The long ride home

Laura joined us for our last breakfast at the Interpolitan Cafe before leaving Australia. We took a walk up and down the Corso admiring the Australian Souveniers and window shopping. We finished packing up our four suitcases. When we came to Australia we had four suitcases but two of them were empty. Now they were filled with wine, candy, stuffed animals and other Australian goodies. We hugged Laura and got into the van at 12 noon. She'll be back home in just over three weeks, just in time for a snowy New England Christmas. There was a lady on the van that was traveling to Brisbane. She was telling us that she just came back from New Zealand and said it was beautiful. Tony and I would like to visit Australia again someday but probably would do a cruise so we can see more of the country.

When we got to the airport we passed through emigration without a problem and waited for the flight that was leaving about 4 O'clock in the afternoon. There were lots of empty seats on the United flight so we got to stretch out a bit. I moved into the center section where I had two seats. At least on this plane I could see the video screen even though they showed some of the same movies they showed on the way to Australia. I watched Wall-E and Henry Poole again and then fell asleep. I even missed the delicious dinner. Tony had chicken. The flight went pretty quickly (considering it was over 13 hours) and we arrived in San Francisco at about 9 AM California time. We had to get out luggage to bring them through customs and went through without a problem. We called Laura to tell her we arrived but didn't realize it was only 5 AM in Australia.

Tony had soup and a I bought a turkey sandwich at the Bourdin bakery at the airport. That was our Thanksgiving dinner. It was very good. We got on another plane and arrived four and a half hours later in Washington DC. We called Brian and he said he would pick us up in Boston. We arrived in Boston at 11:30 PM. It was about 20 hours of time in the air. My ankles were swolen but I wasn't feeling too tired. I had a lot of naps on the plane.

We are looking forward for our girls to come home. Stella will come home today and Laura will be here on December 21st. We had a wonderful time visiting Laura in Australia. She was a great tour guide and we enjoyed visiting her school and meeting some of her friends. Manly is a beautiful town, Sydney was a big, clean city with plenty to see, and the Australians we met were very friendly and helpful. It was a great vacation.

Laura meets Jaws...diving with sharks

Wednesday morning was warm but cloudy. Laura slept over so we could get an early start to go to the Manly aquarim to dive with the sharks. We got there at 9 so Laura could get ready and we came back at 10 and went into the aquarium. We walked downstairs to the shark tank and then Laura and the dive instructor Nick and Terry from Essex, England came out into the tank. The sharks were swimming all around Laura and she almost got hit in the head by a turtle.

She said it was fun but it wasn't really diving, it was walking. She couldn't even pat the nice sharks. There were grey nurse sharks in the tank, Wobegon sharks and big sting rays and turtles. Now Laura knows how it feels to be a fish in an acquarium. The rest of the day we walked around Manly and then went to a Greek restaurant called Terra Cotta for dinner. The owner is from South Africa and he told us that the Octopus and the lamb were very good. They only use the biggest octopus and it is marinated and grilled. I tried it and it tasted like chicken or chook in Australian. Laura had salmon with goat cheese pesto. We also had dessert and then walked back along the beach to the B and B.

Tuesday lazy without Laura

On Tuesday morning I got up and took my morning walk. After breakfast Tony and I walked down to the Manly aquarium to sign up Laura for a Shark Dive on Wednesday morning. If she gets eaten I'll feel bad because we had to pay for the dive. Eugene told us that someone was injured while diving last month. Fortunately he wasn't bitten, he was just hit in the head by a shark. That made me feel better.

I decided to stick around Manly and Tony went to Sydney to do some shopping. I found some penny slot machines so I did a little gambling and had a beer. I also walked along the ocean and watched the surfers and volleyball players. You can only swim between the flags but there was a small swimming area because of the high waves. Laura got out of school at about four o'clock so we went out to dinner at Il Gondaliero. Laura and Tony had Gnocci and Jamie (Laura's Australian friend) had spagetti. It was a very small restaurant but it was one of my favorite meals of the vacation. After dinner we had some ice cream and then walked up to Jamie's apartment. She shares the apartment with another girl from the Uni and pays $180 a week each for the two bedroom apartment.

