matter after that?

What more can we say? If you see us, plenty, and there's a couple thousand pictures that we'll bore you to death with. Otherwise all we can say is, if you have the wanderlust...GO, as soon as you can. Hauling your bags around is a lot of work. We're probably in the best shape we've been in years. But, 5-10 years from now, we probably wouldn't have had the same experience.

Til the next adventure
May the road rise to meet you
May the sun be always at your back
GO

Okay so it appears that some people (hello beth) are reading this thing so I'll finish up our little trip.
So last time we communicated (so I wrote you read, that's a form of communication isn't it?)we we're having to spend some time tannin, drinking frew frew cocktails, climbing volcano's, hiking through rainforests, drinkng cocktails and well, just generally having a lousy time in the sun in Hawaii.
We came home for a couple of days to mooch a room off of some friends, (thanks friends) and then we were off again. This time.....Japan.
We started in tokyo.
The Imperial palace, Tokyo, Ueno park, well...skip em. If you only have a little time ( 2-3 weeks), go to Kyoto, there is sooooo much more to see. You can day trip to alot and I mean ALOT of things from Kyoto. There's a lot just to see just in the Kyoto area.
Fushimi-Inari area was wonderful. Thousands of Torii gates all stacked next to each other and paths that wandered through them. Cool.

Geeze the temples. Actually the gardens. Maybe the shrines well.....each temple / shrine / garden was really beautiful and very calming. Didn't matter where you were. Each one was different, pleasant, and well....beautiful.

Don't know really what more to say. Met Geishas, (took their picture, they took ours:-)wandered a local morning market, visited the temples of Takayama and Arishiyama, Tsubakino, Kokubunjioh and alot of others. Saw Nijo castle, Osaka castle, old geisha and samurai houses in Kanazawa, a temple with 1000 Kinnon statues and their guardians, lots of Japanese breakfasts ( WONDER - FULL). The Nikko world heritage site, the snow monkeys of Yudanaka (outside Nagano, remember the olympics?) and, well a bunch of other stuff. We also did the tacky tourist thing...Tokyo Disney. ( If you've ever been to Disney anywhere in the states then don't bother, but Country bear Jamboree and the Tiki room in Japanese were kinda fun).