tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60236578898841069792024-02-01T20:34:48.900-08:00Lance & Julia's Travel BlogLancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-88828401707150176572009-12-10T20:57:00.001-08:002009-12-11T02:56:37.470-08:00Vietnam <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-26976503524576974292009-12-10T18:52:00.000-08:002009-12-10T20:51:23.670-08:00ITALIA PART TWO!Our second week of Italy was a blur of relaxing at this gorgeous villa (which overlooks the famous towers of San Gimignano, which is also very affordable if anyone is interested in a cute little villa in Tuscany for a week or so), vino (no, not the direct cause of the blurring), good food, four wheel transport, visiting little hill top towns with as little energy as possible expended, and Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-35230199338043601512009-12-05T06:56:00.000-08:002009-12-05T07:51:24.137-08:00Ciao Bella!On the overnight ferry from Croatia to Italy we met a friendly American cycle tourist called Allan and hung out with him. He had a very cool ‘Bike Friday’, folding bike and trailer, definitely some bike envy going on as he showed us how he can fold it up and the trailer transforms into a suitcase for the bike, and it can go straight on the plane. No excess baggage charges = happy cycle tourists! Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-73360210828439958982009-11-29T22:30:00.000-08:002009-11-29T23:05:20.900-08:00East to the Slavs…From Venice we trained/ferried across to Muggia and rode over to hit Slovenia’s 41 km coastline ‘Path of Friendship and Wellness’, a lovely, well set out bicycle path which takes you through abandoned rail tunnels, the backs of little gardens, along the waterfront and through various construction sites.The Friendship and Wellness Path...My favourite part of traveling through this area was the Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-78559765878330513982009-11-11T18:02:00.000-08:002009-11-12T00:28:27.700-08:00Switzerland, Oh Switzerland. (and a taste of Venice)We hit Angers (pronounced - 'Anjher' - with that french twist to it) in France, which was near enough to the Atlantic for us and decided as lovely as the Loire Valley was, it was time to mix it up a little. So we headed to the rail station to find out what they had on offer that day. There was an overnight train to Geneva, so a few hours later we were on our way.Geneva is this gracious, well Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-83240809990682020332009-10-16T20:17:00.001-07:002009-10-17T09:25:29.957-07:00A Roll Down the River: Paris to the Loire Valley
(creative drying techniques)
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-47555725275762857962009-09-28T13:10:00.000-07:002009-09-28T14:18:16.927-07:00Rotterdam to ParisOk, so we are officially the world's worst bloggers! ....but at an average rate of about $20nz an hour for internet, blogging hasn't quite been at the top of our priority list when we hit the internet cafes.So, where to start?From cycling down the West Coast of the States in June, we spent a fantastic week in the San Fransisco area... which deserves, and hopefully will get a blog all of its own.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-39879813174550512212009-07-17T13:33:00.001-07:002009-07-18T10:07:24.580-07:00Route 101 Cycle Tour
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-45332563967611187912009-04-18T17:29:00.000-07:002009-04-18T18:57:46.022-07:00Easter weekend heralded an unprecedented four whole days off for us, so we loaded up our newly acquired Ortlieb panniers, and headed out to Vancouver Island. The rough route was to cycle down from Nanaimo to Victoria via Salt Spring Island, the main attraction being Victoria, the capital of British Columbia and retirement, and, so my guidebook tells me, a city that is supposed to be more englishJuliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-48708153488065759292009-04-05T12:07:00.000-07:002009-04-05T13:24:17.612-07:00Whistler in winterSo it's well into spring here, but up until a few days ago Vancouver was still continuing it's freakishly cold streak, and was still snowing down by our place on the water.The upside of this, has been the piles of snow for great snowboarding... we headed up to Whistler ski resort early March to check out the 8,100 skiable acres, over 200 trails, three glaciers, 38 lifts and twelve alpine bowls. .Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-11854826209346080742009-01-30T19:18:00.000-08:002009-02-02T09:50:22.594-08:00It's been a while since I wrote something here...Hello again!So I don't know why I haven't updated this for so long. No good reason really, life in Vancouver has been ticking along, we are still in the depths of winter, but the worst of it is over. Around Christmas we were lucky to get above zero, but most days now it is a tropical 5-6 degrees. Glorious.So since its been so long, there's stuff to catch you all up on. The story of winter has Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-90920208730745391382009-01-07T19:11:00.000-08:002009-01-07T19:52:38.518-08:00"It's the most wonderful time of the year..."Hello there people, Merry Christmas!(and Happy new year too, cos we probably won't get round to doing another post...)So we have finally had our first (perhaps last?) white christmas! We headed up to Squishy (more commonly known as Squamish, other than among my workmates) with another stranded kiwi couple, Suz...and Bruce...to their cousins house for a week.Minus our family, christmas didn't Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-79617170087044518652008-12-14T18:30:00.000-08:002008-12-14T18:36:16.917-08:00Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...So, I got a text late last night from my good friend, fellow Vancouverite, and fellow kiwi, Bruce to get up and see the snow falling. And falling it was! This was the first time that the snow had fallen down in the city so far this winter, so for Julia and I it was very exciting. We wrapped ourselves up like bugs in rugs, and went down to the water to take it all in.Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-61229648049938411962008-12-13T22:45:00.000-08:002008-12-13T22:53:47.322-08:00A few random pics from the WeekendThe snow has started to fall, the temperatures are plummeting, we knew it would happen eventually, but it always seems to catch you off guard..... looking forward to sub zero temperatures for most of this week.We were in town going to a movie over the weekend, we decided to go to a cinema near Chinatown, so we snapped off a few pics on the way, enjoy.Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-55674783945115722362008-11-19T18:47:00.000-08:002008-11-19T21:08:09.129-08:00Sunshine Coast Cycle TourWe've survived our first overnight cycle tour together! Up the Sunshine Coast to Sechelt and back. We had been trying to do this trip for a few months, but had ironically been put off by weekend after weekend of bad weather. The weather in and around Vancouver has gone decidedly downhill since we arrived, and now it's pretty much, without any exageration, constantly cloudy. The forecast for Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-33622267208970188142008-11-01T11:29:00.000-07:002008-11-03T20:54:25.724-08:00Ice hockey and Poop CakesSo we had our first taste of real, all Canadian culture on Wednesday night when we attended our first ice hockey game. Ice hockey is Canada's official sport and despite that only 4 of 20 something NHL (National Hockey League) teams are Canadian, there are more Canadians playing in the league than Americans.On Wednesday it was the Vancouver Giants vs the Tri City Americans (who ever they are?) - Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-7945023565341461802008-10-13T11:14:00.000-07:002008-10-13T12:31:05.779-07:00Bears, Backflips & SnowSo it's thanksgiving weekend over here this weekend!!! Love 3 day weekends. We went up to Whistler for the Saturday and Sunday. Being the shoulder season hotels are quite cheap, so we got a 5 star one for $99. It's sooo good being able to ride all day, then ride the 1 block from the chairlift to your hotel and then get in the hot tub!One of the highlights would have been coming across 3 bears on Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-38732743757152390912008-10-13T11:10:00.001-07:002008-10-13T11:14:50.591-07:00We went to see Cats the other night at the 'Centre' - here's a few quick pics...A rather poor photo of Vancouver city taken from the ferry on the way home...Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-14967460961663906402008-09-28T20:06:00.001-07:002008-09-28T20:56:38.553-07:00Sandcastles and SewageOk, so on the weekend we went to Harrison Hot Springs which had on a/the (?) world tournament of sandcastles, which was particularly impressive, even from behind the fence (being too cheap to pay the entry fee!).We also checked out the very cute township of Deep Cove, hiked up to Indian Arm lookout, and tried the famous Honey's Donuts (yes, a whole another category of donuty goodness - so much Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-81471622762100059142008-09-24T18:26:00.000-07:002008-09-24T21:28:52.601-07:00A few quick picsSo some of you know I have been working at Kona HQ here in Canada, here are a few quick pics I snapped off on my way out today...The outside of our building.... very styley...The life support machineBikes galore!A stack of DeeMax rims....A very pimp 36lb Stab... (dhx air5, xtr 165mm cranks, tubeless wheels, boxxer world cup forks, chromag bars, xtr brakes, carbon floating brake rod - for those ofLancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-34178631574478550772008-09-22T14:48:00.000-07:002008-09-22T15:43:06.022-07:00Settling in...Hey guys!Just a quick update...we're starting to get settled in now, we've both got jobs (very helpful!). Lance is working for Kona doing something at a desk (I don't think he even really knows what exactly), which isn't as important as that he gets a bike and free passes for Whistler mountain bike park, which at $40 a day, has also made us some friends! double yay!I'm temping at the Nurses Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07051994254557203249noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-68783791108999982902008-09-16T20:22:00.001-07:002008-09-16T21:40:51.248-07:00The First UpdateOk, so for those of you who have beeen emailing us asking for an update, well, here we go... we've been here 3 weeks more or less, so I'll try and cover as much of it as I can without boring you too much!First off, the day before we flew out, I got sick, I was in bed the night before shivering away, sweating profusely, all very pleasant stuff. It was looking like it was going to be a fun flight! Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6023657889884106979.post-2717193944705635682008-09-16T18:57:00.000-07:002008-09-16T18:59:18.807-07:00The First PostSo, after quite a kafuffle, we finally have our internet working wirelessly, which is great, becuase it means I can sit at the table and write our blog, as oppose to on the floor beside the modem. The problem with that is that you get pins and needles in your legs after about 10 minutes, which, while being kinda fun, can also be a little annoying. Anyway, wireless is good. Here we go.Lancehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01674018457978294748noreply@blogger.com0