drron29

The last of the Festival. We had got there not long after it opened but as we left the crowds were pouring in.

They also have an elevated viewing spot. Not at full bloom but even so the display and location are great.

On the Moon on sail ins the best observation spot is deck12 forward. There is a door to the staircase on deck 12 on the Port ( left ) side of the Observation lounge. i did this on a spectacular sail in to Kotor on both the Moon and Dawn.

But the real reason it is so popular is because a certain mountain has a way to getting into your photos. Their little village with shops and restaurants plus quite a few food trucks for the festival. And the way to pay if you want something from a food truck. But it's that mountain again. And even a floral Mt Fuji.

I then caught the shuttle into town. Easy pick up.great service. I had to do a right turn out of the depot onto a busy road. No problems the agent walked onto the road, put his hands up and I went back to the hotel and picked up Rojaan. Soon we were off on our plans for today. First stop Lake Motosuko for the Shibazakura festival which had begun the weekend before. We arrived soon after it opened that morning and for a while not huge crowds. Though the flowers were definitely not at full bloom. In the summer months they have a Peter rabbit garden. A bit sad in early spring.

The Australian office has obviously been downgraded. In the past when I had a question for Silversea my TA would say I will ring Sydney and get back to you later today. On the last 3 occasions with them the answer is i will contact Miami and will get back to you when they reply. The shortest time for a reply was a week.

We hadn't booked for dinner thinking as guests we should be OK. The website says reservation is recommended but it doesn't say they are only opening 1 of the 2 dinner restaurants now. They have 2 dinner settings at !730 and 1930. Fortunately we wanted an early meal so we went down to the restaurant. Told by the waiter that as we didn't have a booking we should go to the front desk and make a reservation. We thought we would have to hang out until 1930 but no that was completely booked but there was a table available at 1730. Back at the restaurant we once again were asked if we had a booking. Yes I made it a minute ago. Taken to the table and handed the English menu. Basically 6 set menus -3 French and 3 International ranging in price from $A110 to $A230 per head with wine extra. Fortunately there was an A La carte selection which we ordered from. I started with a raw squid and scallop salad which was excellent. I then had a seafood plate. Quite nice. Rojaan had fried chicken for mains and a raspberry dessert. She liked both. We washed it down with a house white which turned out to be a Sav blanc. quite good. And all that was $A140 which we felt was much better value than having one of the set menus. The next morning it was down to Brekkie at an early hour for us as we were going into town to pick up a rental from Toyota that I made the night before. wasn't that much to choose from but I was happy with the little box car we got. My 2 plates at breakfast. It was very nice. We both loved the miso marinated roast potatoes. More importantly Fuji wasn't hiding.

I decided it would be a good idea to have a car As the Tourist busses were packed and Kawaguchigo CBD was a zoo. But we also wanted to go here - https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6919.html So got online and arranged to pick up the car at 9am the next morning. We went to the lobby to have a couple of glasses of wine. They have this crazy automatic dispenser. You stick a card that you buy at the front desk and then supposedly serve your wine. 500 yen for 60 mls. Now Rojaan naturally wanted a white wine so picked one of the dry whites. Nothing happened. eventually went to the front desk and they couldn't get it to work either so he cancelled the transaction and got a new bottle out from the cupboard and poured her 60 mls. He forgot to charge it so she ended up having 3 glasses to my 2. The second white and my 2 reds had no problems. they weren't too bad. Back to our room.The swallows were busy building a nest on our balcony. Then watched the first of the sunset. Of course our room faced east.

More of the golf course. Then we went for a walk up the road to the hotel lined with cherry blossom.

And they have a mini golf course.

Down to the lakes edge. And back into the hotels gardens.

Different views from our room. And the room. Quite spacious for a Japanese hotel. After unpacking the carry ons we went for a walk around the grounds. Couldn't take my eyes off a certain mountain. We crossed the road at the back of the Hotel and walked down to the lake. There was a group preparing to go kayaking.

