I write this blog with the Ukraine war present as a disturbing cloud on the mood of our pleasant cruise. As I mentioned in my previous blog, the cruise schedule is very busy in the upcoming weeks in the Mediterranean. In fact, we will be in port on seven consecutive days, including two days (and one night) in Venice. So my upcoming blogs will combine several ports, with as many photos as the ship’s internet will enable.
I’ve visited Stockholm, Sweden, over a dozen times during the last forty years, for weeks or months at a time, I’m once again reminded of why it is one of my favorite cities in the world, and indeed, why I love Sweden in general...
Corfu, Greece, is located offshore from mainland Greece at Greece’s northwest corner, offshore from Albania, which has a turbulent history with Greece. Corfu is proud to be Greece’s greenest island, in terms of climate.
Our Viking China cruise continued to three port cities I had never heard of before. The Chinese government seeks to increase tourism, and our cruise is one of the first collaborations with the Chinese government and Viking Cruises. The ship's staff is 100% Chinese, and the entertainers are all Chinese. So this particular cruise is different from the usual Viking multi-national staff.
Our ship, the Yi Dun, is named after the first Chinese commercial ship launched in 1872, the Yi Dun.
Global warming is happening every day. I happened to witness it firsthand during our recent visit to Svalbard.
There has been an interesting progression on this month-long trip. First, we visited purely Buddhist and sparsely populated Bhutan. Next, we visited partially Buddhist and more densely populated Sikkim...
Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, after #1 India, #2 China, & #3 USA, numbering 279 million people (source-Wikipedia). It is the world's most populous Muslim country. It is the world's 14th largest nation by area, and the world's largest archipelagic state consisting of over 17,000 islands.
But beyond these statistics, I was very impressed with the warmth of the Indonesian people. The attached photo gallery illustrates their warmth.
Shinto is Japan's "native" religion, dating back at least two thousand years. The Shinto temples in Kyoto date from the eighth century, when Kyoto was the most powerful city in Japan.
