Sydney - The Blue Mountains

Paul and Sharon and the kids were nice enough to take us on a day trip with them to the Blue Mountains which are an hour or two west of the city. We started at a viewpoint overlooking a rock formation known as The Three Fingers. (If the outer two fingers ever topple they will have to rename it The Obscene Gesture). This was followed by an hour walk on a trail skirting the cliff face with nice views along the way.

On the way back we stopped at the town of Windsor for lunch, and also at the site of Jacinda and Nick’s upcoming wedding. On approaching the latter Paul rolled down the car windows so that we could hear the bellbirds in the surrounding trees. Amazingly, they actually do sound like bells – like no other bird I’ve heard before.

The Three Fingers

Okay, not the Grand Canyon, but nice...




Paul, in classic Aussie footwear

Lush vegetation along the trail

Sydney - The Rocks and Chinatown

A more successful experience with the public transportation system brought us by bus into the city center for another day of sightseeing. This time we concentrated on Chinatown, a nearby open air Sunday Market, and the historic district known as The Rocks. The latter is the site of the first European settlement in Sydney and retains much of the old architecture and cobblestone streets.

Deborah purchased a fragrant sachet to put in her suitcase for the curious purpose of making it smell like lavender. I guess it’s a girl thing. I on the other hand purchased a new hat (#3 for this trip) to replace the cheap “old guy” hat that I had purchased in haste when my beloved hat #1 disappeared. More recently I also lost my favorite pair of cargo shorts, known affectionately to us as “the file cabinet” for its numerous and ample pockets. I think I left it in our hotel in Adelaide along with my favorite new shirt, which I purchased for a whopping $3 at a thrift store in Brisbane. Apparently I am determined to leave bits of my wardrobe spread all across Australia.

Chinatown

A Chinatown shop full of thousands of asian knick knacks, leaving little room to maneuver for 6'-2" tourists with backpacks.

The Sunday Market under a canopy of stylish tents.

The Rocks

A very cool puppet shop in The Rocks

Historic architecture in The Rocks

Eye-catching pub sign downtown

From across the harbor a view of the vintage amusement park known as Luna Park.

The famous Opera House

The almost as famous Harbor Bridge

Harbor Bridge again. Notice the little figures on top of the bridge at upper left, who were willing to pay a not so little figure to do a guided climb of the bridge.

Sydney - Darling Harbor and Chinese Garden

We are staying in Kellyville, a Sydney suburb about a 45 minute drive from downtown, or longer if, like us, you are using public transportation. We made our first foray into the city via a somewhat convoluted combination of car (thanks, Paul and Sharon), bus, and train. It was prescheduled track maintenance that interfered with a more straightforward journey. It’s a learning process.

Once in downtown we walked around the Darling Harbor area which includes the aquarium (we’re saving that for another visit), an IMAX theatre, parks, shops, eateries, and many other magnets for the tourist dollar. We ended up spending most of our time in the Chinese Garden, a tranquil oasis where we strolled and sat and drank tea and watched dragonflies trying to have sex.

Darling Harbor

One of many inventive fountains found in the district.

View of high rise residential buildings from the Chinese Garden.


The Chinese Garden


A horny dragonfly

The Chinese Garden

Costumes can be rented for torturing children with endless photographic opportunities. White people can rent these as well but are almost certain to appear goofy.

An ibis in the Chinese Garden.

The English Garden -- no, just kidding, Chinese Garden again.

Amazing photo by Deborah, on one of the rare occassions I let go of the camera.

The Chinese Garden

Deborah, who says she now looks like her mother in old age.

A not very Chinese couple.

Sydney - Christmas in Oz

It was just a two hour flight from Adelaide to Sydney, the location of our new housesit – which isn’t really a housesit. Paul and Sharon were kind enough to pick us up at the airport and bring us to their home. When we first communicated with them several months ago they were planning a cruise and needed us to look after their home and pets. In recent weeks their cruise plans fell through but, remarkably, they still wanted us to come and stay with them. They may or may not still take some sort of short trip sometime during our stay, thus justifying the free lodging we’re receiving.

