July 24, 2007

Boats! Today was marine day. After a wonderful return to granola, yogurt, and poached fruits for breakfast, we got on the ferry to the Maritime Museum. Not to go back to the indoor displays, but to see the four ships that we hadn’t had time for the last time we went. It turns out that it was good that we didn’t try to squeeze them in the morning before we left the city last week, as a thorough exploration took us just about all day. First we went to a replica of the Endevour. This was the ship that Captain James Cook was sailing when he discovered Sydney and founded the first English colony here. The main purpose of the this trip was, outwardly at least, a chance for scientists to observe the transit of Venus over the sun. This is an astronomical event that only happens once in a lifetime or so, so they chartered a sail to the southern seas where it could best be seen. The hope was that measurements from this observation, along with other ones from throughout the world would allow an accurate calculation of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. On the ship was, therefore, a large number of scientists in addition to the captain and the normal amount of crew. We got to walk around the deck, through the galley and the eating quarters (where the sailors strung their hammocks and slept, and then into the very short officers quarters. All but Captain Cooks officers quarters were not tall enough to stand in. This is because they had to add extra rooms for the scientists. One interesting fact: There was a large wooden nail from the original Endevour that was found in the shipwreck (intentionally sunk off Rhode Island to try to block the harbor), which was then sent to outer-space on the Space Shuttle Endevour, before being placed in the replica Endevour that we walked on today.
Next we explored the Battleship Vampire, one of the last large navy battleships used by the Australian Navy. It was retired in the 1970s after having been used as a teaching vessel for a number of years. This particular ship came with audio guides that played interesting commentary on a lot of the rooms. Some thing we saw: Officers and seamen’s mess and quarters, the various heads (designed to discourage spending time in them), the laundry room, and the working rooms. The room where the shells were loaded into the guns were impressive, as were the control rooms with all their buttons and dials.
From there we moved on to the much, much smaller submarine. Rob could barely stand up at all in the submarine, and even I could barely turn around in the hallways. I now understand why they say people on submarines are vigorously screened prior to the assignments! But it was neat to see just how compact the use of space was. In every space possible there were dials and knobs. And where there was room between these, there were cabinets for storage. Very efficient use of space.
For lunch we went back to the same food court that we had eaten in last time we were at the Maritime Museum, but ate different cuisines. Still quite good. And then, on to the final ship. We weren’t expecting to see a whole lot on this ship, since it was at a dock behind the museum and not part of their prominent displays. We were happily wrong! We had a very enthusiastic guide who had been involved in the restoration of this steel-hulled barque. He also sailed the barque on the several occasions a year that the ship still took to sea. This ship had made 23 passes around Cape Horn, and spent its whole life carrying cargo. When it became obsolete, it was left to rot in a mudflat. It was rescued in the 1980s, and after over 10 years of restoration work and rebuilding, it mostly stays in the Sydney Harbor. It operates as a non-profit group that does activities in order to get the money to maintain the ship. It was a beautiful ship, with a truly spectacular officers area.
We were going to try to check out the “historic” amusement park – Luna Park, but it appeared to be closed, either due to the day of the week or the season. Instead, we walked over to the Opera House and picked up tickets to see a show! We ran home to change into more theater appropriate clothing, had a little snack and a beer, and then walked back over to the Opera House to see Othello. It was amazing! Othello is not a play that I was familiar with. The actors were amazing, especially Iago, and we had front row center seats, so we could see all the details of their action. The sets were very minimalist and very very well used. One of the unique things they used were several giant steel drums that acted as either tables or noise makers. A wonderful performance: Bravo!

July 23, 2007

Today was our last day in Cairns, and our flight didn’t leave until early evening. This meant we had essentially another full day, but with not quite enough time to do a full daytrip anywhere (not that there was anywhere we have missed on the list of big destinations). Our plan was to go see a couple of the small Cairns museums and maybe do a little shopping. First stop was the Cairns Art Gallery – closed for display modifications. This was our second failure at getting into the gallery. Ah well. Next we went to The Cairns Museum, which was a small museum completely full of displays that was put together by the Cairns historical society. It was a wonderful museum for the history dork in everyone, with displays that ranged from mining history to dentistry to teaching to telegraphs to aboriginal culture. It was also jam-packed into the little space and almost overwhelming for that fact. But still, very interesting. We had a late lunch at the Sushi Train restaurant that we had tried before, this time while they were actively making sushi. We had some very good fresh seafood and some interesting combinations and overall a great time and good meal. But then we had three hours still until we needed to go to the airport. So we wandered around and did some shopping. We thought about going to the “wildlife dome” in the one casino in Cairns, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth $20 each to see what we were sure would be a smaller and less impressive version of the wildlife places we had already seen. So we walked around and strolled along the waterfront and got a late-afternoon-coffee, and headed to the airport late in the afternoon. We got back into Sydney at about 10:30 and checked back into the hotel for a good sleep.

