Williamstown

Leave it to us to take an open air boat – in the blazing sun – with no a/c or sunscreen. While our fellow boaters lathered on sun screen, we just got pink. Fresh off the boat in Williamstown, we decided to take a tour of the island with a local guide and Ike, his black dog. As John says, “The steepest slope on the mountain is the expert slope”….and Williamstown wasn’t exactly steeped in fascinating sites, but it was interesting to see the historic houses and Ike’s special tricks. Originally the main seaport on Port Phillip Bay, it became a secondary port when the Yarra River was deepened and the Port of Melbourne was developed (circa 1880)

We took the train back to Melbourne and stopped at Victoria Market to check out the market- which was mostly junk. We watched some pretty serious rain clouds forming, so we beat feet back to the room and had a dinner of cucumber dip and wine.

Marvelous Melbourne

We started the day at Café Norra – drinking our flat white with Italian opera playing. We walked to the center of the city and caught the Melbourne Explorer bus- the big red, hop-on-hop-off tour bus for a quick city overview. We made a stop at the Immigration Museum, located in the old Customs House. The displays had replicas of ocean liner cabins to give you a sense of shipboard life for immigrants of different periods.

We had lunch at the Kimchi Café- and with garlic reeking from our pores, took the tram to the Visitors Center to plan our trip to Tasmania. With reservations made, we took a brief tour of the Melbourne Gaol. The Gaol is Victoria’s first prison and one of the oldest surviving buildings in Melbourne. Well known as the place where Ned Kelly was hung in 1880, it also has an interesting history of prison life in the 1800’s. Prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, forbidden to talk and forced to wear silence masks. Death masks were made of the executed prisoners and these masks were used for scientific analysis – trying to better understand criminal behavior. Since we were late, they gave us a return pass for their Saturday show on the last days of Ned Kelly.

Notes on Melbourne: The Aussie accent seems much stronger to us. The city has a much more relaxed pace than Sydney. The architecture is a blend of Victorian and modern. And the flies—this was our first, but not last introduction to the infamous Australian fly…more later.

Melbourne also has a strange traffic pattern- If you are driving in central Melbourne and want to turn against the traffic, you don’t get in the middle lane, but rather pull over to the curb- as far as possible from where you want to be- and sit there until the light changes- and make your turn from there- as quickly as you can before the light changes.
Dinner was some Turkish bread, wine and cheese in our room.

Australia Day and a Visit with Ned Kelly

We had originally planned to stay in Canberra for Australia Day, the Aussie 4th of July. But, after two days and a glance at the schedule of events, we opted to get on the road.

We had yet another long Australian drive. We started to understand Bill Bryson’s description of “Civilized Australia”—that part of Australia from Brisbane in the north to Adelaide in the south and west. That area covers about 5% of Australia’s land surface and nearly all of its important cities. In the whole of the continent, this is pretty much the only part that is conventionally habitable. They call it the “Boomerang Coast” because of its shape. We found that anything – even a minor tourist attraction – provided a welcome break from the everlasting drives.

Our first stop was at the Dog on the Tuckerbox. The story of the dog was put into verse when the Australian pioneers were traveling in bullock wagons, pushing their way into the unexplored interior. The story goes that a dog accompanied every wagon, as a faithful friend and guardian of the teamster’s possessions. “And the dog sits on the tucker box, five miles from Gundagai.”. Based on the verse, a monument was built at the Five Mile celebrating the pioneers and their faithful dogs.

As we drove, Bill Bryson’s book provided entertaining stories of his travels in Australia- and also provided a great tour guide. We were laughing hysterically reading his description of the Ned Kelly Museum in Glenrowan. A look at the map and we realized that with a minor diversion, we could experience it first hand. So, it was off to Ned Kelly’s Last Stand and KellyLand. Unlike the U.S. with it’s western law enforcement heroes (Wyatt Earp, etc), the Aussies have no “good guy” heroes. Their folk heroes are all bad guys- Billy the Kid types- known as bushrangers. The most famous of them is Ned Kelly.

The basic story - Ned came from Irish stock - a fairly lawless group. He spent years on the run from the Australian police and when they heard that he was hiding in the town of Glenrowan, they headed off to arrest him. The town had heard of their plans and so the entire town was waiting when they arrived- hoping to see a real gunfight. Ned came out from his hiding place at dawn-dressed in a suit of homemade armour. Since the armour didn't cover his legs, the police shot him in the leg. He managed to make it to the woods where he was captured. The police escorted him to the jail in Melbourne where he was tried and executed. His famous last words - "Such is life". Since then, his life has been romanticized in movies- one starring Mick Jagger as Ned- and books.

