Eeklo Mostly. September 22-28, 2014

Monday, September 22nd

We slept in a little to help get over our jet-lag. Stephen was sent out to get some Starbucks from the nearby train station. Lunchtime was fast approaching and we arranged to have frites and frikadelleworst with Stefaan. Afterwards Stefaan headed back to work and we boarded a train to Eeklo via Gent.

Magda (Caroline's mum) and Robert picked us, and more importantly our heavy luggage, up at the train station. The first stop was to retrieve Sterlin from where he had been stored for the last month. Unfortunately Sterlin failed to start due to a flat battery. In hindsight we should have disconnected it. Oh well. Luc soon found a "Quick Start" unit and we were back up and running in short order. We went for a little drive around town to charge the battery up. The electrics have never quite been right on this trip but have never caused too much pain.

We moved into Caroline's old room and soon exploded our luggage.


Tuesday, September 23rd

The afternoon was spent removing jerry cans, sand tracks, roof top box and most of the luggage from Sterlin. The jerry cans and roof top box were cleaned in preparation for their return to San Francisco. And then everything was stored in Caroline's mum's garage for when we return after our trip around France.

Wednesday, September 24th

Up super early as Sterlin had a 8:00am appointment with the Land Rover Vernaeve garage in Gent. We got caught in some roadworks and heavy traffic but still made it in time. Sterlin got the standard oil service and air filter replacement as well as temporary repairs to a leaky coolant system. Overall Sterlin was in tip-top shape.

Florian and Nico at Landrover Vernaeve Gent.

Caroline visited a dentist recommended by Hilde and had a much desired cleaning. As we were running ahead of schedule we were able to see where Hilde worked and have a short lunch with her. So nice to see her again, even if it had only been a week since we had said goodbye in Otaru.

In the afternoon Caroline visited her favorite comic book shop 'De Poort' and managed to find a few comic books that interested her. And then we headed to a small coffee shop recommended by Geert and caught up with him. We also went for a very nice walk along the canals and a visit to part of the University that had been recently restored. It was nice seeing Geert again.

It was getting late and was time to head back to Eeklo for dinner. Sterlin seemed to be running exceptionally well after the service.

Thursday, September 25th

Eeklo holds its weekly markets on Thursday, which provided enough of a reason to walk into the city center and visit the merchants and their wares. It was not long before we returned to the bar of the previous night to have morning coffee with Erik and Kristin.

Enjoying the early evening sun with mum.

Dinner was with Hilde, Moos and Liran in Gent. Hilde's kids continue to grow-up and it was nice to get to know them a little better.

Friday, September 26th

Stefaan took a day off work and joined us for a walk around Eeklo and down memory lane for Caroline. Dinner was with Erik and Kristin. They shared their photos on Morocco and we reciprocated with photos from our trip.

Heldenpark in Eeklo.

Saturday, September 27th

Huge day of parties. Activities started in 't Stekkedooske with Caroline's mum who was having her birthday with close family. We had a classic Belgian dish: Fondue. There was a huge amount of food and we could not finish it all, and we seriously tried. After the lunch we washed the meal down with coffee and sweets at Uncle Roland and Auntie Alice. Our bellies were full. But the day was just starting. In the evening we joined Geert and Isabelle to help celebrate their 50 birthdays. The drinking and eating went on till the wee hours of the morning.

Mum's birthday lunch in 't Stekkedooske.

Roland, Magda, Erna and Alice.

Caroline, Stephen and Stefaan.

Sunday, September 28th

We packed up our stuff and loaded it into Sterlin. Time to hit the road again with a plan to spend a month or so touring around Western Europe, mainly France. It will be a bit weird living out of a suitcase again.

Brussels. September 21, 2014

Sunday, September 21st

We landed back in Belgium after a short stop-over in Munich. Fortunately both ourselves and our bags made the tight connection. We headed into Brussels to take a few drinks with Steven and Sophia. So nice to catch-up with friends.

