We had an all day tour today. We started with a walking tour in the center of Dresden. Dresden has a population of just over 1/2 million people. It was bombed very badly during the 2nd World War. Today they have rebuilt the center of town to look like the historic buildings looked. Fortunately there was an artist who painted Dresden in the height of its grandeur and they were able to recreate the buildings. It has taken many decades. The central square where we started has the Opera House, many of the buildings called Zwinger and beautiful squares. In 1956 Dresden celebrated its 750th anniversary. We saw the outside of the big church, being too early in the morning to go inside but learned about how it was destroyed during the war.

We then walked by a mosaic from 1876 depicting all the Saxon kings from the beginning of the reign through the date the mosaic was made. It is porcelain and probably 100 or more feet long.

We then left the city and went out to a hunting lodge of August the Strong in Moritzberg. The entry rooms were filled with the antlers of the stags that had been hunted. The antlers were on wooden heads of the animals, not real heads preserved by taxidermy. When we got into the living quarters we found out that all the walls were covered in leather. Some were like tapestry wall hangings, but other areas it was like wallpaper. We also saw an explanation of how these leather pieces were made and now preserved. The castle has 220 rooms and has 2 manmade lakes on either side made 600 years ago.

We then went by small gauge steam train to the next town for lunch at a winery.

After lunch we returned to Dresden for the highlight of the day, the Green Vault in the Zwinger Palace. This area had the beautiful treasures collected by August the Strong, we saw the gold, silver, gemstone and ivory collection. The items were exquisite. We were told that all of these treasures had been taken to the Soviet Union during the war, but had been returned after the war ended and Dresden had been rebuilt.

Before returning to our boat we were able to go into the church we only saw the outside of in the morning.

As if this was not enough of a day, Jennifer had arranged for a cake at dinner to celebrate my 80th birthday. Our waiter Edward made me a rose from a paper napkin. It was truly a lovely day.

We started a morning tour to Bastei, a famous rock formation. This area is in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains which are millions of years old. The area had sediment from when this land was covered by an ocean and then the land was eroded. The sandstone is yellow in color. This area is also called Saxon Switzerland, called this because of its beautiful landscape. It is within a national park with 30% in the Czech Republic and 70% in Germany. This area is known for its hiking and rock climbing.

We started by walking to an observation platform. We were able to see the various rock formations and the valleys. Then we climbed down to cross the famous stone bridge. We went to several other view points before returning to our bus and then the ship.

After lunch at the ship we went to a fortress called Königstein. Here we had to climb up the ramps into the fortress/castle. This was our first introduction to August the Strong, the ruling king of this region. He was very progressive and collected art and other things as well as building beautiful palaces all over the Saxony region. We toured the various buildings and squares. This was the first castle built by a Bohemian king. It has the deepest well in Germany. At one lookout over the Elbe River we saw our ship sailing between Bad Schandau and Dresden. It was used as a fortress until 1913, but now is a museum. It was never conquered and had the ability to store enough food for 1.5 years.

Then before reaching Dresden we stopped at another palace of August the Strong to see the beautiful gardens.

After dinner we went to a classical music concert in the Zwinger Palace in Dresden. We got to see the buildings lit in the main museum square. It was a beautiful evening and the music fantastic.

We had a morning walking tour of the Jewish quarter in Prague. The Jewish ghetto was established in the 14th century. We visited 4 synagogues but only 2 are currently in use as a religious building. The Old New Synagogue dates back to 1270.

The Jewish museum which is actually the various synagogues and cemetery was closed during the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia around 1968. After the reunification it was reopened around 1994.

The cemetery is 350 years old and our guide told us that there are 12 layers of graves. We saw many headstones but most were so old and worn no names or dates were visible.

When we returned to the hotel, we got on buses to be transferred to our ship in Decín. However when we got to Decín we kept going. Apparently the river is too low for our boat to get here so we were bused to the next port (only 15 miles) to get to our boat.

We had a walking tour in the morning provided by our tour company, Viking. We started at the top of the castle hill and toured that area. Prague Castle is the largest in the world, composed of many different buildings and covers 80,000 square meters. Then we walked down the hill stopping to try chocolate at a famous shop. We crossed the Charles Bridge learning its history.