July 22, 2007

The Great Barrier Reef! It started out a somewhat gray morning, but was sunny by the time we got on the boat. Looking for a smaller group of people, we opted for a catamaran sail boat, rather than one of the really big fast boats. The trip out took about 2 hours to get to the reef. On the way there, Rob took the safety class to do an introductory dive, and I sat out on the deck and took a look around. When the safety class was over, Rob came out and joined me. And then the best part of the trip: we saw a humpback whale leap entirely out of the water! We had been told that there were whales in the area, so we were idly scanning the water. I saw a spray that I thought might have been a blow-hole spray, so we were both looking around attentively when Rob saw the head of a whale come up and crash back into the water. When I turned around to look, I caught the splash – so of course we both kept looking right there and in less than a minute, another whale emerged from the water. The whale arched all the way up in the air and was completely airborne before getting back into the water. The captain of the boat later told us that to see a humpback whale breach that far was a very rare thing.
By the time we got to the reef, the wind had picked up a good bit. Rob was in the first diving group, so he was in the water straight away. The rest of us on the boat took a smaller boat in to the tiny island beach that we had anchored near, Michaelmas Island. This island is also a bird sanctuary, so there was only a small portion of the beach we were allowed to go on. The birds were hovering in the strong wind, or huddled together. There were also several huddled groups of chicks of one of the birds, all fuzzy and huddled in the shelter of the few grassy hills.
I, along with everyone else on the boat, had taken their advice and gotten a wetsuit to wear while snorkeling. It was so cold in the wind that the water soon looked inviting, even though it was also cold. So in I got and started to snorkel. There was an amazing variety of corals in just the first five minutes I was under water, and a number of bright fish I had never seen before. There appeared to be three or four types of parrot fish and lots of schooling fish. There were also giant clams all over the place. Unfortunately, the area that began to have the best views of the reef I was snorkeling on started about where the protection from the current that the small island provided ended. I kept feeling like I would run into the coral, so eventually I headed back to the shore. Rob was done diving by then, so we both got back in to try snorkeling in a different direction. We quickly determined that we were both too cold and that it was time to head back for lunch.
Lunch on the boat was a lovely buffet and happily isolated from the wind. After lunch they offered the opportunity to get back in the water for a second dive (for those who did a first), more snorkeling, or back to the beach. As I think I had finally regained feeling in my toes, I opted to take a little nap instead. So did a lot of people. We did go back outside to watch them feed the fishes with scraps. A small swarm of large fishes leapt and fought to get the food. Pretty neat!
The way back into Sydney Harbor was much rougher than the ride out. We had been warned that the weather meant that the ride would be rough. On the way out there were certainly large swells, but the boat cut through them nicely and I didn’t think it qualified as “rough.” But on the way back in we were going against the waves and they crashed over 2/3 of the boat, even managing to break a small walkway (which we had all been told to stay off of for the return trip). Most impressive!
After good long showers, we went out for a lovely dinner. We decided to have a really nice dinner and get some of the things that we wouldn’t be able to eat again any time soon. So I had the local reef fish, Baramundi, which was an interesting white fish. I think a little more flavorful than cod. It was quite good and came with a grilled “Bay Bug.” Turns out that Bay Bugs are somewhere between a delicate lobster and an overgrown prawn. Delicious! Rob had a Japanese steak, which he said was delicious.

July 21, 2007

Today I managed to convince Rob that we should go to Mossman Gorge. Shortly after arriving, he agreed that it was a good idea. Since there’s not much written in any of the guide books about it, other than that you should see it, we didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves in for. And when we got up before 6:00am to catch an early bus to Port Douglass, then catch another bus to Mossman Gorge, Rob was looking sort of skeptical. But it was beautiful! And once again, we got there before the crowds (though we certainly weren’t alone) when we arrived at Mossman at about 9:30. First we walked down to the “swimming hole.” This was a beautiful beach portion of the river that runs through Mossman Gorge, which would be lovely to swim in if it were a little warmer. The water was crystal clear and there were beautifully rounded boulders all around. I waded in up to my knees, but decided a swim was a bit much. From there we followed the trail along to a suspension bridge over the same river. We had moments of speculation as to how such large boulders ended up strewn throughout the riverbed. Either glacier or a much more raging river, we decided. Then we began the portion of the walk that was not on a paved path, but still a very distinct path over the scattered tree roots. We walked up a division between two rivers feeding into the Mossman Gorge river, then through a circuit in the rainforest. On this trip we saw enormous basket ferns, ancient trees with flying buttress-style roots, and very old strangler figs. Strangler figs don’t literally strangle the trees they grow around, but use all the available resources themselves so that eventually the center trees can’t survive. The result is a twisting, fascinating growth. It was an absolutely awe-inspiring walk that took us about three times longer than we were told it would, mostly because we stopped to gawk at everything.
From Mossman, we returned to Port Douglass to have lunch and do some wandering and shopping. We ate at a place called “Mango Jam” which had dancing mango logos. I had a delicious pizza and Rob had a lamb wrap – both excellent. Then for an afternoon we hoped would reveal some unique shopping. Unfortunately, there were only one or two shops that we couldn’t have found in Sydney or Cairns. We still had a good time wandering, but opted for an earlier bus back than we had scheduled. This meant that we got home in time to watch most of the rugby match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australia Wallabies. However, since Rob is a big fan of the All Blacks, we decided it was better to watch this match in our room. A good match, with the All-Blacks as the final winners. For dinner, we found a “sushi train” place, which we realized shortly after we sat down, was about to close. So we really just had appetizers and agreed to go back for lunch when they would be open.

