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All posts for the month December, 2016

Australia's modern Parliament building, opened in 1988

Australia’s modern Parliament building, opened in 1988

Canberra, Australia’s capital city with fewer than 400,000 people, was a radical change for us: after consecutive four-night stays in Mossman, Palm Cove, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Fraser Island, and Sydney, we only stayed three nights in Canberra. Big change, but not big enough: Canberra wasn’t worth three nights.

We arrived in Canberra on December 27 when summer holidays are in swing, the parliament is out of session, and government offices are closed. In the best of times Canberra is a pretty sleepy place and this was about the worst time to be here. Kind of like August in Paris if that were coterminous with Chinese New Year. Most of the restaurants were closed and pretty much all the stores were closed. Dead.

Quick history. Australia achieved “Dominion” status inside the British Commonwealth – essentially independence – in 1901. Up until then, the six Australian states had been separate political entities, but once they federated as a single country they had to pick a capital. Sydney and Melbourne both wanted the capital but each had effective veto power over the other. The compromise, reached in 1908, was that the capital would be in New South Wales – Sydney’s state – but in a separate jurisdiction called the Australian Capital Territory or ACT (not unlike the District of Columbia) and that it would be located at least 100 miles from Sydney. Ultimately Canberra was selected as the site, with Melbourne serving as the seat of the government – but decidedly not the capital – until the new city of Canberra was finished in 1927.

Today the Australian Capital Territory, like D.C., is not formally a state. It does have a degree of self-government that D.C. lacks, however, and the people living there have full representation in parliament. So yeah, a little more democracy than the citizens of Washington experience. And, like D.C., Canberra is a planned city with all the weaknesses that entails especially regarding the lack of any organic older city feel to it. And lacking the population and density D.C. has achieved makes Canberra – at least at Christmas time – kind of a big nothing burger.

Now there were a couple bright spots in our little detour through the capital. One, we went there by train which just hasn’t worked for us anywhere else in Australia. Sure, a slow train – this is no China, after all – but train travel beats flying by a big margin. And as Americans we can hardly complain about other countries not having great train networks.

A bust of Caesar Augustus whose statues always portrayed him as young even after he'd served as the First Citizen for decades

A bust of Caesar Augustus whose statues always portrayed him as young even after he’d served as the First Citizen for decades

There were two museum exhibitions while we were that had great potential. The National Museum of Australia was hosting A History of the World in 100 Objects from the British Museum. Great potential but there was one big problem: the exhibit was absolutely packed. It was the last thing we expected. How could the museum be packed when the city was empty? But it was packed; you really struggled to get close to most of the objects. It was an impressive collection of items: a coin showing Alexander the Great’s profile, a bust of Augustus, some Greek, Mayan, Chinese stuff … pretty comprehensive. But they needed some serious crowd control.

This soccer jersey was the 99th of 100 items to tell the history of the world, and it has a great story. The player, Didier Drogba, is from the Ivory Coast but grew up in France. He plays for Chelsea FC, a London team that is owned by a Russian and sponsored by Samsung, a Korean company. It's a knock-off rather than the official jersey, made in Indonesia and purchased in Peru. Thus it is a pretty impressive representation of today's global interconnections.

This soccer jersey was the 99th of 100 items to tell the history of the world, and it has a great story. The player, Didier Drogba, is from the Ivory Coast but grew up in France. He plays for Chelsea FC, a London team that is owned by a Russian and sponsored by Samsung, a Korean company. It’s a knock-off rather than the official jersey, made in Indonesia and purchased in Peru. Thus it is a pretty impressive representation of today’s global interconnections.

Then the National Gallery of Australia was hosting an exhibit called Versailles: Treasures from the Palace. So off we schlep to the Gallery … only to find a line with probably 100 people waiting to get in. And we were told that once you got in it was really crowded in there, too. So heck, we just decided to go to Versailles next spring and see the stuff there ourselves.

