The four corners of the globe

Because I am a little bit of a freak and I like to look at these kind of things, I have decided to make a post about it. Of what do I speak, you ask? What were the furthest points of our journey to the North, South, East, and West, in our 27 country tour.

Our furthest point West was in our home country and first stop, Vancouver, with a western geographical co-ordinates of 123° 6′ 0″. With both of our family now represented in Vancouver it has been and will be a "go to" destination. A home away from home if you will.

Canada Place, Vancouver

Our furthest point East was located in the exotic and aptly named "Far East". Tokyo has co-ordinates of 139° 42′ 54" East. One of our top picks to get back to one day, Tokyo was everything we look for in a urban destination. Of all the places we visited it was the only one I recall that Corina instantly decided that she could live. A very attractive idea admittedly, as Tokyo was in the top five for the both of us.

Tokyo's Shinjuku district.

Our Northern-most point was another of our top picks and one of the prettiest cities we saw, in my humble opinion. I speak of the so called "Athens of the North", Edinburgh, with co-ordinates of 55° 56′ 58″ North. Considering their passion for stuffed potatoes who could not fall for this northern beauty. Both regal and warm, Edinburgh was another top fiver for us.

Edinburgh's royal mile.

Our Southern-most point was Santiago with co-ordinates at 33° 27′ 0″ South. Due to some travel fatigue and some home-sickness it was the least explored of our four corners. Santiago was charming, set snug in a valley in the midst of the high Andies. Given half a chance Santiago was arguably one of the niceset, safest of our South American cities (earthquakes not withstanding).

Santiago from atop Cerro San Cristobal

I can't post this without a shout-out to Winnipeg our starting point, our center to these four corners and our home. It is located at 49° 54′ 0″ N, 97° 8′ 0″ W. One great city, a former slogan for our home town, now "The Heart of the Continent" and it holds a special place in ours. I suppose home will always hold that place in most peoples' heart no matter where they call it.

Sign welcoming you to Winnipeg.

Thanks all for indulging my need to quantify and correlate this trip of ours. It helps me keep it straight in my head.

Jason.

THE NUMB3RS

We aren't quite done with this blog as we haven't even finished our accounts of South and North America. However, we are home and I have been going through things like: Where we went. I also noted other things that I like to keep track of. I am a little bit of a freak that way I'll admit. I'll start with the obvious: How many countries and cities we managed to visit. Now in order for me to count a country/city the consensus seems to be to count it if you slept there. Also, I debated whether or not I should count all of the countries we stayed in while in the U.K. as separate entities or just as one country. Well, if you ask any Scotsman they will give you your answer. All in all we visited 26 different countries, 27 if you include Canada, and 65 different cities and towns with populations as diverse as Tokyo's 32.45 million to towns like Trinidade and Anafi that I estimate to have a population of 200 to 400. Here is a break down of where we went, in the order we went there:

I) Canada -Vancouver (1)

II) U.S.A. -New York City (2)

New York's Guggenheim Museum

III) England -London (3)

-York (4)

IV) Scotland -Edinburgh (5)

V) N. Ireland -Belfast (6)

VI) Ireland -Drougheda (7)

-Dublin (8)

VII) Germany -Berlin (9)

VIII) Netherlands -Amsterdam (10)

IX) France -Paris (11)

-Bordeaux (12)

X) Spain -San Sebastian (13)

Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum near San Sebastian

-Barcelona (14)

XI) Italy -Rome (15)

-Naples (16)

XII) Croatia -Dubrovnik (17)

-Split (18)

-Plitvice (19)

-Trogier (20)

XIII) Switzerland -Geneva (21)

XIV) Hungary -Budapest (22)

XV) Greece -Athens (23)

-Delphi (24)

-Santorini (25)

-Anafi (26)

-Rhodes (27)

XVI) Turkey -Istanbul (28)

Istanbul's Blue Mosque

-Denizli (29)

-Izmur (30)

-Goreme (31)

XVII) U.A.E. -Dubai (32)

XVIII)China -Hong Kong (33)

IXX) Singapore -Singapore (34)

XX) Malaysia -Malaka (35)

-Pulau Penang (36)

XXI) Thailand -Bangkok (37)

-Koh Chang (38)

-Koh Maak (39)

-Chang Mai (40)

XXII) Cambodia -Siem Reap (41)

-Phnom Penh (42)

-Sihanoukville (43)

-Koh Russi (44)

-Kampot (45)

XXIII) Vietnam -Phu Quoc (46)

-Can Tho (47)

-Da Lat (48)

-Nha Trang (49)

-Ho Chi Minh Cit y (50)

XXIV) Japan -Tokyo (51)

-Shimizu (52)

XXV) Brazil -Sao Paulo (53)

-Rio de Janeiro (54)

-Trinidade (55)

Igreja de Santa Rita in Paraty, near Trinidade Brazil.

XXVI) Chile -Santiago (56)

XXVII)Peru -Lima (57)

-Paracas (58)

-Ica (59)

-Cuzco (60)

U.S.A. pt.2 -Los Angeles (61)

-San Francisco (62)

-Sonoma (63)

-Yosemite (64)

-Fargo (65)

As far as the usual "What was your favorite?" ...I don't think I can answer that. Far too many good times and very few disappointments. Honestly, disappointment is probably too harsh of a word... The overall feeling of "When's the next time we will be in 'X' " outweighed the

negative aspects. So suffice to say, nothing truly bad happened to us. I mean, sure, we got swindled in Istanbul and trying to get to Phu Quoc and I even had my wallet pick-pocketed in Cuzco. But we never felt like we were in danger.

We also added to my previous list of coveted UNESCO sights which I will recap... quickly. Once again, in order of appearance:

1) Statue of Liberty, New York City, U.S.A.

2) Tower of London, London, England

3) Old and New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland

4) Giants Causeway, Belfast, N. Ireland

5) Bend in the Boyne, Drougheda, Ireland

Passage tomb at the Bend in the Boyne

6) Palaces of Potsdam, Berlin, Germany

7) Rietveld-Schroder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands

8) Left and Right Banks of the Seine River, Paris, France

9) Palaces of Fontainebleau, Paris, France

10) Jurisdiction of St. Emilion, France

11) Works of Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain

12) Vatican City, Vatican City

13) Rome's Historic City Center, Italy

14) Naples' Historic City Center, Italy

15) Pompeii's Archeological Areas, Italy

16) Dubrovnik's Historical City Center, Croatia

17) Diocletian Place, Split Croatia

18) Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

19) Trogir's Historic City Center, Croatia

20) The Banks of the Danube, Budapest, Hungary

21) Athens' Archeological Areas, Greece

22) Delphi's Archeological Areas, Greece

23) Rhodes' Medieval City, Greece

24) Istanbul's Historic Areas, Turkey

25) Pamukkale & Heropolis, Denizli, Turkey

26) Goreme National Park, Turkey

27) Malaka's Historic City Center, Malaysia

28) Ankor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

29) Lima's Historic City Center, Peru

30) The Nazca Lines, Nazca, Peru

Nazca lines "The Hummingbird"

31) Cuzco's Historic City Center, Peru

32) The Lost City of Machu Pichhu, Peru

33) Yosemite National Park, U.S.A.

That's 27 countries and 33 UNESCO world heritage sights for an average of 1.222 sights per country in, as the song states, 525,600 minutes... Well, quite a bit fewer than that, closer to a paltry 432,000... as we had to cut our trip short 93,600 minutes or 2 months.

We will be back with more posts, I promise. And funner ones too!

Jason