Hoi An and Da Nang from Chan May
Friday, November 21, 2014 The World left Ha Long Bay at 8pm on November 20th and docked in Chan May around 6pm the following day. The ship was docked miles form anything so that evening we did not go ashore.…
Caroline Diericx
Hanoi and Ha Long Bay
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Around noon we reached Ha Long Bay, our entry point into Vietnam. The bay features some 2000 of limestone karst islets and islands in all shapes and sizes, which makes for stunning scenery. In 1994 the…
Friends and Family in Gent
Wednesday to Friday, November 5 – 7, 2014 Caroline took the 12:58pm Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussel Zuid (naturally there was a 25 minute delay entering the tunnel), and from there continued onto Gent to stay 2 days…
London Revisited
Friday, October 31, 2014 We have flown into London many times, but this was the first time we flew into London City Airport – which was rather spectacular with The Shard and Canary Wharf passing just beneath us – and…
Farewell to Sterlin and Rotterdam
Thursday, October 30, 2014 We left Eeklo mid-morning towards Rottterdam to drop off our faithful ‘travel companion/vehicle’. We took it easy, stopping for lunch and coffee close to Veere. Sterlin’s drop-off address turned out to be in the middle of…
Leg 5: Europe (Take 2)
August – October, 2014 Back in Europe we made our way to Belgium via Russia, Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. On August 16 we arrived in Eeklo, the end-goal of the ‘overland’ part of our trip.…
The Wonderful Swiss Mountains of Arvenbuel
Saturday, October 18, 2014 It was a short 70km drive from Zurich to Arvenbuel. The weather was absolutely perfect and provided a wonderful introduction to this part of Europe. The scenery was a little bit like New Zealand, only more…
Bern and Zurich
Thursday, October 16, 2014 We set off ‘reasonably’ early towards Zurich, to have time to spend lunch and the afternoon in Bern. And so we did. While driving to Bern we experienced some heavy rains, but, by the time we…
Visiting Luc in Gindou
Thursday, October 9, 2014 After breakfast we said goodbye to Kim and Vaughan and headed to Gindou, about 160km north of Toulouse. We arrived at our good friend Luc’s just after noon. Gindou is a small hamlet away from just…
Kim, Vaughan, Toulouse and Carcassone
Tuesday, October 7, 2014 We arrived in Toulouse and had parked Sterlin at Kim and Vaughn’s place, just as Vaughn came home from work. We spent 2 nice evenings reminiscing about our trip – Kim and Vaughan are 2 of…
Nantes, Bordeaux, Dune du Pilat
Sunday, October 5, 2014 On the way to Nantes we made a flying visit to St Malo. We planned to stop for a quick coffee and a look around, but all of the parking was height restricted so we made…
Caroline finally makes it to Mont St Michel
Saturday, October 4, 2014 We approached Mont-Saint-Michel late afternoon under overcast skies. But nothing could diminish the excitement of finally seeing this tiny island commune in Normandy. I (Caroline) had been wanting to see this for the longest time. First…
Amiens, Paris and Versailles
Monday, September 29, 2014 After lunch we said goodbye to Marijke and Coen and drove from Wageningen to Tourcoing; the latter picked solely as stopover en route to Versailles to avoid a long day’s driving. There is not much to…
Simushir Island
Thursday, September 11, 2014 Early that morning we arrived off Simushir (Симушир) Island and Brouton Bay (бухта Броутона) which is like Yankicha, also a caldera, the remnants of a collapsed volcano. Although there was a heavy swell at the ship, the…
Yankicha Island
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 Yankicha, also known as Ushishir, is one of two connected islets in the center of the Kuril chain.The islets are the summit of a quiescent volcano which last erupted in 1884. One wall of Yankicha’s caldera…