Fukuoka, Japan

October 20, 2015 : Our first port on the cruise was Fukuoka, Japan. We did our own thing there and walked around the very pretty, peaceful and clean town. There was a lovely park in the middle of the city area.

 

Robots for sale in Fukuoka mall.

Cruise - Shanghai to Beijing

October 19 to October 23.

We had a wonderful time on our 5 day cruise. A very new and huge ship called Quantum of the Seas, which is part of the Royal Carribean group. The sea was very calm, which helped me manage the new experience of cruising. I needed to take a few travel pills, but I managed really well and enjoyed it. Rick enjoyed it too. He didn't feel the movement at all. Very relaxing.

Shanghai by night

 China Trip October 16 to Nov 1

Oct 17
Shanghai Night River Cruise on Huangpu River.

Very scenic and a pleasant cruise. Great weather.

After the cruise I got lost from our bus group! It was a worrying time. I was by myself because Rick had opted to go back to the hotel to stretch out his sore back after hours and hours on the plane and the bus! I wasn't all that familiar with our bus group members at this stage, so I was trying to follow people I thought might be on our bus. I failed!  I was trying to keep calm and think how I was going to find everyone, amongst the scores of buses and thousands of people in the dark!  The bus had parked in a different place to where it was when we fist arrived. That threw me completely.
Probably within about 10 or 15 minutes, Kelly, our tour guide found me. I was very, very  relieved. All turned out OK.

Throughout our tour we had to do constant roll calls, because of the risks of getting lost in  the huge crowds at the venues we visited.

Shanghai - Day 1 & 2

China trip Oct 16 to Nov 1

Shanghai, Friday October 16 and  Saturday October 17

Our China trip began with a flight to Shanghai on Rick's Birthday , Oct 16.
We were able to pay extra to get EXIT ROW seats, to give Rick more leg room....on his birthday.
Happy Birthday Rick! A ten hour flight is your present!

It took a while for the 5 tour leaders ( from Nexus Holidays) to process all 200 Aussies at the airport. I think maybe it was the biggest group they had dealt with. There was a lot of standing around in the airport while we were waiting for all the clear customs and for the five buses to arrive!
Finally we got to the hotel on our "A4" bus and were in bed about midnight ( 3am Canberra time). Our group had 44 people.

Zhujiajiao Village was our first stop the following day.
"A village to take us back in time to the Ming and Qing Dynasty."
We found it a pleasant little village to walk around and we also enjoyed a sampan ride on the canal.

 

 Shanghai Roads! Many an hour spent in traffic over the four days.