WORLD TOUR 2017

We are now on our third and last day here in Australia's biggest city. And we have both survived it - the city and us :-)   We are all three of us in top form! Yesterday we toured the city by ferry, by foot and by bus. We saw and heard things we saw last time in 2011. And we saw and learned new things, of course. You always do that in this city. Our tour around city with the hop-on-hop-off bus ( they call it BIG BUS here ) was very hot and open on the top deck - we had forgotten our head gear :-(   But in lovely Darling Harbour we found good shadow, good food and a chilly local beer in a nice Thai restaurant.  We enjoyed walking in the centre with all its old colonial buildings like the old Town Hall, the Victoria Building with all its shops, the Customs House at the harbour and much more. Not least a very lively atmosphere everywhere.  When we needed something cold and stimulating we enjoyed it in a very nice wine bar.  We had a great talk with th...

This morning very early we arrived to SYDNEY. The city which has its name from a British politician in the 18th century, who got the idea to send British prisoners to this part of the world on a one-way ticket. It is with its 6 million inhabitants the biggest city in Australia. And with its geographical position at the ocean and at a river it is a very beautiful city. Not least now with lovely spring ( today with 29 degrees ) and with thousands of the blue Jacaranda trees in full bloom. We are for three days staying at a small elegant hotel in the hilly area next to Sydney harbour - opposite to the city centre. A small convenient ferry takes us in ten minutes across the harbour to the centre - passing very closely to the magnificent Sydney Opera House.

We are enjoying the last full day on board our great "ferry"!  We have sailed 14.000 km - or more than one third of the distance around the globe. We still have more than 500 km to go until we reach Sydney tomorrow morning - our final destination at sea. The Tasman Sea is greeting us in a quiet way. During the night it was more agitated. Great to feel that you are actually sailing! Yesterday we were all checked by the Australian Border Guard, which had come on board. This facilitates procedures  when we arrive in Sydney. Smart move!  We were accepted in two minutes!  If everything continues to be that easy, we will be very happy visitors! We will try to get up early tomorrow morning to fully enjoy the magnificent entry into Sydney harbour with the famous Harbour Bridge and not least Jørn Utzon's world famous Opera. You know how he got the idea for the design of the opera? He got it while peeling an orange! Still almost a month ahead of us on this...

New Caledonia is now behind us. We are with 34 km per hour now on our way to Sydney. Distance: 1970 km. Arrival Sunday morning at 06.00. Fantastic weather. Light wind. Gentle waves on the blue ocean. Nice greetings on the intracom from our captain Kjetil. Entertainment tonight by a big choir from the staff.  Tomorrow and Saturday possibility to visit "areas behind the doors" on the ship, incl. the Bridge, the Control Room, the kitchens, the decks occupied by the crew, etc. We will probably not see the hospital and the prison. We'll see !

We have now been sailing for 20 days ! We have never been at sea for so long. From time to time we wonder, if we ever can get used to another life again :-)   The sun is shining. Temperature has fallen to "freezing" 24 degrees, which is very pleasant.  The ocean is dark blue and continues to look totally empty - though only above surface.  Yesterday we visited a small tropical island Lifou in French New Caledonia.  I enjoyed talking to a local rooster and his harem. He wasn't too confident in the beginning. But he understood my "Cimbrian rooster language" well, and we almost became friends.  It did not go as in Portugal some years ago, when I also spoke to a local rooster. I apparently said something awful, because all of a sudden he became very scared and ran away. This did not happen yesterday! On board our " ferry " ( as I call our great ship ) we travel with a lot of Americans. They are - as always - very friendly, smiling, helpful, entertaining...

Today we should have visited the Mystery Island in the country Vanuatu ( ex New Hebrides ).  Our visit has been cancelled due to a medical emergency on board the ship. We are speeding in the direction of French Nouvelle Caledonie, so that we can come into the reach of a helicopter to take the patient to Noumea, the capital of Nouvelle Caledonie. Our present position etc. at 07.45 Tuesday morning ( 22.45 Monday night European time): Position: Parallel:       20,19  South Longitude:  169,38 East Depth:    1.530 meter 27 degrees Sailed since Seattle:   11.187 km

