COUNTRIES WE VISITED

AUSTRALIA                                    Sydney Melbourne Adelaide Fremantle

MAURITIUS                                     Port Louis

SOUTH AFRICA                              Durban Port Elizabeth Cape Town

NAMIBIA                                          Walvis Bay

CANARY ISLES (SPAIN)               Gran Canaria

MADEIRA (PORTUGAL)               Funchal

ENGLAND                                       Southampton Cambridge Oxford York Liverpool Isle of Man              
                                                           Bath Guernsey Herm Dover

FRANCE                                           Saint Malo Dinan Rennes Paris Thollon-les-Memises Yvoire
                                                           Mont Saint Michel

GERMANY                                      Frankfurt Regensburg Berlin

AUSTRIA                                         Mayrhofen St Anton Vienna

SWITZERLAND                              Lausanne

ITALY                                               Milan LaSpezia Pisa Genoa Barga Lucca Florence Rome
                                                           Venice

SLOVENIA                                       Ljubljana

CROATIA                                         Zagreb

SERBIA                                             Belgrade Novi Sad Kralevo Sremski Karlovci

HUNGARY                                       Budapest

BULGARIA                                      Sofia

TURKEY                                           Istanbul Ankara Cappodocia Pamukkale Izmir Ephesus
                                                            Canakkale Troy Gallipoli

ROMANIA                                        Bucharest

SLOVAKIA                                      Bratislava

CZECH REPUBLIC                         Prague

CANADA                                          Halifax Quebec Montreal Toronto Winnipeg Edmonton Jasper
                                                            Lake Louise Banff Kamloops Vancouver Victoria

U.S.A.                                                 Juneau Skagway Ketchikan Seattle Honolulu

WESTERN SAMOA                         Pago Pago

FIJI                                                      Suva Lautoka

VANUATU                                        Mystery Island

NEW CALEDONIA                          Lifo Kuto Noumea

We visited 27 countries and 86 cities.

                                                          

DAY 208 MONDAY 0CTOBER 19 - HOME

We both woke up at 4am and looked through the portholes to see lights on land.  Then we dressed and went to the Promenade Deck, where we could see the light from Barrenjoey Lighthouse.  Box Head had been showing on the edge of the Navigation TV Channel but it was too dark to see Killcare.  We watched the lights of Collaroy, Dee Why and Manly before entering the heads and seeing South Head Lighthouse at 5:30am.  Our Canadian friend Gail came on deck as the Pilots climbed on board and we pointed out places to her before she gave us a goodbye hug.

We passed the fast Manly Ferry and then the big one as we  moved slowly towards the harbour bridge.

As the ship came into the Overseas Passenger Terminal we received a phone call from Evelyn who told us she was waiting at Circular Quay to meet us, which was a lovely surprise.  She found her way into the terminal and waved to us as we waited to get the all clear.  At 7:30 we carried our luggage down the gangway and through Border Control and Customs, where we declared wooden souvenirs with no problem.

Our luggage was getting heavier with souvenirs bought in ports since Vancouver, so it was great to have assistance from Evelyn to catch the train to Central and then Woy Woy with no waiting time and be delivered home by 10am.

We saw the remains of the tree that was blown over in the front yard and had been tidied up by Dave and friends.  The house was in good order and we quickly unpacked and set about sorting mail and eating the food Evelyn left for us.  We called in at Telstra Woy Woy, where we bought a dongle for temporary internet and ordered ADSL ready for the NBN in February.  We went to the Dory newly renovated house for a beaut BBQ dinner and a happy time with the family.

Good to be home and sleeping in the right bed.

Next day we walked to Bullimah Spur Lookout, stopping at Marie Byles Lookout on the way to reassure ourselves we lived in the best of all possible spots.

DAY 207 SUNDAY OCTOBER 18 - LAST DAY AT SEA

We went to church at 9am and thought of the Marsden Road people worshipping, as we were now in NSW time zone.  The hymns were accompanied by two ukeleles and sung at half speed so we are looking forward to some happy singing next Sunday.