July 20, 2007

Today was somewhat of a “take care of things” day, where I spent some time on the internet this morning, Rob spent some time working on a fire department policy, and we both did laundry this afternoon. That meant it was a low-key day, which was sort of nice. (Also, we found out that the night before is waaay too late to book a trip to the Great Barrier Reef – so we’ll do that on Sunday.) We decided first that we’d get some breakfast and try to see a few museums. Unfortunately, we found out that today is a public holiday (fair day) for the Cairns Fair, which means that all the museums and a number of shops were closed! It also meant that there was a 15% surcharge at all restaurants (to make sure employees come to work, I guess). So we wandered around this morning and did some window shopping and booked a trip for the afternoon.
At about 1:00 we got on a medium sized motor boat and headed into the mangrove estuary for a look around. The guided tour was very informative of the history of the marina (from shipping to ship-building) as well as of the ecology of the mangroves. Apparently Australia discovered that their previous policy of destroying mangroves for “land” underneath it and to get rid of mosquitos and crocodiles was a bad plan. Now the mangroves are protected for their role in preventing farm run-off, protecting the Great Barrier Reef, providing nurseries to the fish and other sealife, and for their role as a safe-haven for boats during cyclones (which is a hurricane that spins in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere). Good for them! The cruise up the rivers through the mangroves was very peaceful. Sadly, we did not get to see any of the 30ish crocs that are still wild in this area. The crocs are left alone as long as they leave people alone. If one of them attacks or “makes a nuisance of itself” it is caught and sent to the crocodile farm – our next stop. Here, there were a number of enclosures where the breeding crocodiles lived. The small van that we were in took us around to a few spots where we could see the crocs very up-close, and the guide told us a bit about them. These crocs lay eggs, which are then collected and incubated to make mostly males (because they grow bigger faster) and then grown to an appropriate size to be used in the fashion industry. A nice thing to know is that every part of the croc except the eyes are used when they are killed for their skin: much of the meat is eaten here, and lots of the organs and other odd bits are used in Asian cuisine. Also, they are only killed to order, so there are a few pens full of crocs that became too old to be used a few years ago when there was a decline in people’s interest in travel and in exotic hand-bags thanks to the SARS epidemic. Weird. In Australia, it is illegal to sell or own any item made of crocodile skin that does not have a governmental ID stating that it is from farm-raised crocs, not caught in the wild.
For the rest of the day we did laundry and read and lounged, then got dinner on the Esplanade. On our way to dinner we saw a large group of people doing fire-juggling on the small piece of beach. They were quite good, and did some fire-juggling that I hadn’t seen before – like a hula hoop and a jump-rope that were on fire.

July 19, 2007

Today we saw the rainforest! Having heard such wonderful things about it, we decided to sign up for a package to and from the rainforest village via train and skyrail. Good choice! First thing this morning we were picked up at our hotel and taken to the train station. The train followed the old train tracks that had been placed there by miners, with all of the tunnels dug by hand and all the bridges held together with rivets. There were beautiful views the entire way. It was funny, however, that we were told where all the perfect photo-ops were. The train made one stop on the way up to look over Barron Gorge Falls. The falls are naturally gushing, but thanks to the dam further upstream it is not as fast. It was still very beautiful. The falls had many levels to them, with pools and ponds in the rocks along the way down. The damn also provides hydroelectric power to Cairns.
We arrived at Karunda around 10:00. This is the “village in the rainforest” and is entirely set up for tourists. We signed up for a package that gave us entrance into the three wildlife areas. First we went to Bird World. This was basically one very large room with trees and water and many many birds flying around. For $2, you could get a bag of birdseed and peanuts and almonds to feed the birds with. A gimmick, but so cool! We walked around once first, which was nice because it was early enough that there were only one or two other people, so it was very quiet. There were an amazing selection of different sorts of parrots, many pigeon and dove varieties, as well as water birds, finches, and humming birds. We decided after one pass through the bird room to take out the seeds and feed some birds. The parrots were the only birds who were really interested in being fed, but they were a lot of fun! Rob and I both got little yellow and green parrots to land on our hands and eat, and Rob was surprised by a large red Macaw that landed on his shoulder. It was a very picky bird who only wanted almonds, and when offered anything else, would pick it up and throw it on the ground.