In my latest mail I told you about my ability now also to speak Fijian. I forgot to tell you that my quoted words for Hello, Goodbye was "my dialect" :-)  In correct "high Fijian" the greetings are:   BULA BULA !  Pronounced with an optimistic and energetic tone ! I also want to tell you four more interesting things we learned about Fiji: 1. Men in Fiji are often wearing a skirt. More or less like an Indonesian sarong. Why? Because it is very pleasant in the heat. And especially because a previous Fijian Chief while studying in Oxford met a Scottish friend in his kilt. He got so carried away by that idea that he made his own, elegant version for Fiji. 2. What do people in Fiji normally eat? A lot of fish! And also a lot of chicken. It's accompanied by tapioka and sweet potatoes. Now they are also importing lamb from New Zealand. But their aim is to be as self sufficient also with food as possible. 3. Fiji tries in different ways to serve the...

Our first visit in the South Pacific on this magnificent trip is about to end. FIJI - the dry west yesterday and the wet east today Sunday. It is a country of 322 islands - 106 of them are inhabited. The country is independent since 1970. Before that it was for 95 years part of the British Empire. And before that it was an area known for its cannibalism :-(  Why did they eat people? Not because of hunger and famine. But because they were convinced that a killed enemy would come back, if you did not eat him! They also at the time had the tradition that when a Chief died his legal wife had to die with him. She was allowed to decide for herself, if she wanted to be strangled, killed with hammers or to be buried alive! The Methodist missionaries who arrived from London in the beginning of the 19th century managed to make an end to all that. Today most of the 900.000 inhabitants are peaceful Methodists, a third are Hindus from India, and the rest holds different religions. ...

Many things are a first in life !  For us it was a first, when we crossed the International Date Line this morning.  We had to move our clocks 24 hours ahead.  Easy to do - because you do not have to do anything :-)  But the crucial thing is that you have to move the date forward. We moved from Thursday to Friday - in ONE go.  I am happy I do not have my birthday on this now missing day :-) So we are no longer west of Greenwich. We are now east of Greenwich.  We are no longer in the far West. We are in the far East.  And we are 10 hours ahead of Europe. In other words: we see the sun ten hours before you do in Europe! Now we really feel that we are in the middle of an adventure around the globe !

Yesterday was JACUZZI day !  While the tropical rain was pouring down for some time outside we decided to jump into one of our ship's many Jacuzzi Pools.  The one we chose is arranged somewhat like a Roman bath with columns, tiles, etc.  And the warm water and the jet streams were wonderful.  The only thing I have against water is that it is so wet :-) And why is this special hot pool called a jacuzzi?  It takes its name from its inventor Candido Jacuzzi ( 1903-86 ).   He was born in a small village in north-east of Italy. When he was a child he emigrated with his parents and 6 elder brothers to California. Here the family started to produce parts to airplanes.  And when Candido later got a son, who at the age of 15 months got serious back problems, Candido invented the special pool with jet streams - to be installed in a normal bathroom.   It became a world success.   So this is the background of the Jacuzzi Pools. From ou...

Time:   08.45  ( 14 hours behind Europe ) Today we will pass the International Date Line . At that moment we have to move our watches 24 hours ahead, and it is all of a sudden Friday. By then we will be 10 hours ahead of Europe. Position: 12,37 North       -   the same longitude as northern Australia! 179,22 West 28 degrees 3.570 m depth Now sailed:  9.224 km

Yesterday we passed Equator , as I already mentioned.  But we did a mistake. We did not ask the God of the seas, King Neptune , for permission to do it on beforehand.  So we had to excuse ourselves in front of the king and his queen.  He was reasonably angry with us, and some "hostages" among us had to suffer ( a bit )! The king threatened to call for help from his Greek brother, Poseidon. But it did not turn out to be necessary.  We accepted to promise better behaviour in the future, while the King was swinging his Trident above our heads!   Later we calmed very much down, when we at our dinner table met a very, very nice Australian couple from Newcastle,  a city about 100 km north of Sydney.  They are on their way home from a family visit in California - near the frightening forest fires there, by the way.  We have also briefly met a couple from Horsens, Denmark.  The wife is very keen on cruising - her husband much less.  He co...