We then toured the old town arriving at the famous clock just in time for the noon display. The Viking tour ended with some free time here and we stayed in town. After a nice lunch at a small cafe we went to the Story of Prague Museum. It was an interactive museum, with picture that turned from current views to historic views. We also climbed to the top of the clock tower in order to get views of the town.

We then went to another museum about the artist, Mucha. He did arte nouveau in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There were many pictures by him as well as a short movie about his life.

We came back to the hotel to freshen up and then had a wonderful dinner back in the old town overlooking the Charles Bridge.

This perfect day had us walking about 12 miles!

This is a Jennifer and Bette trip!

After flying to Boston a day before our trip actually began, we went to check into our flight only to discover that the final leg had been cancelled. Fortunately the tour company was able to get us on other flights and we got to Prague only 1 hour later than we were supposed to.

After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we walked into the old town area of Prague. We spent a few hours walking around, but had to return to the hotel for a briefing meeting.

After that we went to dinner at a wonderful restaurant. The food and the setting was amazing. Then we were off to bed.

We have spent 4 days in Singapore. We had a wonderful guide, Wadi for 2 days and the remainder of our time was on our own. Singapore has been a sovereign nation since 1965. The island nation is 280 square miles in total. Our guide told us you can drive from one side to the other in about 1 hour. There are many walking and biking paths throughout the city itself. The weather here is always hot.

The original settlement was founded by Stamford Raffle, 200 years ago. There are many places and buildings named for him, especially the Raffles Hotel. The current population of Singapore is 6.1 million. The original city was set up in sections devoted to different nationalities, Chinese, Arab, Indian, English and others. Because of this there are many colorful areas to see.

Our hotel, The Fullerton, was on the original shoreline. There are many areas that have been expanded by landfill. The hotel was the original post office. The country currently has 7 million trees, with the projected next million planted by 2030. Singapore has 4 official races and 4 official languages. 80% of the people live in public housing, but it is very nice looking, well maintained and after a period of time you are able to “purchase” your apartment on a 99 year lease. The way the young people propose is to say “I hear a flat is coming up should we apply together”. There is almost no homelessness.

Singapore was called the lion city, because when it was first discovered someone thought they saw a lion, but it was probably a tiger, but none the less they named the city for the lion, Singa. On our first day we visited Waterloo Street which is in Chinatown. The streets were decorated in red with many trees of mandarin oranges. This is the beginning of the Chinese new year, starting about 3 days after we visited this area. Traditionally you give red packets which contain money and mandarin oranges. We were able to go into a Chinese temple. We heard about how they buy a bundle of sticks, shake them until 1 falls out and then take that to the fortune teller.

Our next stop was on Arab street, and these people were getting ready for Ramadan, the traditional fasting time.

The Merlion was adopted as the mascot in 1971. The Singaporeans eat 6 times a day and stay up late and rise early. Our guide said, they walk fast, eat fast and play fast. We had lunch at fabulous Chinese restaurant. The food was some of the best we have had at a group lunch.

This ended our first day in Singapore. It had been terribly hot and when we got to our beautiful hotel we cleaned up, and were too tired to go out to dinner. Actually after the big lunch and drinks, we did not need much in the way of food.

Since this has been a very long post, I will do subsequent days in another post.

So far, Singapore does not disappoint.

After 3 days at sea we arrived at our first port in Bali, Benoa. Balinese culture is deeply rooted in Hinduism. Benoa is located in southeastern Bali. Bali is part of the Indonesian republic which was established August 17, 1945. The island of Bali has a population of 4.6 million. The island has many immigrants who come here to find work in the tourism industry. Other than tourism, the main economic activity is rice farming.

Education through high school is free. So is healthcare. This has only been the case in the past 14 years. Many of the young people do not go on to college. There is a great deal of illiteracy among the older population.

We learned a great deal about the culture of the Balinese. When children are born they are called by their birth order. There are 4 names because there are 4 directions. I did not get the names but if you were the first born you would be called North 1, but if you were the 5th child you would be called North 2. Our guide had a small flower offering on the bus, so we would be safe and return to the port unharmed. They are very respectful and believe we are all human.

As we drove we saw small temple structures that are dedicated to their ancestors. Many had cloth draped over them. Every family has these temples and believe that the spirit of those who have passed before reside in them. They believe in reincarnation and make a daily flower offering to their ancestors.

We went to the Royal Temple first. It was very traditional in that it was only altar like places for worship. We could not go in that area, but there was a walled walkway that we could follow. It was not in very good repair. They still have a royal family, but they have no importance in the running of the country. It was built in 1634.

