We arrived about 45 minutes later than scheduled as the authorities boarded the pilot late. The weather was cold, showery and windy. It has been the first port day with unpleasant weather. The excursion first went to the observation point on the 88th floor of the Jinmao Hyatt Building. Because of the conditions we couldn't see as much as we'd hoped, but the views of Shanghai we had were stunning. We then went to the Yu Yuan Gardens in the old town. It ...

Cool and foggy outside. Lots of shipping about. Captain said that the temperature in Shanghai will be about 8 tomorrow, with cloud cover and possibility of showers. Watched 'Loosely Dancing' this afternoon. 5 entertainment officers and various members of the crew in a Strictly Come Dancing style show. One poor lad was an 18 year old Engineering Cadet. Strictly isn't something I watch, but I enjoyed the show. Another gold sticker in the evening Individu...

Yet another early day and the first day of week 10. Up at 5:15 for a 6:30 start. As we left the ship the Volendam was moored by us. Today was to be a day of ancient and modern. We drove to Tianjin railway station and boarded the Fast Train, in other words the bullet train. We reached speeds of 295kph and it took 33 minutes to reach Beijing. We then drove from Beijing South station to the Forbidden City. On the way we passed Tiananmen Square. We then w...

Well the captain was right, it was a rough night. The wind force is currently only 9 and the sea state rough, but it seems to be the worst sea day we've had, weather wise. To make matters worse, the outside temperature is only 3 degrees at the moment (8.20). Maybe things will improve later in the day. The outside decks are closed. The decks were still closed at 14.30, so no deck quoits. Earlier, the men pulled back in front in the Battle of the Sexes. Th...

Another early start, my excursion started at 7.00. We drove over the Megami Ohashi Bridge, past the Mitsubishi Shipyard crossed back over the Asahi Ohashi Bridge and went to the Peace Park. There we saw the peace statue, a man with left hand raised to the sky where the bomb came from and his right held out for peace over the world. The park also had a couple of arches with strings of paper cranes (the peace symbol), a fountain with jets in the shape of bird ...