Sandra Millikin gave her last lecture, which was "Strange Buildings in Australia".  She showed some of the "big" things used to attract customers: banana, pineapple etc..  Malcolm attended the Navigation talk given by the third officer.  He explained why big ships have a "bow bulb" just under the water to break through the waves and allow fuel savings of up to 12% when travelling at cruising speeds.  He also explained that the unannounced  fire drill yesterday was sprung on the crew without warning in order to ensure they would respond as if it was a real fire.  Only the captain and a few inspectors knew it was a drill.

Lyn went to a demonstration of how to make towelling animals.

  Later we both went to the astronomer's talk on stars of the Southern Hemisphere and how stars were used by early navigators. We also listened to Kelly's talk on Australian animals. 

The weather was sunny and warm today and the sea was remarkably smooth.  We packed our bags ready for a disembarkation at 7:15am tomorrow.

We gave a little souvenir to our dinner companions and waiters and to our housekeeper, Dedi.

DAY 206 SATURDAY OCTOBER 17 - SEA DAY

There are two sea days left so our speakers are back.  

Sandra Millikin spoke on Mutiny on the Bounty and the astronomer talked about black holes and the end of our solar system when our sun becomes a red giant then a white giant.  He finished by advising us not to feel small in comparison to the universe because there is only one of us as far as we know.  We are individuals.

In the afternoon we went to Kelly's talk on what to do in Sydney.  It sounds like a wonderful city to visit.

We went to the "Australian tea" at 3pm for a one off and ate lemon meringue tarts and minipavlovas.  They had plenty of lamingtons there.

It was the last Gala Night for dinner with our four friends so we can pack our fancy clothes away.  Our junior waiter Agus was missing and Gede told us he had received news today that his mother died and he was planning to return home from Sydney.

The 9pm show was the Volendam singers and dancers performing "Classique", which included occasional pieces of real music. 

DAY 205 FRIDAY OCTOBER 16 - NOUMEA

Noumea is our last port before Sydney and it is taking us a long time to pass through the Pacific Islands.  The wharf is right in the centre of town and we were told that other ships have had to dock at the container wharf some distance away.

The cafe on the wharf advertised free Wifi and for the price of AUD10 Malcolm bought a fresh orange juice and spent an hour on emails, Facebook and blog.  We were one of the first off the ship so we beat the Wifi rush this time.

We browsed the arts and craft stalls on the wharf and made some interesting purchases.  We walked past the central park and up the hill to the Church of the Protestant Community.  It was closed and looked neglected..

The Catholic Church of St Francis Xavier was grand and well maintained.

A bride and groom were posing inside the church.  It looked like a commercial shoot.

The statue in the grounds was of Joan of Arc. Was she female or male?

The weather was cloudy and mild so we enjoyed strolling past the shops back to the ship at 11:30.

At 4pm we watched the ship leave the port while chatting with Canadian Gail.  Only 63 hours and no time changes to Sydney from here.

Wayne and Linda sat with the smokers tonight so we had dinner with Joanne and Pauline.

The concert tonight was a second helping of Heart of Spades and Ketei told us he was getting married next week but William told us Ketei had actually not yet proposed.  After the marriage would be just as good apparently.

We also had a second helping of Neil Lockwood who was more entertaining as himself.  He talked about his encounters with the Beatles and had us do the lalas for Hey Jude.

DAY 204 THURSDAY OCTOBER 15 - ILE DES PINS, KUTO, NEW CALEDONIA

Another tender trip was required today.  We left the ship at 9:45am and the weather was wet and cold on the island, so we only stayed half an hour.  We were greeted by a small group of islanders performing a welcome dance.

It was a very small community and we just walked around the stalls and a boutique.  The beach was very nice with fine sand but it was not looking inviting as everything was grey.

 In the afternoon the sun came out and the little islands around looked beautiful.