After visiting the Royal temple we drive to Tanah Lot, another temple from the 17th century. It was on the coast and the shore line was rocky and there were crashing waves.

Our second day was from the port of Celukan Bawang on the north shore of the island. Bali is one of 17,000 island that make up Indonesia. All of Indonesia has a population of 279 million and is the 14th largest country in the world by area.

Our guide told us to not expect much since Bali is a 3rd world country. We already knew that from our first day of touring. The roads were narrow, winding and crowded. Motorbikes were the most numerous means of transportation with a helmet law in place, but many rode without a helmet. Many of the drivers had small children in front of them on the motorbike. Our guide told us that there are 17,000 licensed guides in Bali and they only work sporadically. He works at a rice field when he is not guiding.

The Balinese go to some sort of market for food daily, mainly because they do not have refrigerators in their homes. We passed many small homes and our guide said that the people do not own them, but are passed down in a family by generation. Once you have a house it is the family’s forever.

Bali gets about 7 million tourists a year. The areas we saw were not pretty. There was garbage everywhere and ramshackle buildings. We were disappointed in our visit, we thought we would see pretty beaches, lush landscape, sort of like Bali Hai.

Our first stop was at the Royal Palace. It was not ornate or fancy, by our standards. However, when you compare it to the small houses we saw as we drove it was palatial.

After the Royal Palace we went to a Chinese Temple. We were able to see all of it, because they were preparing for a holiday and had all of it open.

Our final stop was at the Aneko Beach Hotel. It was a 3 star hotel but looked nice. We had lunch there and the option to walk to the beach. The beach here, like all the beaches we saw, was not very pretty, the sand was a dark grey and the water not very colorful.

We were disappointed in Bali, I guess we did not realize how poor the island is. There are obviously high end resorts and perhaps if we had seen them our impression would have been different.

We now have two more sea days before we get to Singapore and the end of the cruise part of our trip.

Our ship docked in Fremantle, but our excursion took us to Perth and Fremantle. Fremantle is located on the Swan River. As with most places in Australia, this area was inhabited by Aboriginal people for thousands of years with Dutch explorers coming in the 1600s but not settled until 1829 by the British and named for Charles Fremantle who was the one who claimed the area for the British.

It was also a convict settlement with the convicts building the Fremantle Prison. Convicts were no longer brought here after 1868, and now the building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It closed in 1986.

We followed the river from Fremantle to Perth. The river itself is very wide and used by the locals for sailing, jet skiing, wind surfing and other water sports.Our first stop was at King’s Park. It was established in 1901 and is just slightly smaller than Central Park in New York City. It has hiking trails, a huge botanical garden and lots of open spaces for the locals to use. It is mainly located at the top of Mount Eliza. The Aboriginal people believe the Great Spirit created the Swan River and there is some mythology about a Rainbow Serpent. The Rainbow Serpent is a major creator deity in Australian Aboriginal mythology, symbolizing water, fertility, and the life cycle. Represented as a giant snake, often with a rainbow-colored body, this Dreamtime figure shaped the landscape—creating rivers, mountains, and waterholes—and is revered as a protector of water, bringing both life-giving rains and, if angered, chaotic floods or drought

Perth was settled in 1829 and the area which also includes Fremantle has a population of 1.75 million. It is a big city in all ways, tall building, traffic lights and lots of restaurants and shops. Because the west coast of Australia is very dry, this is the most settled area on this coast. Perth is the most isolated city in the world, because it is not near any other major city. The Perth airport is actually located in Fremantle because the land is not as stable in Perth.

Our next stop was at Cottesloe Beach. It is right on the Indian Ocean. The waters of the Indian Ocean are very dark blue, like India ink. The area is very windy. There are lots of shipwrecks off this coast. Actually, the search for the missing Malaysia aircraft that went down about 10 years ago is being conducted in this part of the Indian Ocean.

Located on Geographe Bay, is the town of Busselton, a vibrant coastal city on the southwest region of Western Australia. It serves as the primary gateway to the world famous Margaret River wine region. It is also a top holiday destination in Australia. The area has been inhabited for 40,000 years by the Noongar Aboriginal people. The area was settled by French settlers in 1832. Many of the towns still have their Aboriginal names and those that end in “up” indicate they are near water.