Thank you for that song @QueSeraSera. I really liked it. And yes certain music immediately bring certain places and times ino my head. Actually a lot of songs. One reason is that for the last 17 years I worked as a locum and would be sent to Regional australia for a week or up to 6 months. I always listened to the local community radio when in the car. invariably one song was always played many times during a stay. So this song is Launceston Tasmania. And this is Mackay Queensland. And of course their is our song. The Australian version of this song was released when me met. The movie was our second date.

A little from Downunder. Australian wine makers have taken to screw tops instead of cork enthusiastically. First with white wines as early usage of these tops in trials were with white wines which lasted longer with the screw tops. More cautious with the reds. I bought the screw top releases of 2 of my favourite wines as the vineyards released both cork and screw tops with the 2004 vintages. Twenty years down the track I can say that I prefer the screw top versions. They are lasting 5 - 10 years longer than their corked siblings. An interesting article. https://chrisshanahan.com/articles/2007/a-new-seal-for-penfolds-grange/

Obviously Silversea is not doing so well in the UK because there apparently no UK TAs on their global advisory board. "Other advisory board members are from regions such as the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil and Mexico." "While the US remains Silversea’s top source, Muckermann forecast the Australian market will be close to overtaking the United Kingdom for the second spot by 2024. “The UK is an amazing market but it has not been growing for over 10 years,” she said." https://latteluxurynews.com/2023/04/06/silversea-travel-advisory-board-2/ There are 2 Australian TAs and a New Zealander on the board.

We kept returning to NYC every year until 2018 and continued the Le Bernadin tradition. From 2002 until late 2015 we had a timeshare in the Hilton Club on 6th Avenue. We were staying in the Hilton to see our son. it was 5 months after 9/11 and the Hilton Club had opened a month before. But no one was buying in NYC. They made us a good offer so we bought in. We were number 5 in the list of owners that used to be displayed in the Club Room. Then in 2015 they made us another offer we couldn't refuse. They bought back our membership at a price that covered our initial purchase plus the annual fees we had paid for 13 years. This was mainly because the $A had tumbled and we got a lot more of them at that time

There are 2 non stop LH flights in the early afternoon on Thursdays. Much better options than an early flight that you might miss.

Indeed it is. I have been wearing it for 17 years now and still good. our son worked at Bear Stearns for 5 years. About 3-4 months before they went under he got a job back in Australia. Fortunately they didn;t want him ubtil 2 weeks after Bear Steans folded. So he got his payout from Bear Stearns and 10 days later his new bank paid for his relocation to Australia. On the final day of Bear Stearns they were able to take items that hadn't been sold hence my jacket.

No. Oztraylya. Type that into google and it comes up do you mean Australia.

Well I know I would never have been able to get the results we have had from our TA when things go wrong. Belmond River cruise in Burma, spent a day stuck on a sand bank. When we asked on board and again later we were offered $A400. Got our TA to try. got $A4000. When Qantas shut down the airline in 2011 on a Saturday night we were out to dinner. Came back to our hotel and heard the news. We were to fly out on the Tuesday on Qantas. Went to email our TA but there was already an email from her as she had rebooked us on the BA flight. Can't beat those results by myself.

some 29 years ago we flew into juneau and stayed 3 nights before flying on to Petersburg to join our small boat on an Inside Passage cruise. We were waiting for our friends to join us. We had to come early as that was when I could get us award flights. I thought it would be better if we stopped in Juneau rather than Petersburg, How wrong I was. Bedlam the first morning so I hired a car for our stay and the next 2 mornings drove out of town before 8am. The worst thing was our evening meals. Virtually every restaurant was out of king crab legs,Dungeness crab and lobster. At least if you visit on a cruise you can stay on the ship.😉

Most days I also had the smoked salmon and cream cheeses pannini. I also loved it.