At 1pm we went to the cinema to watch "I'll see you in my dreams", which was about a retired woman who played bridge with friends in the retirement village.

We watched a magician perform all the usual card and mind reading tricks in the Show Room at 8pm.

DAY 203 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14 - EASO, LIFOU, NEW CALEDONIA

For a second time we anchored about 500 meters from shore and climbed onto the tender to get to a small pier.  There was a moderate swell and the trip was rough but the swell was behind us so not too bad.  We were amazed how many people who were struggling to walk on the ship managed to get on and off the boat.  There were more souvenir stalls and a nice grassy camping area fronting the beach next to the pier.

There was a carved pole at the end of the pier.

We walked up to the small Catholic church up on the hill on a headland where we got a nice view, but it started to rain and people were taking shelter.  It only had one pew that would seat 6 people.  There were four bibles open, one in French and three in English.

We walked in the other direction to reach the second church.  It was much larger and was dedicated to St Francis Xavier.  It had beautiful stained glass windows and paintings around the walls for stations of the cross.  It was built by the French in 1858 and seemed as though it was visited by Pope John Paul.  We went inside a traditional hut.

There was intermittent rain and while we were queuing for the tender a storm blew in and wet us.  The trip back saw us next to an open door and waves splashed us a couple of times.

The artist tonight was Neil Lockwood who sang in ELO 2 and he did a tribute to Elton John.  He put a lot of energy into it but we both fell asleep for the middle part as we did not know all the songs.

DAY 202 TUESDAY OCTOBER 13 - MYSTERY ISLAND, VANUATU

Another day ashore.  This time we dropped anchors and used the Rescue Boats as tenders to get to the small pier.  

Mystery Island is quite small and has no inhabitants.  There is another large island just across the way and people have set up stalls to use when a cruise ship comes in, so there was a lot of locals there, including a high school group on an excursion.

 It takes 45 minutes to walk around the whole island, which has a continuous sandy beach and coral reefs suitable for snorkelling.  In WW2 the Americans built an airstrip and it is still in use. (When Queen Elisabeth II was coming to Australia from Fiji on Britannia in 1974, she had a picnic on this island and made it famous).

Passengers were issued with tickets as a means of queueing for the tenders.  Each boat was to hold 90 people and five boats tripped back and forth to get people ashore.

We boarded at 10:30am and started walking along the beach.  Malcolm was walking along a rocky part of the shore and did not notice he had stepped on a wet section.  It was like grease and he fell sideways scratching his arm as he tried to break his fall and banging his left hip on the rocks.  He will have a bit of a limp for a day or two.

Half way around we came to the end of the airstrip, so decided to walk its length.  As we got nearly to the end a yellow air taxi came in to land.  We browsed the stalls which had quite a lot for sale and Lyn bought a necklace.

They priced everything in Australian dollars.  Local men were taking people out onto the lagoon in a dugout outrigger sailing boat.

We got back on the tender at 12: 30 and had a quiet afternoon of scrabble, sudoku and reading.

The 8pm concert was given by Colleen Williamson, an excellent American soprano, who sang songs from the musicals of the 50s and 60s, as well as "O mio babbino caro".

Only six more sleeps.

DAY 201 MONDAY OCTOBER 12 - SEA DAY

GREAT NEWS!

We found out today that Levi Malcolm Hobbs had been born safely and well on Saturday.  We are isolated because of expensive and poor Wifi on the ship.

We attended talks on Captain Cook and the next four ports we stop at.  Lyn caught up on the washing and we went to the 10pm concert where "Heart of Spades" entertained.

DAY 200 SUNDAY OCTOBER 11 - LAUTOKA

A short overnight cruise to Lautoka.  The port was a long way from town but there were stalls set up on the wharf, so we browsed through  them and bought a picture for the Fiji room at home.

Back on the ship we watched a film about a dumb professor of poetry at Cambridge University.  After dinner we went to the concert by the Volendam singers and dancers.  As usual the costumes and dancers were excellent but the singers were amplified too much and became distorted.

