the "i made it" post

Its been quite some time since my last post, and my excuse involves a lack of internet, different languages, and no time.  It has been a pretty intense month, and I will sum it up in the briefest sense.  The last post was from Manchester.  From there I took a flight to Amsterdam.  We rode from Schipol airport in Amsterdam to a small town called Haarlem, and then visited Amsterdam.  We camped in a park just outside of the city, and met Joe, the German foreign exchange student, who drove from Dusseldorf to meet us.  After a night out in Amsterdam, and sleeping in the car, we drove on the autobahn at around 250km per hour back to Dusseldorf where his family lives.  Dusseldorf was really nice, and we were fortunate to have a bed to sleep in, his mom cooked for us, and Joe's brother acted as our tour guide.  We visited Cologne as well which was right on the Rhine and a very nice place.  I flew out of Weeze to Ciampino, which is just south of Rome.  I rode through Rome, to a place called Lago Di Bracciano, which is a really nice lake surrounded by mountains.  It was a very nice area, and i slept under a gazebo/pier on the beach and woke up for every sunrise as the fisherman loaded their nets in the morning.  From there i rode to the western coast of Civitavecchia, and then made a long haul north along the coastline over 270 km to Pisa.  I also visited the nearby Florence, where i ran into some familiar faces, and then took the train back down south to catch a boat across the mediterranean towards Barcelona, making a stop on the island of Corsica.  Once in Barcelona, I met up with my friend Taylor, as well as met some new friends.  Barcelona was a beautiful city, and on the last day i hitched a ride to Montserrat with a mountain climber named Sergio, who took me to a beautiful peak. Montserrat is this monteserry in the mountains.  I hitched back to Barcelona with a girl named Emma who didnt speak any english, but we managed a good conversation with her Catalan and my Spanish. After spending some nights in airports, with long layovers and flights, I made my way home.  The weather is hot here and the lake is a nice place to come home to.  I am ready to drive my 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit with the top down, rig up my sailboat and take it to Stockton, and ride my bicycle to Denver.  I am going to go to Ski Club practice tonight and see how some local lake people are doing.  In a couple more days I will be off to Dodge City to drive a combine tractor and semi-truck for wheat harvest.  I have a lot to look forward to and a lot to look back on, which is the way I like it.  I enjoy all forms of travel, and on this last trip I was able to travel by airplane, bicycle, autobahn, walking, hitching, and boat!  Im in a hurry so I will try to update more later.  

the cycle post

Well here I am in Manchester, UK. We made the bicycle trip from London to here in three days of riding....or 48 hours from departure to arrival. It was a lot easier than i thought it would be. I remember riding to Columbia a long time ago and my butt hurting a lot and being totally exhausted....but this time was not so bad. We had a few flats, chains fell off, backpacks were difficult to keep strapped tight, and a brake adjustment or two....but all in all no problems. We headed in a decently straight direction and then entire trip covered over 200 miles. Before meeting with Aaron in London, Jon and I saw all of the sights and road towards Brighton. We got separated which was a confusingly long story involving waiting for 7 hours at a gas station, sleeping at a police station, and riding quite a few miles...but everything worked out good, like it tends to do. We have rode atleast 50 miles every day since we arrived here, and our legs are holding out good! We also have been spending less money than we expected, which leaves more money to go towards transportation funds later on in the trip. Food has been our only expense...but I have probably spent less than 30 american dollars in the last week. We found really cheap grocery stores where you can get entire large meals for close to a pound per meal. We splurged a little on some Thai food and a portugese restaraunt last night which included sandwhich, chips, and bottomless soda for around 6 pounds or 9 u.s. dollars. Jon went to an all you can eat buffet for 6 pounds. All you can eat buffets and free refills....europe is catching on i guess. The bike ride was epic and now we are going to tour around manchester with our tour guide aaron hand. It was nice sleeping under a roof for the first time last night...but the comfort makes us lazy and we have slept in till 10:30. We will have a good night of fun tonight though.