Outback November 2009

Aussie Icons Nov 2009

(Click album for more pictures)

With a few days off for Cup Week and a conference to attend at the end of the week in Katoomba, I checked my bucket list and set out for a drive... but first a practice run. I had been lucky to make the final of the Roddy Read Songwriting Competition at the Maldon Folk Festival with my song "The Room Next Door", so I had a day trip up on the motorbike. I was chuffed to make the top 3 - a step up from last year, it's great encouragement! The main trip was in the car though. After helping celebrate the family day at Werribee Mansion with the nephew & neice, and rocking the Empress Hotel with MUK, I headed up the freeway, getting as far as Charlton (as the only motel guest that night).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

I started the next morning with a mountain climb; though don't be too impressed - it was Mt Wycheproff, the world's smallest mountain. Breakfast was at Ouyen, brunch (a couple of oranges and apples) at the fruit fly bins, and lunch at Mildura. It was a very enjoyable cruise, and it was great to catch a radio interview about Lake Mungo which was my first big destination. Mildura was abuzz - everything looked bright & energetic, with homemaker centres, endless motel strips and sports centres under a summer scorcher. I stopped to find out about Lake Mungo at the info centre - which doubles as a big aquatic centre and was full of school groups. The staff were great and my timing was perfect - I could put on my Melbourne Cup mystery bets (no good, again), have a quick walk along the Murray and still make the evening's tour.

Just out of Mildura was the turn off towards Lake Mungo and things started to feel very 'outback' - notwithstanding the constant vapour trails of planes heading between Sydney and Adelaide/Perth. There were no problems keeping up with highway speeds on the wide dirt roads. Lake Mungo is part of a network of lakes that have been dry for about 15000 years, however there are records of human habitation stretching back around 40000 years; all pretty amazing! My room for the night was a fairly recently constructed "shearers' hut" - a bare room with a bed, and an airconditioner which was going to be handy that evening. The tour bus arrived from its various pick-ups to take us to afternoon tea at the lookout, a good chance to mingle. There were a lot of grey nomads but a few younger travellers as well. We then went to the visitor's centre next to my accommodation where the tour guides told us a bit about the place, and performed on the didgeridoo. Then a wander around shearing shed and an excellent spread for dinner.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

The tour then went across the dry and scrub-covered lake bed to the lunette at the far shore where the guides gave us a part-explanation, part-diatribe about the area. We headed up the lunette and watched the sun set and the full moon rise, with a gentle musical backing from one of the guides (alas the uke was back in the car, otherwise I'd have joined in). Underfoot were millenia-old fireplaces and middens, pointed out by the expert eyes of the guides. Altogether I had mixed feelings about the tour, the food was great & I enjoyed meeting the other travellers, and they kept us hydrated with lots of bottled water - but some of the stories and explanations were far fetched - and were usually very dismissive about western/scientific interpretation. I can imagine my more scientifically-inclined friends having some spirited debates with them! I was also a bit disappointed that the tour only went to the main public areas - I sort of expected that the tour would take us to some 'closed' areas, or at least places a bit more off the beaten track.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