Next stop was the Koala Gardens. There was one itchy koala who kept stretching out to scratch, several sleepy koalas, and a mom and baby. Very cute. Apparently, their inactivity is due to a very slow metabolism that is adaptive to their low nutrient diet. And how could we pass up the opportunity to cuddle a koala? The koala they let us hold (for a small fee) was named Hogan, and was very interested in going back to sleep. He was also soft, though not as soft as the kangaroos that we were able to feed next. Only one of the wallabies was hungry, probably since people had been feeding them all day, but the kangaroos and wallabies were all lounging and completely ok with being petted. Except for the one wallaby who had a joey in her pouch – she stayed far away from everyone. She also kept her joey tucked in, but you could clearly see little feet kicking around in the pouch and occasionally caught a glimpse of ears or feet over the edge of her pouch.
We decided to see the last of the three wildlife experience areas before we got lunch and headed next into the Butterfly Sanctuary. This was another large enclosed room with plants and water and trails to walk through the room full of butterflies. It was pretty neat, and there are some beautifully colored butterflies here. There were also terrariums with caterpillars of each of the types of butterflies we had seen in the room, some with cocoons. Many of the butterflies here apparently have very spiney caterpillars.
We got lunch at the Trading Outpost, which was decent food if confusing. The people behind the counter were very busy and discombobulated over the vouchers that the tour groups had given people. After lunch we spent about an hour wandering through some more shops (of which there were many) and doing a little bit of shopping (or “retail therapy”). We had passed through some of the more interesting and unique crafts earlier in the day. Then we decided to do a short “jungle walk” before catching the skyrail back. However, we picked the wrong trail and ended up much farther away from the village than planned. This meant a very quick walk up the main road into the village. Turns out that there is quite the little residential area around the village – unexpected! We walked past a number of houses, the elementary school, and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. We made it back in time to catch the Skyrail back over the rainforest. It was a truly spectacular ride! There were moments when we skimmed the top of the trees, and other times when we were soaring above them. The glass all around the cart meant that we had 360 degree beautiful views of the mountain ranges. We also had clear views of the many epiphytes growing on a variety of trees. There were sounds of birds, but otherwise it was very quiet. There were two stops on the way. One was a view from the other side of Barron’s Gorge. The other was a small boardwalk with information about the trees nearby. The whole ride was spectacular! Tomorrow, perhaps we’ll go to the Great Barrier Reef.

July 18, 2007

A very leisurely first day in Cairns, we spent the morning lounging about and had a late breakfast. Apparently baked beans are a fairly standard item to a lot of Australian breakfasts, and we finally tried some today (along with our eggs, toast, etc). They were quite good baked beans: heavier on the tomato sauce than American baked beans, and a little less sweet. After breakfast we walked around a bit and got Rob a bathing suit. Then we went back to the hotel thinking that we would have a swim in the pool. We had not realized that the wind had picked up and that the pool was still in the shade. Too cold for swimming, we read by the pool for a bit instead. Then, to continue the leisurely day, we wandered down the waterfront to find a late lunch, then wandered around Cairns some more. We walked past the “man made beach” called the Lagoon – a public swimming pool in the middle of the waterside park, with a stretch of sand along it. It’s a very popular spot. Then we wandered to a pretty empty mall at the end of the Esplanade, where we booked a trip into the rainforest for tomorrow.
For the late afternoon we decided to go to the Cairns Show that we had read about in the morning paper. It happens once a year, and is a very big deal around here, though apparently not amongst tourists. The big events for this year were billed to be acrobats and fireworks and petting zoos. We got somewhat lost on our walk there and stopped in a very busy hostel to ask for directions. With a pause and a slightly quizzical look, the woman who worked at the hostel pointed us in the right direction, and we found it. She also gave us a map that included the fair grounds, which is outside the “downtown” found on most tourist maps. By the time we got there it was very clear that this was a thing that was very popular amongst local residents. It also emphasized that this is really a blue-collar working town, which just happened to have a tourist boom with the start of reef trips a few years ago. The place was a giant carnival with rides and carnival booths and cotton candy that wrapped around and around itself. There were also farm equipment displays, petting areas of ducklings and baby sheep, and a few craftsmen displays. We found the blacksmith just as he finished making a lizard for the crowd watching him. Eventually we found where the performers were, just in time to catch the very end of the acrobatics display. It wasn’t that impressive (and given it was the very end of the show) until they reminded the audience that the male of the pair of performers was 72 years old! Next we watched chainsaw competitions for a little while. There were speed and skill competitions, and I thought that it not only demonstrated skill, but also a great deal of trust in your chainsaw-wielding competitors. Yikes! And last we saw some very well trained horses perform coordinated routines with only a little direction from the rider on one of them. It was impressive! Next: back into the heart of the city, by a much more direct route, for dinner and then desert along the Esplanade.