A fine day for a Crocodile encounter

When I took my morning walk on Monday the sun was out and it was a fine day. That's what they say in the Australian weather reports if its going to be sunny. The temperature was about 22, which I would say was about 80 degrees in the sun but there was a nice cooling breeze. It's always smart to carry a light sweater because if the wind especially when riding the ferry. Tony and I went down for breakfast around 9:30 and then went to the bank to exchange my last travelers checks.

Laura had class until 10 so after that we bought day passes to the ferry and headed off to the Taronga zoo. http://www.taronga.org.au/

The ride to Circular Quay was rough because of the heavy surf and then there was a smooth ten minute ride over to the zoo across the bay. The zoo area is beautiful with lots of trees and peacocks walking around. We saw a kookaburra close up and heard him make his call. We saw several sleepy kangaroos and wallabies and I even got to touch one. We also saw a Tasmanian devil who didn't whirl like the one on TV but he did have some sharp little teeth. I heard that Tasmanian devils leave nothing behind when they eat something, they even eat the bones.

The orangutan had nice long hair and he was eating something out of a jar using a stick like a spoon. Pretty smart I thought. One of the gorillas was carrying her little baby around. He was just four months old born in August and I thought the father gorilla looked pretty proud. We saw several koalas sitting up in the trees. They didn't move around too much.

When we got to the salt water crocodile we were standing there looking for him and all of a sudden he started swimming towards us. He climbed out of the water and then laid down right in front of us. If there wasn't glass between us I think he was looking at the Scafati's as a tasty morsel. He had a big mouth with lots of sharp teeth. We also saw the little fairy penguin. There is a group of them that live near the harbor wharf in Manly but I haven't Penguins in the water there just seagulls.

We left the zoo at about four o'clock and headed back to Manly for a little rest. We had 8:30 reservations for Cafe Sydney, which is the 2nd best rated restaurant in Sydney. The restaurant is located on the 5th floor of the Custom Building. It was very dark in the restaurant but offered a great view of the bridge and the harbor. We sat outside and they even put blankets on your chairs so you can cover up if you feel chilly. Laura had nocchi, Tony had filet mignon and I had red snapper. I wouldn't recommend the restaurant. My fish was very dry but Laura finished her meal and was still hungry. It was nice to go into Sydney harbor at night to see it all lit up. When we got back to Manly we stopped into a bakery where they make meat pies. It smelled great in there. Tony got a raisin pastry and Laura and I shared an eclair. Tony walked Laura back up to the school because she was pretty tired.

Sunday in Sydney

Today was a windy and cloudy day. We got on the ferry and went to the Rocks market. The Princess Dawn was in port and there was a line of people waiting to get on their 12 day cruise around the islands. Laura and I went into the Rocks Museum where Laura played solitaire on the computer and I learned that the streets in the Rocks area were once paved in wood blocks. It was quite dangerous to pave the streets. They used hot tar which is poison and then they would hand the hot blocks from person to person. They used wood because it was quieter than stone and easier on the horses hooves. The rocks area is kind of like Fanuel Market. We also went to the museum of modern art where there were a couple of interesting exhibits. YINKA SHONIBARE is an artist who uses beautiful batik material to make clothing styled like what people wore during the French Revolution. http://www.mca.com.au There was also an artist who had a team of people tearing words out of books. They had the books with all the holes in the pages as well as baggies full of the torn out words.

For dinner we went to the Kiosk where we had a six course dinner. This restaurant was right on Shelly Beach. We walked down the walkway along the beach where we saw what we though might be a penguin but when it spread its wings we realized it was just some kind of water bird. It did stay there and posed for us for a while. For dinner we had some unsual fish such as Leather jacket and Kingfish. We also had duck and a souffle for dessert. Tony had the wine with the dinner and he enjoyed trying all the different Australian wines. After dinner we took a taxi and dropped Laura up at the school so she wouldn't have to walk home in her beautiful new dress.

