How highlights change! Both the weather and where we went saw the best of the trip go from the Floralies flower show in Ghent to the Keukenhof gardens and Zaanse Schans near Amsterdam. The weather from Sunday to Tuesday was cold - 2 to 6-8 each day with wind, rain, hail and sleet interspersed with brief periods of sunshine.

On Monday we did what was meant to be the highlight of the trip, the visit to Floralies in Ghent, Belgium. It's history goes back to 1809 and it has been held as a major show every 5 years since 1839. It was mostly inside so the weather wasn't a problem. We arrived in Ghent, got our wrist bands and were ready to go by about 9.45. In hindsight, we should have been an hour earlier. The show was spread over 4 major locations and the first one had very few people so we had a good view. We had a brief visit to a second one then at the third one the crowds were so large, we gave up and went back to the main exhibition hall. There was a crush to get in here also but we did and had a good visit. At all locations, the flower, plant and artistic exhibits were excellent. There are quite a few photos on our website already. We missed the East meets West exhibit which featured Japan but otherwise the show was excellent and lived up our expectations despite the crowds getting in.

That afternoon, one bus load visited 2 private gardens designed by one of Belgium's best garden designers, Chris Gheyselen. The first was his own garden and it had many elements we could translate to Australia, particularly given his clay soil. His garden was a complete contrast to the flower show with everything mostly green as it is just coming into leaf and many plants will flower later. The design was excellent and gave everyone some inspiration. The second was nearby but it started to rain heavily so it was a quick visit under the umbrellas. It was also very good . The bus driver had some trouble finding both places but this gave us the chance to see many local gardens on the way. The Belgians all had very well kept gardens, many quite ornate.

There were several options on Tuesday and we decided to see some Dutch countryside rather than more gardens. We first visited the beautiful town of Willemstad which was a fort town and had "hosted" various people including Napoleon and Hitler. We were treated to an organ recital in the church. In the afternoon we went to Kinderdijk which is probably the best place to see windmills. There are 19 still operating and they are all to pump water. Of the original 10,000 windmills, more than 90% were to pump water to keep the country dry. There are about 1,000 left and only 400 of these pump water. The windmills are all in their original position and are kept operational. It is a fascinating place to visit.

Wednesday turned out to be the highlight of the trip. The weather was still cool but we had no rain and quite a bit of sun during our 2 visits. The first was to Keukenhof Gardens which many people will know. It is a site of about 70 acres with around 7 million bulbs on display. It is designed as a showplace for bulb growers to display their products. It is hard to describe the profusion of colour and design we saw. We arrived early and there were very few people so many photos are just of flowers. Apparently they can have up to 900 bus loads of visitors in a day! We will post some photos soon to show some of the colour.

In the afternoon we visited Zaanse  Schans which is an outdoor museum village of buildings from various locations. There are several windmills there and these are the type to make things. We all know about milling grain for flour but there were all sorts of factories well before the age of steam. Many were saw mills which had crankshafts to convert the rotary movement into reciprocal motion to saw logs. we saw a mill there which still produces timber from logs for housing. As the winds changed so did the speed of the sawing. There is also a mill which grinds pigments and makes paint.

We had a nice farewell dinner last night and today walked from the ship to Amsterdam station. We caught 2 trains to get here in Hamburg where the washing is on the go.

We plan to report next after visiting Hamburg, Prague, Munich and Strasbourg.

With a free morning on Thursday before we were being picked up for the ship, we went to the Rijks Museum which is the national art museum and reopened in 2013 after a major renovation. It is a good size to see  in a few hours and has an excellent collection of paintings from all eras including those by Vermeer, Van Gogh and Rubens. There is also an excellent collection of furniture, carvings, ceramics and other items.

We arrived at our ship, the Amastella around 3.30 PM. The cruise is through Botanica who do garden themed tours of various sorts. This cruise is in conjunction with APT and our ship is only 6 weeks old so has the latest technology. We have one of the larger cabins which is very good. The cruise includes all food, drink, tours and Wi-Fi. There are several experts on board covering art history, garden design and European garden history. The talks both on board and during tours have been very good. One who some might know is Dr Toby Musgrave who has published several books and appeared as the garden historian on Monty Don's garden shows on ABC and SBS.

On Friday morning, the ship stayed in Amsterdam and we had a choice of a canal cruise or a trip to the botanical gardens at the University of Utrecht which we did. The gardens were very good with a wide range of plants some in bloom and others yet to reach their best. In the afternoon, we sailed to Hoorn and did a walking tour of Edam (with cheese tasting) and Volendam, a fishing town.

On Saturday, we arrived in Arnhem (famous for the battle for "The Bridge too Far") and had a choice of a war museum or the Het Loo palace and gardens. Het Loo was a residence of the Dutch royal family until 1962 when the state took it over and it is now open to the public. It is a baroque building and garden and quite ornate for the Netherlands although not as ostentatious as Versailles or some other palaces. There are some photos on this site.