Their’s is a four bedroom, three bath house of good size, not dissimilar to a typical American home in size and layout. Its occupants include Paul and Sharon, their son Garry, their daughter Jacinda, her fiancé Nick, two gentle giant Rottweilers, two budgies, a cockatiel, and us. It is a full house. The cockatiel is named Angel and he rules the house, favoring to stay outside of his cage, preferably perched either on Nick’s shoulder or on a stuffed white leopard named “Bunny.”

We arrived here on Christmas Eve when Paul and Garry (the latter reluctantly dressed as an elf) cruised the neighborhoods in a fire truck with their fellow volunteer firefighters, one of whom was decked out as Santa. They announced their arrival with horn and siren and passed out candies (lollies they call them here) to the waiting children. On Christmas day we were surprised to find presents for us under the tree including two stuffed toys (one Koala and one Galah, an indigenous bird), two travel neck pillows and a couple of “stubby holders” (insulated drink holders). Quite a haul for us. Fortunately Deborah saved us from embarrassment by having the foresight to assemble a gift for our host family consisting of cheeses, crackers, chocolates, candies (sorry, “lollies”), and the godlike cookies known as Tim Tams. Christmas dinner was not the typical fare we are used to but instead consisted of baked oysters, prawns, fresh rolls, three different cold salads, a tossed salad, a fruit platter, avacadoes, wine, and a delicious dessert called "trifle" (whipped cream, cake, jello, custard, layered and chilled).

The rest of Christmas day we watched movies and played Wii Fit, during which Deborah discovered her fitness age was 59 (and 80 with Wii Sport). Blake is only 32 according to Wii Fit, but is content to stay married to this much older woman.

It was a strange Christmas, being so far from home where they are buried in snow while we are thousands of miles away sitting around in shorts and sandals. We miss our family back home of course, but our Sydney hosts have made us feel very welcome and we are grateful for this interesting new experience.

Our Christmas booty

Adelaide - Goodbye to Adelaide

We spent our last full day in Adelaide visiting an art gallery, a couple of parks, and revisiting favorite sights The Central Market and the Botanical Gardens. This is a great city and I'm going to miss it.

Starting our day with a healthy snack at the Central Market:

Rocky Road and Mars Bar Muffins.

Back at the Botanical Gardens

Setup for one of many weddings held in the botanical gardens.

In the botanical garden's conservatory

Amazing root system of a type of fig tree, with carefully placed children forced into position to provide scale.

love those gum trees

Adelaide - Port Adelaide

We spent the day in Port Adelaide, an easy train ride from Adelaide. It's a partly gentrified industrial port town with a Sunday Market and several museums. We took a 2 hour dolphin watching cruise on the river for the amazingly low price of AU$4 per person (about US$2.75). We only saw a couple of dolphins and, suprisingly, one dog crossing the river. But even if we hadn't seen any it was a very pleasant cruise, more than you'd expect given the rather industrial scenery. The glorious sunshine didn't hurt.

Port Adelaide waterfront

My one partially successful photo of a dolphin.


The industrial landscape, actually kind of interesting

Not our tour boat

Me with the wind blowing in what's left of my hair.

The Railroad Museum

Adelaide - Hahndorf and The Cedars

We returned to the German settled town of Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. This time we travelled via public bus to afford us more time than our previous rushed visit as part of a tour. It turns out there wasn’t that much more to see. Still, we picked up a used book for me, a used sweater for Deborah (it was a bit chilly that morning) and had a nice chat with the friendly husband and wife proprietors of the thrift shop. Then, after a nice lunch of fish and chips we walked a fair bit to The Cedars, the 150 acre homestead of famous* South Australian artist Hans Heysen, whose amazing paintings we saw in Adelaide at the Gallery of South Australia. We toured the grand but comfortable family home, the artist’s studio, and the pastoral acreage full of Heysen’s beloved gum trees as well as a few cows and large numbers of annoying flies.

* We hadn’t heard of him previous to coming to Adelaide but have been assured that he is indeed famous.

Deborah in Hahndorf in her $5 sweater

Hahndorf (this is not our bus)

Hans Heysen's studio. I am so envious.

Gum trees

Another gum tree

Blake checks out the type of studio he can actually afford.

Another majestic gum tree

purveyors of pies