July 17th, 2007

Today was our last day in Sydney (until we come back for a few days at the end of the trip). The first thing we did after breakfast was to check out of the hotel and leave them with our bags until it was time for us to leave. Then we headed down to Circular Quay to catch a ferry to Darling Harbor. On our first few visits, we were able to use student ID’s for discounts to places such as the Aquarium. However, since then we have been told that the only students permitted a discount are local students. Ah well. Since we were able to see our breath this morning, and later found out that today was one of the coldest days in Sydney in years, we opted for the inside of the ferry. It was still a great way to see the harbor. Our purpose of going to Darling Harbor was to see the Maritime Museum, which we had been admiring from across the bay several days ago. From outside you can see the three large ships that you can explore, so we knew we would be wanting to do that. But, once again considering the cold, we decided to do the inside portion of the museum first. It was fairly extensive and interesting. We saw lots about the life people lived on the various ships that brought people to Australia from schooners to liners. There were exhibits on navigation, on the famous captains that came to Australia, on immigration, and on various more modern maritime topics. One of the exhibits was about the sports that people use the ocean for – including sailing solo around the world, swimming, rowing, and surfing. Apparently the Australian long board was over 5 meters long and made of hollowed out wood – at least until some Australian surfers went to Hawaii and saw how much more maneuverable the shorter balsawood “long boards” were – within weeks, they were the board of choice in Australia. There was also a good bit on the Australian navy, and it looked like they were in the process of setting up a room on the American navy.
By the time we were done with the inside of the museum, we didn’t have time for both lunch and exploring the ships before we had to head back to get our luggage and go to the airport. So we opted for lunch, promising that we would return to see the ships in a week. For lunch we found a nearby food court, which was delicious! I had a smoked salmon sandwich with avocado and cream cheese, and Rob had a freshly prepared bowl of soup with noodles and dumplings and barbequed pork and vegetables. All this prompted the quick agreement that this was definitely the way to do fast food. The food court looked out over Darling Harbor and had a few of the Darling Harbor residents wandering through it. Apparently the sliding door was all the opportunity that a seagull and an ibis needed to get inside and stroll between tables.
We (just barely) caught the ferry back to Circular Quay, picked up our bags, and took the train to the airport. Within 20 minutes of arriving at the airport, we were at our gate. Very efficient. Three hours later, we arrived in Cairns. It was after dark when we got in, so I am looking forward to the morning to see the landscape around us. Our hotel is right on the water, with a balcony overlooking the Esplanade (walking path along the waterfront)! For dinner, we wandered into the “center of town” and had some really good Italian food.

July 16th, 2007

Today we knew we wanted to do the BridgeClimb. It is something that Max has been telling us about for two years, so it was a definite item on our agenda. But, given my dislike for cold – we decided to wait until afternoon, when things warmed up, to do the climb. This meant we had to find something else to do for the morning. We attempted to go to the Police and Law Enforcement Museum – but it is only open on weekends. Instead we strolled through the Botanical Gardens to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It is a very nicely done museum. It has collections of European and Australian artists from the 1700s to modern day, as well as select samples of Oriental art also from that time period. It’s also got a collection of Aboriginal art work (which we both agreed that we don’t know enough about to understand/appreciate particularly much). The temporary exhibit was the only thing that charged an entrance, and we decided we were pretty much art-museumed-out at that point, so passed on the walk-through of Islamic art. Perhaps if we find ourselves with a bunch of time on the return trip. We instead opted for a lovely lunch at the museum café, where we watched two parrots help themselves to the left-over cake on the table of two delighted women. Clearly these parrots figured out that they are cute enough that people will take their pictures rather than shoo them off.
We took a very leisurely stroll back around the water-front perimeter of the Botanical Gardens, which ends in the water-front perimeter of the Opera House. It was somewhat treacherous mid-day as there were probably hundreds of people jogging through the park, we think on their lunch break! On the way to the BridgeClimb, we also stopped in a wonderful little French Patisserie to get a pan au chocolat, just for old-times sake. Then we arrived at the BridgeClimb building. We signed up for a climb about half an hour after we arrived, which meant we sat around gazing at the wall of pictures of famous people who did the bridge climb – kinda neat.
The Climb itself was spectacular!! We started with a good deal of safety preparation – mostly to the effect of preventing things (and people) from falling. Pockets emptied into lockers with your bags and jackets, jumpsuits without pockets zipped up from the back, and all accessories such as hats and fleeces clipped on in several places. There was also a clip for people, attaching to our harness belts at one end, and with a wonderful piece of equipment that would run the cord along the trails for the length of the climb at the other end. We practiced moving around with the clip, got radios that didn’t have earpieces, and were on our way! (The headsets sat just in front of the ear and used vibrations against bone to transmit sound.)
The climb starts out with some “catwalks” over the base of the bridge as it begins to extend out, then up a bunch of ladders, and then out onto the top of the archway and up to the very peak. With spectacular views and interesting tid-bits the whole way, it’s well worth it. Some things we learned: The large concrete pillars at the base of the bridge do not support any weight, but were added because they didn’t think anyone would believe that the bridge would hold up otherwise; there are 6,000,000 rivets in the bridge – which was originally only held together with rivets, though there is some soldering now; the owner/inventor of the BridgeClimb had to fight the government for 9 years to finally get permission to set up his business; and the bridge overlooks a building that has been voted the worst eye-sore in the city, but cannot be taken down as it was build early enough in the 20th century to be considered a historic site. But what made this climb even more spectacular than it would have been anyway was that we managed to time it such that we were on our way down the bridge when the sun set! That meant we got to see the sun setting over the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney from on top of the bridge, which gave a spectacular view of the sun, the mountain silhouettes, and waterways winding to the west from the harbor. The whole thing was amazing! After the climb, we had a wonderful (somewhat surprisingly so) meal at a pub, and went home to pack up in preparation for leaving tomorrow.