But – and it’s a big but – we loved the rest of the National Gallery. Loved it. There was some great Australian and aboriginal art, mind-blowing Chinese art, a couple rooms of geometric abstraction, and a nice collection of 19th and 20th century European stuff. All with great descriptions and all the space you need to enjoy it without the crowds who were all waiting in lines to see Versailles. While Canberra was mostly a big miss, the National Gallery helped redeem our time there.

This is Zhang Huan, a contemporary Chinese Artist. He had three calligraphers spend a day writing on his face and neck relating family and traditional stories about fate. It starts slow until his entire head is just glossy black. You had to see it.

This is Zhang Huan, a contemporary Chinese Artist. He had three calligraphers spend a day writing on his face and neck relating family and traditional stories about fate. It starts slow until his entire head is just glossy black. You had to see it.

Zhang Huan a little further in the process

Zhang Huan a little further in the process

Oh, and our hotel room had a washer/dryer in it, too, which certainly counts for something! Meanwhile Mark continues to do massive planning for our summer months through Europe. To make sure we get the hotels we want, and as long as the dollar is so strong relative to the euro, we’re booking things pretty tightly for the summer. From here we’re off to Melbourne to see a bunch of friends and ring in the new year.

One room was entirely dedicated to 27 pieces Sidney Nolan painted in the mid-20th century about Ned Kelly. Who is Ned Kelly you ask? Well then, you're obviously not Australian. He was, I learned, Australia's most famous "bushranger", a legendary symbol of Australia's lawless frontier. Sort of Jesse James, I guess. Amazing what you can learn from going to an art museum.

One room was entirely dedicated to 27 pieces Sidney Nolan painted in the mid-20th century about Ned Kelly. Who is Ned Kelly you ask? Well then, you’re obviously not Australian. He was, I learned, Australia’s most famous “bushranger”, a legendary symbol of Australia’s lawless frontier. Sort of Jesse James, I guess. Amazing what you can learn from going to an art museum.

A broader shot of the various pieces in the Zhang Huan exhibit. You had to see them.

A broader shot of the various pieces in the Zhang Huan exhibit. You had to see them.

And finally, this was amazing. Xu Zhen is another contemporary Chinese artist. When you first walk into the room you can't figure out exactly what this is. Then you get closer and you see it's a castle. Made of leather. With all sorts of spikes and studs and handcuffs and ropes and chains. In other words, more provocative than Chinese authorities might allow if they realized what it was all about. You could spend hours contemplating all he was trying to say about contemporary Chinese society in this piece.

And finally, this was amazing. Xu Zhen is another contemporary Chinese artist. When you first walk into the room you can’t figure out exactly what this is. Then you get closer and you see it’s a castle. Made of leather. With all sorts of spikes and studs and handcuffs and ropes and chains. In other words, more provocative than Chinese authorities might allow if they realized what it was all about. You could spend hours contemplating all he was trying to say about contemporary Chinese society in this piece.

Yes, this is what Sydney beaches are famous for

Yes, this is what Sydney beaches are famous for

Ah, Christmas at the beach. Trust us: when you get used to it you really don’t miss the snow at all.

Founded on one of the great natural harbors in the world, Sydney got its start as part of the British Empire in 1770 when James Cook dropped anchor not far from today’s downtown area. He reported that the locals weren’t happy to have him around; wise people, apparently. Over the next several years England was looking for a place to store convicts and decided Australia was just the ticket. Thus on January 26, 1788 – today’s Australia Day or what indigenous people call Invasion Day) a ship full of convicts, guards, and livestock pulled into port. Interestingly, the early settlement – numbering over 4,000 convicts in just a couple years – had no prison. The punishment was called “transportation,” and Australia itself was the prison.

Fast forward a couple hundred years and the old penal colony is a humming metropolis of 4.4 million people, one of the world’s showcase cities. Iconic places like the UNESCO-listed Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge, world-class beaches in neighboring Bondi and Manley. Great restaurants, wonderful hiking trails, a subtropical climate, and a multicultural melting pot: fully a third of Sidneysiders, as they’re called, speak a language other than English at home.
So yeah, there’s a lot to love about Sydney.