Today, Sunday, we arrived in Antwerp and had a walking tour this morning and a tasting tour (waffles, beer and chocolate) this afternoon. Antwerp has some interesting architecture and statues and is quite a compact city to get around. The bell tower on the cathedral is one of the highest in Europe and very ornate. The weather has got colder and it rained and hailed on and off this morning with sunny breaks and more sun this afternoon.  We had to buy a beanie and gloves for Boris as it is colder than we expected.

The ship can hold 170 passengers but there are only 117 on board plus the experts and Botanica staff. The food is very good and wine reasonably in quality. The passengers are mostly from Australia with a few New Zealanders and a couple from Calgary in Canada. We shared our complimentary bottle of Veuve Clliquot champagne with them last night in our cabin.

We head off tonight for Ghent and the highlight of the trip, the Floralies flower show.

The trip back to Tokyo on Monday was a little long but uneventful. We had breakfast at a local chain called Wee Willie for the 4th time this trip. It is a bakery with set breakfast menus. For 514 yen (A$6) we got coffee, a small salad, half a banana and a panini or egg on toast or sandwiches. Great value. We caught the train from Matsuyama to Okayama and then the Shinkansen to Tokyo and a local train to Haneda airport where we stayed the night. The flight to Paris the next morning was on time and quite smooth. We were on a train within about 45 minutes of landing. We stayed at the Hotel Jardin du Luxembourg which is a short walk from a station on the line from the airport and back to Gare du Nord on the same line. We had time after breakfast for a walk through the gardens on a cool but clear morning.

The highlight of the last few days has to be the trip from Paris to Amsterdam on the Thalys train. We had joined their club (for free) which gave us access to their lounge prior to the trip - free coffee and internet in nice surroundings. As this was the train which had a foiled terrorism scare recently, they now have security screening before boarding. It was reasonably quick. There were also armed police patrolling the train. The trip itself was a revelation. We paid for first class (not much more than 2nd) and got free Wi-Fi, morning tea with a snack and a drink including wine, and a good lunch, again with wine. The seats are very comfortable and the trip only took 3 1/2 hours at speeds up to 300 km/h.

We caught a tram to our hotel in Amsterdam this afternoon (Wednesday) and are being picked up for our 7 day cruise after lunch tomorrow. Not sure about Wi-Fi on the boat so we will see how we go with the next report.

Saturday had promised to be a rather long day on 3 different trains, one of which was a local stopping at 21 stations over 83 km in 2 hours and 40 minutes! The first train for an hour from Kochi to Kubokawa was uneventful and quite comfortable. The second train to Uwajima was a one carriage, one man train with bench seats along the side. The surprise was that it was reinvented as a mini train museum with part of one wall and several other small cases displaying model trains, mostly those from Shikoku. The train itself even had a false nose made to look like a bullet train! For the first part of the trip, most of the 10-16 passengers were there to experience the train rather than the journey. There was a wait of 20 minutes at one station for another train to pass. It was decorated with models and toys depicting dinosaurs and outer space. There was a large cabinet inside with many toys on display. That train was almost full with about 12 Germans and  their push bikes on board. There was a bit of excitement near the end when everyone's mobile phones got an alert and the train stopped in a hurry. It was an earthquake alert from the quakes happening near Kumamoto on Kyushu. We would have been about 200 km away but the quake of 7 in Kumamoto was about 4.5 in Kochi the night before so they are very careful. Even our phones got the alert. After 15 minutes we were on the way and there was no delay in the connecting train to Matsuyama where we spent the last 2 nights.

As rain was forecast for Sunday, we dropped our bags and headed for the castle which is the highest rated in Japan on Trip Advisor. It has an excellent location on a flat topped hill in the centre of town and was nicely preserved although much has been rebuilt over the centuries. There were some good displays of samurai armour and swords inside and the views over the city were great. Castles at Himeji and Matsumoto are still our favourites both for looks and because they are all original.

Matsuyama has a  good tram system so we had a 2 day pass and made the most of it. Today we went to Dogo Onsen which is 20 minutes away and has had hot baths for 3,000 years. The current baths are over 120 years old. We didn't have a bath but did visit a sake brewery and the park which was originally a castle grounds. Despite the original forecast, the weather was fine and warm all day.

After getting a taste of Shikoku, we will definitely visit again, particularly Kochi where there is much more to see and the food is great.

That's all from Japan for this part of our trip. We will try to get some more photos uploaded tomorrow before leaving for Paris.

Today (Sunday) we experienced the kindness of Japanese people twice. First we visited a sake brewery and bought a couple of small bottles and had a brief chat in broken English with the lady and she gave us a packet of lollies based on sake as a gift. Then, we were eating our lunch on a park bench while watching a man on the next bench feeding the pigeons. They were landing on his hat, trousers and even trying to get food  out of his pockets so we were laughing with him at their antics. As he left, he walked past us and gave us a gift of a nice Japanese fan and took off before we could reciprocate in some way. This has happened to us twice before in Japan.