Market day

Saturday morning I got up early and took a walk down to Shelly beach. I saw the sun come up and there were surfers and kayakers out in the water. It was beautiful walking along the boardwalk. I found a couple of nice shells at the beach. After breakfast at the Interpolitan Cafe we bought daytripper tickets to the ferry. For $16 you can go on any ferry or bus all day. We went to Paddy's Market which is near Chinatown. It is a huge inside market. Downstairs there are all kind of stalls selling souvenirs, tee shirts, shoes, clothes and Aborigine stuff. Kind of like a flea market. Upstairs there was fruit and vegatables. We bought a tee shirt and some souvenirs. We also got some avocados and kiwi fruit. After Paddys Market we got back on the train and went to the Rocks Market. This market is outside in an historic part of Sydney and sold a lot of handcrafted items. Tony bought some bread and had a wine tasting. I bought a hand painted Christmas ornament with Koalas on it.

Even though it started out a warm and sunny day all of a sudden the wind started blowing. Laura was comfortable because she had a sweater on but i was getting cold. We decided to hop on another ferry to go over to see Darling Harbor where the aquarium is. There are a lot of huge buildings there like Aon and IBM. We walked around for a little while and then got back on the ferry to Circular Quay. When we got back to Manly we made a reservation to go to Gar Fish for dinner. On the way back up the hill Laura stopped and bought a pretty flowered dress. Gar Fish is a very popular restaurant which is right across from the harbor beach. Every time we walk by there it is always busy. One of the things that was on the menu was something called a bug so we asked to see it. It was like a small lobster or a big shrimp. We didn't have it but the people next to us had it and it looked pretty good. Laura had her favorite salmon, Tony had John Dory and I had the crispy fried Baramundy that Eugene told us about. The meals were quite small and we were still hungry. We got a cheese plate and then walked back to the B and B. Laura decided to go back to sleep in her own bed so we walked her up to her Uni.

Trip to Blue Mountains

Friday:

Laura and I got up early to go to Blue Mountains. The van driver picked us up at 7:15 and we took a scenic ride to Sydney to pick up some other passengers. We had a bus driver named Mel and there were people on our tour from Canada, Germany, Holland, France, Viet Nam and New Mexico. The ride to Blue mountains took about two hours and we stopped a couple times for some beautiful views. When we got to Blue Mountains we took a tram that goes at 52 degrees (it is very steep) down the canyon. The tram was first used by coal miners and there are lots of caves in the mountains. We took a walk to see a waterfall and saw some cockatiels and cockatoo. We stopped for lunch in the town of Leura where Laura had Pasta with Pesto and I had a salad. It was good and we were hungry after all the walking and sight seeing. On the way back we stopped at a clearing where we saw three kangaroos munching grass. Scientific fact: the difference between wallabies and kangaroos are Kankaroos back bones go all the way down to their tails. They can balance on their tails, which makes them good boxers but they can only go forward. They can't jump sideways or back like Wallabies. After the tour the bus let us off at the ferry and we went back to Circular quay in Sydney. There was a night marked at the Rocks so week took a short walk around and bought some Macademia nuts for a snack. We're going to two markets on Saturday with Tony.

We got on the Ferry to Manly and Tony met us there and we went out for dinner at the Manly Italian Restaurant. Tony had lasagne, Laura had veal with mangos and I had fettucine Alfredo but it didn't have a white sauce like at home. They gave us huge portions so I had to get a doggy bag. If Stella was here I would give her some.

A Manly day

Thursday morning...

I got up early and took a walk down to the surf beach to catch some waves. There were several surfers out there and plenty of people exercising and running on the beach. I also saw a person, I can' t say if it was a man or a woman but I think it was wearing a skirt, who was walking a cat on a leash and collar. Well...walking maybe is generous, dragging a cat down the walk. The poor kitty didn't want to walk and then the "person" would pull the cat up with the collar so people could pet it. I guess that was our second crazy Australian person. We went to breakfast at our usual place and Tony had the veggie brekkie and I had the sweet rice compote, which was very good. We were talking to some people in the restaurant who told us there is a baby hippo at the zoo. I'd like to go there because I hear it is beautiful.