The Sydney Opera House, about as iconic as you can get

The Sydney Opera House, about as iconic as you can get

And the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Twelve years ago we paid an obscene fee to climb the bridge up along that top span and found it seriously disappointing. So this time we just enjoyed the view from the water.

And the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Twelve years ago we paid an obscene fee to climb the bridge up along that top span and found it seriously disappointing. So this time we just enjoyed the view from the water.

Altogether we spent a little over three weeks in Queensland before flying down to Sydney, the capital of New South Wales. One of the things that we’ve learned during this time is that ground transportation is all but out of the question for us; with all due respect to our friends Piers and Charlotte, driving nearly the entire perimeter of Australia, for us the distances are just too massive. So we’re flying damned near everywhere.

And how do we spend our Christmas break in Sydney? We were here 12 years ago so some of the basic tourist things – touring the Opera House, climbing the Harbor Bridge – were already checked off. Which is a good thing, since it left us time to search out restaurants that are still open. This is not just Christmas and soon New Years: down here it’s also the start of summer season, so lots and lots of places are starting to close down for a week or two or even more, a lot like Paris in August. When Mark went to TripAdvisor to see what restaurants would be open on Christmas Day, Indian restaurants were heavily over represented. That worked out for us.

Mark in the Sydney Harbor National Park on the  Manly Scenic Walkway. We've seen that tree behind him all over the place in Australia. It has the odd characteristic of shedding its bark, leaving the reddish droppings all over the ground and the trunk itself remarkably smooth and colorful.

Mark in the Sydney Harbor National Park on the Manly Scenic Walkway. We’ve seen that tree behind him all over the place in Australia. It has the odd characteristic of shedding its bark, leaving the reddish droppings all over the ground and the trunk itself remarkably smooth and colorful.

Our major activities were two long hikes. First up was a ferryboat out to Manly, a beach town just north of Sydney, to hike the Manly Scenic Walkway back into Sydney. (Yeah, after all that time in Queenstown, New Zealand, and Queensland here in Australia we figured it as time to get Manly. Heh.) The first six miles or so were along the coast and through the Sydney Harbor National Park. After a great lunch at an Italian restaurant it was another six miles back to central business district where we were staying.

Two days later, Christmas Day, we decided to up our game a bit. The four-mile Coogee to Bondi walk is described as Sydney’s most popular walk, connecting two great beach communities just south of Sydney with a spectacular coastal walk. But first we decided to walk out to Coogee. And then, after lunch in Bondi, we walked all the way back to Sydney, altogether probably 16 or 17 miles. What a great way to spend Christmas!

Mark along the Coogee-to-Bondi walk on Christmas Day. No snow in sight!

Mark along the Coogee-to-Bondi walk on Christmas Day. No snow in sight!

The world-famous Bondi Beach on Christmas Day

The world-famous Bondi Beach on Christmas Day

Santa playing football on Tamarama Beach, en route to Bondi. The water was fabulous but the surf was intense; Mark watched the lifeguards drag out one woman who got caught by the tow during the 15 minutes or so I was in the water. Apparently they pull out multiple people every day, but particularly on holidays like this.

Santa playing football on Tamarama Beach, en route to Bondi. The water was fabulous but the surf was intense; Mark watched the lifeguards drag out one woman who got caught by the tow during the 15 minutes or so I was in the water. Apparently they pull out multiple people every day, but particularly on holidays like this.

There was one strikeout, Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art. We’re not sure what the problem was – nothing that was even remotely familiar to us? just a weak collection? the wrong day? – but nothing there to grab us.

The final highlight was that twice – dinner our first night and lunch on Christmas Day – we found ourselves seated at dinner with locals who were just great fun. Dinner that first night was at the bar of a steak house and there was a great young couple, and then lunch on Christmas in Bondi with a local couple who just invited us to join them at their table in the very crowded German restaurant. But for the kindness of strangers…

Mark & I near the start of the Manly Scenic Walkway, with the entrance to the harbor behind us

Mark & I near the start of the Manly Scenic Walkway, with the entrance to the harbor behind us

Selfie time on the Manly Scenic Walkway. Note again that bark-less tree behind us.

