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For the past few days I’ve been in Melbourne, Australia’s proud and immigrant enriched second city. It’s a city of four million and right on a bay, St. Kilda is the local seashore. The last time I was here in 2008, I saw a gigantic steel wheel on the horizon, […]
Here is the view that awaits anyone smart enough to venture down here to the very bottom of Australia’s Victoria state. Most people visit these striking limestone escarpments by car, driving down the Great Ocean Road. But others like many we met this week, wouldn’t think of driving and instead, […]
When I was about 13, and attending my beloved sleep-away Camp Kokosing, we went up to the St. John River in Quebec for a canoe trip. We began paddling up that big river in the hot August sun and anticipated three more days of hard paddling and broiling. Then the […]
Our day of hiking today on the Great Ocean Road took us to an iconic lighthouse near where for years, many ships found themselves beached on reefs. It’s called the Shipwreck coast and today, the once crucial lighthouse is no longer illuminated, replaced by a simple solar-powered light that’s much […]
At dinner last night, here at the Great Ocean Ecolodge, the discussion wove all over the map. Seated with me were a retired couple from the UK, Mark and Jackie, a journalist from Italy named Barbara, and her hostess, a rep from Victoria Tourism named Margaret. As the Victorian chardonnay […]
My feet are sore, but it’s a good kind of sore, after our 22 kilometer hike on Victoria’s Great Ocean Walk. I’m happily dry and comfy sipping tea at the Great Ocean Ecolodge, located on a flat plain where in the distance a herd of kangaroos are munching on grass. […]
I’m up and ready here at Chris’s Beacon Point, a lovely spot perched high above Apollo Bay with fantastic views of the Southern Ocean. This place has a long history, first opening up here in 1979 and is all pinewood, with floor to ceiling glass walls that let diners soak […]
I’m happy to report that Ambien is a perfect antidote for a 15 1/2 hour plane trip. For the first time in more than 50 overseas trips over many years, I slept soundly, and awoke with a very pleasant piece of news…there were only two more hours till touchdown in […]
I remember once telling a friend in an email that I was headed to Austria. “Don’t hit any kangaroos,” he replied. I think about this story and the last time I was headed to this same city, Australia’s second largest metropolis–Melbourne. Tonight’s flight will take me across the Pacific for […]
Disneyland I am told is way too big to try to see in just one day. Plus, there is Disney Adventure right next door, so today we will visit the rest of the park as I spend my second day here in Anaheim. The city would be pretty downhearted if […]
Disneyland is the magnet that draws grandparents, parents and their kids to Anaheim, south of Los Angeles. We visited the park today, and my two hosts were stunned to see so few people lined up to get in. “It’s never this uncrowded,” they said, both amazed that we were able […]
Egypt’s economy is at the heart of the protests and calls for Mubarak’s exit. A few stories I’ve read have provided some background to the situation, which, despite some pundits’ claims, is not the fault of the US government or Wall Street, but mostly a result of an entrenched system […]