Day 30. Sydney to Vietnam.

Yesterday was my last day in Sydney. I started out having breakfast at Harborside at Darling Harbor. Again, very nostalgic of Baltimore.



Then I headed down to The Rocks, that first established white settlement in Sydney I had mentioned before, for their weekend market. (I ran into one of the couples from the wine tour I had taken!)

Then I headed to the opposite side of the harbor to walk through the botanic garden. What a wonderful in-city garden, with lots of old lush trees...




The government house is within the garden...


...and as you meander through the park, there are great views of the harbor icons together...



As you can see it was a bit of a cloudy day, but that made it perfect for all of the walking I was doing. It never really rained.

They encourage you to walk on the grass, sit in the grass, bring your picnic....and I was sorry I hadn't brought along some lunch.

Continuing on around the park, I came to my destination, which was Mrs. Macquarie's chair...




where the governor's wife in the early 1800's had carved a chair out of the rock where she could watch the ships come into the harbor...



The guide books said that if you don't get there early, especially on a weekend, you have to wait in a long line to get your photo in the chair. But they were setting up for a triathlon in the vicinity, and so I think a lot of folks were intimated to walk through the setup area, so it was just me and 4 other people there, one of whom snapped my photo!

Then it was back around the garden, with the backdrop of the cityscape...



..and back over to the other side of the harbor to do the bridge walk...



...for yet more views of the opera house (enough already, right? :-)



Everyone had talked me out of the bridge climb and so I only did the walk across the bridge. For the "climb" you actually climb up to the very top of the bridge span (they did it onThe amazing race once). Anyway, its quite expensive, and they don't let you take your camera with you, and then they take photos of you and charge yet another exhorbitant fee for the photos, so I skipped it.

Then, nine hours after I had left my hotel room, I returned, with my tired feet, to pack up for the next leg of my trip. Today, I am off to Vietnam!

Not sure what my wifi access will be for the next two weeks while in Vietnam and then Burma, so I may go silent during some of this next leg of the trip.

Cheers!

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Location:Cahill Expy,The Rocks,Australia

Day 28. Blue Mountains.

(posted day 29)
Everyone kept telling me I had to see the Blue Mountains. So I signed up for one day there today. I was actually a bit disappointed, probably because I had not done enough research on this myself, and so I went on a tour recommended by the concierge with APT (I had run across them just about everywhere, but had not booked anything with them, which should have been a good hint). It was the first time I felt like I was on a tourist-type tour. I did sign up for the small group, so at least there were only 16 of us instead of 60 :-) I don't know if there were other better options but I would definitely not recommend that one. There appeared to be some wonderful walking trails in the park, and I would have preferred doing that. It was also a long day, with not much time in the mountains, so perhaps this is one where renting a car would have been a good option and going up the night before and staying in a b&b in the cute little town of Leura. Although I'm still not sure I would have wanted to hike alone, so would have still needed to find someone to do that with....I am sure they were there somewhere.

But anyway, we went to the scenic railway/cable car to see the "three sisters" -- it was foggy,



and so we barely got glimpses of them. I think I was the only one in my group that was lucky enough to catch them between clouds...






One of the aboriginal stories (apparently there is more than one story) about the three sisters is that the father of three sisters turned them to rock with a magic bone which he had to protect them from a bad monster. Then the father became a lyrebird. As the bird, he dropped the bone and lost it, so was unable to turn the sisters and himself back to human once the danger was past. To this day, the lyrebird, which scratches away at the forest floor, and makes very loud noises, is still looking for the magic bone.

On the way back to Sydney, we went to a wildlife park and so got to see some of the animals up close, including the koala. Most of them were asleep...



Except for this cute little one who was enjoying the attention...


They also had a Tasmanian Devil, which I hadn't seen, since Tasmania was not on my itinerary...


They then dropped us off to take a ferry cruise back to the harbor. This was the best part, as I can never get enough of the city harbors...some great views on the way back...Some great places to live along the water here....


Another bridge..the Anzac bridge (Australia new zealand army corps).


Great night for sailing as everyone was heading out after work...Might have been some racing going on...








The boat brought us back into Circular Quay, the main harbor area, and I am now sitting at the Eastbank restaurant, an outdoor cafe right on the Sydney Harbor. Awesome view of the bridge and people watching.



The bridge is interesting. When I first saw it, I thought, ok, it's an old expansion bridge, not so impressive. But then, it draws you in. Every time I turn around, I find myself taking a photo of it from a different angle. I must have at least 100 pictures of it so far. So I guess it is really impressive after all!