Time:  We are now 14 hours behind             Europe Position: Parallel:  6,17 South ( like Jakarta, Angola and Lima ) Longitude:   176,18 West Depth:  5.670 meters Temperature:   29 degrees Sailed so far:  8.374 km

This morning we crossed the Equator ! A great feeling. You mentally felt a small bump ! Others say that there is an (invisible ?)  Green Line in the water :-)  And logically we are sailing downwards now!  For sure the distance to the North Pole and to the South Pole is now the same.  And Equator is, as we all know, the longest parallel of all - about 40.000 km. We will now also discover a different sky at night. I can't wait to see the Southern Cross again. The sun will soon be right above our heads at lunchtime - it is springtime down here. And when hitting Australia in 11 days it will be in the north. Funny feeling. While we might be sailing downwards my daughter Cecilie is sailing in the very happy skies. She was yesterday nominated full professor at her university in Perth, Western Australia! She is and should be very happy and proud!  And she has an - if possible - even more proud dad by now!  Very well deserved, my love. And this is not the end...

October 16 - at 07.23 Position: Parallel :  5,54 North On the same parallel you find countries like Liberia, Colombia and Indonesia. Longitude :   167,39 West It goes from the North Pole to the South Pole almost only over water all the way except it is hitting Alaska in the north and Cook Islands in the south. We have right now 29 degrees. We have since Seattle sailed 6.715 km. We will pass Equator tomorrow Wednesday at 12.15.  The tradition on the ship is that everybody meet on the deck at that moment. And that as many as possible jump in the water - not the water outside though - we leave that to the sharks ! , but into the pools on the ship :-)

On our way towards Fiji on Saturday we are cruising in the middle of the Pacific. West of Nicaragua and east of Manila in the Philippines. The sea is blue and friendly. And with clouds in all thinkable formations mixed with sunshine now and then it is really nice balcony weather!  TV and Internet function perfectly. Yesterday we enjoyed a great video talk on Skype with my daughter Cecilie in Western Australia. And last night our ship ( the ferry, as I call it ) offered us a bottle of champagne in our room! Today is a reading and writing day - mixed with good discussions on my sites on social media.  By the way, I just passed the figure of 1 million visitors to my Danish home page! Tonight we will move our clocks one hour back once again - making us 13 hours behind Europe!

After 6 great days at sea it also feels good to hit land again. Esp. when it's Hawaii!  First, you have to learn how to pronounce it:  Hawai-i  -  with the stress on the last i !  Not Hawaj  :-(   And we also understood that the Hawaiian language only has 13 letters, most of them like our vowels. Only the W has been imported from outside. Hawaii is part of Polynesia. It consists of 8 bigger islands and a number of small ones. James Cook was one of the first European discoverers on the island. He was killed in 1779, because he tried to kidnap the king, after one of his ships had been stolen. One of Cook's British officers, George Vancouver , came back with a small fleet 12 years later and became a close friend of the king. Also because he brought the first cattle to the islands as a gift to the king. The king was so happy that when he later made the flag for the Hawaii islands he placed Union Jack in the upper left corner of the flag. Th...

Our great ship moves on. And our clocks do the opposite.  We are now 12 hours behind Europe. Or as my son Claus wrote from Odense today:  It's difficult to understand what is morning or evening where you are, as your are sailing down there under our feet!  We have now three times since our departure from Seattle last Friday been "given" an extra hour. Our days and nights are in a way longer. And that's great.  But we are fully aware that at some point we have to pay them all back! You might wonder, why I do not send some pictures to prove our delightful journey. Yes, we take a lot of photos.  But our internet connection here on the ship is coughing helplessly, if it also has to cope with pictures. So they have to wait until later! I should have liked to show you photos of the very artistic animals, which our Philippine cabin attendant Selson makes for us from towels almost every night.  I managed to send one to our granddaughters in Australia. Look wha...

Since we left Seattle several days ago we haven't seen anything but water around us.  Today we see some waste in the water.  This probably means that we are coming closer to what is called civilisation :-(    Our fantastic trip reminds us of an old music hall song going like this:  I signed up with the Navy to see the world. But what did I see?  The sea!    This is actually for us very positive. We love the sea. But we are also happy that we will make "landfall" at some stage :-) Our mornings are - like back home - very important, almost sacred. After or sometimes during breakfast we enjoy our so-called " Home-University ". Also here at sea.  Studying and learning new things - or things we perhaps have forgotten :-)  Today we updated our knowledge about the famous German author Siegfried Lenz . Why?  Because Liselotte is reading a very interesting book written by him. And we also had a go at the history around Pearl Harbor on De...

