The Sun and Moon Tour
The Plan The Sun The Moon Route Map FAQ Hubcat Home
The Plan
The Sun and Moon Tour is the name of Jeff and Adrienne's plan to travel from May, 2004 to June or July, 2005. It's been dubbed the "Sun and Moon" tour based on the rough outline of our expected journey. The "Sun" was so named since we intend to go "around" Europe. Ok, it probably won't be a perfect circle, but then again, neither is the sun. The name actually came from the second half of the trip. (There's a break in the middle around the holidays so we can catch up with our friends and family.) The (rough) plan for the second part is to start in New Zealand (around January, 2005), make our way up through Australia, Indonesia, the Malaysian peninsula, China and eventually ending in Japan. The path definitely has a curve to it, and it came to us that it looked a lot like a waning crescent moon.We have our airline tickets! (Having plane tickets makes it feel much more "real"!) The "Sun" portion of the tour will kick off on May 19, 2004. We're flying into Dublin, Ireland. We're going to bicycle first to Kildare and then head south to Wexford. We'll be biking from Wexford to Killarney via the Ring of Kerry or the Dingle Pennisula. We're estimating about 3 weeks total in Ireland. In mid June we'll head over to Glastonbury, England (in the Southwest of Britain in the county of Somerset) where we've booked an awesome "self-catering" flat (i.e. vacation rental apartment). The Cordis Mundi website has some pictures of our summer home. We'll be keeping our bicycles in Glastonbury as our main form of transportation. While there, we'll have some fun at the Glastonbury Festival, the Goddess Conference, and really, who can miss the Crop Circle Symposium!
Around September we'll head out to France and then travel the rest of the Sun route. We'll be ending in Rome and flying from Rome back to New York on December 14th to visit Adrienne's side of the family. We'll be back in LA on December 28th. It's a bit too early for decisions on when to leave for New Zealand and start off the Moon side, but it will most likely be mid-January.
In addition to traveling for a year, we thought we might not want to come back and jump back into working. So the plan includes 15 months off from work (assuming we keep to budget). We'll travel until about June or July, 2005 and then take the rest of the summer off at home to gather our thoughts and photos, relax, and reacquaint ourselves with our cats.
We don't intend to book everything in advance. We want to have plenty of leeway to enjoy each place as we come to it. We are picking some highlights, though, in terms of places or events that we don't want to miss. We've also been drawing up general routes as a guide.
The Sun
The Sun version 1.1 had to be scrapped when we realized that the route we chose would give us about 3 days per country! Version 1.2 looked a bit better but has also been fine tuned to the current version 1.3 below. The Hungary to Austria portion is probably still too tightly packed, but we're leaving it in the plan for now and will update it on the road. Most likely we'll have to cut one of the places out all together. One of our highlight points for the Sun is spending Halloween in Transylvania! Getting to Romania by the end of October is driving many of the other dates and how long we spend in certain areas. Here's the Sun to as much detail as we will probably plan before leaving:
| Ireland | 3 weeks, May-early June |
| England / UK | 2.5 months, mid June-August |
| France | ~3 weeks |
| Belgium | couple days |
| Germany | 1 week |
| Poland | ~1 week |
| Latvia | few days |
| Russia | ~1 week |
| Ukraine | few days |
| Moldavia | couple days |
| Romania | ~1 week |
| Hungary | few days |
| Slovakia | few days |
| Czech Republic | few days |
| Austria | few days |
| Italy | 2-3 weeks |
The Moon
There are very few details on the moon side yet. Realistically, the Moon doesn't even start until January 2005, so we have quite a bit of time for planning. We have just decided to add Mongolia to the moon list if possible, although it makes the route look less moon-like. J
The Route in Maps
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| Click on the maps to see larger versions. This is the Sun portion (with a Star in Britain). We will be flying into Dublin and out of Rome. | Here is the Moon portion. This is a very rough estimate, and the exact countries we will be visiting is not yet certain. We're pretty sure that we're going to start in New Zealand and end in Japan. |
FAQ
Here are answers to some of the questions we've been getting a lot in person when we tell friends and family about our trip.Can I come with you? Can you stow me away in your luggage?
- No.
- Yes, I will complete my graduate Certificate in Environmental Studies this May before leaving. I'm still considering going on for an additional degree when we get back, but that's not decided for certain yet.
- Jeff is quitting his job outright, and will look for a new one when we get home. He has a lot of computer skills, and it really shouldn't be a problem for him to find work. Adrienne has been granted a 1 year leave of absence. Her company will also allow for an extension of up to 1 additional year with management approval. She's very highly regarded, and reintegrating back into the company should not be a problem. That is, assuming she wants to.
- (Ok, maybe no one has really asked me this, but I'm so excited about it, I'm adding here to once again bask in my own happiness.) Friday, May 14, 2004.
- The cats are staying in our current house. Our friends Jason and Angela will be renting / house sitting the Hubcat Mansion while we were gone.
- See answer to "cats" question above.
- Jeff's Accord will be put in storage at his mom's house in Corona. Adrienne's Insight (having way too many batteries to safely store for a year) will be sold before we leave.
- Only those who don't know Adrienne very well ask this question. Adrienne is a fanatic about money and, other than home mortgages, doesn't believe in debt or paying interest. So saving for this trip was not a problem. Of course, we are being very tight with money at the moment, foregoing a lot of our more expensive habits (like short vacations and weekend getaways) and even cutting back on relatively inexpensive things like going to the movies. All of the money for this trip will be saved in advance. So, unless we go way off budget, we should not only come home debt free, but still have the money we've been saving to buy / build a new house.
- Ah, the current administration has been working hard to make friends around the world, hasn't it! There are some places that we believe are simply not dangerous (France) despite Bush's insults and congress' need to rename certain foods. However, as unfortunate as it is, there are currently places in the world whose risks have increased for American travelers due to recent events. If we left today, no we would not go to Indonesia, though it is right on our preferred route. We will gauge the state of the world before we leave and use some discretion. If there is an administration change in 2004, the world-wide political situation and anti-American sentiment may improve by 2005. We can only hope. ...and vote ...and contribute time and money ...and work to make it happen.