July 15th, 2007

Today we managed to both sleep in until 7:00! Hurrah! And sadly, still too early for breakfast at “our” breakfast place. Since it’s Sunday, the place opens a bit later. Instead, we walked to a café that was along the market that was being set up again, and had breakfast there. After breakfast we went back to try to get things we had forgotten at the hotel. Rob got his sunglasses; I failed at retrieving the Sydney guide book that I had used as a camera stand last night and then left on the roof of our hotel. Hope the picture comes out at least. Then we attempted to walk through the market while it was less crowded. However, it was very very cold, and Rob suggested we do something inside for a bit while the sun warmed thing up. So we finally walked through the Rocks Discovery Museum, which was very interesting. It traced the history of the founding area of Sydney from the Aboriginal population that had occupied the area, through the British settlement and the various immigrants that came in until now. It had some interesting artifacts and some video footage of the tumultuous times that the area went through in the 20th century. At some point, it became a rallying point for the working class, as an area that had long housed working class people, there was a huge civil protest make sure it stayed that way rather than being replaced by skyscrapers for the wealthy.
After the museum visit, the sun was out and it was much warmer, so we went back to the market again and wandered through the stalls. There was some neat stuff there! Beautiful photographs, interesting original crafts, and plenty of jewelry. Still, we only bought a silly Australian Christmas ornament. Then we headed to the Rocks Square and had oriental food from a noodle bar. It was fully decent, though I doubt we’ll go back for the two more meals that will get us a fourth free meal.
After lunch we walked along the water and then wandered through a couple of galleries. We both especially liked a gallery with work by Nelson Mandela. It is part of a collection that has pieces all over the world of drawings he did in memory of his time in jail. One of the features is his handprint, which he did by accident in his studio. Someone else noticed that the center of the handprint looked like the continent of Africa, and printed a number of lithographs of the print.
Next stop: The Observatory. A neat building with some fun tools of the trade from the 1800s, but the highlight came later. We signed up for a 3-D show and tour. The show was a cute “teach kids about science and space” video that also included a talk though the planets of our solar system. The tour took us up to one of the observatory towers, where the guide rotated and opened the roof, then pointed the telescope at Venus and let everyone have a look. Even in the daylight we were able to see the crescent shape that was in the sky! Very cool!
For the late afternoon we headed back to the hotel for some lounging about, and then went out to dinner. We finally decided to eat at a German restaurant we kept passing that advertised nightly “oom-pa-pa” music. When we asked for a table inside they told us they could only seat us next to the band at a big table we’d have to share. Darn. We were seated right next to a group of four already drunk young Aussies who were clearly enjoying themselves. Then we ordered German beer and German food – Rob got sausages and mashed potatoes and sauerkraut and I got spanzle with cheese, which turned out to be much like macaroni and cheese. It was all quite good and heavy. Shortly after we sat down, the promised oom-pa-pa band came on. They were fun. They also did “traditional Bavarian” knee slapping dances, played cowbells, and a giant Swiss horn. Then after we had finished our dinner, they started pulling people up on stage. Between Rob and the four Aussies, I was clearly going on stage to play the cowbells – and then for a surprise Chicken Dance! (And of course, Rob videotaped it.) This meant revenge: and Rob got up to do the “traditional Bavarian” hat dance, which was followed by a surprise knee slapping dance. (And I videotaped that.) By the time neither of us could stop laughing, why not also enter the drinking contest – which I dramatically lost, and am going to blame on the fowl tasting non-alcoholic beer they were using. It was, all in all, a lot of fun.