DAY 199 SATURDAY OCTOBER 10 - SUVA

As the ship docked in Suva the Police Band greeted us with lively music.  Two fearsome warriors said "Bula" to us as we came down the gangway.  We passed many stalls, walked around the town, skirted the food markets and went into a few shops but bought nothing.  Many of the shops and the Post Office were closed as it was Fiji's National Day.

Back on the ship we watched a movie called "Dove" about a 17 year old American boy who sailed around the world in a 23 foot boat.  When he got to Darwin they featured John Meillon as a builder who employed him as a labourer.  The film was more than 20 years old.

We did not depart until 6:30pm and there was no concert.

DAY 198B FRIDAY OCTOBER 9 - ANOTHER QUIET DAY AT SEA

Another quiet day at sea with moderate swell, fresh winds and a few flying fish scattering away from the ship.  A white bird with no webbing on his feet stowed away on the ship.  He remains unidentified after consulting the bird books in the library.

We had a talk on Suva and Lautoka at 9am and another talk from the astronomer at 10am.  He talked about Uranus, Neptune and the dwarf planets.  Then he went on to talk about habitable planets in our galaxy.  There are widely different estimates of how many of these exist; Carl Sagan once said a million but no one else agreed.  New ones are being found all the time and a "Kepler" telescope is about to be launched that will find more.

At 11am we played Scrabble in the Explorer's Lounge and read books the rest of the day.

The 8pm show was shared by Dave the violinist and Heather the singer who we had heard before.

DAY 198A THURSDAY OCTOBER 8 - LOST AT SEA

The ship has chosen today as the day we sacrifice to pay back the 24 hours we have been borrowing as we travelled clockwise around the world.  Having lost a Thursday, our astronomer suggested that traditionally all lost property ends up on the moon.

DAY 197 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 7 - ON SHORE AT PAGO PAGO

We had an early breakfast and watched the ship dock at the Container Wharf.  The island looked very pretty.

At 8:30 we walked down the main street along the waterfront and found markets and clothing shops.  Many items had no price so we assumed they would be cheaper tomorrow and we were not keen enough to bother bargaining, so bought very little.  

We found the National Park Office which was part of the US Parks Department.  The Parks here are unique, they said, in that they have been leased to the Federal Government for 50 years, so the local chiefs retain ownership.  That sounds like Uluru.  We were able to watch several good videos on Samoan Culture.

The first one showed the traditional dance called "Siva" which was always performed by the princess.

Another one showed in detail how the women made fine mats, by weaving fine strips of dried pandanus leaves into large ceremonial mats.  They decorated them with red feathers taken from the cardinal honeyeater bird (without killing it).  Now they dye chicken feathers to save disturbing the protected birds.

Another video showed how the men make a lure to catch an octopus.  The lure is based on a legend of how an octopus helped a rat to get to shore from an overturned canoe by carrying it on its head.  Since the rat pooped on the octopus's head along the way, all octopuses now chase a rat in the water.  The lure is thus in the shape of a rat.  We saw a young man catching the octopus by grabbing it out of the water and turning its head inside out with his teeth to stop it from sticking to his arm or back with its suckers.

Then we watched how tapa cloth is made from the bark of mulberry trees.  It involved stripping, scraping, beating, soaking, drying, stretching, patching and using moulded patterns to imprint designs.  They used these cloths for dressing and for ceremonies.  Like the mats, they take huge amounts of time (sometimes years) to make and are treasured.

We returned to the ship and at 3pm and had a talk from a local ranger about the Parks and the Culture.

The evening show was another great concert from the Alley Cats Doo Wop quartet.

DAY 196 TUESDAY OCTOBER 6 - ANOTHER SEA DAY

It is a lovely sea day today.  The water is a lot calmer and the temperature is mid twenties.  We saw a flying fish for the first time in a while. This is the last of our five sea days from Hawaii and from now on we have a maximum of two sea days between ports.