Laura has two classes on Thursday so she walked down the hill afer the first class was over and we walked down to the Corso to look for a watch. Tony found one and Laura bought a book about Australia. We went to lunch at Rumps and Ribs which is upstairs overlooking the surf beach. We had a great window seat and here we could share a meal. A lot of places say "no splitting meals". Laura had a cheese burger, which was very good and Tony and I split a steak sandwich. Laura had baby potatoes with sour cream and we had the chips. We were sitting there watching the people surfing and sunning when suddenly it started to rain very hard. Fortunately they don't rush you out of the restaurants in Sydney so we sat for a while.

Laura went back to school for her 4:00 class. We made plans to meet with Chelsea and her parents from Washington State for dinner at a Thai restaurant. We got there and they were already seated at a long table. The dad's name is Woody and he's an apple farmer, Sherry is the mom and Chelsea and a friend Lauren. The food was very good and the portions were generous but the place is very noisy. You could see the chiefs cooking and the food came out at all different times so you could tell they were cooking it right then. There were people lined up outside to get in. I think it was my favorite meal so far.

After dinner we took a walk and everybody got gelato or ice cream from different stores. We walked back to Chelsea's parents hotel and sat in the lounge area for a while to chat. They are leaving for a few days to Melbourne and then are coming back to Sydney and then to Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef.

We got back to the B&B and went to sleep because Laura and I are getting up early to go on a tour to the Blue Mountains.

A Walk in the Park

Wednesday...

I got up early in the morning to take a walk up the hill because I heard that you can see Wallabys up there. I didn't see a Wallaby but I did see a Bandicoot (it looks like a possum but much cuter because its Australian). I also heard lots of birds and saw two bunnies. Laura says that she wakes up every morning to the birds that sound like babies crying. I walked past Laura's school to an old fort. I heard that there are some nice views up there but I didn't get that far since it was raining.

Laura had the day off so she came down to have breakfast with us and then we headed into Sydney on the ferry. While on the ferry we saw our first nutty Australian. There was a woman yelling that another person had put her luggage on her knee. She was also complaining about foreign visitors and the woman complaining had a Chinese accent. She was demanding to see the manager but we never saw the manager come by. We walked over to the opera house and then went through the Botanical Gardens. They are huge, imagine the Boston Gardens but only a hundred times bigger. We saw lots of flying foxes (big huge bats) hanging in the trees. It was raining off and on but I rather have it cool and wet than really hot. Tony's feet were bothering him so we decided to head back to the ferry. We went through a mall where Laura bought a bagel and I had some fish and chips. We took the train back to Circular Quay and then took a walk up to the pub where we had a beer. We got back to the B and B and had a short rest before we had to walk up to Laura's school for dinner.

Laura's school is an old monastery that is located up on a hill overlooking the beach. There is a chapel that is still used for weddings in fact Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban got married there a few years ago. Laura put on her uniform and she looked pretty snappy. The students of the college cook the meals and they also serve you. We had a choice of cold beet soup or ceasar salad and for dinner they had beef or pork. Tony and I had the beef and Laura had the pork. It was good and best of all it was FREE!!! For dessert we had a choice of a berry sundae or Panna cotta which was like a flan. We couldn't see Laura's room but we might have a chance to back later.

Laura was tired so we left her at the school and walked down to the corso to have a cup of coffee. The Corso is like a pedestrian mall in Manly which runs between the harbor and the beach. There are lots of shops, restaurants and bars on that street. Most of the stores were closed because it was after 8 o'clock but we did find a cafe.

Stars in Sydney

Tuesday - our first full day in Australia...
Laura had class all day today so Tony and I went to Sydney on the ferry. On the way there we had a nice view of the Sydney Opera house and the bridge. We could see the people climbing on the bridge. Laura says that she wants to do that but I'm not too crazy about heights. When we arrived in Sydney we walked up to the Rocks which is an historic part of the city where they have a big market on the weekend. We then walked down George Street stopping at the Apple store. We also went into an Aborigine store where we got a concert on the digeridoo. We tried to get the guy to show us how to throw a boomerang in the store but he declined.

It was warm and crowded on George Street. It kind of reminded me of Times Square with the crowds. We decided to head back towards the ferry stop and decided to go to a pub for a pint. As we were walking in front of the museum of Contemporary Art there were a bunch of photographers standing there. We were curious so we asked what was going on. The photographers were waiting for the stars of the movie Australia to come out of the museum for a photo op. We had to wait for like a half an hour but finally out comes Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brian Brown and a bunch of other actors and the director. Tony got some great pictures.







