Hoi An and Da Nang from Chan May. November 21-22, 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.

Saturday, November 22.

We hired a private car with driver and guide and set of towards Hoi An for the day.
First off was Da Nang with stops at the Cham Sculpture Museum, Marble Mountains, and 'China Beach', now Marble Beach. True, not much to see at this last one, apart from the beach, but I wanted to at least set foot on it because I liked the TV series 'China Beach' years back. We could see the remnants of the American airbase, but it looked all closed off.
On we went to the ancient town of Hoi An, another UNESCO World Heritage site. We had a lovely time wandering around and having lunch, before it was time to head back to the ship.

Marble Mountains, Da Nang.

'China Beach' today - Da Nang.

Hoi An.

Japanese covered bridge, Hoi An.

Hoi An.

Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. November 18-20, 2014.

Tuesday, November 18.

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 bay was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. While sailing into the bay and taking in the spectacular seascape, we enjoyed a bbq on the pool deck of The World.

Sailing into Ha Long Bay. With Alison.

Ha Long Bay.

Once docked and cleared by the Vietnamese authorities, we took a shuttle into Ha Long City for an evening stroll through the markets and along the riverbank. For us this also meant the last (new) country on our world trip.

Ha Long City riverside.

Garbage collection.

Picking up his wife after a day at the markets.

Wednesday, November 19.

That morning, loaded with our overnight bags, we boarded the transfer bus to Hanoi, where we arrived around noon.
After checking into the Sofitel Legend Hanoi, a beautiful French colonial hotel, we went walking around town. We liked Hanoi. It is full of old French colonial style buildings, some in better nick than others. Combine that with new construction and lots of motorbikes and you get an interesting mix. Dinner was at the Wild Lotus restaurant, after which we went for a night walk and a drink.

Thursday, November 20.

We went for a morning walk in the area around the hotel and found a Starbucks for coffee and breakfast. Around noon we checked out of our hotel and went to the pick up point for the transfer bus back to Halong Bay and The World.
All in all a very good idea to spend the night in Hanoi, as opposed to just a day; it gave us a bit more time to get the flavor of the city.

Hong Kong. November 10-14, 2014

After a long, tiring flight (these long hauls usually are) on Qatar Airlines from Brussels, via Doha - somehow we'd expected more of that airline... will have to try Emirates next - we arrived in Hong Kong. A pre-booked car was waiting for us at the airport and the pampering started as soon as we boarded the good ship The World. We had a relaxing afternoon recovering from a serious lack of sleep and a time zone shift.

The next day we met up with local friends Donna and Eddy who took us to lunch in Kowloon.
On Wednesday Peter joined us on a day trip to Macau. Macau, a former Portuguese colony, is one of two 'Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. So going there meant immigration in and out of the area, all easily done at the ferry terminal. Upon arrival there we took one of the free casino shuttles to get to the downtown area. After lunch we went for a walk to Macau's Old Portuguese Historic City Center Unesco World Heritage area. Our main objective were the Ruins of St. Paul's. This actually refers to the façade of what was originally the Church of Mater Dei built in 1602-1640 and the ruins of St. Paul's College, adjacent to the Church, both destroyed by fire in 1835. It was nice to be able to tick Macau off the list but we don't need to go back there in a hurry.

Old Portuguese Town.

Stephen and Peter in front of the ruins of St' Paul's.

The following day we took the Star ferry over to Hong Kong Island and took the Peak Tram up to Victoria Peak, where we went for a walk. After enjoying a coffee we headed back down and went for a walk on streets and walkways, trying not to get too turned around. Donna and Eddy joined us for dinner on board that evening.
Before we had to back on board on our last day in HKK we did some last minute shopping and walking around Kowloon. The World sailed out of the bay at 8pm.

View from the Peak.

M/V The World docked at Kowloon.

Bern and Zurich. October 16-18, 2014.

Thursday, October 16.

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 got to Bern they eased and stopped, making for an enjoyable afternoon wandering around Bern Old City, Unesco World Heritage Site.  Lattes, lunch, the Einsteinhaus, ...

Einsteinhaus.

Early evening we continued on to Zurich where we, successfully, went in search of an Irish Pub for some dinner and drinks.

Friday, October 17.

We spent most of the day wandering around town, on a beautiful autumn day. I (Caroline) really really liked Zurich (but for some reason we don't seem to have a lot of photos). Naturally the waterfront was lovely but I preferred the rest of town, a bit away form the main 'tourist' area. With its extensive tram network, cafés and restaurants it somehow reminded me of Gent, Belgium. And there was a Wagamama in town :).
The photo thing might be explained that I saw it more as a place that I could live as opposed to a place to be a tourist... I don't know...

Toulouse and Carcassone. October 7-9, 2014.