This is our 12th cruise, since we started our cruise career in 2005. It is by far the longest one. And the first one totally on the other side of the globe.  And as the days pass we get more and more used to do nothing. And if we do not finished one day, we just continue the day after!  Yes, it is Pure holiday!  When we get home we perhaps have to be retrained in many daily tasks such as cooking when Liselotte is concerned :-) Our dinner waitors are second to none: Konang from Indonesia and John from the Philippines. Our Indian bar waitor is very much on his toes too. But when he last night after we had had our usual couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio and Merlot suddenly without us asking for it brought us two bottles of cold water we wondered why. We had actually planned to ask for two such bottles to bring to our cabin. Perhaps Indians can read your thoughts :-)  Or he felt it was upon time that we enjoyed some "water music"!  We also attended a great show in...

When we left Seattle some days ago the total weight of ship + passengers was about 142.000 tons. Most of the kilos come from the ship, after all!  When we reach Sydney in 3 weeks the combined weight will be the same. But, but....  Some of the tons will have moved from the ship to us - the 4000 passengers. The noble art, at least for some of us, is to minimize that transfer :-) It reminds me of the young girl, who once said: I do not want to have children. Why? Because they use my money and spoil my body!  If you are not careful, cruises can do the same!  So we made ten walks around the long walkway of the ship this morning and will enjoy a forceful  "quickstep" with the elegant Vitality Fitness Centre this afternoon. One more reflection about weight watchers:  when we enjoyed a coffee in a cafe on the ship's long internal promenade this morning we realized that Michelin Tyres apparently use American ladies to promote their biggest tyres over here. One i...

Enjoying a great time way out in the Earth's Blue Eye.  Now 1300 km from Seattle and 3100 km until we reach Honolulu on Thursday morning. And we haven't seen one single ship or one single bird since we left Seattle. All the fantastic wildlife is beneath us. Where we are right now the depth is 3.859 m. And the sea is still somewhat agitated, so we all pretend that we are active members of John Cleese's Institute for Odd Walking!  Good fun! The drinks are generally better than the food. So we agree with Frank Sinatra who once said:  I feel sorry for the people, who do not drink. The feeling they have when they wake up in the morning is about as good as it gets the whole day!! As we have mostly Americans on board - all friendly and curious about why we have come all this way - you also see quite a few, esp. ladies, who have taken forms, where it is easier to jump over them than walking around them!  And this gives me the positive and rare feeling of being one of the ...

During cruises you have to enjoy!  Whatever is on offer - enjoy it! I just enjoyed a 6 km walk on the special walkway around our ship on the 12th floor.  I was almost alone there - only a Very strong and changing wind accompanied me most of the time.   See photo. Refreshing experience!  More to come - for sure !

We have now left the American continent and are cruising west of Oregon and California. We are on our way to Hawaii, where we will arrive in 5 days. The weather is good - the sea is somewhat lively. You feel you at at sea :-) The Pacific Ocean is - as you know - by far the biggest ocean on earth. It is also called The Blue Eye of our planet. It covers an area of 169 mill. sq.km or a third of the surface of the earth. All seven continents of the earth could fit into the ocean. The Pacific Ocean got its name from the Portuguese discoverer Ferdinand Magellan ( 1489-1521 ). He saw it first time as "beautiful and peaceful". The ocean has 25.000 islands, is up to 11 km deep, and has all sorts of valuable minerals on the bottom . Unfortunately, it also has on its surface in the north an "island" of plastic material, which over time has been thrown into the ocean. It has the size of Africa and is floating around :-( Now we will enjoy our breakfast on our balcony - and t...

Our great ship Explorer of the Seas is full. 4000 passagers. Still lots of space - also for us. Norwegian captain - Kjertil.  Great cabin with balcony.  Very nice staff. Excellent 4G internet connection. Free drinks :-)  And free use of the great fitness centre. Our intention is to use it all!

With only two days in this dynamic city it is important to select what to do. We strolled along the harbour front with its mixture of very elegant and tempting restaurants right at the water front  and also of sort of run-down wild-west saloon bars with guests suited for them :-)  It is a very hilly city, so walking is in many places very healthy, read: tough!  We visited the Seattle Center with its theaters and its famous Space Needle,   a tower from the World Fair here in 1962.  Lots of nice activities in the park - except the awful sound from a strange Chinese oddly looking long and thin "guitar".  The elderly player seemed to be the only one enjoying it! We made a visit to the Belinda and Bill Gates Foundation .  It explained in a very elegant way how they foundation is investing massively in the fight against diseases, in education, in equality for women, etc. Most of it in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  A very important and positive...

