Verena & Jan auf Weltreise

It’s always easier to stay overnight offside the road in the van, if you are away from the big cities. You just drive to a rest area at the highway or to a national forest, park your van, climb in the back and you just sleep. With our queen size mattress and a cozy blanket we always sleep until 9 or 10 a.m. But to stay in a city is different: lots of “no camping” “no overnight parking” or “loading zone” signs. So we asked again some couchsurfers very short-dated. But Will (Phil ) answered immediately. Although he had another request, he offered us a place to stay. He was one of the really friendly hosts. He helped us to find a free parking lot in Chicago and we went out for dinner after we watched the world cup game Mexico vs Argentina. The next day he had to get up pretty early for work but during his lunch break he guided us through half of Chicago.  We went up the Hancock Tower to get a stunning view over Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyscrapers.
We needed some maps for our way from Chicago to New York, so Will went to the AAA to get  them. But the lady behind the counter could not find his name in the member-database. But she found a Phil. “I can be Phil – for five minutes!” Will said with a big smile on his face and got the maps for us. Will went back to work and we made the rest of downtown. This night we wanted to check out one of the local delicacies: Chicago Pizza – a pizza with a thick dough – very tasty. But how to get there? The bus was just gone and in this neighborhood taxis were very rare. We started to walk until Jan slapt himself on his forehead. “We are so stupid – we have the van!!” he laughed. After two days in the middle of Chicago we totally forgot the van.
The next day we had to leave, because Verenas sister will arrive at JFK airport and before she takes all the money to a five star hotel, we’ll pick her up
Some pics of Chicago are in “See Us!”

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After we left Vancouver we did not really know which way we should drive. It was the 10th of June and we wanted to start all the way down to New York on the 24th of June, so we had only 14 days for little Canada. Jan’s origin route from Vancouver via Anchorage to Yellowknife was killed by Verena quickly. This meant to drive more than 10.000 km – too long for only three weeks. We wanted to see the beautiful country, lots of wildlife, especially bears and Jan needed some sportsbars on the way to watch the soccer world cup! Den ganzen Beitrag lesen »

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We spent only half a day in Zion and Bryce Canyon. There is much more to see and to hike but we typically had not enough time, although the weather was pretty nice. Via Salt Lake City we drove directly to Yellowstone national park. Yellowstone was one of the first national parks in the world, and is known for its many geothermal hot springs, the wildlife and geysers. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is dominant. Before we entered the park we checked our Email and look – there was an Email from Tritzi with an invitation to a big “party” in Seattle, but we come back to that later…
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We walked through the Ceasar’s Palace, played in the Flamingos, took pictures in the MGM Grand and the Bellagio, we tell you a story about a couchsurfer who grew up in Vegas and about his father who came from Sicily and had a restaurant in Las Vegas where Robert de Niro and Martin Scorcese had dinner during their turning operations of the famous Hollywood movie “Casino”. We climbed the beautiful mountains to grab a stunning view of the Vegas skyline and we tell you how to make money here … –>
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The first drive with our new cargo van was the Panamericana, the U.S. Highway No. 1. We drove along the beautiful coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The van did well although he has already a mileage of 350.000 km’s. We had a rest at the sand dunes; they were site of the film “Pirates of the Carribean”. We could watch how the elephant seals fought and we enjoyed the cruise, but remembering that the coastal drives in Australia and New Zealand were comparable.
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The celebrity cruise vessel was huge, with 12 floors and space for app. 2000 guests (we were the ONLY backpackers). We had a 18m2 cabin with a flatscreen TV and every day we had fresh baked omelets, waffles and a chocolate-spring fountain or whatever that thing is called
In the evening you could chose between a 4-course dinner and 24 hours all-you-can-eat-buffet including sushi(!). Our state room attendant was cleaning up the cabin 5 times a day. We stayed at the sun deck, watching the players at the basketball ground (yes, the boat got a basketball-field on its upper deck!) or watching the Caribbean islands passing.  We had amazing days, climbing waterfalls in Jamaica, snorkeling with stingrays and after all we relaxed on the legendary 7-Mile Beach at the Cayman Islands. However those luxury days passed very fast…
Das Kreuzfahrtschiff war riesig mit 12 Stockwerken und hatte Platz für ungefähr 2.000 Gäste (wir waren allerdings die einzigen Backpacker mit Rucksäcken unter all den anderen Gästen). Wir hatten eine 18m2 Kabine mit Flachbildfernseher und jeden Tag frisch gebackenes Omelette, Waffeln und ein Schokoladenfondue-Brunnen. Abends gab es ein 4-Gänge Menü oder wir gingen zum all-you-can-eat-buffet inkl. Sushi(!) und unser Kabinenpersonal kam 5 Mal am Tag und machte unser Bett. Wir entspannten auf dem Deck und sahen den Jungs beim Basketball spielen zu (ja, es gab ein Basketballfeld auf dem Oberdeck!) oder schauten uns die vorbeiziehenden Karibik-Inseln an. Wir hatten einige wirklich einzigartige Tage, kletterten Wasserfälle hoch, tauchten mit Stachelrochen und entspannten am legendären 7-Mile Beach auf Cayman Island. Allerdings vergingen die luxuriösen Tage wie im Flug…

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