Tuesday, October 9th

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 our convoy partners through China.

Hard to believe we have been on the road for exactly 500 days. But it is true and we celebrated with a fine meal in a nearby restaurant and a few drinks.

Wednesday, October 8th

On the second evening we went for a late night stroll in the city center, under a full moon.

Wednesday, October 8th.

We went for a day trip to the Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, and, another place on my list of wanna-see-places-in-France. And another splendid visit it was.

Fortified City Wall.

Inside the walls.

Inside the walls.

Detail.

Nantes, Bordeaux, Dune du Pilat. October 5-7, 2014.

Sunday, October 5th.

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 a u-turn at a round-about and continued South. Oddly enough that round-about was the most westerly point that Sterlin made on the trip at 2.023959°W.

We arrived in Nantes in the evening, checked into a hotel and went for an evening walk in search for dinner.

Nantes Cathedral.

Nantes by night.

Monday, October 6th.

Drove to Bordeaux, got there in the evening, by which time the rain had stopped. We went for an evening stroll and meal in the city's UNESCO World Heritage City Center.

Tour Pey-Berland.

Bordeaux Cathedral.

Tuesday, October 7th.

Before heading to Toulouse we made a detour to La Dune du Pilat, which, with a height of 109-110 meter, is Europe's highest dune.

Windy at the top of the dune.

Mont St Michel. October 4-5, 2014.

Saturday, October 4th.

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 stop was the information center where we found out about hotels nearby and how to get into the restricted car park without a reservation. The friendly lady at the info desk validated our parking ticket for 1 hour to give us time to check it out. We were back before the hour was up with a reservation at the funky Hôtel Gabriel and a code for the car park.

By then the weather had improved dramatically and we went for a walk towards the foot of the Mont-Saint-Michel, and back again.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner at one of the restaurants close by.

Sunday, October 5th.

That morning we took the free shuttle bus from our hotel to the foot of the Mont and went through the old gates to wander around the islet town and up towards the Gothic style Benedictine Abbey.
Mont-Saint-Michel was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Wandering through the narrow streets.

The cloister and abbey.

The Knight's Hall.

Through the looking glass.

We walked back to our car around 2pm, and, after coffee and a patisserie we left this incredibly beautiful place to head towards Nantes.

Amiens, Paris and Versailles. September 28 - October 2, 2014.

Monday, September 29th

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 Tourcoing. A nice little church in the center of town, but that is about it. The city center was a little dead at night, even some of the pubs closed at 7pm. Fortunately the Subway was open and we were able to get some dinner. I don't think we will be be coming back.

Tuesday, September 30th

Continuing towards Versailles we stopped in Amiens for a visit to Amiens Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site and lunch. The cathedral was very nice and well kept. It claims to have the head/skull of John the Baptist. At least they have someone's skull on display.

Continuing on from Amiens our trusty Garmin directed us perfectly to Odile and Eric's mini mansion on the outskirts of Versailles town. We got a comprehensive tour of the house and grounds and let Odile get back to work while we went for a stroll around the estate. The house and grounds are lovely and contain a very modern yet eclectic art collection. A lot of love and passion has gone into their home.

We had dinner with Odile and it was nice to get to know her a little better. We ended up staying up quite late just chatting away.

Wednesday, October 1st

Up early for the commute into Paris. We planned to make our journey in after the bulk of the rush-hour, and this sort of worked. However, once we hit Paris things started to fall apart. We could not find anywhere to park Sterlin for more than 2 hours. All of the inner-city long term parking was height restricted and not suitable for our over-height car. And the high clearance car parks were either private or restricted to delivery vans. So after 3 hours of driving around we changed tactics. We decided to park in one of the many 2 hour spots and to just keep returning to feed the meter. This plan actually worked out very well.

We had a lovely coffee, lunch, glass of wine and afternoon with Marie, a fellow traveller whom we had met in the tunnels of Vieng Xai in Laos. We again re-told stories and compared notes.

With Marie.

Dinner was spent with Tim, Nathalie, Emily and Elliot. It had been 15 years since we had seen Tim and Nathalie and we had quite some catching up to do. Truly a wonderful evening. We promised each other not to go another 15 years before the next reunion.

With Tim and Nathalie.

Thursday, October 2nd

Up early again. This time for the short ride to the Palace of Versailles, which was inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. No problem finding a place to park. We visited the Apa artments, the Gardens and the Grand Trianon. We spent the entire day wandering around Versailles Palace and the grounds taking it all in, stopping only for a baguette, some french patisseries and coffee.

The evening was spent relaxing and catching up with email and the blog. Dinner was with Odile and some of her staff who were working late.

Friday, October 3rd

We said goodbye to Odile - for now, we'll meet again in Hong Kong - and set off towards Normandy.

With Odile.