Tokyo. September 17-21, 2014

Wednesday, September 17th

We sailed into Tokyo harbor around lunchtime to the sounds of a brass band playing on the dock. It was not long before the ship was docked and cleared and our friend Dale made her way aboard. We had a good natter and catch-up during the afternoon. As evening approached, Stephen's mum boarded the ship to big hugs and kisses. So nice to see "mum" again and it was not long before a cork was popped from a bottle of champagne and we were celebrating with a wee drink.

Welcoming committee

Thursday, September 18th

We went for a long walk around Tokyo. Doing a little window shopping and exploring of the Roppongi district.

Street Views

Street Views

Ramen Noodles anyone?

Friday, September 19th

Caroline headed into town for some window shopping. Othrwise it was a relaxing day.

The highlight for the day however was an absolutely amazing dinner in a small tempura restaurant that Peter arranged. The chef, supported by his father, mother and wife, prepared a multi-course feast for us. And only us, as the restaurant was tiny and our small group occupied most of the bar that looked over the kitchen. Although the Japanese wine came in small bottles, it was quite drinkable. The restaurant has been owned by the same family since it was established 1885.

Saturday, September 20th

Spent the morning doing a little packing. We packed one suitcase for the return trip to Belgium and left one suitcase load of clothes behind for when we return in November. Stephen played IT support engineer for Peter and Dale. Dale has prepared a nice little blog which includes Tokyo and can be found here. Mum kindly lent us her Mac Air. So now we are a two Mac Air family.

We had a nice last lunch with Mum and Dale. In the afternoon we headed off to find our hotel for the evening, check-in and drop off our luggage. We decided to stay in a hotel on our final evening as The World was sailing at 8:30am and we wanted to avoid the associated disembarkation hassles. We walked around Tokyo in the afternoon just exploring a little more. The late afternoon appearance of rain forced us off the streets and back to the The World.

We had a marvelous last dinner with the two Peters, Stephanie, Dale, Eric and Mum. As the evening wore on, it became clear that it was time to leave The World and head to our small hotel room for the night. Our trip on the The World was absolutely fabulous, and it was a little hard to believe it was all coming to an end. The good news, we will be back in 6 weeks when the boat sails down the coast of Vietnam.

Sunday, September 21st

Up early-ish to catch our flight back to Belgium. We trundled our suitcase through the streets of Tokyo to the nearby monorail station. From here we took the short 15 minute ride to the Haneda Airport.

We had a great stay in Tokyo and will surely be back one day.

At Sea. September 15-16, 2014

Monday, September 15th and Tuesday, September 16th

A chance to catchup on email, the blog and relax as we sail from Otaru to Tokyo. The seas were calm which was very nice and made the sea journey much more enjoyable.

Sunset at Sea

Otaru. September 13-14, 2014

Saturday, September 13th

Today we celebrated Stephen's birthday. The day started with a birthday breakfast with some good friends. The breakfast provided a chance to open some birthday presents. The ship arrived back in Otaru just after lunch. Once docked and cleared and we headed into town to stretch our legs and enjoy being back in Japan and on land after a few days at sea. Hilde and Tricia used the shore landing as a chance to arrange train tickets to Sapporo Airport.

Sunday, September 14th

We woke up early to say farewell to Hilde. She had a very early train and we wanted to make sure her very expensive taxi to the train station showed up on time. It did. So we waved Hilde off knowing that we had a wonderful shared experience with her. We had a final breakfast meal with Tricia before repeating the farewell ritual with her. For a second time we managed to hold back the tears while we waved Tricia off, again knowing we have made wonderful memories.

Caroline and I joined the shuttle bus for the 45 minute ride to Sapporo. Here we took lunch and did a little shopping and exploring with our good friend Peter. Sapporo is a nice enough town and we enjoyed walking around the shopping malls and parks. We fell asleep on the shuttle bus back to Otaru. We returned to the apartment for a quiet night.

Tempura anyone?

Lilly Park in downtown Sapporo

Sea of Okhotsk: Korsakov. September 12, 2014

Friday, September 12th

Basically a day at sea as we head away from the Sea of Okhotsk towards Korsakov where we cleared out of Russia. The expedition comes to an end and we celebrated with the rest of the ship with a cocktail party and a screening of the expedition video. We had a wonderful expedition and very glad to be able to share the experiences with two of our dear friends. We capped the night off with wonderful dinner which required us all to get dressed up in our best clothes.