Selfie time on the Manly Scenic Walkway. Note again that bark-less tree behind us.

Still wondering what's so great about the Coogee-Bondi walk? Views like this...

Still wondering what’s so great about the Coogee-Bondi walk? Views like this…

Yeah, that's me. And no, we didn't get too close to the edge of the rock. You can't see it too well from this angle but just a little behind me the overhang is pretty significant. The chance of it breaking off was small, but the consequences would have been significant.

Yeah, that’s me. And no, we didn’t get too close to the edge of the rock. You can’t see it too well from this angle but just a little behind me the overhang is pretty significant. The chance of it breaking off was small, but the consequences would have been significant.

Part of the Bondi-Coogoo walk was washed out in a storm just a few months ago, so we were rerouted through this huge cemetery. Very strange watching hipsters carrying their surfboards through a cemetery.

Part of the Bondi-Coogoo walk was washed out in a storm just a few months ago, so we were rerouted through this huge cemetery. Very strange watching hipsters carrying their surfboards through a cemetery.

Flowering trees and blue skies

Flowering trees and blue skies

A statue of James Cook in the beautiful Hyde Park, described as having "discovered" Australia. Strange concept to "discover" something where thousands of people already live.

A statue of James Cook in the beautiful Hyde Park, described as having “discovered” Australia. Strange concept to “discover” something where thousands of people already live.

The beach highway on Fraser Island

The beach highway on Fraser Island

Fraser Island should be an interesting place. It’s both a UNESCO World Heritage site and listed as one of the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, so it must be good. What’s the big deal?

First, Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island, that is, an island consisting primarily of sand. I didn’t know that would be a big deal, but whatever. On top of that, it is the only place on earth where a rainforest grows in sand. OK, that’s different. You might think that a sand island implies some degree of impermanence, right? Wrong. It is estimated that the sand on Fraser Island has been accumulating for 750,000 years while humans have been inhabiting the island for perhaps 5,000 years. So sure, not Mesopotamia-old, but not exactly new, either. And finally, it’s a great place to see dingoes, a native breed of dog, in their natural habitat.

A lot of people see Fraser Island on day trips from nearby Hervey Bay (where we had a spectacular lunch en route to the island at a restaurant called Coast if you’re ever in the area), but given the gift of time we opted for four nights at Kingfisher Bay Resort, one of only a couple tourist accommodations on the island. Freed from the need to see things via a packaged tour, we rented a heavy-duty four-wheel-drive pickup truck to spend one day sightseeing.

The inland roads are just soft, bumpy ruts that you move through at little more than a snail's pace

The inland roads are just soft, bumpy ruts that you move through at little more than a snail’s pace

You definitely need a four-wheel drive vehicle to get about. The inland roads are nothing but sand paths, not unlike driving in four or more inches of fresh snow on narrow, one-lane, two-rut roads. Of course, you’re driving through rainforests which you normally don’t see in snow. If I had it to do over again we’d have dedicated one day to driving into some of the island’s hiking trails, but because the rental vehicles are so expensive we just took one for a single day. Mostly, then, we just drove through the interior rather than getting out for multi-hour hikes.

Then there’s the experience of driving on the beach. Inland driving is difficult and really slow; typically you’re going no more than 10 or at most 15 miles per hour. Until you reach the beach partway up the island’s east coast, when all of a sudden you’re on what is for all practical purposes a highway. No lanes marked, or anything, but hard-packed sand and off you go. Ultimately there wasn’t that much to see on the beach but the whole experience of driving on the beach was fun. Once; you don’t have to do it twice in any one life, but once was an experience.

Originally a turn-of-the-century luxury liner, the S.S. Maven was being towed to Osaka in 1935 to be broken up when instead it was caught in a storm and blown ashore on Fraser Island. The remains make for a scenic little tourist destination on the island.