July 14th, 2007

We really need to get this new time-zone thing down. Once again up too early, we had some time to kill before the breakfast place we like was open. It turned out to be a great time of day to wander through this area. On George Street, they were setting up tents for a street market that goes on Saturdays and Sundays. We walked through that for a bit, then cut uphill through the cobbled streets carved out of the sandstone rock that give the area its name. There were some wonderful views and interesting old buildings and terraces in this road. We only passed one person, and one little sweatered dog who was not interested in our company at all. When we wound our way back down through some of these terraces it was time for breakfast! Poor Rob didn’t realize that the frittata that looked so delicious had chunks of pumpkin in it, but other than that it was a delightful breakfast. Pumpkin seems to be a feature in cuisine here, either because it’s winter or because it’s a regional food. I’m game!
After breakfast and changing some money (sadly the US dollar has hit an 18 year low against the Australian dollar), we went down to Circular Quay to buy ferry tickets to the Aquarium. We tried to buy tickets that included entrance to the Aquarium and to Wildlife World, but through miscommunication, only got Wildlife World. It just meant a few dollars not saved on the combined ticket, not a big deal. The ferries are part of the Sydney public transportation, but early on a Saturday morning, they are not at all crowded and allow for beautiful views of the Sydney harbor on the way to your destination, which for us was right outside the Aquarium. We opted for the Aquarium first and had a delightful time! There was an energetic platypus, who was no more than a foot long and every bit as ridiculous as you would expect from photos. There were many fresh water fish, some very large. One tank/enclosure had little penguins, the smallest type of penguin, and the penguins indigenous to this area. They were adorable! And then there were the ocean displays. We watched seals play in a tank with water constantly pumped in from the Sydney harbor, and sharks and rays in a similar tank next door. The really neat thing about these tanks was that there were glass tubes that you could walk through to see the sea creatures swimming over and around you! One seal spent a lot of time sitting on top of the tube, much to everyone’s delight. When we entered the shark and ray tank tubes, there was a giant ray right over us, who was probably wider than I am tall! After these tanks, there were also tanks full of reef fish of all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes. A remarkable number of them are the same or very similar to those found in the Caribbean. This was also the place that Disney/Pixar was milking the Finding Nemo story with signs on several tanks saying “find Nemo’s friends here!” Cute.
And what better to do after a morning at the aquarium than to have fish and chips for lunch? Only doing so with a flock of seagulls anxiously awaiting scraps at your feet! But the fish and chips were good and the harbor was beautiful and sunny – so a good lunch all in all. And then back into animal world for a walk through Wildlife World. This was a well done middle-of-a-city zoo. There was a butterfly room, followed by terrariums of creepy-crawlies, then snakes and reptiles. There were nocturnal animals, who were a bit hard to find, possibly because people kept trying to take flash pictures of them. And then: several large enclosures of typically Australian animals. This included wallabies of several species and koalas. These wallabies were at the smaller end of the spectrum of kangaroo-like animals, and are fascinating to watch leap around. At some point I think we need to find out exactly what separates wallaby from kangaroo. The koalas were mostly sleeping, except for one who was eating and one who was patiently readjusting her baby who was nestled into her stomach.
We took the ferry back to Circular Quay and walked quickly through the street market outside our hotel, then decided we would return tomorrow morning when it wouldn’t be quite as crowded. After grabbing a delicious piece of sweet corn to nibble on, we went back to the room for a mid-afternoon nap – hoping that this would help with the readjustment to the time zone. We had a slightly later dinner (I had pumpkin soup – yum!), with a cup of coffee, and are well on our way to staying up later than 10:00!

July 13th, 2007

Today we woke up very early. Both of us were awake at around 4:30am. I was able to go back to sleep, but Rob gave up and has been awake since 5:00am. Yikes! Our goal for tonight is to make it until about 11:00pm before we go to bed – in hopes of waking at a much more reasonable hour. As a result of our early rise, we got to breakfast (just downstairs at a lovely little café) earlier than most places are open. This means that we opted for a good walk prior to seeing any museums today. One of our main objectives for the day was to find a couple more warm items. We read the predicted temperatures, which were highs of mid-70’s, lows in the 50’s, and did not take any wind into consideration. As such I have been cold. So we found a listing for a mall with large outlet stores where we might be able to find some relatively inexpensive jackets/windbreakers, and decided that we should head there at some point today. It happened that this mall was towards an end of a walking tour that we found in the Lonely Planet Sydney guide, so we decided to follow that roughly on our way to the mall. This meant that we started with a walk towards and through the Botanical Gardens. It turns out that this was a phenomenal choice of things to do. It was quiet, peaceful, and fascinating to wander through the grounds of the gardens. We encountered a number of birds we found to be exotic (and later found out that they are very common here), including cockatoos and ibises that were being fed by tourists and would come right up to you if you gave them the chance. One of the cockatoos even came up and tugged on Rob’s sweatshirt! There were also bright red-faced water hens, and a number of different types of ducks. We walked through the herb garden, which was interesting, but appears to be in the wrong season as many of the plants didn’t look so well (and it is winter here). Then we spotted bats! There were trees full of these bats: sleeping, crawling, stretching, and occasionally flying. They were huge bats and we found out that they are grey-headed flying foxes. A man who worked in the gardens told us that they are native to the park, but have managed to destroy a number of trees in their nesting. He told us that they eat entirely flowers and fruits, and that at night they can be seen soaring through Sydney. We then joined the beginning of a walking tour/talk by a garden volunteer. His specialty was the history of the site. Apparently the Botanical Gardens are on the site of the original food gardens for the first colony in Sydney. Unfortunately, the ground here is make of sandstone and not very fertile. This means that the first round of crops failed dramatically. Since then, enough nutrients have been added that the gardens are very lush. This guide was very interesting, but moved very slowly, so we moved on to continue the tour on our own after about half an hour.
After the gardens, we started walking towards the mall that we were looking for. I was pretty hungry by the time we started this part of the walk, so when we saw signs for a food court, we followed them. We both ended up having food from a Japanese/Korean place, but had options ranging from burgers to Indian to Thai. And the food was pretty good! As we continued our walk, we moved away from the trendy shops into the areas that boasted a number of “Adult Book Exchanges,” which I thought was a bit odd, and through Chinatown. When we found the mall and the outlet floor within the mall, we were somewhat overwhelmed. A lot of the stores were still ridiculously expensive. For example, the Ralph Lauren shop was selling sweaters for over $1,000! Thankfully, I did find a coat that would break the wind for me and Rob found another sweater to wear, both for significantly less than the Ralph Lauren sweaters. After a cup of tea and coffee, we decided to see the new Harry Potter as a good way to stay off our feet for a bit of time. Great movie! We walked back to the hotel afterwards, passing through another bay that contains the Aquarium. Dinner tonight was an Italian restaurant near the hotel (Zia Pizza), followed by a beer in the “first pub in Australia,” where we watched a bit of the rugby game and a bit of the Australia Cup football game. Also of interest, the vending machine in the womens bathroom of this bar contained not only tampons and condoms, but also “Australia’s Premier Pheromone Wipes” that were “Scientifically guaranteed to increase your sex appeal.” ???? And finally, an exhausted flop back into the hotel room.

