Tag: History
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In Macau the Flat Friends found an interesting mix of Portuguese and Chinese culture.
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #macau The A-Ma Temple has the classic swooping roofline so often seen in pictures of Asian countries. After our visit to the temple we drove by a Las Vegas style area, with golden hotels and casinos competing for our attention. Several times we got confused, trying to figure out if we were looking…
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The Flat Friends Discover Singapore, A City-State
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #Singapore Singapore is an amazing place. Home to six million people it is a city-state, which is a fancy way of saying the entire country is really one big city. Athens and Rome were city-states, hundreds of years ago. There are basically three city-states in the world, each famous for different reasons. Monaco—famous…
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Exploring What Makes Indonesia Unique…
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #Indonesia The Flat Friends visited just 2 of the 17,000 islands that make up the country of Indonesia! (Bali & Komodo) Even though they only saw a small part of this giant archipelago (a big chain of islands), they learned so much. A group of local dancers performed on our ship. They wore…
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What If South Was “Up” Instead Of North?
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #map #geography #history North is “UP” or the top on maps because it has been agreed upon, and we need consistency to help maps be useful. That doesn’t mean north is better, or the South is under it. In 1979 an Australian published a map he had been working on since he was…
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The Flat Friends LOVED the music of Australia…
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #music #australia Kids – Great Aussie Songs as discovered on YouTube Ten Thousand Miles AwayBound for Botany BayThe Wild Colonial BoyWaltzing MatildaTie Me Kangaroo Down SportAlong The Road To GundagaiWith My Swag On My ShoulderClick Go The ShearsI Still Call Australia HomeI Am AustralianAdvance Australia Fair Kids the world over learn our home…
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The Flat Friends are Australia bound!
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #australia Do you know why some of the first Europeans moved to Australia? Hint: it wasn’t by choice! They created a culture known for kindness, humor, and funny songs called “bush ballads”
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Waitangi, Bay of Islands, New Zealand
#flathal #flatstanleyproject #waitangi, #newzealand New Zealand has a population of just over 5 million people—nearly one third of whom live in the Auckland area. Less than 9,000 people live in Bay of Islands, where the Flat Friends made our second stop in New Zealand. Waitangi, the community our tenders brought us into, has a population…
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45 Days Of Travel So Far…
It feels like every day the Flat Friends discover something new and/or exciting. Tomorrow’s port is Adamstown, Pitcairn Island. Where our ship safely and successfully rounded Cape Horn, the Bounty encountered rough seas there — so rough they gave up on sailing west, and sailed east instead! It took the Bounty three months to get…
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A Little Easter Island Reading…
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has captured the imagination of the Flat Friends, just like it has for millions of other people around the world. Its remote location means we have sea days before our next port. Sea days are proving to be a great time to find answers, and dig deeper into the history of…
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4 days in a row at sea? Where are the Flat Friends going?
Our Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Timeline 1722: Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to make recorded contact with the island! Because his ships arrived on Easter Sunday (April 5th), he cleverly (?) named the island “Paasch-Eyland” (Easter Island). He reported seeing great statues standing (Moai) and the inhabitants living their lives. 1774: Famous…
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Ferdinand Magellan and The Age of Discovery!
Flat Hal and Flat Halena feel like time travelers bouncing around time. Events make a lot more sense in order, so let’s slow down a moment. Ferdinand Magellan — 1520 — Discovered Magellan’s Straits between the Atlantic and the Pacific. (He saw a species of Penguin, named Magellanic for him!) HMS Beagle — 1831 to…
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Sailing away from San Antonio, Chile… Where To Next?
The Flat Friends were already planning to do a little cabin organizing as we sail from San Antonio, Chile, even before the wind kicked up and delayed our departure. We are going to have four days in a row at sea, on a nice big ship, with over 1,000 other people. Imagine what it was…
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Sailing Into Rio De Janeiro Is Simply Inspiring
#flatstanley #flathal A mix of modern & older buildings wait to greet the Flat Friends when we step ashore. Birds race around our ship as we sail in, escorting us to our dock, & high up, overlooking everything is a statue this remarkable community (& the world) came together to make. Nearly a hundred years…
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Recife — A Second Visit For Flat Hal
#FlatHal #flatstanley Flat Hal and his pal Flat Stanley visited Recife, Brazil, less than a year ago, on this same cruise ship. Some of the same officers, staff and crew were aboard, so there have been a lot of familiar faces, and friends onboard. With a lot of exciting ports still ahead, the flat friends…
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Denison, Texas, Birthplace of Dwight D. Eisenhower
#flatstanley #flathal This was a detour from our “blue line”. Sometimes you see a sign on the side of the road & can’t help being intrigued and seeing where it leads. When the 34th President of the United States was born in 1890, the population of Denison, Texas was approximately 11,000. This small town has…