Williams on Route 66 came as a nice surprise, we expected another hot little desert town like Needles along Route 66, the legendary road winding its old fashioned way across America. But it is high land here and cool under the pines trees. Instead of another motel, we are staying in a cottage, with a playground, a few train carriages and a BBQ from which we saw a lunear eclipse last evening. It is a place that is filling us with happiness, the one you get when everything is falling into place. There are minute hummingbirds flying around here and you can sometime here the train wistle away...The mainstreet has cowboy shops and quaint places where to enjoy huge milkshakes...

Now here is a quiz for you:

What famous American landmark has been called, in the 19th century "a absolute waste, to remains forever unvisited and unloved"?

What is the only American Structure visible from space that has been carved by a single river over 6 million year?

What is one vertical mile deep and getting deeper by the thickness of a page of paper every year?

Yes It is the Grand Canyon, which we had the immense priviledge to visit today.

As you drive towards it, there is not much to see beside a long plain, a few trees and lots of cars and RV. A short walk under the sun and suddently it is there, a massive gaping space so so deep so so wide, it swallows you up, zaps your imagination, take over your being just for an instant and then stays in your mind probably for the rest of your life. Nobody talks around here, everybody is silenced by this carved immensity, this "divine abyss". And then there are so many ways to enjoys this place. You can fly over it in a helicopter, walk all the way down or ride on a horse back (it takes 5 years to train a horse to handle the treacherous and step ground). You can go up and down the mighty Colorado River for 270 km by boat of by canoe (Maxim and Callum's dream). You can ride a bicycle along its rim for days (one for Paul) What I would like to do most of all would be to skydive over it...But that was not on offer.

We opted for a bus ride all along the southern rim, going from desert heated breathtaking walks to comfortable airconditioned views, until it was time to go back for yet another barbeque in the sun set, watching the kids running around the trains carriage.