2015 - some of the highlights

Continents: 5 - Australia - Asia - Europe - Africa - North America - Oceania

Number of Countries - The Route: 36 (27 individual countries)

Australia - Indonesia - Malaysia - Vietnam - Thailand - India - Thailand - Switzerland - England - Wales - England - Spain - Ireland - England - France - Germany - Austria - Czech Republic - Poland - Slovakia - Hungary - Croatia - Bosnia - Croatia - Italy - France - Andorra - Spain - Portugal - Antigua - St Thomas - St Kitts - St Maarten - USA - Australia

Outdoor Activity: Tree Tops, Bali, Indonesia

Celebration: KL, Malaysia (Chinese New Year)

Beaches: Langkawi, Malaysia   and   Clearwater, Florida, USA

Cultural experience: Vietnam

Locals: Thailand

Surprises: Thailand

Traditional: Thailand (Songkran Water Festival)

Tiring and lucky: Near miss with Kathmandu Earthquake, Bangkok Airport

Fun: England

Entertaining: Take That, Manchester, England

Formal: England

Llachar: Wales

Craic: Ireland

Relaxing: Spain

More Tradition: England

Very Hot: Paris

Awesome Countryside: Austria

Incredible: Roth Ironman, Germany

Super Fast: Autobahn, Germany

Historic: Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic

Reflective: Poland

Funny: Anna arguing with the SatNav in the car, Slovakia

Before the argument

Discovering: Tatra Mountains, Slovakia

Achieving: Home schooling whilst travelling, everywhere

Outrageous: Sviget Festival and Robbie Williams, Budapest, Hungary 

Romantic: Brac Island, Croatia

Cities: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Stressful: Driving in Naples, Italy

Leaning: Italy

Amazing: Monaco Boat Show, France

Cute: Belgium Griffon, Jack Russell and Long Haired Mini Daschund

Andorra

Ireland

London

Mountainous Views: Andorra

Theme Parks: Portaventura, Spain 

Driving: Almeria - Barcelona (7 hours)

Emotional: Barcelona, leaving Europe

                         

Value: Barcelona to Canaveral cruise

                           

Enduring Delight:  Orlando theme parks, Florida, USA

Cold: Snow Summit Ski Resort, California, USA

The Incredibles: California, USA

The Cost: $134,812 AUD ($98,000 USD or GBP 65,000)

Travel Costs (Flights, Car Hire, Tolls, Fuel, Atlantic Cruise, Ferries) - $42,374 AUD
Accommodation Costs (Hotel, AirBnB) - $29,224 AUD
Other Costs (General Living - food, clothes, theme parks etc) - $63,214 AUD

Number of nights away from home: 365
Number of nights - paid accommodation: 245
Number of nights staying at family and friends: 120
Number of flights: 21
Number of car hires: 14 (includes 4 month Europe car lease, and 1 month Indonesia rent)

Number of visits to this travel blog: 206,747 (at 1/1/2016)

The End

USA West Coast, 12th Dec - 16th Jan

Our 50th and last blog of the trip - from California, Nevada, Arizona .... and Hawaii!

This leg of the trip started with Uncle Ian, Aunty Sam, Callum and Chloe in Upland California. It was just over 3 years since we were last there - and was certainly different this time as we were visiting in the Winter! It was great to spend 3 weeks with them including Christmas and New Year.

With Ian, Sam, Callum and Chloe...

Christmas and around Upland

Ian and Sam's house

Early on Christmas Day!

Zac and Izzy

Gingerbread house making

Gingerbread house making

Radio controlled cars!

Ian's first sub (Mum and Dad have

dived in this exact sub!)

New Year's Day Superhero party - we went as 'The Incredibles'

3 days of costume making!

We picked a car up from Ontario airport on the 3rd January, ready for a road-trip to Arizona!

On the way, we stopped at Las Vegas and stayed at the Paris Hotel. When we were in Paris, France - we never did go up the Eiffel tower as the queues were too long and it was very hot; so we opted to go up the 50/50 scaled version in Las Vegas which provided stunning views of the Las Vegas strip.

We had a day exploring some of the sights including the Bellagio hotel and fountains, tram to Excalibur, walk up to Mandalay Bay via New York, and then back to Paris. Mum and Dad went out in the evening to the Duelling piano bar, and Dad played 'Your Song'.

Las Vegas

We stayed in Paris

In front of Bellagio

The Famous Bellagio Fountains

Crazy hairdo!

The Strip - from top of
the Eiffel Tower

Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon

From Las Vegas, we headed to the Grand Canyon via the Hoover Dam. It started to feel very Christmassy again as the snow fell everywhere. Dad got up to see the Grand Canyon for sunrise and when he got back he told us that not only had Grue stolen the moon, he had now stolen the Grand Canyon as it had gone. We all put on our ski gear and went to the viewing platform and it was true - you couldn't see anything as it was a whiteout. We had a huge snowball fight before bundling back into the car and heading to Sedona.

At the Hoover Dam with Strawberry

Take That !!

This is where Grandad and
Carolyn stayed a few months ago

Panorama ... garden and room

We never really saw the canyon due to snow and fog. Apparently this is what was in the fog:

After the Grand Canyon we headed to Sedona. It was snowing most of the way and the roads into Sedona from the North were closed so we had to head further South and then back up into Sedona. As we weren't able to see the Grand Canyon, Dad had bought us a DVD showing the history of the Grand Canyon for us to watch in the car! (yawn)

The scenery on the drive up to Sedona was amazing as all the rocks are a deep red colour, and ascend like huge pillars into the sky! The whole town had a relaxed feel about it and during our day there, we visited an Arts and Craft Centre, and explored around the town.

At Cathedral in the Rock

After a couple of nights in Sedona, we headed to Phoenix to stay with our friends the 
Lockharts. We met the Lockharts on the boat from Barcelona to Florida, had toured Disney with them - and now were going to stay with them!.  We stayed for 6 nights and we all had a great time.

With Zac's M & D - Sandy and John

The Apple Store!

Mum had her hair done

Family fun

From Phoenix, we flew to Hawaii where we were staying for 2 nights. - basically a transit stop on our way home. We had a full day on the beach and celebrated our whole trip with dinner at a restaurant (Hula Grill, Outrigger resort) on Waikiki beach; Dad had prepared a poster for each of us that had photos of us in each country we had been to together with a map of the route we took - a great momento of our year away.

Ellas

Amys

Annas

Mum and Dads

Route

The day had finally arrived - home time!