[Kate] Extremes On Our Trip

As we're nearing the end of our big trip, we have time reflect on everywhere we've been.  And boy is it a list!  Twenty seven countries (counting America)!  So I'm taking the time (as I sit on a balcony in Italy) to list out three polar opposites that have been squished into these six months of traveling.

Coldest vs Hottest

These were pretty easy to find, as they were generally accompanied by a feeling of great discomfort.  Taking the crown at Coldest is ...

Day 9 of Trekking (Kala Pattar).  It was freezing that day.  It was when we reached our highest day elevation wise, and was therefore very cold.  It didn't help that we woke up at four thirty, when the sun had not yet started to rise.  For an account of that day, click here.

This is us trekking in the early morning of the coldest day of our trip.

The hottest day was ...

Abu Simbel Sightseeing (Egypt).  The ruins at Abu Simbel were gorgeous, one of the best ruins we've seen on this entire trip.  But it sure was sweltering, and there was only a little shade.  Even for Egypt, were it was boiling on a daily basis, it was hot that day.  For an account of our time at Abu Simbel, click here.

This is the outside of the Abu Simbel ruins
(the ancient temple continues into the cliff).

Furthest North vs Furthest South

The place when went that is the furthest to the North is ...

Bergen (Norway).   We stayed for two nights in Bergen, which is a fairly small town in Norway.  Since it was so far north, it stayed light almost the night long, kind of creating, as Grace called it (our family photographer and videographer) "eternal golden hour".

A panoramic view of Bergen from above, taken from a viewing platform above the town.

The place furthest to the South that traveled was ...

Milford Sound (New Zealand).  We took a plane ride in a small plane from Queenstown (our first stop on the entire trip) to Milford Sound.  This was one of the great days of the trip.  For an account of that day, click here.

This is a collage of pictures of Milford Sound, courteous of Grace.

Biggest Cities vs Smallest Towns

For the purposes of these rankings, I'm not including all the towns we visited on our Nepal trek, because they're often more like a cluster of buildings than a real town.  I am counting the larger ones, however.  The biggest city we went to was ...

Cairo (Egypt).  The weird things about Cairo is that it didn't feel that big.  But it has a population of about 19.5 million people, which makes it the largest city that we spend time in on this trip.

This is Cairo.

The smallest town was ...

Namche Bazar (Nepal).  While this is a place we visited during our Nepal trek, it was big enough that we deemed it was technically a town.  We spent three nights here (two nights heading up, and one on the way down).  For an account of our journey to Namche Bazar, click here. 

A view of Namche Bazar.

We've gone a lot of places on this trip, and gone a lot of places that I said "yeah, right" about when first hearing about it (case in point: Everest Base Camp).  Even though we've about to head home, we still have four more days of travel.  Who knows what we'll do next?