In a typical Aussie town- a few pubs and stores, the highlight of Glenrowan is the "World Class Tourist Attraction" - "Ned Kelly's Last Stand". We were the only people waiting to buy tickets- but based on Bill Bryson's description- knew that this was one tourist attraction we didn't want to miss. While there's no way to compete with Bryson's description of what came next, I'll give it a try.

The "show" begins in an old saloon - with a long bar, some dummies- some standing by the bar, some sitting around table, a German Shepard and all of the old timey bar paraphanalia. Suddenly the lights dim and shots are fired - when the room got lighter, the dummies started to move (not like Disney animatronics, but stiff, jerky movements), the piano would play, a boy on a trapeze swung back and forth - and the German Shepard lifted his leg on the bar. It really was so bad that you had to love it!

Once this scene was played out- we went through a series of rooms - not really sure what we were looking at. In fact, the story was so incomprehensible, that we went to the café next door and asked the locals about the real story. We couldn’t leave without a photo of the proprietor of Ned’s Last Stand – and he proudly showed us his latest addition to the show- an 8’ tall Ned Kelly head (in armour) with eyes that light up. You just had to see it to believe it.
With spirits high, we continued our journey towards Melbourne. The plains turned golden, the landscape became barren and arid. We drove for miles and miles with the same scene out the window. Then, almost like Dorothy’s first sighting of the Emerald City, we turned a corner and could see Melbourne beckoning on the horizon. Suddenly, the arid, empty scene turned to busy city streets and store fronts in multiple languages – Turkish, Arabic, Thai, and Chinese.

With no detailed map, we followed our nose into the center of the city and found our way to our hotel, The Downtowner on Lygon. We dumped the car, threw our bags in the room and headed out on the streets. Our hotel was located at the border of the CBD and Little Italy. We took a stroll into Little Italy- blocks and blocks of outdoor cafes and restaurants- Italian, Thai, Greek, Turkish, Nepalese. The touts were out- everyone offering free wine, free appetizers – just “try my restaurant”.

Canberra - "Why Wait for Death"

After another wonderful breakfast, we started out for what would be one of many long drives through Australian countryside.

We had read Bill Bryson’s account of the visitor’s center in Cowra and the amazing holographic presentation of the historic prison break. During WWII, there was a large prisoner of war camp outside Cowra. On one side were 2,000 Italians, on the other side, 2,000 Japanese. The Italians were model prisoners. Many, happy to be away from the front lines, made the best of things. They worked on local farms and were only lightly guarded. Their officers weren’t guarded at all.

The Japanese, on the other hand, refused to work or cooperate at all. The shame of capture was so great that many gave false names. Then in August 1944, 1100 of them staged a massive breakout in the middle of the night. They burst from their barracks with a banzai cry and charged en masse at the guards clutching baseball bats, chair legs, and any other weapons they could find. The guards poured bullets into the mass but were quickly overwhelmed. Within minutes, 378 prisoners had escaped into the countryside. It took 9 days to round them all up. The furthest any of them got was 15 miles. The casualties were 231 Japanese killed and 112 wounded.

At the visitor’s center in Cowra, there were photos and artifacts-but in the back room was a holographic explanation of the breakout. You sat in a darkened room, music began to play and suddenly one of the people in the photo in front of you appeared to step out of the picture and started to walk around the objects and talked about Cowra in the 1940’s and the prison breakout. The girl, about 6” tall, was 3 dimensional and it was the most amazing way to bring history to life.

We arrived in Canberra, headed to the Visitors Center and got a great weekend deal at the Hyatt Hotel. Canberra was exactly as described by Bill Bryson. It was chosen as the capital of Australia in 1901. Because Sydney and Melbourne were so closely matched, the new nation decided to build their new capital somewhere in the bush. They formed the Australian Capital Territory (a federal zone on the model of Washington, D.C.) The city is cold in the winter, blazing hot in the summer and in the middle of nowhere. It is one of the world’s largest planned communities in the world. It is also forty miles off the main road from Sydney to Melbourne and there are no rail lines into it. And, the only approach to the city from the west is a dirt track.
It was a very strange city – all lawns and trees and hedges and a huge ornamental lake in the middle. But, there was no sense of the city. We opted to walk to the War Museum from our hotel. We walked for what seemed like miles past non-descript blocks of 60’s style buildings. Finally we reached Anzac Parade and had a sense of deja-vu; it was like being in the Soviet Union. Excessively wide streets with a huge green space in-between. On either side of the “promenade” were tributes to the wars fought by Australia.

The War Museum was truly impressive. We took a 2+ hour tour with a very knowledgeable guide. The museum focuses on the history of the wars that Australia has participated in.

We walked and drove all around the city, looking for any semblance of activity or feeling of a vibrant city life. We found nothing. Attempts to make pedestrian friendly malls were populated only by 16 year olds on skateboards. We did manage to find a lovely Indian restaurant and used our dinner to plan our escape from Canberra.

