Washington D.C.

Saturday 12th of February we got in the car for a 4 hour drive to Washington D.C. It was great ! All the shots from the movies, tv, etc. to see it ourselves. Washinton is a beautiful city. Set up really wide with lots of parks, water, beautiful buildings, great places to eat. Of course it´s not as bustling as New York or San Francisco, but way more classy then Los Angeles.

We went for a great lunch at the riverfront on the side of the collegetown Georgetown. Really hip and great food. You understand, we had to be there!

Afterwards we went for a stroll through lovely chique Georgetown. After that we went to see the White House. I never knew the White House was really in the hart of Washington! We went to see the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War monument. By now it was already late, so we went to the hotel and went out for really great sushi and Cosmic bowling night afterwards! How American can you get?

By the way, the US is horrible for people like Suzan, who have an allergy for cowmilk products. Really everything is with cheese, cream or milk. Even all bread has milk in it, so we almost were forced to eat Asian or Libanese (which we had the evening before in Raleigh). Such as hard life!

Sunday we went for Washington part II. Beautiful Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial and Capitol Hill. We also wanted to see the house of Jefferson, which was a one hour detour on the road back to Raleigh. So we left DC after seeing Capitol Hill. A pitty, but now we have a good reason to come back. There´s still enough to see in Washington.

We were just in time for the last tour of the Jefferson House after quick drive thru ´lunch´ at McDonalds. Horrible! Now I know why I never go to McDonalds (any more; yes I went there too when I was young and foolish.....). The drive there was beautiful, through wonderful rural picture perfect Orange County. Jefferson was a real gadget guy. Double doors which close both when you close only one (around 1800). Wine elevators to bring up wine from the cellar to the dining room. Turning walls to get food into the dining room, without having loads of personell coming in the room, a copying machine which automatically made a copy of a letter while writing the original, etc.

Beautiful located on a hill, with magnificent views.

It was a long ride back to Raleigh. The alarm was set at 4 a.m. to be able to be at the airport at 5 a.m. for our flight to Miami at 7 a.m. We left Miami at noon for our 8 hour flight to Buenos Aires. ETA 21:50 hours local time.

We really like to thank Linda and Yung for taking such good care of us and get all the best possible out of our short stay in the US. Thanks again guys, it was wonderful !

USA

So finally our first destination !!

We arrived without any problems at Raleigh-Durham yesterday and were picked up by Linda and her husband Yung. They brought us to their very nice apartment in Knightdale, near Raleigh. After a lot of talking and catching up we went to bed earlier (around 9 p.m.) cause around that time we were awake for around 24 hours !!

After a relaxed breakfast we went to see downtown Raleigh. Raleigh and North Carolina have a rich history (did not know that!!) and we wandered through the history museum for a while. But also the historic buildings were great so see. A lot of the big houses are too expensive to maintain, so a lot of them are rundown and/or deserted, which is a pitty! The space everywhere is really unusual for us. What a scale! (Along the lines of: would you like to super size that?) It's also nice to see a part of the US that's not a touristy place or a big city. Raleigh is really quiet.

And also not bad at all: It's beautiful wheather here! Around 10 C but blue skies and sun, so great for exploring! The morning before we landed it was snowing and freezing, so we are lucky.

Tomorrow we are going to Washington DC for the weekend! And the weather will be even better :)

It's really great to start off this relaxed and with everything taken care of.

Thank you Linda and Yung!

Bye for now, J & S

Let's go!!

Pfff what a load of work these last few days to really be prepared to live out of a single backpack for 6 months.

We just had a wonderful dinner with family at our house and just arrived a the super trendy Citizen M at Schiphol Airport. The hotel is so much cooler than we are right now ;)

It's really weird to start off your trip in a hotel, but really relaxed. No more stress !! Just our minds on the trip.

Its' way past our bedtime, cause our alarm will ring in about 6 hours, so nighty-night, sleep tight and... well you know!

We are really looking forward to what's coming and can't wait to go!

J & S

11 days to go and counting!

Dear all,

Only 11 days before we go!

Taking care of all last preparations: meeting friends, family , shopping, packingour stuff, rounding off at work, etc.

We are looking forward to what's coming!

Cheers, Joost & Suzan

Happy New Year

Dear all,

Just a short message to try out this blog

We aremaking our final preparations, and realize we only have5 weeks until our plane heads for London Heathrow and afterwards to Raleigh, Durham, USA.
Exciting times!

Happy new year to all :)

Love,

Joost and Suzan