The World By Road - Around the World Travel Expedition » New Photos http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress The World by Road - Around the World Expedition Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:26:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en © steve@theworldbyroad.com () steve@theworldbyroad.com() 1440 The World by Road - Around the World Expedition steve@theworldbyroad.com No no http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg The World By Road - Around the World Travel Expedition http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress 144 144 New Photos - Narvik New Years http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/07/03/new-photos-narvik-new-years http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/07/03/new-photos-narvik-new-years#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:04:22 +0000 Steven Shoppman http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/07/03/new-photos-narvik-new-years There is a small town in Norway not far from the Swedish border called Narvik.  The town is full of history, setting the stage for numerous WWII battles and attracts many tourists each year because of this. Its natural beauty is unreal as well, with huge peaks jetting straight out of the fjords and surrounding the town.  We spent New Years here and although at first it seemed like a quiet little town with nothing to do, suddenly around midnight thousands of locals poured into the streets setting off the finest run of amateur fireworks I have every seen.  We were told that this would be the last year for the fireworks as it was going to be outlawed because to many people had been getting hurt over the years.  It seems that the rest of the world is getting law crazy just like the United States, although I have a feeling that the locals may not adhere to this law all too well.

There is no doubt that we were ducking in fear as rogue bottle rockets and airborne spinners whizzed by our noggins, but this excitement is something that should be preserved instead of legislated against.  I guess it is just becoming the way of the world to make a law instead of learning some tolerance for one day each year.  Lawmaking aside, this is a hot spot for New Years.  Where the Narvikians lack in population, they certainly make up for in zest.  This New Years will certainly be one that I will never forget.

The day after new years we actually missed a turn on the way out of town and ended up at the Viking Hotel in Bjerkvik, a small town in the same area.  Here we met the owner of the hotel and a few of his friends.  They told us of the plans to remodel the hotel and put a huge Nazi Junker 52 airplane from WWII on the roof of the building that was recovered from the bottom of the bay.  Mark and I had a chance to go with the guys to see the plane in the process of restoring it that evening.  The two days around New Years could not have worked out better for us.  Check out the photos below.

Flickr Gallery

Link to TWBR Gallery page

Looking over the town of Narvik at about 1pmThe view of the Fjord from just outside of town around the 3pm sunsetThe colors change very drastically in the arctic sky as the sun sets.Giant peaks surround the town and drop directly into the seaMountains are in clear view on all sides of town.Just as midnight comes, the entire town convenes to set off fireworks in the center.Just outside the only bar/club open for new years we had an amazing fireworks show put on solely by local amateursThe locals were setting serious airborne fireworks off just feet away from the balcony we were on. Many times we had to duck toJust before the light goes away, this is what it looks like.The big guy on the right is Jan Leifrantzen, he owns the hotel in Bjervik where we stayed the day after new years.Mark and I spent many hours talking with Jan and his friendsThe view from inside the recovered Junker 52 from WWIIThis plane was used in battle nearly 70 years prior and we were at the controlsThe plane had bullet holes and real damge from the battle in Narvik.The plane is slowly being rebuilt to be displayed on top of Jan's hotel.What an amazing way to spend new years day looking at this plane.Giant corrugated peices of metal make up the wingsWe got a tour and explaination of the plane from Tore and Dan.It needs a lot of work, but someday we will be back to see the finished product.

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]]> http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/07/03/new-photos-narvik-new-years/feed 68.436415 17.397905 New Photos - The Mauritanian Sahara http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/27/new-photos-the-mauritanian-sahara http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/27/new-photos-the-mauritanian-sahara#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:18:17 +0000 Steven Shoppman http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/27/new-photos-the-mauritanian-sahara Months ago many of you watched the video that we put together about our time in the Sahara in the Banc d’Arguin National Park.  Here are the photos.