July 12th, 2007

Arrived in Sydney this morning at about 8:30 local time. It is 14 hours later here than it is on the east coast of the US. Australian customs appeared to be very efficient, but leaving the customs area could use a bit more coordination. We finally just decided to jump in line where we were rather than squeeze through crowds to find the end of the line. Lots of other people were doing the same thing, so I didn’t feel too badly. We hopped into a taxi and headed for the hotel. We were able to check in and leave our bags, but our room was not ready yet. So we headed off in search of a good breakfast place. We’re staying at the same hotel that Rob’s mother and brother stayed in two years ago, so we have been told that there’s a great breakfast place very nearby. We wound up eating just behind the Circle Quay at an outdoor café. Breakfast was delicious – and also didn’t quite register exactly which meal we were eating. From there we wandered back towards the hotel via a park that looks across the water to the Sydney Opera House and up to the Sydney Bridge. The sky is so crisply blue and the sunshine so bright, that everything looks brilliant. Having seen a couple of workers cleaning a public phone, perhaps it really is as brilliantly clean.
We decided to kill a little more time by wandering through the Rocks, the first settled area of Sydney. The tiny cobbled streets were delightful and there were a number of shops and restaurants. When we haven’t just gotten off an airplane, we will return to look at The Rocks Museum to learn a bit more about the area. This is easy, as our hotel is less than a block from this historical area.
At about 11:00 we were able to get into our hotel room and promptly lay down for a good 4 hour nap… much needed as in our minds, it was now about 1am. Oh jetlag. We got up again mid-afternoon and headed out to wander around some of the sites. The Rocks Museum was about to close for the day, so we went down to the waterfront, walked through the park there and then through the Circular Quay station. There are many places to find a quick bite to eat there. This is also a leaving place for ferries and trains. From there, we walked further along the water to the Sydney Opera House. I was surprised to find out that all the famous arches are not connected… there are several separate buildings at the top of one larger base. It also appears that there are many different performance areas. There is room for music, for dance, and for drama. Maybe we’ll try to see something there.
Having woken up with a stomach upset from random times and types of food over the last two days, I decided I would rather skip the adventurous new food for dinner, and we had pizza. It was very good pizza – mine had avocado on it and Rob got a four-cheese pizza with blue cheese. Then we went back to the hotel to look at our wedding photos, which are online! Lovely!! And finally – back up to the room and an early bedtime.

July 11th, 2007

Lost to time-travel over the dateline.

July 10th, 2007

Today we began our honeymoon! And also, our about 36 hour trip to Australia. We started in Philly this morning, raced through the Chicago airport to make the connection in less than 10 minutes, and then got to LA where we have 9 hours. Rather than sitting around the airport for 9 hours, we decided to investigate what we could do via a cab ride in LA. I had been told to go to Venice Beach, but since we didn’t actually know where that was in relation to the airport, we first stopped in a bookstore at the airport and investigated. As it turns out, Venice Beach is relatively close to the airport. Probably about a 15-20 minute cab ride. We also bought a couple of Australia guidebooks as we have managed to lose the ones we have, and will need them for the next few weeks.
We got out of the cab pretty much right on the beach. The beach is very wide and somewhat windy. The sands are beautiful, but since we were in travel clothes we opted not to fill our shoes with said sand and instead looked at it and the Pacific Ocean beyond. We then walked along the stores that line Venice Beach. I think the whole area is Venice Beach. There was everything from cheap sunglasses (which Rob was thankful for) to people with signs saying that they need marijuana to t-shirt shops and ice-cream shops. There was a wild array of people wandering the street or seated on the grass watching. We decided to grab a cup of coffee and do some people watching. Shortly thereafter, a giant fire truck parked right in front of us. It was a very pretty truck – complete with wooden ladders on its sides. The fire truck was soon followed by an ambulance, into which they put someone who appeared to have wounded his hand, and both rolled slowly off down the pedestrian street. Somewhat surreal.
We asked for dining advice in the coffee shop and were told to head down to Washington Street and we would find a few nice restaurants. This was definitely true! And on the way there, we wandered along that same pedestrian walk through waves of different cultural experiences. The hippies, the hip-hop, and the hip. Towards Washington Street there were some really impressive beachside buildings with stone artwork and water fountains on their front. We found a lovely restaurant and had dinner sitting outside and watching the world go by. From there, we were also able to easily catch a taxi back to LAX. Still with 3 ½ hours to go before we leave, we found a couple of seats near an outlet (which turns out to not work very well), and are playing cards. Soon – crossing the Pacific!