We attended the second talk on twentieth century architecture in which Sandra spoke at some length about the Sydney Opera House from an outsider's point of view.  Quite interesting buildings were shown.

Our other lecture was about Samoa and Pago Pago which we will visit tomorrow.

The sunset at dinner time was the best we have seen in a while.

The show tonight was a clever juggler who told a few jokes and interacted with the audience.  He gave us an interesting saying:

"A comedian tells funny jokes while a comic tells jokes funny".  

His name was Benji Hill.

DAY 195 MONDAY OCTOBER 5 - ROCKING AND ROLLING ACROSS THE EQUATOR

We crossed the equator during the night while the seas were still rough.  On the TV news we heard that a freighter had been missing in the Caribbean since Thursday in the hurricane area.  A life raft was found and it was deflated and had "human remains" in it.   No signals have been received since the first distress one.  It sounds like a tragedy.

At 10am King Neptune and his Queen initiated the "pollywogs" among the crew and officers who have not crossed the equator before.  We did not watch but we believe it involved a lot of meringue.

At 11am we heard a talk by Sandra Millikin on architecture in the first half of the twentieth century, with a lot of pictures of buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright shown.  It was readily understood by us lay people.

At 1pm Malcolm attended a slide show and talk about the Engine Room on the ship given by the Safety and Environment Officer.  

At 2pm Lyn learned how to make cold fruit soup.  Yummy.  Malcolm went to a talk on Mars.

The seas are not as rough and the wind is dying.

At 8pm the song and dance troop put on another spectacular called "That's Dance".  The costumes are amazing.

We listened to Adagio for an hour then put our watches back an hour as we went to bed.

DAY 194 SUNDAY OCTOBER 4 - ROUGH SEAS

Until now we have had quiet seas on the Volendam, but we had storms overnight and the swell has been increasing and is now hitting the ship sideways, causing banging and making the ship roll in spite of the stabilisers.

We attended two presentations today.  The astronomer gave a talk on the solar system which included the latest about exploration voyages.  The moons of Jupiter and Saturn are of great interest to scientists.

The evening concert was an entertaining session by Heather Sullivan, a pianist and singer who was a fan of Carole King and proved herself to be just as talented.  She paid tribute to many artists but is particularly impressed by Alicia Keyes. 

Half way through the concert water started pouring down on the port side of the theatre and people near us had to move.  Heather had to regain people's attention before she could continue.  At the finish the crew came in with a big vacuum cleaner to sop up the water.  

DAY 193 SATURDAY OCTOBER 3 - SEA DAY 2

The astronomer on board gave a talk on the moon.  It was quite informative but he said nothing about the moon illusions and he could not explain why we get two high tides per day.

The 8pm show was a funny fiddler who made classical pieces fun to listen to.

We have a swell from the starboard side which crashes into the ship but the weather is warm yet comfortable as we approach the equator. 

DAY 192 FRIDAY OCTOBER 2 - QUIET DAY AT SEA

A day of reading, scrabble and Sudoku.  The Navigation Talk covered lifeboats and life rafts.  There are enough places in them for 50% more people than are on the ship, but 150 guests must fit into each boat and the officers and some crew use the rafts.

Wayne and Linda arranged for two former fellow travellers to sit at our table tonight: Joanne from Fort Lauderdale and Pauline from Chicago.  They brightened up the conversation.

At 8pm we heard a male quartet who sing "doo-wop" songs from the 1950s and 60s, such as Shboom and Little Darlin'.  They were called the Alley Cats and were excellent.  Their groups have visited thousands of high schools in US and created interest in singing among many students.  Another great night's entertainment,

DAY 191 THURSDAY OCTOBER 1 - HONOLULU 2

We bought tickets a few days ago for a three hour tour leading us on a climb up Diamond Head.  On the way in our small bus (20 guests), Justin, our guide, pointed out the spot at Waikiki where Gilligan and the Skipper set off on a three hour cruise.  He also told us about the Duke coming to Australia to teach board surfing as we passed his statue.