Photos On Flickr

See the video

The first big dune we had to cross got us stuck a good five times.The Tundra has so much weight that it gets stuck much more often.Miles and miles of sand and no roads gets a little uneasy at timesGPS is pretty acurate, but without a good map of GPS coordinates it can get tricky.More kilometers than not we made our own tracks.The Mauritanian desert is no easy task to navigate.Sometimes you have to stop the trucks and hike ahead to make sure that the sand does not get too deep.Deep ruts slow the trucks down in the Sahara desert.We had the entire costline to ourselves for miles.So Bouey practiced his arabic a little bit.Mautitania was french occupied, so who would we be to not collect some fresh escargot?Nothing like living large in the middle of nowhere.As the sun goes down you begin to realized why you spent all day eating sand.Words cannot explain the beauty of a sunset that you have worked so hard for that day.As the sun goes down farther and farther, the light just got more amazingLeaving our beautiful beach campsite was no easy task with sandy hills and cliffs surrounding us.Setting up for some action shots.Taking a break from driving.The huge, wide-open basins are great for speed testing:)Civilization at last! ??The high tides make fields of shells in the middle of the desert.Bouey is taking a rest from some hard runs dune surfing.Dunes as far as the eye can see.Brook...making some fresh tracksSteve checks out his line.He goes for the leapAnd botches the landing, with a nice mouthful of sand as a present from the desert.And the hike back up.At night these little guys would crawl under your tent for warmth and make a really creepy noise.After you get the car unstuck, it cannot stop for danger of getting stuck again, so the diggers have to walk.A little free souvenir, some sand.Every once in a while there is a lone rouge tree that says,

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]]> http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/27/new-photos-the-mauritanian-sahara/feed 20.8908 -17.0571 New Photos - The Ice Hotel http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/24/new-photos-the-ice-hotel http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/24/new-photos-the-ice-hotel#comments Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:47:36 +0000 Steven Shoppman http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/24/new-photos-the-ice-hotel A trip to the North of Scandinavia is not complete without a trip to the Ice Hotel.  Although expensive to stay, a walk around the village is free and a tour is not too expensive either.  It is an amazing and truly unusual place.  With hundreds of sculptures and a giant hotel that can house hundreds of visitors each night…a truly impressive feat that is built over and over again each winter.

Artists from all over the world come each year to show off their skills by creating individual themes for each room.  The process of building the hotel takes months and has become a mecca for tourists around the world.  So enjoy the photos although 6 months overdue:)

www.icehotel.com

Flickr Gallery

Just in case you forgot.Also, just in case, they have some of this here.Sculptures are everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of them.Three long hallways lead you to the sculpted rooms.Elegant but a little coldThe ice sculptures have to do something to keep warm out there.There are so many rooms you can hardly see them all in one day.How do you think they get the lights in there?It is hard to imagine how they even do this.The hotel was still being built when we were there in December.It is a place like no other on earthArtists come from all over the world to carve here and bring styles from their homelandsSome rooms are even two stories tall, completely ice!Anything you can imagine is made of ice hereEvery night, each of these rooms are booked.The ice is this blue, no effectsAnd MoreIce WindowIce leavesWavy IceKiwi IceSome rooms take months to build and are gone each year.More Kiwi IceIce ShroomsIce DragonIced TWBRIce Bar EntryIce BarThe Original IceBarNo Drinks for Bouey at $30 eachIce AbsolutIce MarkMidday in the Polar Night - This is the brightest it gets.Outside of the IceBarThe Ice hotel has a side business of selling high quality ice to clientele around the world.From Snowmobiling to Dogsledding, there is tons to do here, but it is not cheap!

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]]> http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/24/new-photos-the-ice-hotel/feed 67.855737 20.225231 New Photos: From Denmark to the Ice Hotel http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/17/new-photos-from-denmark-to-the-ice-hotel http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/17/new-photos-from-denmark-to-the-ice-hotel#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:40:28 +0000 Steven Shoppman http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/17/new-photos-from-denmark-to-the-ice-hotel Of the many options with the expensive prices of gas in Europe, we opted for the route towards North Cape starting on a ferry from Germany to Denmark, followed by a series of bridges to get to Sweden.  The dash up to the Ice Hotel led us across the Arctic Circle and introduced all of us to the eerie feeling of Polar Night, the time of year when the sun never makes it above the horizon when you are so far North.  The light and the feeling you get up here is nothing like I have ever experienced before.  The twilight and color of the sky give you energy and make you depressed at the same time.