THURSDAY, 14 April - We had planned to go to Shodoshima  Island for more of the art festival. However, heavy fog meant all ferries were cancelled for several hours so we took off inland to see if we could find the famous vine bridges of the Iya Valley. We got a train to Oboke and found buses were very infrequent so got a ride from a very helpful taxi driver. We had a good time gingerly walking across the very large vine bridge with boards about 100 mm apart and a long drop to the water. The vines were about 25mm diameter and lashed around large trees each end. These days there are 2 steel cables to reinforce the structure but it is still a great experience. We saw several people chicken out and also had  a chat with an elderly Japanese an half way across. We had a nice bowl of noodles for lunch there and luckily were able to catch a local bus back to the station. That was an experience in itself as it went via some very steep and narrow back roads. The cost was not much less than the taxi but we did have a 15 seat bus to ourselves. We got back to Takamatsu in goodtime and had an excellent dinner at a local Izakaya (pub with food) with the best chicken we have ever eaten.

FRIDAY, 15 April - Kochi has become our new favourite town in Japan! We had a 2 hour train ride there for a one night stay. As Shikoku is very mountainous and steep,  the scenery is amazing with many picturesque valleys and rivers. The trains go through dozens of tunnels and across many bridges. In Kochi we bought the bus pass for a day - half price for foreigners - about $6 - and saw some of the sights. We went to the beach side area first for great views of the Pacific Ocean with a small shrine on a point and other views. The second stop was a look out point over the city and the Makino Botanical Gardens. These are some of the best gardens we have seen. They are not the typical Japanese formal garden but more a collection of thousands of plant species in various themes. There were till a few cherry blossoms and azaleas in bloom. The gardens are huge and we could have spent another 2 hours there. A highlight is the enormous greenhouse (reminiscent of Kew Gardens in UK) which has changing displays. The current display is plants of Brazil and there was a huge range of orchids and other tropical plants on display. We didn't have time to see the castle in Kochi which apparently is very good. The other reason to go back is the food. We saw several restaurants we could have eaten at but had heard about the Hirome Market which is a very upmarket food court with about 60 restaurants. There are communal tables in the centre and counters or tables at some of the restaurants. We chose a fresh fish place and had a great meal, particularly the local bonito which is quickly seared but mostly raw. The sushi was also excellent as was the sake. It was good to watch the knife work of the chefs cutting fish into sashimi and sushi.

We will continue soon with this weekend and hopefully upload some photos before heading off to Paris.

The earthquakes that have hit Kumamoto on Kyushu have not affected us much. We felt the one about 1.25 AM this morning (Saturday) when the hotel moved a bit and the bed was rocking. While we were on the train late this morning, an alert came through on everyone's mobile phones and the driver stopped the train for about 15 minutes and then went on as usual. We were on a one man, one carriage train  and there were no problems. Later trains were running on time.

We have been having a great time although one change of plan due to fog stopping ferries for a few hours. We are in Matsuyama for 2 nights and will try to report on things tomorrow as rain is forecast.

We flew from Melbourne to Sydney on Sunday and then on to Tokyo on Monday. Flights were uneventful and we arrived on time in Tokyo and spent the night at Narita airport after getting our rail passes and making some train seat reservations.

The first trip was on 4 different trains from Narita to Shinagawa to Osaka to Okayama and finally Takamatsu. We stopped for a couple of hours in Osaka to visit our favourite knife shop to buy knives, scissors and sharpening stones for various people. We arrived in the late afternoon for 3 nights at the JR Hotel Clement which is right on the harbour and a short walk from Takamatsu station.

Takamatsu is a port on Japan's 4th largest island, Shikoku and is convenient to visit the Setouchi Triennale. This an art festival held every 3 years for a month each in spring, summer and autumn. There are art exhibits, galleries and installations on about 10 islands. We had the first of 2 days visiting the festival today and travelled by ferry to Teshima, a larger island with several localities showing art exhibits. We got to about 10 exhibits and some were very good, others rather odd or underwhelming. The setting on a mountainous island surrounded by the inland sea and many other islands made the while day worthwhile. Despite initial forecasts, the day was dry and sometimes sunny. The rain started just after we got back to our hotel and is meant to finish by morning so we were very lucky.

We have had trouble replying to and sending emails which sometimes happens to us in Japan. We have another 4 nights on Shikoku so hope to report before we leave Japan.

We are travelling to Japan and Europe on Sunday, April 10 for 5 weeks. The first stop is Japan where we plan to visit the Setouchi Triennale, an art festival on the islands of the inland sea between Honshu and Shikoku. We are also travelling around Shikoku. See the map below.

After that, we are flying to Paris and then train to Amsterdam to do a 7 day cruise through Belgium and then a train trip to Hamburg, Prague, Munich and Strasbourg. We finish with a few days in Tokyo on the way home.

We plan to update this blog about once a week during our trip - internet and time permitting.