As we were about to start the climb several busloads of Asian tourists took off in front of us, so it was like climbing Mt Fuji; single file and only a few places to pause for information from our guide.  We started with a concrete path which turned into a rocky one and then we climbed 74 steps, proceeded through a 60 meter tunnel and climbed up some more steps to the top where we found a beautiful rainbow over the town.

We could see the lighthouse and along the coast.

The weather was good with a northwest wind and occasional light showers, so we did not get too hot and the guide supplied us all with a bottle of cold water.

On the way home we passed several historic buildings and a statue of a warrior god.

We were back on board at noon and shipped out at 6pm, ready for another five days at sea on the way to Pango Pango.  

The show tonight was another concert by the ship's singers and dancers.  The staging and costumes were very impressive.

DAY 190 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30 - HONOLULU

We woke at 6am and were able to check emails on the Kindle via Honolulu 3G.  The pilot came on board at 9:30 and people started going ashore at 11.  We wandered around the area near the docks and saw some of the older public buildings.  This was the view from the Aloha Tower.

It was built in 1926 and gave us a 360 degree view of the city.

We used the free Wifi at Starbucks to bring the blog up to date, read emails and check Facebook.  We would have paid $30 to do all that on the ship. We wandered around the town and joined many others in Walmart, which was simply Coles and K-Mart combined and not really very cheap.  Having only spent money in Starbucks for morning tea, we returned to the Volendam for a free afternoon tea.

After dinner we watched a show by a local group called Drums of Polynesia.  There was a dance troop of four girls and two men who did dances from various islands and a haka.  The star of the show was a boy of about seven who performed quite a lot of the pieces with them and on his own.

DAY 189 TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29 - DAY 5 AT SEA

This morning we saw more flying fish and did ten laps of the promenade deck.

The last lecture by Adrian Cooper was on coral reefs.

At 4pm we had a concert by the Hawaian people on board, which was terrific.  A man played the ukelele and steel guitar superbly and sang well also.

The show was Terry Davies who sang Billy Joel and Elton John, supported by his wife and son plus Katrina. They made us do the Gangnam dance and said it was going on Youtube.  We enjoyed it a lot.

Afterwards we watched the full moon across the waves.

DAY 188 MONDAY SEPTEMBER 28 - DAY 4 AT SEA

Today we saw our first flying fish from the Volendam.  We also saw a sparrow on the buffet deck and a duck (perhaps a goose) circling the ship.

At 1:30 pm Malcolm went to the navigational talk and learnt that a tonne of bunker oil will drive the Volendam about 5 nautical miles.  The second officer told us that we would not see the eclipse of the moon from our location tonight.

Dr Cooper gave a lecture on the development of ecosystems on islands.  This was followed by the memory lecturer who included some advice about diet today.  He recommends turmeric.

Then we listened to Bob Arno who has inside knowledge of European pickpockets and how they use credit cards to empty your bank account.

Only Linda turned up at dinner tonight as Wayne was ill and Gail had found a friend she wished to sit with. John seems to have written us off.

The show at 8pm was a guitarist, Fabio Rini, who played the Flight of the Bumble Bee in one minute twenty seconds. 

DAY 187 SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 27 - DAY 3 AT SEA

At 9am we attended the Protestant Sunday Service which was conducted by Alan, a United Church minister from New Hampshire.  The theatre was nearly full and they ran out of hymn books (Celebrate).  The Catholic priest attended and sat at the back near us.  Alan called for a volunteer to play the keyboard but no one offered so we sang two hymns unaccompanied.  He read from The Message version a diatribe by Jesus to the Scribes and Pharisees and challenged us not to be hypocrites. 

After the Service we went to the Showroom to hear Dr Cooper talk on life on the ocean floor and he showed us pictures of angler fish, dragon fish and many more.

