Location at 6.17 this morning.

Once again, there wasn’t much of a sunrise, but here’s the panorama.

I had a tour booked and meeting at 8 am, but got there are 7.30 which was good timing. The Excursions lass had one of the crew, who was taking the same tour, take me out through the passport control, security etc. to the bus. Which was great as it took a lot of walking and time. It turned out that he was from Costa Rica, been with Royal Caribbean for 21 years and he’s the casino manager. Nice lad!

Our guide said that photography was allowed outside buildings, but never inside. The first stop was the Tochi-ji Temple with the largest wooden statue of the seated Buddha in Japan. There was a pitch black tunnel under the statue that we had to traverse. Not really sure of the significance, but it really was impossible to see anything, torches not allowed. I did like the gardens outside, with the very old bonsai trees and an amazing collection of cycads.

From there we went to the Sumiyoshi Shrine. Funny thing here was that it had no photography signs in front of most of the structures, but it had 2 smart phone stations. Presumably to get the photo at the right angle, no idea!

The next stop was to a shopping centre, of course, what’s an excursion without shops, lol. Anyway the guide also gave each of us 1200 yen for lunch, saying we should really try the Raumen. Always game, that’s what I headed for. The shopping centre was enormous and the 5th floor was devoted to raumen restaurants.

The one I picked was just at the top of the escalator and luckily the young lass at the front spoke good English. I had to order it all on a large display screen out front, select what I wanted and then pay, all on the one device. She advised the 1200 yen raumen. There are lots and lots of variations both of the broth and the contents. I had mine with green onion, wood mushroom, pork and standard noodles (there were 5 variations of noodles too!). It was very, very yummy!

Sort of thought I had got myself lost getting back to the meeting point, 5 floors and a road walkover away. However, I actually was in the right spot, very much to my astonishment!

Back at the ship had a bit of a rest as had done lots of walking again and was very stiff. However, I had been looking at the ship guide for the day and decided that I would actually attend a show. It was a combination of music, singing, dancing, acrobatics and digital images. Entitled the Silk Road it celebrated the cultures encountered along the route. It did have a technical hiccup half way though but they did fix it and the show went on!

In this last pne you can see the robotic arms that have screen attached, which create a different dimension to the images as wel.

It’s very windy and rather rocky out there tonight, and it’s late now, so hopefully will sleep well. South Korea tomorrow. Just as well I didn’t have my heart set on the English guided tour, it was cancelled.

My location at 6 am (5 am at home!) and a vague sunrise!

It’s long time to 9 am and the pool opening when you wake at 5. Anyway, the jigsaw grew and the book read and the games played, lol. Discovered that’s it’s a bit more difficult exercising in a water depth of 0.82 metres when used to 1.2-1.5. I walked around and around for 5 minutes, then leg/hip exercises for another 5, then repeated going around the other way. Did that twice more, so passed my 45 minutes or so and was hardly wet to the waist!!! Mind you it did get a little deeper when the ship rolled with the swell, but as it had an overflow at the end, it didn’t last very long. Await a photo on another day!

Back to my room for a shower and then had to wait an hour until the Windjammer opened for lunch as the later pool meant I couldn’t get there before the breakfast closure! It was koala or bear day, not sure which!

As they say Necessity is the mother of invention. The desk was too low to do jigsaw and the cabinet just a bit too high, so opened up a drawer which was the right size for my board. Mind you the shoulders did feel it after a while. Couldn’t go down to the next drawer as my knees were in the way!! lol.

It was warm out, 27 C, but very gray!

I do much prefer the artwork on this ship to the last one. They are actually proper visual pictures, not abstracts at all. This hanging art work is between the elevator foyers. They are definitely not as quick at arriving as on Voyager!

Have a tour of a Temple & a Shrine in Fukuoka, Japan tomorrow. This is the substitute stop for Seoul.

Had a lovely breakfast at 7 am. Skipped all the western type food and had all sorts of other interesting stuff. The juices were interesting, I had red cabbage and apple! Then headed back to my room and packed! There were 4 of us doing the tour of the Peace Hotel. First off had to climb a mountain of stairs to get to the Museum. The hotel was built in 1929, then the Cathay Hotel, by Sir Victor Sassoon and was a very important landmark. They’ve had lots of famous people staying there, like Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Muhammad Ali and several US presidents. The Hotel itself is built in a V shape with a flattened end and the original room keys were also the same shape.

