Cain Manor

We flew into Perth somewhat early in the day – around noon. On the way into town, we were stopped by a temporary blockade. While waiting, there was a Formula race car that went down the streets that were closed off from stopping us. Oddly enough, we never saw any other evidence of Formula cars, or races, or anything else. There were quite a few photographers for the cars short journey, so they knew something about it. Our hotel was on Hay Street, which was the main shopping stretch in Perth. After checking in, we walked down a side alley and found a sushi restaurant where we ate a small lunch. We then walked along the Swan river, found a place that rented bikes (see Biking to Fremantle) and took a short visit to the Perth Mint (but didn’t pay $12 to go in.) We then bought some booze, had an early dinner (5:30 – too late for old people special, but too early for any attractive people), and turned in kinda early.

Melbourne was a short flight from Sydney. We had transportation to our hotel, and arrived early in the evening. Our hotel was quite nice and quiet, which was a change from Sydney’s noisy street. We walked to a restaurant called Rare Steakhouse, which I’d guess to serve steak. It was a very nice place, but service was a bit odd, especially given this was a moderate to expensive place. Our waiter was French, and didn’t speak great english. When I asked what vodka they had, it started a minor dust up from the waitstaff. First he looked confused, then he walked back to the bar, started looking around, then someone else came over, they talked a bit, and kept looking back at our table. When he came back without much of an answer, I just said “water, thanks”, which only caused him to look more confused, but then we were able to order. Eventually another woman came over and told us our waiter was new, and in training, and apologized for the trouble. When I asked her what vodka they had, she knew, and I ordered something on the rocks. She ended up being our waitress for the rest of the night, with the french guy bringing us the occasional water or bread.
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As our time in Melbourne was limited, we tried to find a few of the highlights to do. We’d talked about renting a car and driving this Great Ocean Road, or maybe driving from Melbourne to Adelaide, but that seemed too risky. We’d had some issues with flying by the seat of our pants, and figured more plans were better than fewer.
Continue reading ‘Along the Great Ocean Road’ »

We finally made it to Sydney proper, and we are getting closer to making our trip into a vacation.  Justine was feeling a bit better in that we had a plan, and we were finally in a place where we weren’t worried about getting stabbed by a hobo.    We were staying at the Victoria and Albert Court B and B on Victoria Road in Pott’s Point (apparently there are many Victoria Roads.  Ours was in Pott’s Point.) The room was nice, but it was facing the road, which we’d find out later meant it could be quite noisy at night.  Considering the work that went into getting this place (I guessed, more or less), it ended up being a great location.  Take a right, and go a block or two, and down a long staircase, and you were on the waterfront, near the relatively famous Harry’s Cafe De Wheels at Cowper’s Wharf.  Most of the food and travel shows I’ve seen on Sydney end up eating here at least once (Anthony Bourdain, Samantha Brown, etc.)    From there, it was a short walk to the Royal Botanical Gardens, and then the Opera House.  And the Opera House is the true heart of Sydney, and once there, many of the tourist things you’d want to do are close by (The Rocks, Harbor Bridge, etc.)  Once we got there we made a big loop from our hotel to see many of those sites listed above.  On our way back, we walked by a “Pack and Send”, and wondered if they could help us better than the Castle Hills branch.
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Posting a bit late, but trying to keep them in correct order

Continue reading ‘Taronga Zoo in Sydney’ »