At 1:30 Malcolm went to a half hour talk by the Second Officer on the ship's navigation and took away a detailed description of the dimensions and characteristics of the Volendam.   Meanwhile Lyn attended a floral art demonstration.

A lady gave us an illustrated talk on the history of surfing in Hawai'i.  It was a shame that the nineteenth century missionaries closed down the sport until the early twentieth.

At dinner we had a discussion on theology with John who belongs to the Gospel Hall denomination.  After he insisted that the King James Version of the Bible was the only reliable one, we could see not much point in proceeding.

After dinner the HAL singers and dancers performed DROOM.  We have no idea what the story was, but the staging and dancing were great.

DAY 186 SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 26 - DAY 2 AT SEA

At breakfast we met a couple who spent half their time in Tauranga, NZ, and the other half in Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast.

At lunch we saw a pod of dolphins chasing the ship.

We played Scrabble and attended a lecture by Robert McGugan on how to remember lists and what you came into a room to fetch or do.  Forgetting where keys and personal items are chew up large amounts of time in most older people's lives.

After dinner with Wayne and Linda, Lyn did the washing and we listened to Adagio Mark 2, again from Ukraine, but who were more intense and played fewer popular pieces than Mark 1.

We spent an interesting hour chatting with John who is a retired Mounted Policeman.

DAY 185 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25 - FIRST DAY ON PACIFIC OCEAN

Today is the first of five days at sea on our way to Hawaii.  We met Terry and Gail at breakfast.  Terry is a lecturer in theology (retired) and Gail is a linguist so we had plenty to talk about.  Malcolm is reading Hans Kung's "What I Believe" (it is only available in German in the ship's library) and Terry knew the history of how Kung was almost excommunicated for his views.

We played Scrabble.

Kelly and Maja spoke in the showroom about the Shore Excursions in Honolulu and Pago Pago and later on Kelly gave us her personal experience of Oahu.

We had the first lecture on Life Forms in the Ocean by Dr Adrian Cooper of London University.  

After dinner with Linda, Wayne and Gale (from California) we went out to see the sunset and the full moon. 

  More interesting were the school of tuna that followed the ship. 

The show tonight was an ABBA FAB group who sang well but were not quite as good as the Aussie group we saw at Taronga Zoo.  In real life the Agneta was the mother of the handsome young Bjorn!

DAY 184 THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 24 - SEATTLE

We left the ship at 8:30 and caught a courtesy bus into downtown Seattle where we walked along the Pike Place Market area on the waterfront.  The flowers were beautiful and plentiful and cheap.  The dahlias were amazing and so bright.

Lyn loved the chilli table decorations.

Starbucks let us catch up on computer work.

We called in at a model car shop.

DAY 183 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23 - VANCOUVER AGAIN

The Volendam docked at 7am and we picked up the keys for our new stateroom at 8am.  We serpentined out into Vancouver City and found free Wifi at Tim Horton's.  The Wifi on the ship is slow, expensive and we have no onboard credit so we will go ashore to put pictures on the blog if possible.  There is a constant stream of people in Tim Horton's, at least ten people queueing all the time.

Before returning to the ship we bought a ticket for an aeroplane ticket called Flight Over Canada.  This did not  spoil our plan to not fly on this trip, because we were just suspended inside a sphere while movies of Canada were played.  They tipped our seats and sprayed us with water at appropriate times and it felt like a magic carpet ride.

We passed through US Customs before 2pm and prepared ourselves for 25 days on the Pacific Ocean.  We are on the last stage of our seven month Odyssey.

We settled into our new room which has two small portholes with views and went to dinner at 5:30.

We have set seating and will be sitting with John from Prince Edward Island, who is a retired Mounted Policeman, and Linda and Wayne, who we met on our Alaskan cruise.  They are from Western Canada and will do the round trip back to Vancouver.

After dinner we went to the show of the night, which was a comedian and listened to Adagio duo again. 