Anyway, I had noticed this row of restaurants along the harbor's edge when I had walked past here to go to the opera the other night, and vowed to come back, so here I am. As soon as I sat down, a little boy next to me-- maybe about Kai's age, with a NY Yankees hat, started talking to me (Kai, I told him you would not let me buy you a yankees hat. He didn't understand as he thinks they are "the best"!! :-). But then he did understand when I told him you were a Mariners fan. He was from Korea, but had lived in the States for two years so his English was excellent. (and very proud of himself when I told him so). He was very interested in my trip. He wanted to know why my "husband" wasn't with me :-). I told him I was not married and so was able to go wherever I wanted to go. He thought that was awesome! Before they left he wanted his mom to take a picture of me with him (darn, didn't think to get one with my own camera). Btw, he also asked me if you were ok when I told him that you live in Tokyo...he was very concerned for the people in Japan.

Dinner was excellent! I had a salad (with cheese that was kind of like mozzarella, but better, prosciutto, pears, walnuts and fresh spinach with balsamic). If Bob at H3 is reading this, ok, I have to admit, that wasn't all good, better, best. Then had New Zealand mussels cooked in wine, garlic and tomatoes--ok, here's a concession, I passed on pommes fritas. I know this is sacrilege, but they were better than Bertha's (for the non-Baltimoreans in the group, that's a place in Fells Point that is famous for it's mussels). Ok, here's another concession....I passed on dessert! And my plans for tomorrow, my last day in Sydney, are to walk, walk, walk.

G' day, mates!

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Location:Blue Mtns & Sydney, Australia

Day 27. Hunter Valley Wine District

(posted on day 29)
I had read about a tour by Jason of the Hunter Valley wine district while doing my research on Sydney, and decided to sign up for it today. We headed out at about 7:00am.

Jason was quite delightful, giving us commentary along the way, including a stop for this photo opportunity :-).


The bad news was that he said that the best wine in Australia does not leave the shores. And that most of the wine available elsewhere is produced by the big business wineries.

He said that at the very least, one should not buy wine that says it is from Southeast Australia, but to look for wines from specific regions such as Barossa or Hunter Valley. And to look for words on the label such as single vineyard or low yielding vines or hand picked, etc. Meanwhile, we were going to go to vineyards that produce small amounts and don't export their wines. We would have the opportunity to buy some of these wines (but darn it, that obviously won't work for me).

Our first stop was.....


This is a small father and son owned vineyard that produces about 5,000 cases per year.


The main varieties that we tried throughout the day were semillon, shiraz, merlot, chardonnay and verdelho. This vineyard's special wine was called William Henry Shiraz. (all of their wines were named for people, such as family members). I actually liked their merlot.

Our next stop was...


...a family owned winery that produces only 3,500 cases per year. They had just produced their 2010 semillon which we were the first to try. We tasted it with their 2005 vintage. I liked the newer one better, although the older one was supposed to be more full bodied (but what do I know :-). The one we tried here that I liked was a 2009 chambourcin. This is a red that can be chilled as it has no tannins, as the skin of this grape provides the red color.

Our third stop was...


Upon entering this property, we came upon some kangaroos...





As you can see, this one has a Joey in its pouch....but she didn't turn around for a better view...


Cool.

This vineyard is owned by a previous Cathay Pacific pilot


who was looking for an acre to retire on, and ended up with this 200 acre property, where he grows grapes, as well as olives....he also makes excellent, hand-pressed olive oils. He has a shiraz, which I liked a lot, that won a #1 rating against many of the much bigger vineyards.

Our last stop was...



...where we took this shot of our small group...


....from Denmark, Canada, England, Mississippi (stationed in Afghanistan), and North Carolina.

What I liked here was a verduzzo.

Although the weather started out a bit ugly, it ended up being a beautiful day.



What fun we had! I was so glad i'd signed up for this small group experience with Jason, rather than the one my hotel concierge tried to steer me towards.


Thanks, Jason, for a great day and a great wine experience. This one's for you...

Location:Hunter Valley, Australia

Day 26 concluded with Sydney Opera House!

(posted on Day 28--wifi in room is not working, so am behind on posts--will try to catch up tomorrow)

I started the day by putting in my calls to American Airlines (AA) regarding my rerouting of my trip away from Tokyo. My ticket is a "round the world" (RTW) ticket, which is something that is offered by the two airline alliances. This type of ticket allows a certain number of segments (16 I believe), and has certain rules, such as once you've visited a continent, and then left, you can't return to that continent. And it is priced based on how many continents you visit. My ticket is with the One World Alliance, which includes AA in the US. They have a dedicated website where you can plan your itinerary. Anyway, a couple of people had asked me about my ticket, so that's the scoop.