While on the ferry going back to Manly we spoke to a nice German girl who used to live on Cape Cod. We noticed that there are people from all over the world here in Sydney and everbody seems very friendly. We met up with Laura in front of the bed and breakfast where we got some suggestions for restaurants from Eugene. We ended up at Hugos which is right on the harbor near the Ferry stop. We sat by the water and had a nice meal. After that we went to the chocolate shop and had some chocolate fondu and hot chocolate.

Frightful Flight

We left Walpole Massachusetts at 12:00 P.M when Shah picked us up. After a 30 minute trip to Logan Airport we arrived at the United Airlines terminal. We were looking forward to a 6 hour flight to San Francisco and then a 14 and quarter hour flight to Sydney Australia to visit our daughter Laura who is studying at ICMS in Manly Australia.

Before the flight we stopped into the Boston Beer Works company and had some beer and sweet potato fries. On the plane they give you nothing except for a soft drink or water. The plane left at 2:45 just on time. The flight was smooth and the 6 hours passed by. We watched the movie WallE and they did offer to sell is a salad for $9.00

We arrived in San Francisco at 8:05A.M. California time and we had to wait until 10:38 for the Sydney flight. We stopped and had some soup, Tony had chicken pot pie soup and I had split pea with a piece of sour dough bread. It was good. While we were waiting United was announcing that the people who were on standby may not get on the place because they had to have empty seats because of the weight. It's a very long flight 14 hours 23 Minutes and 7429 miles. We left Boston on Saturday at 2:45P.M. and arrived in Australia on Monday at 8:10 AM. We also crossed the international date line where we lost a whole day. Don't worry, when we come back to the states we'll make that day back.

The plane was a Boeing 747-400 and it was pretty old. It had stairs going up to the lounge where they have 26 seats for business class customers. We sat way in the back of the plane where there were only two seats in our side of the isle. We settled in and after a noisy takeoff we were on the way to Australia.

We noticed that all the flight attendants were older so Tony asked them if they had laid off all the young people. The guy told him it goes by senority and he's been flying to Australia since 1986. They gave us a dinner at 12:30A.M. which was "barbequed beef" it was like Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and corn. We then tried to sleep but were woken up with a rocking sensation. We had quite a lot of turbulence. Tony was saying things like I hope the rivets hold togetheron the plane and the turbulence is putting a lot of stress on the fuselage. That didn't make me feel confident. He also said that the plane should go higher but we probably didn't have enough fuel. Oh well, alls well that ends well and we arrived in Sydney on time, 8:10 A.M.

We went through customs and they checked our bags for food stuff. We had brought some goodies for Laura. It's good that the Beagle didn't sniff the Twinkies. We found the young man who was supposed to drive us to Manly. He said to wait outside until he went to get the van. We saw him drive by but then the policeman would not let him stop. We waited another half hour and then say him being questioned by the police. I guess he was a new driver. Finally we saw another van go by and he said he would take us to Manly.

We were on the van with a family who just came back from Bali. They were telling us about all the birds in Manly and we talked about the draught in Australia. We arrived at the Manly Beach Bed and Breakfast and guess who was in the window waiting for us? It was Laura!!! She showed us to our room and we met Eugene the owner of the B and B. Eugene gave us some suggestions for where to go to lunch. We walked down to the beach, walked over to the Corso and then went to Blue Water for lunch. We sat outside and Tony had fish and chips, Laura had pasta and I had a sandwich. It was good.

After lunch we did a little shopping. We went into a liquor store where we met a guy from Worcester. He's been living here for about five years and he says it is like living in the 70's. We went back to the room and had a little nap (we were pretty tired but to get over jet lag you are supposed to stay up). At about 7:00P.M we went out to eat at a Spanish/Moroccan restraurant called Alelhambra. It was very good. Laura had two cheese dishes, Tony had a salad and I had lamb with Plums.

After dinner we walked Laura back up to her school where we saw her school. It is an old Monastery and it does look like Hogswarts. It is also very dark up there and quiet. It's hard to believe there are hundreds of students inside there.