Days 40-43 Sea Days and Darwin Australia

Weather
Mid 90's and Humid!

Map

About
Darwin is the capital of Australia's Northern Territory and a former frontier outpost. It's also a gateway to massive Kakadu National Park. Its popular waterfront area has several beaches and green areas like Bicentennial Park. Also near the water is the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, displaying Southeast Asian and Pacific art, plus a pearling lugger and other seafaring vessels.

What we did
We enjoyed three sea days full of playing Mahjong, attending lectures, playing cards, getting some exercise in and celebrating Valentines Day. Amy had choir practice and we also did a blind wine tasting. The waters we traveled through were gorgeous and multicolored due to our closeness to the reef. For Valentines Day, we made sure to forego any desserts at lunch and dinner. At dinner, they were handing out single long stem roses. We had a lovely dinner in the Casual Restaurant with a window and the sunset was spectacular. At 8pm, Viking had spectacular display of (mostly chocolate) desserts in the Atrium while they played love songs/music in the background. The lines were quite long, but I think everyone found something they liked as the assortment of desserts was incredible. And as you can see, the pictures speak for themselves.

We chose the included excursion for Darwin which was the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. This museum was eclectic starting with showcasing artwork done by high school students in the territory which was very interesting. The museum was created to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of Cyclone Tracey that devastated the area in 1974. There was an exhibit naturally on Cyclone Tracey. Other exhibits included indigenous and extinct species of the area, a brief history of the people who lived here especially between 1880 and World War I. They also had a marine exhibit which full size models of some of the boats that have been used in the area over the past few hundred years. After the museum instead of taking a bus back to the cruise ship, we took an Uber to Spotlight which is a store much like Michaels (crafts) in the states to purchase some knitting supplies. Many passengers are working together to knit caps for newborns as well as squares to make blankets for an orphanage in Cape Horn. We returned back to the ship for lunch. The weather was unsettled in the afternoon so we hung out in our room for a few hours until the rain was over before venturing out on a walk. The highlight of Darwin was the water front. We were docked pretty close to town. It was very hot in Darwin but they have a lovely walkway along the waterfront that is covered and curvy along the coast. They have a lagoon for swimming and tons of restaurants. Unfortunately, it was later in the afternoon and most of the shops were closed so we didn't spend a lot of time in the town, and took the shuttle bus back to the ship.