Our train trip from Vancouver to Seattle was very spectacular. Not so much with mountains, as we had expected. But with great coast and sea landscapes almost all the way.  And the border crossing from Canada to the US was very easy. We were inspected by a US Coast Guard guy called Christensen ! During the train ride - in an excellent train with a very charming and helpful conductor - I could not help wondering how many times I have visited the US over the years. I believe that this trip is my 9th visit .  I was here first time 52 years ago - in 1965.  I have visited 30 of the 50 states.  Very different and very exciting trips all of them.  Liselotte is this time on her 6th visit to "God's own country" as they are calling it. Seattle is a very lively city with water on 2-3 sides of it. You see the snow covered Mount Baker in the distance.  The city has its name from an native American  chief in this area. He was a warrior and a trader in the beginni...

Enjoying already a lovely room with fantastic sea view in our Hotel Mediterranean Inn in Seattle. Everything with a charming Mediterranean flavour. It all starts immensely well here in the State of Washington in the US. One of the states, which did not vote for Trump :-)

Great stay in Canada has come to an end. We are off with the Amtrak train in less than two hours. It is a trip of 228 km to Seattle in the State of Washington. It takes 4 hours - due to the American control at the border. They will as always in particular check out, that we do not bring ANY food or drinks into the US. We don't!  The travel people claim that the train is European quality!  Good to know! And by the way: where are we on the globe in relation to Europe? The distance to Brussels is 7.811 km. And Vancouver is on the same parallel as Paris - meaning more to the south than Brussrls.  Just for your happy information!

On this last day here in Canada we decided to stroll through the most interesting part of the city centre.  The weather was fantastic - not a single cloud on the sky.  Our first target was the airport right in the middle of town. Vancouver South Airport - as it is called. It is a very busy airport. It is very special in the sense that all flights are Catalinas - they take off from and and land on water. They are the city's connection to Vancouver Island, to towns in the neighbourhood and to places in the surrounding mountains. Very efficient - but rather noisy. Next to the airport you have Vancouver's very modern and very functional cruise ship terminal. Today two big ships were guests here. The biggest one, Norwegian Jewel, was this evening off to Hawaii - on its way to Sydney.  We could in principle have used that one too.  But when we heard that the ships "godmother" in 2005 was Melania Trump, we were happy that we do not use that possibility :-) Our follow...

There is so much to see and discover here, so we continued to go new places today. We wanted to greet their local " Little Mermaid " at the entrance to the harbour ( see previous photo and comment ). She was donated to the city in 1972 in connection with an upgrade of Vancouver's image.   Not far from her we were studying an old gun, which since the 18th century and still today is firing a loud shot at 9 pm every night. In the old days it was a way to make people aware of the exact hour. While discussing that between us a nice gentleman said in Danish:  Nå, er det sådan, det hænger sammen!    What a surprise! Nice guy. Let's call him Carl Bay - the name I always give men I do not know!  He and his wife were on their way on a cruise to ..... Sydney. Like us. But with Norwegian from here. And lasting 40 days (ours will be 23). They should also visit French Polynesia.  The world is small. And always be careful what you say, also in Danish, wherever you...

This is Vancouver's "Little Mermaid" - from 1972. Copenhagen forbids any copying of its young lady from 1913 in its harbour. So the Vancouvrians had to equip their little lady differently and call her something else. Perhaps the seagull on the top of her is also part of the special branding here!  She looks very nice and friendly and symbolises the city's dependence on the Ocean.

As usual we always try to know as much as possible about a new place, we visit. And to do it in the shortest possible time.  Our hotel here is really good, also on that point. It  offers its guests a free guided tour with a professional guide in the centre. Superb idea. European hotels should learn from that.  A very entertaining young man called Ali took us around for about two hours. There were 20 of us from all over the world.  We learned how this area of Canada was a real outpost in the country until the second half of the 19th century. After George Vancouver discovered the area in the 1790ies it was still in the hands of the local Indian tribes ( today called the First Nation people ). It was the so-called Gold Rush in the mid and late 19th century, which brought thousands of white people, primarily men, to the area.  After Canada became a self-governing nation within the British Empire in 1867 develop started, also here in the west of the country. The ...