It was the first hotel in China to have air conditioning and they still have the original encasements lining one of the corridors. They are still blowing out cold air! The spirals on the light fittings are representative of the single curl the women used to wear on the side of their faces.

This is the dome above the Peace Dove. At the base line they have greyhounds which was Victor’s favourite dog. I must admit I hadn’t noticed them as dogs until pointed out, and there are greyhounds scattered throughout.

Here are the flowers cirling the dove. Also the bromeliads & antheriums just outside the door!

It took 45 minutes to get to the cruise terminal. Had a couple of kittens along the way, especially when someone stopped in front of us on the freeway because he was in the wrong lane and was waiting for a break in the traffic to get across! So many high rise apartments, amazing stuff.

Anyway, I must have then walked a kilometer! Dropped the case off and then had to make my way to the check-in bit at the other end of the terminal. Through all that stuff and then had a 220 metre walk to the departure lounge, which took us along the back of the baggage collection area! There were children everywhere and such a noise!

Someone then took pity on me, just as well as my hip was not pleasant, and found a wheelchair from the ship. Through security and passport control and then more corridors and ramps. Once we got on the ship they took our passports away and I had to have a photocopy of it, which is used by Japanese customs. It comes back after that as South Korea only want the original! Next stop was getting signed in to the emergency evacuation station and then finally my room.

Not much of a view as Shanghai was on the other side of the ship, but the water traffic was amazing, so much of it. A continuous flow of of every shape, size and description. Some of them I had no hope of working out what their purpose was. I did do a panorama though!

But I had been left some goodies again!

I went up the deck 14 (there are 16) and inspected the Solarium pool. Well, it doesn’t open until 9 am and it’s only 2-3 feet deep, so I might just have to spend my hour walking around in it. However, it is enclosed, so will be warm even if the outside isn’t but I don’t think there’s much likelihood of that. I do have to tackle some steps to get down to the pool, but the lifeguard pointed out a chair that can be used to get people in and out of the pool. I don’t like that idea at all, so not for me, LOL.

Here’s the view as well. If you look really hard you can see the needle tower that was outside my hotel! It’s on the right of the round pole near to the window frame.

After I’d finished unpacking, I found the Crown & Anchor members room and spent an hour or so in the quiet reading. Then as it was almost sailing time I went back to my room for a munzee thing and then on to the Windjammer for dinner. Talk about noisy! Also quite a variety of foods, noticed lots of sweet things, but didn’t have any. Grabbed my bowl of fruit salad to bring back but strangely it all still has the rind/peel still on it all.

Clocks forward an hour tonight and a day at sea.

Well, all I can say is “my stars”, lol. I got down the hotel steps and was hit by the noise of hundreds and hundreds of people outside! They were wandering back and forth, presumably all having been to the Bund, the walkway along the river, or returning from it. Lots and lots of tour groups, mostly for Chinese visitors, but some I think were German. In the hour I was out I only heard one person speaking English! Photos later as I can’t get a connection to my iCloud to download them. Also it’s time for breakfast. Not a usual meal for me nowadays, but it comes with the room, so going to make the most of it, lol.

Ok, back to yesterday’s photos: This huge glass sculpture is in the centre of the Hotel. I did notice when out yesterday that lots of people were taking photos of the Hotel. There is a tour of it at 9 am today, so going to join it and find out why it’s so famous.

The river is just on the other side of that green embankment.

I’m sure this has been in a jigsaw or two that we have done!

Really hard to get a photo without a person, lol. The street is lined with these planters, which looks great. I sort of think they are sweet potato plants on either end!

That’s my hotel on the other side of the crosswalk. There is a policeman on either side in the middle of the road! Don’t think that’s a good place to be!!! Anyway, the crosswalk has lights that flash red or green depending on whether pedestrians are stop or go! Mind you it’s a large crosswalk. But it needs to be with the numbers crossing it! On the way back a young Chinese woman stopped me, telling me I was cute! She wanted a selfie with me, LOL.

I had dinner at a restaurant accessible from the Hotel. Out of 10 main dishes only 2 had no chili, lol. So I opted for the wunton soup. I don’t usually photgraph my food, but here it is!