The population of the area is 34,000 but during holidays it can almost triple. There were many hotels, campgrounds and air b and b’s. We anchored and had to tender in to the town. They have a jetty that extends out into the bay that is almost 1.5 kilometers long. They run a train on it to bring people to the end, where there is a natural aquarium.

The timber industry is big in this part of Australia with very little farming. There are, however, many wineries, some huge and some boutique.

Many of the housing subdivisions are named for a sailer who went overboard and was never found, Vasse. There is a winery named for him as well. This was the most city like town since Melbourne.

Margaret River was named for the cousin of Mr. Bussel, who was the person the town was named for. Margaret River, in the 1960s was a hippie community. Then it was discovered that grapes grew well in this area and the wineries followed. Many of the wineries not only do tastings, but have locals who live nearby providing B and Bs. They coordinate these wine tours. Margaret River also holds a big surfing competition annually.

We were on a tasting tour, beer, chocolate and wine. The beer was at the Cheeky Monkey brewery established in 2010. We had the option to taste 4 beers. The only one I liked was the ginger beer. Most of the people I sat with were beer fans and liked more than I did.

The second stop was at the Margaret River Chocolate Company. It was not really a tasting, just a shopping opportunity with a taste of the chocolate before you bought. Disappointing 😞. This enterprise was established in the 1990s because of the wineries.

Our last stop was at Aravina Winery. It was established in 2010. It was situated on beautiful grounds. It is supposedly a popular wedding venue. We tasted 5 wines, 1 sparkling, 2 white and 2 red. None appealed to me, but one of my table mates told me about a wine I might like and have been having it nightly at dinner since. Check out – Viognier.

First we had to learn the correct way to say this port’s name. Not All-bany, but Al (like the start of Alan) bonnie. Albany is the oldest settlement of Western Australia. In 2026, Albany is celebrating its bicentennial having been settled in December, 1826 as a military outpost. Many of the places in the area have names related to royalty. The population of the area is about 40,000 and they have no traffic lights, just roundabouts. Although settled as a military post, it was mostly settled by convicts.

To get to Albany we sailed up the King George Sound, named after King George III. The inner harbor has a wealth of fishing options to include mussels, clams and cobbler (a type of catfish). The area exports wheat, wood chips ( we were told that the toilet paper we use is probably made from wood chips that came from Australia), rare minerals and sands. They use “road trains”, tractor trailers with 2 to 4 trailers attached, to get the goods to the port.

The town has a huge wind farm which supplies about 80% of the towns electricity.

During WWI, Albany was the port that most soldiers were sent overseas from. The town has a big memorial to the ANZAC troops. In the Second World War, the Japanese and German subs mined the harbor. It took some time to discover they were all fake mines.

Our first stop was at The Gap and Natural Bridge in Torndirrup National Park. This part of Australia was once connected to Antarctica. The Gap is massive rocks separated from each other with the ocean coming in between and creating booming sounds. It was beautiful to see and hear and the park had a viewing platform that took you out over the gorge.

There is an Aboriginal story about two warriors who fought on each side of the gap and at the end when each died of wounds became the shark and the stingray.

A short walk from The Gap was the Natural Bridge. The coast line here was very dramatic with pretty beaches, cliffs and roaring waves.

Our next stop was the Cheynes Beach Whaling Station. Whaling was a huge industry in the 1840s. The whales were caught only for their blubber. The Aboriginal people often came to work in order to get the meat of the whales which was beneficial to them. The place we visited was the longest running whaling station from 1952 – 1978. In the 1960s whaling for humpback whales was banned. The area has sperm whales so the whaling industry was not affected. The station was closed because in the 1970s the need for the whale oil was lessened and the cost to run the whaling ships was exceedingly expensive.

We had a tour of the full whaling station with informative talks at each place to explain what happened as the whale was processed. A 50 ton whale would provide about 7 tons of oil. The bones were ground to use as fertilizer. The teeth were sold for ivory. Although the main purpose in catching the whale was for its blubber, the remainder of the whale was not just discarded. The ships they used, were built in Norway and could travel at a speed of 35 kpm, which is the same speed a sperm whale can travel. One of the interesting exhibits was of scrimshaw. The word scrimshaw means “to waste time” and the sailors carved their items in their spare time when there was nothing else to do.

The whaling exhibit also had an area of Australian native animals.

This was one of the more interesting days we have had.