I am also glad that before I left, I discovered there is a dedicated RTW desk (they of course don't tell you that when you book your ticket, and were reluctant to give me their direct line, but I got it). So after trying the free overseas AA call line, who referred me to Japan Airlines, who referred me back to AA, I bit the bullet and used the RTW number, although I'll have to pay for that call. It took me 25 minutes with them (which isn't bad) to make the change. I am now flying from Vietnam to Hong Kong, then will fly to Moscow through London (no other Asian airline other than Japan Airlines (JAL) had a direct flight to Moscow). BTW, JAL would not waive the change fee -- they would only waive it if I changed my arrival date to Japan. Which may work if you have a simple round trip ticket from the US to Tokyo which you can postpone for a month, but it's a bit hard with a RTW ticket to postpone my arrival, when I still need to get to the next destination. Duh! AA was surprised that JAL would not waive the fee for me. I guess they are probably a bit desperate at this point for revenues any way they can get them.

I had also thought I might try to book a separate round trip ticket somewhere else from Hong Kong (since I've been there before), but Bali was too expensive and is pretty hot this time of year, and I need a Chinese visa to get to Guilin, plus only had really four full days, so tough to fit anything else in. So I have now booked a place in Hong Kong with a pool and a gym for those days when I would have been in Tokyo. I'll just hang out and do some walking around town to see what has changed since I was there 20 years ago.

So......anyway........after getting my airline ticket reworked, I headed on up to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to Manly. As we headed out, there were some wonderful views of the Sydney harbor...



















...before arriving at Manly Wharf.





Susie, first thing I saw...






...the bald man from nyc!!!

Anyway, i walked up the Corso...






...which was a short walk to the wonderful beach area...






So just 30 short minutes from downtown sydney! Cool!! (I think there is even a faster 15 minute ferry to get there). I stopped at an outdoor cafe on the Corso, and had a lunch of fresh grilled fish and salad. Then it was off to walk along the scenic walkway along the shoreline with some great shoreline views...












This walkway goes on for 10km to The Spit. But I only had about an hour before I had to head back on the ferry. There are lots of walks, plus bike routes, plus sea kayaking, surfing, etc., so a really great place so close to the city.

So back on the ferry to get back to get ready for the opera!

How awesome seeing "Carmen" at the Sydney Opera House! I was in the fourth row, looking right into the orchestra pit. The production was good....the person playing Carmen was a great fit for the part (the men in the audience were obviously in awe of her sexuality). The opera theater was much smaller and so more intimate than the Met in NYC. Absolutely cool experience!

And when I came out.....This beautiful nighttime view of the bridge...





Time for a good nights sleep....trip to the Hunter Valley wine district tomorrow!

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Location:York St,Sydney,Australia

Day 26. Sydney

Yesterday (Day 25), I enjoyed my first day in Sydney. I first spent some time on the phone with the airlines and on the Internet to work on rerouting my trip around Tokyo. Not yet resolved, but hoping it will be resolved this morning. It is looking like I will end up in Hong Kong. I had hoped to go somewhere else, as I've already been to Hong Kong, but side flights are either too expensive or not direct, and thus too time consuming.

Then in the afternoon, I walked around darling harbor...with harborview (like harborplace in baltimore), aquarium, some other museums, chinatown, paddys market (not opened on tuesdays), etc

Then I took the three hour, free walking tour of Sydney, which was a great way to get an overview of the city. We started at town hall, then went through the underground shopping plaza (for all of you commercial real estate types, the "westfield" name is all over everything in this city), past Sydney tower...



...over to hyde park...






..and to see the australian coat of arms...



....past other historical landmarks related to the establishment of Australia by the convicts from England, including this anchor/cannon from the first convict ship...



You all know the story of the convicts sent to Australia, right? If not, I read a great historical novel about it years ago--"the fatal shore" by Robert Hughes.

Basically, England couldn't decide what to do with all of their criminals, both serious as well as petty criminals, so they decided to ship them all off to Australia to "get rid of them" and they were the first "settlers" here (besides the aborigines, of course, who had been here for thousands of years--very similar to our American Indian story).

Anyway, we continued down to the area called "the rocks" which was the first "neighborhood" including the first "house" built here...


and on to the circular quay where I had my first glimpse of the opera house....


...and the Sydney Harbor Bridge...



...the two most recognized icons of Sydney.

I was then going to have dinner at the Sydney Tower, which has a revolving restaurant at the top, but the hotel concierge said that the food was horrible and directed me to the "Summit" restaurant instead, which was also a revolving restaurant on the 47th floor of another building. For all of you foodies out there, the chef/owner is internationally known, Michael Moore (not the movie producer).

It was fantastic...and 45 minutes into my dinner, I was looking at that same bridge/opera house view, from a different vantage point. Wow!!

Today, hoping to get my airline ticket resolved, then head out to Manly via a ferry. It's supposed to be the best and least expensive boat ride in the harbor. Then tonight......I have a fifth row seat at the opera house to see Carmen!

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Location:Sydney, Australia