I’ll add the rest of today when I’m settled on the ship. xo

Coming into Shanghai, it was a bit of a rough landing, but otherwise a reasonable flight. Had fingerprints taken at the entry point. Eventually my suitcase appeared and the lad who pushed the wheelchair got me out to the taxi stand. Then the fun really began lol. He had no English and of course no Chinese in me. He had an app that translated, so we had a fine time with that. He said that the meter would charge me too much, so he turned it off. He didn’t take credit card so just as well I had some US dollars left over from my last trip. It was a 45 km drive from the airport to the Hotel and so many highrise apartments. He said there were 40 million people in Shanghai!

Rather fancy hotel room though, and fresh fruit was delivered as well!

Not sure what I’m doing a bit later, will take a walk if it’s stopped raining!

Just a quick note as I’m on my phone not my laptop which is much easier lol.
Had a wait in Perth, but that went ok. Found myself sitting next to a man from Hyden whilst waiting, very chatty, lol.
The flight from Perth was in a rather cold plane! Managed a couple of hours sleep. Am now sitting in Hong Kong, about to board!

Well I have finished off with a bit of a difference. I caught the hop on hop off bus and toured the city sights. I did get off when we got to the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden. They do package deals so I bought a ticket to both the attractions. The Space Needle has an entrance time as they have to count numbers on the 2 elevators that go up to the top.

Anyway, I wandered around the Chihuly exhibits first. Amazing what someone can do with melted sand!!! The glass sculptures are different shapes and colours. Also amazing was that the sun was out when in the garden, so an extra added bonus as it was supposed to be raining again.

I got to the Space Needle half an hour early, but it didn’t matter as the queue was so long it took over half an hour to get to the elevator. Quick trip up to the Observation deck and then a walk all around the outside. Down one floor to the rotating glass floor. It used to be a restaurant but was renovated not too long ago to be another observation deck (with a bar in it of course!) If you look closely at the photo taken through the floor you can see the yellow/green, purple and blue glass sculptures that I’ve included in the ground level photos above.

Just one more night in Seattle, then the long trip home. 3 planes and 4 airports! I will get home eventually, lol.

Final location map: docked 6 am

Well, talk about a madhouse! All those people looking for cases and rides away from the port! I got away from it all about 9.15. Caught a taxi to the hotel and arranged for the driver to take me to the airport on Sunday. As I was early and they had a room available I had early check in so that was good. However, not much of a view. Except the big grey building is the Seattle Public Library.

I did attempt to go out for a walk, but it was raining and the cold wind so strong it turned my umbrella inside out, so I went back to my room. Dry & warm.

I’ve booked a trip on a hop on hop off bus tomorrow. Hopefully the weather won’t be quite so awful even though the forecast is more rain!!!

Location maps: 20.00 last night, 2.40 & 10.40 am, 15.00

Well last full day on the ship, and as I have to be off at around 8.20 am, not much time on it tomorrow.

We obviously had a slow cruising morning as we didn’t dock until 2, with the gangway opening up at 3. I had a whale watching tour planned, so did the long pier walk to get to the meeting spot. One bright spark thought we would be catching a bus to the water. Not sure what he thought Voyager had been sailing on, lol. Our boat was around the corner! As the weather wasn’t very nice, all grey and windy, I didn’t think we would see much and we didn’t. There was one humpback whale bobbing up and down occasionally and managed a tail shot!

By the time we got back it was decidedly raining!!!

Had a late dinner and then packed as the main suitcase has to be out by 10 pm. Hopefully it will be in the right spot to collect in the morning and then on to the Seattle hotel I have for a couple of nights.

Location map 4.40 am

I worked out why the afternoon excursions as I’ve another one in Victoria. It’s because the ship doesn’t get into port until the afternoon! Just took a little while for the penny to drop, lol.

Quite a miserable day, the fog horn was going for most of the morning. Then rain this afternoon/evening.

My air conditioner has been running on cold! The mechanic came in this afternoon and it was 18 degrees even though the thermostat was on high heat. He fiddled with something and now it’s much warmer in here.

Earlier in the week I got another thank you from the cruise line. It’s a very heavy glass ornament.

It was also monkey day today!

And… there was a sunset last night, I managed to catch this bit of.