June 20, 2024
Planten un Blomen - Hamburg's Botanical Gardens
After the soccer game, we took advantage of the late summer daylight hours here in Northern Germany. We strolled the gardens for an hour and then found seating in the grassy area, surrounding the lake, to await the nightly fountain show. Can you believe it is 10 pm when show started! Look how bright the skies are! At 10:30, as we made our way home, darkness finally comes. Sunrise starts at 4:50 a.m.! I wear an eye mask to bed each night. Crazy German Summer!
We met up with the Ship in Timor Leste or East Timor, one of the youngest countries in the World . This sovereign state just gained their independence on May 20, 2002 from prior Portuguese rule (1515 until 1975) and Indonesian occupation (1975 until 1999). The Ship was anchored off the coastal town of Dili, the capital city with a population of roughly 1.4 million.
I know people laugh when I say we took a vacation from the Ship , they view this whole amazing voyage as a vacation! But the reality is the Ship is my home now, and almost everybody loves a vacation away from home, to unwind and recharge! So my life on the Odyssey, is not that different. I really appreciated my two weeks away at Eco Cove Resort , on Yeben Island in Raja Ampat, Indonesia !
I got to do 14 dives and 5 snorkel trips over our two weeks at Eco Cove Resort. I feel much more confident and comfortable diving, practice does truly help! Eco has these t-shirts that list all their Resort excursions - we made a nice dent in all of them and it's hard to pick a favorite!