Once again, Bryson’s experience came to mind. After an endless day of walking and trying to find the soul of Canberra, he ended up at a bar, drinking and making up slogans for Canberra:

“Canberra- There’s Nothing to it” or “Canberra-Why Wait for Death?” or “Canberra- Gateway to Everywhere Else" *

*From Bill Bryson's book, "In a Sunburned Country" - a MUST READ for anyone making the journey to Australia!

The Blue Mountains

We woke to a wonderful breakfast in our room- served by Marian and Trevor. We had hoped to go on a bushwalk with a local naturalist---but the storm clouds let go just as the car was coming to pick us up. While we really wanted to see more of the rainforest, the idea of a 2 hour walk in pouring rain didn’t seem too appealing. Now, we had to find something to do inside. We opted to visit the IMAX theater for their showing of “The Edge” – an IMAX film shot in the Blue Mountains- with waterfalls, underground caves, and some very annoying Gen “Y” explorers.

After the movie, the weather was still iffy so we set off in search of a “view”. With the spectacular beauty of the Blue Mountains, you would think that there would be 100’s of restaurants with a view. Not so. We finally found an old hotel, the Hydro Majestic that offered us a pub with a view.

For dinner, we decided to pick up some wine and cheese and settle into our beautiful room and watch DVD’s.

Sydney to the Blue Mountains

We had our gay-dar on at breakfast. A few doors down from our new hotel was an outside café filled every morning with a very interesting mix of people (and their dogs)
It would become another of our favorite places in Sydney.

It was time to pick up our rental car and venture out from the city. We decided to explore the Blue Mountains. Part of the Dividing Range, the Blue Mountains were initially the impenetrable barrier to white expansion from Sydney. With no reservations in a popular weekend destination, we stopped at the Visitors Center and found a room at a small B&B in Katoomba. The Melba House was an Edwardian house converted to a 3 room B&B and run by a lovely British couple, Marion and Trevor.

With a darkening sky, we decided to try our luck at “Scenic World”. After taking a near vertical ride down to the base of the rainforest on the railway car, we took a walk through the forest. John convinced me that the ride back via gondola would be a yawn compared to a ride back on the railway car. (The railway runs to the bottom of the Jamison Valley. It was built in the 1880’s to transport coal miners and at a 45 degree angle, is one of the steepest inclines in the world). We ended up in the last car (first car if you were heading down). You literally felt that you were going to fall out of the car as it edged up the 1 mile track. There were no seatbelts or anything to hold you into the car. It was simply hair-raising.

We made it back just as the thunder clouds rolled in and the rain started to come down. We stopped for a drink at the Carrington Hotel, a beautiful old hotel with a grand veranda and then grabbed dinner at a great little Thai restaurant.

Sydney and the Ferry to Manly

Hotel 59 was booked for the next few days, so we had to drag our roller bags up the street to the hotel a few blocks away. It wasn’t much to look at, but the staff was friendly and helpful and the price was right. With the dollar tanking daily, even budget hotels weren’t any bargain.

We headed out with our Lonely Planet and followed their walking tour of Sydney. We ended at the Opera House and took the tour of this magnificent facility. The Opera House was once the site of a municipal tram garage- but in the competition between Melbourne and Sydney, the Sydney officials decided to put up a concert hall in the city. They held a competition for the design and ultimately chose a design by a Danish architect, Jorn Utzon. Construction began in 1959 with an estimated cost of $7 million. It turns out that the roof was top heavy and just working out the construction of the roof took five years (the entire project had been projected to takes six years!). The project was completed in 1973 at a final cost of $102 million.

Outside, the views of the Harbour Bridge were spectacular. The Opera House and the Harbor Bridge are the ultimate picture postcard of Sydney. The bridge was completed in 1932. It stretches 1650 feet- and the same year that it opened, the Bayonne Bridge in NY quietly opened, and was found to be 25 inches longer.

The day was sunny and bright and the ferries were beckoning. We raced to the docks, bought a ticket and ran onto the ferry to Manly. Even on a Friday, the place was filled with Aussies out to enjoy the sun and beaches. We found a spectacular little Thai restaurant across from the water then walked to the beach to check out the scene. John took a few photos of the girls in their skimpy suits and struck up a conversation with an old guy who had come to Australia years ago from Sicily.

Once back at Kings Cross, we were determined to find a pub. Heading the other direction from our hotel, down Victoria Street, passing the strip joints and Internet cafes, we found a beautiful outdoor café by a fountain. Our luck- it was happy hour – two for one. After many, many glasses of wine and an interesting conversation with a local – originally from Serbia, we headed home.