Sea of Okhotsk: Simushir Island. September 11, 2014

Early that morning we arrived off Simushir Island, which is like Yankicha, also a caldera, the remnants of a collapsed volcano. Although there was a heavy swell at the ship, the zodiacs were lowered and we made landings inside the caldera in the morning. We were able to explore the ruins of an abandoned Russian submarine base and equally abandoned town of Kraternyy that was built around it.

Sea of Okhotsk: Yankicha Island. September 10, 2014

Wednesday, September 10th

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 has been breached by the sea, creating a crater bay.

In the morning, from our balcony we spotted a Sperm Whale, and a little later we saw an Orca. First activity for the day was a zodiac cruise on the outside of the caldera, where some of us had a close encounter with an Orca. The weather conditions were favorable, and later that afternoon, we were able to enter the caldera by zodiac and make landings inside. Hilde, Tricia and Stephen braved the almost vertical climb to the caldera rim; Caroline explored the inside closer to sea-level.

Sperm Whale.

Orca.

Seals.

Puffins.

Close encounter.

Scenery on the outside of the caldera.

View from the rim.

The victorious climbers on the rim.

Arctic Fox.

View inside the caldera.

Sea of Okhotsk: Atlasova Island. September 9, 2014

Atlasova Island lies 64km / 40mi to the West of Cape Lapatka. It is the northern most in the Kuril Island chain and, at 2,339m / 7674ft it is the highest volcano in the archipelago. It is named for Vladimir Atlasov, a 17th century Russian Cossack explorer, credited with bringing Kamchatka under Russian control.

We arrived around noon and had the opportunity to go ashore for hikes in the afternoon. We were fortunate to come across a fearless and oh so cute red fox. These animals were 'planted' here.

The scenery.

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We came across this fearless fellow!

Beach wreck.

Landing beach.

Sea of Okhotsk: Petropavlovsk. September 8, 2014

The World arrived and anchored off Petropavlovsk late yesterday evening, all ready for us to go and explore the city in the morning.
Founded by famed explorer Vitus Bering in 1740 and named for his two ships, St. Peter and St. Paul, the port of Petropavlovsk is today the capital of, and largest city on, the Kamchatka Peninsula. The city is home to some 250,000 residents, and, surrounded by high mountains and volcanoes it is only accessible by sea and air.

We went on a bus tour of Petropavlovsk which took us on a panoramic drive with stops at the local museum, a viewpoint over Avacha Bay, stone chapel, a wooden church, the Russian Orthodox Church and the markets.
Once the tour part was finished, Hilde and Tricia decided to go and explore some more on foot; Stephen and I went back to the ship. We'd seen enough fairly non-descript Russian cities in the last few months.

Avacha Bay.

Stone Chapel Crimean War Memorial.

Russian Orthodox Church.

Markets.

Back to the ship by tender.

Someone was very happy with a tub of caviar
at USD 15 :)

Sea of Okhotsk: Cape Kekurny and Tikhirka Bay. September 7, 2014

Saturday, September 6.

In the morning of this 'at-sea day' we enjoyed yet another of Prof. Ludmilla Selezneva's lectures: 'The Opening of Siberia and Kamchatka'. That afternoon it was two photography workshops with Raul.
That evening we had invited Ludmilla and Martin Enckell to dinner in our residence, which made for interesting and fun conversation.

Sunday, September 7.

That morning we went zodiac cruising at Cape Kekurny again searching for wildlife. We found Steller sea lions, sea otters, Spotted seals, gulls, Steller sea eagle, plenty to keep us occupied.

The scenery.

Sea otters.

Steller sea lions.

Spotted seals.

Steller sea eagle.

Eagle in flight.

Gull.

Fun in the zodiacs.

In the afternoon the ship repositioned and anchored off Tikhirka Bay where we had the opportunity to go ashore for various walks. At 17:00 hours it was time for 'Cocktails and Canapés' on the beach to the tunes of The Fabulous Fossils.

Tikhirka Bay.

Those cups also held an alcoholic concoction :)

Crew setting up the F&B station.

Beach Party.

With Prof Ludmilla Selezneva.