Three Weeks Down Under

We returned recently from 3 weeks in Australia – two weeks of business for Chuck and a week of “holiday” at the end. By the way, it’s a LONG way to go! We left London at about noon on Friday, 27 January, and landed in Sydney at about 7:00 p.m. on Saturday the 28th – with a 2 hour stop in Singapore along the way, to refuel the plane. Sydney is 11 hours ahead of London – so the total travel time was about 20 hours. But it was worth it.

We were in Sydney for a total of 7 days – a free day on Sunday, followed by a 5 day series of conferences, exhibits and meetings (for Chuck) during the week. On the following Sunday, 5 February, we flew on to Melbourne where we stayed for 2 days and nights. Chuck had meetings there with researchers from the Australian Defence (British spelling) Science and Technology Organization and the Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Composite Structures (go ahead, say it fast five times). While in Sydney we were with several of Chuck’s colleagues and several spouses. We traveled to Melbourne with Jim and Susan DeCorpo – who we were with last summer in Greece.

From Melbourne it was off to two days in Canberra. Chuck’s business here was with the University of New South Wales as well as the Australian Defence Forces Academy. Then it was on to Brisbane for further meetings – and a reunion with the DeCorpos.

Our vacation time started with a flight to Cairns, in northern Queensland. (It takes a while to get used to the idea that traveling north in “Oz” means getting warmer; and, of course, February in Australia is akin to August in the northern hemisphere.) Cairns is a very popular tourist destination, though we were there after the end of the high season; it is on the coast, with the Great Barrier Reef just offshore and a “wet tropic” rainforest a few miles north of the city. Both of these are UN World Heritage Sites and it is the only place in the world where two World Heritage Sites actually meet, as the reef and rainforest do at the coast just north of the city. Naturally, while there we visited the Reef for a day and took a day-long trip into the rainforest. We also spent a day exploring the “tablelands” just the other side of a small mountain range behind the city and one evening at an aborigine culture center where we saw demonstrations of their rituals.

All in all, we both liked Australia very much -- all five cities we visited were interesting (well, Canberra, being a planned city, was a little less fun than the others). We commented frequently on how clean and modern everything was -- the people were very friendly everywhere. It is a country on the move -- with a land area almost exactly the same as the U.S., but with only 20 million people. The largely-desert "outback", comprising most of the country, imparts a frontier-like feeling, probably much like that of 19th century America. We most definitely would like to return.

Other articles give more details about each of these stops along the way. For a picture or two from each city, see: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1218206/1/57005033

Australia's First City

Sydney is Australia’s largest city and was our point of entry and exit. The feeling in the center of the city is vibrant, modern, busy – it’s a city where business gets done. The harbor is glorious. I’ve always thought San Francisco had the most beautiful setting imaginable for a city – but I have to admit I think Sydney has it beat – at least from the water. Of course, the iconic Sydney bridge dominates the view, with the famous white Sydney Opera House only slightly less prominent. Both are beautiful achievements of engineering and architecture. Susan DeCorpo and Kathi, in one of their long treks, walked both ways across the bridge – though they did it at roadway level, not at the top of the arch (which one can do for about $180.00 Australian).

The waterfront, which is made up of the shorelines of several small bays, is lined with upscale apartment buildings, numerous (did I say a lot of them?) restaurants and attractions such as the aquarium and National Maritime Museum. The presence of a massive white cruise ship or two completes the effect – and the whole is punctuated with various structures from the colonial era (stone fortresses, the governor’s massive house on a prominent point and others). The harbor cruise is very much worth doing and is a good way to get acquainted with the city at the beginning of a visit. To continue the acquainting process we rode the city sightseeing bus – also something very worth doing.

The busy waterfront/harbor complex includes numerous ferries to the various Sydney suburbs and nearby cities. We rode one to Manly, just north of the city and situated on the coast near the entrance to Sydney harbor. (Manly received its name because it was where Europeans first saw some of the native aborigine peoples – and the then-governor wrote that they had a “manly” appearance. The name stuck, though now it’s a small city in its own right, with a beautiful beach.) The other “must-visit” beach in Sydney is Bondi Beach, whose name rhymes with “bonzai” – I can’t think of any other word to rhyme it with – which Kathi and Susan enjoyed for an afternoon.

We had some fabulous seafood at one of the city’s well-known seafood restaurants (on the waterfront, of course) and had a great dinner for about 12 of us at Don Quixote’s Spanish restaurant. And, of course, we didn’t ignore the educational/cultural side of things (would we ever?). The Australian National Museum was two blocks from our hotel with a wide variety of exhibits and a very notable collection of minerals, emblematic of Australia’s rich mining history. The National Maritime Museum is very well done, with a large section devoted to the US Navy in World War II. (The Australians are very aware that for most of World War II they depended on the USN to blunt the Japanese offensives that were moving in their direction.)

The city has its full share of beautiful parks – one right across the street from our hotel, (named Hyde Park after the London park near our London flat) containing the ANZAC memorial. The name, as you may know, goes back to the Australia-New Zealand Army Corps raised during World War I. As we learned later, at the War Memorial in Canberra, most Australian historians consider ANZAC to be the beginning of an awareness of an Australian national identity. In any case, throughout Australia there are ANZAC Drives, ANZAC Streets, ANZAC Parks and ANZAC Squares. The ladies paid a pleasant visit to the Chinese Gardens near Sydney’s China Town and adjacent to the large, modern convention center where those of us who were on business spent the workdays. We were struck by the numerous place names borrowed from London – in addition to Hyde Park, there are Oxford Street, Leicester Square and others.