DAY 182 TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 22 - WHALES

Another day at sea.  The afternoon was spent outside in the cold wind looking for whales.  A few spouts and and tails were seen, but they seemed to dive whenever the ship approached them.  A large colony of sea lions were lying on the rocks and in the water.

After dinner we watched the movie "A Royal Night Out", which was a lot of fun.  Afterwards we listened to Adagio duo again.  They play beautifully.

DAY 181 MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21 - KETCHIKAN

This is our last stop in Alaska and it is the biggest town in Alaska. 

  The ship docked about 9am and we went ashore at 9:30 and found more end-of-season specials on sale.  We had morning tea in a diner that was set in the 1950s and they even sold milkshakes.

Another cruise ship was next to ours, the Norwegian Jewel and it seemed to have mainly Americans.

The Lumberjack Show started at 1pm and lasted an hour.  The little lady overdid the commentary and tried to gee us up to pit the Canadian Team against the Americans.

  We were allotted the Dawson Creek pair.

They competed with a two man saw.

Their axemanship cutting through logs was not up to David Foster's standard.

They were good at throwing the axe at a target.

Our man won the pole climb and descent.

Their man won the log running.

In the evening we had Paul Pappas play the piano Liberace style, followed by a duo of Ukraine ladies called Adagio who played violin and piano.  Both performances were excellent and very much enjoyed.

DAY 180 SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20 - GLACIER BAY

There was no port of call today.  Instead we sailed into the awe-inspiring National Park area called Glacier Bay.

The ship picked up two National Park rangers and a Tlingil First Nation lady in the morning.  The rangers gave us information over the ship's P.A. system and we watched from the bow and the promenade deck.

We cruised very slowly to Marjorie Glacier and while we there two large pieces and one small piece fell into the sea with a crash.  We also heard a large crack.  This glacier is growing while most of the others are retreating.

The big ship turned around very slowly and we were able to cruise very close to three more glaciers.  We saw a brown animal in the water and assumed it was a sea otter.  There were also many sea lions.

The ranger gave a talk about the bay and explained what a wilderness is.  This place was wilder than anywhere we have ever been.  The Tlingil lady told us how she learned her traditional language on the internet and showed us a fish hook that was invented by her people thousands of years ago and still works well.

We had a very moving and educational day.  

DAY 179 SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19 - SKAGWAY

We spent the day onshore again, this time in Skagway, another small Alaskan town that hugs the water's edge.  It has a population of 800.  After breakfast we disembarked and bought tickets for the White Pass train ride at 12:30pm.

In the meantime we found very tempting bargains in the shops and watched two movies about Dawson City and the Klondike Gold Rush.  There were 100,000 prospectors arriving in Skagway at the beginning of the twentieth century, trying to carry a year's supply of food and equipment up to Lake Bennett.  Once there they had to build a raft or boat to float 500 miles down to Dawson City.  Since the climb was up snow steps at 45 degrees, they had to make as many as 40 trips up to the lake.

Those that made it to Dawson City found all the workable areas claimed out and those that found gold often had to dig down 100 feet to find a seam.

We enjoyed a cheap lunch at the Sweet Tooth Cafe and admired the old timber buildings with the raised timber sidewalks to get out of the mud,  just like Western Movies. 

The White Pass train took us up the alternative way for the prospectors, climbing 2,880 feet to the Summit.  The line is heritage listed and is an amazing achievement with tunnels, trestle bridges and many creek crossings.

After dinner Malcolm watched a Gold Medal Magician make things appear and disappear inexplicably.

DAY 178 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18 - JUNEAU

This morning we spent a slow trip cruising through the rain in the inside passage.  We passed beautiful cliffs where there were waterfalls flowing down every 50 meters or so.  We docked in Juneau, the capital of Alaska, at 1pm.  There is no road into this town.

We walked into town and visited some of the gift/souvenir shops where they were keen to unload goods before closing for winter next week.

The Volendam departed at 10pm to continue on to Skagway.