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!

Ba Na Hills is Bananas WoW, in the best way!! Let me try and explain. There is n o way you imaging a place like this, when you think about travel to Vietnam! A resort atop a Mountain, high in the clouds/fog, far above the city limits of Da Nang . Accessible only by cable cars, on stretches so long, it's in the Guinness World Records . Built to look like a French Medieval Village complete with Versailles style fountains and the Louvre pyramid and a Golden Bridge suspended by Giant Hands hanging off the side and carved Mount Rushmore like sculptures into the supporting rock faces. It's an Instagram wonder!

Just about a half hour outside downtown Da Nang are Marble Hills .These five stone hills produce a huge amount of various colored marble that have been made into all kinds of statues, furniture, jewelry and knick knacks. Inside the cavernous spaces of the Hills, lots of temples and shrines have developed. Before getting to the base of the Hills, our driver asked us if we wanted to stop at a Marble Shop, bearing the wares of this marble. The place was huge - with soo many choices! And guess what their prices all have an option to ship to the USA! or I figure any where else in the world! A sales person escorted us through out the spaces. No heavy stones for me despite how pretty!

On our fourth port day in Nha Trang , Bosco, Terri and I took a quick 50 minute flight north to Da Nang, Vietnam to do some deeper exploring inland. Downtown Da Nang spans the Hans River, that opens out to the Da Nang Bay and the East Vietnam Sea. Today, Da Nang is one of the quickest growing cities in Vietnam, known for it's youth (median age is just 35) and dynamic environment.