For some pictures of Sydney go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1218888/1/57041063

Where's the Fat Lady?

It may be true that the opera's not over until the fat lady sings. But we're sure the opera we saw ended -- and we never saw her.

While in Sydney we attended a performance of
Madame Butterfly -- the first opera for either of
us. While the opera itself is definitely a heartbreaker, it was exciting to be seeing our first opera -- and much of the enjoyment was the fact that we were seeing it in the wonderful Sydney Opera House.

Kathi and some of the ladies with us toured the building the day before the opera and got to see much more of its inner workings. We've all seen pictures of the sail-like roofs of this landmark building which so beautifully adds to the splendor of the Sydney harbor. But actually getting up close -- and going inside the great building -- was a high point for us. The building is truly inspiring.

Enjoy more pictures at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1221479

Melbourne

From Sydney it was off to two days in Melbourne, where Jim DeCorpo and Chuck had two sets of meetings.

There's a store here that claims to have the best ice cream in the world -- so we just had to check to see if their claim could be verified. In fact, we had to check it twice -- just to be sure. We decided we haven't tried enough different ice creams to be able to confirm it is the WORLD's best -- so we'll have to keep on tasting.

Melbourne has, over the years, become the new home to large numbers of immigrants. In fact it claims to have a larger Greek community than most Greek cities. So we had a great Greek dinner here. (Hmmm..... is there a "food theme" developing here?)

On the second day, while the guys were working, Kathi and Susan DeCorpo visited the immigration museum -- first time we'd seen one of those. They found it very interesting and worthwhile. The ladies also visited "Captain Cook's cottage", which purports to be the cottage the great explorer lived in in England, moved piece by piece to Australia.

The city has a great National Arts Center (or, Centre), including a very large, modern theater. We were able to get last-minute tickets to the musical "Dusty", based on the life of singer Dusty Springfield. Good show -- followed by a fine Italian dinner overlooking the river. (There's that food thing again!) While eating on the terrace of the restaurant we were entertained with a great fireworks display over the river -- we never did learn what the occasion was that called for fireworks. We decided to interpret it as a welcome display for us.

Then it was off to Canberra for the Calvanos and to Brisbane for the DeCorpos.

Some pictures of Melbourne are at: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1223952/1/57315702

Canberra

Canberra, Australia's capital, is a planned city -- and like Washington is not in one of Australia's states but is contained in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), analogous to the District of Columbia. It is a city of sweeping views and wide, straight streets, planned to showcase the large government buildings. Of course, there are residential areas, too, though we didn't get the chance to see much of them.

One of the most popular attractions is the Australian War Memorial -- a very well-done museum that, surprisingly, probably exceeds in the quality of its displays even Britain's Imperial War Museum. We spent a foot-wearying afternoon there.

While Chuck was at meetings the next day, Kathi visited the National Art Gallery.

While Canberra is modern, clean and attractive, it must be said that it's a bit sterile -- as planned cities tend to be, at least until they attain a certain age as Washington had by now. If you visit Canberra it should be for monuments, the Australian National University or government-related things -- don't go for the social scene.

To see a few pictures of Canberra, go to: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1230316

Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast

We are in agreement that, of the five cities we visited in Australia, Brisbane would be our first choice of a place to live. It's a modern, rapidly-growing city that benefits mightily from the Brisbane River running through it. The city operates a fleet of fast catamaran ferries on the river that are very cheap and run often -- so that it's entirely possible to commute by ferry (if one lives anywhere near the river and works downtown) and to use the ferries to go to a favorite restaurant or to a theater. What a nice feature for a city.

As we've done in many other cities, we took a city sightseeing bus as a way to get the "lay of the land" -- to understand where prime attractions or major parts of the city are located and how things are related. We also walked a good bit of the downtown area (some of it with the DeCorpos), including the Queen Street Mall, a multi-block, all-pedestrian shopping area on Queen Street. We found ourselves returning repeatedly to the riverfront, with its beautiful walks and fantastic restaurants by the dozens as well as vibrant night life.

Brisbane is in the state of Queensland and is the home of the Queensland Art Gallery, also one of our stops. While the gallery's collection is not as large as many we've seen, the art is interesting and the building beautiful.

Overall, there were some elements that reminded us of Monterey -- while Brisbane is larger, it still has a small city feel similar to Monterey's and yet possesses an elegant sophistication; and, like Monterey, has an incredible number of great restaurants for its size -- and, of course, a beautiful waterfront.

The coastal area just north of Brisbane is called the Sunshine Coast and we took a bit of a drive along this stretch -- going as far north as the very popular resort town of Noosa Heads (named for the two headlands that bound the beautiful beach). We stopped on the way for a visit to Underwater World, a surprisingly good aquarium, with a seal/sea lion show and a glass tunnel through the large tanks, where the fish swim all around the visitors.

See some of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1228523/1/57546395

Signs of Australia

During our time in Australia we saw a few unusual signs.

Remember, this is a country almost exactly the same size as the 48 contiguous United States, but with only 20 million people (as opposed to the 290 million or so in the US). As a result, nature seems a bit more ever-present -- and nature also often means dangerous cirumstances.

Some of these signs reflect that reality: http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1230316