It seems like a dark and lonely trip, but even up until now, it is one of my favorite points on the whole expedition, this trip North.  So enjoy the photos.

We spent Christmas in Germany with this little christmas tree as part of a sim card promotion in Bulgaria.So just after Christmas we were on our way to Denmark and about to get on a Ferry.The time we waited for the ferry to Denmark was a good time to clean out the trucks and the tree had to say goodbye.The Rostock ferry harbor.Mark is relaxing on our short ferry ride.A few effects later and it looks like a ship from the olden days.I just looks way cooler in B&W.The center of the boat was a lively lounge full of people rushing in and out of the duty free store to get cheap booze.Bouey took a little time for time and distance calculations.Of course we are always filming.These are the stairs in the center of the lobby.Even the ferry had Christmas decor.The food area of the boat was off the hook. Strange because the ferry was so short with many other options on both sides for beIf everyone rushes to the center, many will be together?Gambling on international waters, how James Bond.If you walk on the toilet seat you may end up floating in the bowl?The Euros do it right, dogs could just run free on the ferry.TWBR crossed the Arctic Circle on its way to North Cape, the Northern most point in Europe.As we traveled North, the light got shorter and shorter.After this moment at the arctic circle, we did not see real daylight for nearly ten days.So we stopped about a kilometer from the actual circle, but we just could not be sure and the 3 hours of light that day were almThe light up there is unreal, never gets to more than a twighlight.

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]]> http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/17/new-photos-from-denmark-to-the-ice-hotel/feed 54.090133 12.132956 Munich, Just plain good. http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/14/munich http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/14/munich#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:49:02 +0000 Steven Shoppman http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/14/munich Some people in Bavaria consider themselves Bavarians, not Germans. Many of the Germans we met outside of Bavaria, could not stand the place. TWBR on the other hand could not get enough. Bavaria is a place that for all practical purposes is a separate country from Germany. The beer halls and beer gardens are full of silly music, guys in Lederhosen doing silly dances with silly hats, and beer chugging masses. The locals talk about beer like the French talk about wine. In fact we all went to a beer drinking course two times while in the region that would rival any wine tasting in Bordeaux (maybe because you are encouraged to drink the whole beer instead of just a sip like with wine).

No one takes things too seriously in Bavaria. It is a land where beer flows like water, people are focused on a good time, and the citizens hold on to their culture stronger than many places we have been in the world. I will continue to be confused for the rest of my life why anyone would not love it here, but I guess it just takes a good sense of humor to enjoy all that Munich and the area have to offer. Like most places we visited in Germany, this is on the must return to list. So for all of you too hot to trot fancy pantsies, I will be happy to enjoy a glass of wine with you and talk about the wonders of aging expensive cheeses, but your cries about the unruliness of the Bavarians will fall on deaf ears…I love those guys.

The Bavarian countryside...just lovely.Honestly I do not remember why or where we took this photo of a photo in Bavaria, but it's cool.For us sometimes finding either one of these brings the same level of excitement.One of countless fine beer drinking establishments in Munich.Here in Bavaria this is pretty much the way you look the whole time.Thomas, the man who runs the Easy Palace Hostel was generous enough to give us a couple of free nights lodging and one all you cThe usual group photo. One word of advice, go to the Easy Palace some day in your life.Jagermeister, the favorite of the BavariansDigital cameras are fascinating while drinking fine German beer.Okay so we have 2 Togrogs, 1 Euro, 1 Pound and a Franc, what will that get us?The streets of MunichMore. More More.Ummmmmm.Can anyone tell me what this is used for.Steve was a little traumatized after he visited the local Bavarian

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]]> http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/14/munich/feed 48.136416 11.577526 Hilpolstein Photos http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/13/hilpolstein-photos http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/13/hilpolstein-photos#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:56:03 +0000 Steven Shoppman http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/13/hilpolstein-photos In the south of Germany, in Bavaria, there is an enchanting little town called Hilpolstein. Steve Bouey made some friends there a few years back while doing a triathlon called the Quell Challenge. When he left there they invited him back and demanded that Hilpolstein be placed on the route of The World by Road.