Originally a turn-of-the-century luxury liner, the S.S. Maven was being towed to Osaka in 1935 to be broken up when instead it was caught in a storm and blown ashore on Fraser Island. The remains make for a scenic little tourist destination on the island.

One unusual aspect of driving on Fraser Island’s beach: it is also where planes take off and land. And you seriously have to watch for planes: highway rules state that vehicles must give way to aircraft if they are oncoming. Not that I’d be the one to argue with a plane if I saw one coming in at me, but they are explicit when you rent the car: you’re required to give way. The other unusual thing about the beach highway is that it is impassable at or near high tide, when the only sand available is soft and deep. So, again, when you rent the car they show you tidal times and make you sign a statement that you can’t be on the beach two hours before or after high tide. For us, that meant we could only do the beach part of our excursion before 11:20 AM.

Which worked out just fine, as there was stuff to see inland to, particularly Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie is one of the primary tourist draws on Fraser Island, and after we got there we understood why. It’s a freshwater lake whose water is so pure it is unsuitable for most species. With the white sand bottom it is the only freshwater lake we’ve ever seen that has the same phenomenal blue you see in places like the Caribbean. Not long after we arrived the weather turned cloudy so our pictures don’t show the same brilliance we experienced when we first got there, but trust me, it seemed like the smallest, most beautiful sea you’ve ever swam in.

This was Lake McKenzie as we saw it after clouds moved in, obscuring the brilliant blue we saw in bright sunlight

This was Lake McKenzie as we saw it after clouds moved in, obscuring the brilliant blue we saw in bright sunlight

This, in contrast, is someone else's picture cadged from Wikipedia. While I don't doubt the colors have been edited somewhat, it's pretty much just what you see in bright sunshine; it's really pretty much that blue.

This, in contrast, is someone else’s picture cadged from Wikipedia. While I don’t doubt the colors have been edited somewhat, it’s pretty much just what you see in bright sunshine; it’s really pretty much that blue.

So really, that was it: beach driving, four-wheeling on the inland sand roads, Lake McKenzie. Oh yeah, and dingoes. Dingoes are a wild breed of dogs, considered by many a cultural icon of Australia, and Fraser Island dingoes are among the continent’s last purebreds. In fact, other dogs are banned from the island to preclude cross-breeding. There are estimated to be about 200 of them on the island and they are definitely wild dogs; foolish tourists have gotten seriously injured trying to treat them like ordinary dogs. We saw two of them in our time on the island – there is something special about watching wild dogs – and we treated them with the respect and deference they deserve.

Another highlight of the Island, a brief little stop, was this little creek (it had a name...). Again brilliantly clear, you could walk upstream maybe a quarter mile and then just float down with the current. What a perfect little distraction.

Another highlight of the Island, a brief little stop, was this little creek (it had a name…). Again brilliantly clear, you could walk upstream maybe a quarter mile and then just float down with the current. What a perfect little distraction.

Given that most of what you go to Fraser Island for is seen outside the resort and that renting a car runs to over $250 a day, four days on the island was a bit much, particularly when your restaurant choice consists of the overpriced one at the hotel. I took the downtime as a chance to work through the l-o-n-g final volume of the three-volume Winston Churchill biography I’ve been reading, while Mark spent hours and hours doing travel planning. Unlike past years when we rarely made hotel reservations more than a week or two in advance, we’re planning out most of our summer in Europe well in advance so that this time we can get the hotels we want instead of just what’s left over. We didn’t need four nights on Fraser Island but we still put them to good use.

We did a short little hike from Central Station, the island's onetime logging headquarters. Nothing intense, but lovely.

We did a short little hike from Central Station, the island’s onetime logging headquarters. Nothing intense, but lovely.

A water-lily pond right next to Kingfisher Bay Resort

A water lily pond right next to Kingfisher Bay Resort

The beach behind our resort. Not great for swimming but just fine for reading

The beach behind our resort. Not great for swimming but just fine for reading