Luggi, Diana, and Felix’s demand’s were met and we could not have had a better time here. It was hands down one of the highlights of the expedition. I have a feeling that all of us will visit this town and our new found friends (or old friends) many more times in our life. In fact, Bouey has even talked about moving here, to be quite honest he was actually tearing up when we left:)!

We had a chance to speak to the students at Felix’s school, we were in the newspaper, and Luggi even took us up in the fireman’s ladder at the Firehaus where he is a volunteer. By the time we left, after being in the newspaper and a few late nights at the local pub, we knew a lot of the people in the town and they were standing in the streets waving and smiling as we left for our journey south to Switzerland.

TWBR hearts Hilpolstein, thanks so much Luggi, Diana and Felix.

This castle is in the center of the small town giving it a nice old European feel.This is the view from the hill of the castle to the quaint little town that was our home forWomen with kids and bikes only.We went and spoke to the students at the local schoolThe kids eyes lit up when they knew they would get out of class to look at the trucksWe had to do the usual group photo.The local Toyota dealer was happy to have a look at the infamous new Tundra.More group photos, we had a lot of friends in Hilpolstein by the time we were done.German is just cool...its an Autohaus silly, not a dealership.We could not leave Germany without getting a proper German engineered rotation and balance for the Autobahn.It just feels good to know you are in the hands of the people that invented modern highways.The seal of the Hilpolstein Fire DepartmentLuggi gave us a demo of the trucks.What a nice set of German fir fighting tools.More German Firefighting toolsIt's the Feuerwehr, it saves lifes, it's German, nuff said.German firefighting suits, strangly simliar to American firefighting suits, only German.They still keep a sweet antique truck on the grounds.Diana, Luggi, Felix, our favorite family of the expedition.Mark is such a poser...ahhh watch me I am pretending to be a fireman!Luggi then took us up in the ladder...everyone has got to do this once...incredible!This is the view from the top of the ladder, are you afraid of heights?We had to pose with them and put on some fire suits, we just had to.This is true German style, a fire house for a town of about 5,000 with more than one truck per 1,000 people.

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]]> http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/13/hilpolstein-photos/feed 49.188548 11.191839 Berlin Photos http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/12/berlin-photos http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/12/berlin-photos#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:26:05 +0000 Steven Shoppman http://theworldbyroad.com/wordpress/2008/06/12/berlin-photos It has taken forever to get more photos up and we all apologize. We have also been far behind on the blogs…and we apologize. We are also behind schedule…and we apologize. We are also extremely low on funds, and until we are able to raise enough money for South America, we will fall further behind, but you all can help with that a few different ways by clicking here.

Africa has been tough as you all well know from reading the blogs, but we made it through and, at least for me, it was a truly amazing experience. I am in the states now and have been working vigorously to get caught up on photos, video and more. While the guys have been having the crazy adventures, I have had to play office boy for a little while trying to organize shipping of the trucks and scrape together the funds we need to continue on.

But going through the photos and getting them online is a rejuvenating experience down memory lane. Europe was an incredible experience and that is where we left off in catching up with photos. So here is album number one on the catch up…BERLIN! It is a wonderful city and worth a visit in anyone’s lifetime.

After WWII the city was divded, half Russian, half American. The Russians did things a little different wtih barbed wire and coBerlin's rebellious past shows through with the many artists and art galleries around the city.Communism turned capitalism at the gift shop with peices of the wall for sale.Even the hostels in Berlin are super funky.I don't think we were supposed to take photos of the photos, but ignorance is bliss.It is hard to imagine what it was like to see the other side through the cracks, knowing you will never get there.More Wall ArtMuch of the wall is still intact near the hostel we stayed at.Now just for show, the checkpoint still exists with guards dressed in historic uniforms.Now more of a tourist trap, checkpoint Charlie was the original border checkpoint between West and East Berlin.Photos show scenes of guards and others helping people to eascpe from East Berlin.Pieces of the wall are on display all over the city with beautiful works of art.Pieces of the wall are on display all over the city with beautiful works of art.