I'd been told to check out the Mungo Lodge bar, but it was closed. A violent cool change came through in the middle of the night; very welcome but a restless sleep. I made an early start the next morning on the self-drive tour, across to the Walls of China, across and around the back with a couple of excursions on short walks. There was some great wildlife - particularly kangaroos and emus, with a few rabbits as well, and at that time of day I had the place to myself.
It was now Cup Day and I planned to watch the race at Broken Hill, so I pointed north-west and zipped along some more dirt roads (lots of fun!) past some very colourful landscapes, with a coffee stop in Pooncarie and then back on made roads at Menindee. I had a pleasant surprise to hear former MUKker Tony Allan presenting the Country Hour news. In fact ABC Radio was a wonderful companion on the whole trip. Anyway I found a reasonable backpackers, just around the corner from the Visitor Centre and headed up the road to watch the race. The first pub I found wasn't operating as a pub, instead just as accommodation, but when I stuck my head in, I found it was covered in fantastic murals; and I had a good chat with the owner. Then to watch the race at the Demo. As the clouds opened, I went to the GeoCentre which was quite interesting (though the volunteer guide for the historic house was a bit eccentric).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Next morning I went out to Silverton and the (historic) Daydream Mine - the only mine tour in the area. Interesting as it was, I'd sort of expected to be able to poke around in current-day mines. A quick stop-off at the Silverton museum turned into a mini-odyssey - it was great! And I drove out to the lookout a few km out of town and then to the dam, I thought maybe I could cross into South Australia (presumably visible over towards the horizon) but there weren't any roads that continued west, they just went north. Gourmet scones for lunch - for a ghost town, Silverton threw up some unexpected indulgences. Meantime during all this I had a couple of reminders of home - Shelly called (having forgotten I was away) to let me know that uke practice was off because a building across the intersection had collapsed; then I turned on the morning TV news and saw that a car had driven into the front of Filou's Patisserie just up the road from home (I believe everyone was OK in both incidents).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Back in Broken Hill, I went to the Railway, Mineral and Train Museum - pretty interesting for any engineer - and then the Royal Flying Doctor Service at the airport which was a great highlight - for one thing, it was new & modern & spick & span, somewhat of a contrast to the rest of the town, and also, it was great to see how it worked as an operations base. I just had time to get back to see the Pro Hart Gallery, his work seemed a bit like caricature, but one of the other visitors voiced my exact thoughts, which was that it was a lot more interesting and entertaining than the Salvador Dali exhibition. (I gave the Desert Sculptures a miss.) I stopped for a cuppa at the Broken Earth Restaurant on top of the mullock heap. Dinner was at the Musicians Club - not one of the highlights. My overall impression of Broken Hill was that, despite its iconic status, it was rather shabby, old and worn out, and the inhabitants gave me a similar impression - although they were very hospitable, cheerful and friendly. The main street is stately for a couple of blocks, but there is little else to reflect the riches being dug up. I did enjoy seeing 'Lane Street' and the adjacent Lane Lane.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Time to head back East - my departure coinciding with the Perth-bound Indian Pacific's stop, and I could stop mentally subtracting half an hour from the time. Settling in for a long cruise, I passed lots of kangaroos, emus and goats (mostly live ones). I stopped for a breather at Wilcannia, and then for lunch at Cobar (which impressed me as being back to a much more urban place) for a good stretch of the legs. I took the suggestion to visit the lookout over the copper mine - most impressive, and the city park depicting mining activities in sculpture was very cool. I got to try some more of the umpteen-km-long straight roads on the way in to Dubbo, where I had a break & then decided to call it quits on the driving for the day after about 750km, and found a motel and a nice Chinese restaurant. There was the promise of an amateur observatory, but it looked pretty shonky when I drove past, and the sunset was spectacular enough.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Morning coffee in Orange, then to another tick on the bucket list - a lap of the Mount Panorama car curcuit at Bathurst. I completed the first lap in 6:57 (sticking to the 60km/h speed limit) which compares admirably with the lap record which I think is somewhere in the 2:20 region, and after a visit to the National Motor Racing Museum I decided to tackle it again, and this time I got 6:53 - although I paused the stop watch for a while to take some pictures at the top. It was awesome to see the track first hand, after growing up watching it on TV - at least on one Sunday a year. It looked very much like a racing circuit as opposed to the country roads of yesteryear, the views from the top were fantastic, and it is definitely very steep coming down into Conrod Straight. With a little bit of elbow room in the schedule, I stopped in town and happened upon the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum which hosts the Somerville Collection. The instructions explanation from the ticket lady went nearly as long as the tour of the museum - perhaps I'd just been geologied-out.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Finally on to main destination of trip: Katoomba (where I stayed at the Katoomba Mountain Lodge, like the rest of the town, a bit old & shabby with strong echos of former grandeur). The conference, at The Carrington Hotel was very interesting and there was lots of fun social stuff - I got to play Irving Berlin in the Murder Mystery. Katoomba itself was blanked by fog and mist during the entire weekend so there was no sightseeing, and the planned joyflight was cancelled; however I made my way down to Penrith to meet up with the Saturday practice of the Blue Mountains Ukulele Group - I'd fortuitously discovered their flyer in the window of a music shop in Katoomba - after which they invited me to join in with their performance at the Mulgoa Festival of Music... however the festival was running behind time so the group decided to bail out. I made my way back - alternating being frustrated by the frequent roadworks, and being full of admiration for some pretty clever engineering as the road and railway tied plaits up the mountain. The guest speaker at the gala dinner was astronomer & broadcaster Fred Watson which was very entertaining; it was good to have a chat with him later.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

After lunch on the Sunday I farewelled the conference and headed down into Sydney to meet up with Katherine & any other swing dancers I could find. Google Maps on the iPhone was invaluable in helping me get to the Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain where it was great to find George Washingmachine launching into a set. In a fairly compact space there were several distinct flavours of patron, including a fun bunch of swing people. I tried to convince George to get out the uke, unsuccessfully. Time was pressing so I headed south - driving felt like it was somehow cushioned, perhaps it was a new freeway or a tailwind, but it was very smooth and quiet. I got as far as Queanbeyan and found a motel (and a slightly over-engaging proprietor).

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

I had an early start the next day but my head was a bit fogged up with hayfever; I drove to Cooma and needed a break. I stopped for a while at the Snowy Hydro visitors centre which was very informative. And then, passing a heap of motorcyclists cruising around the mountains, on to Thredbo, my base for an attempt at the summit of the highest point of the country - Mt Kosciuszko. Unlike every other continent, it's not really a spectacular achievement - I took a chairlift up much of the way, followed by a 4hr round trip undulating hike in spectacular warm and sunny weather, notwithstanding a number of patches of ice & snow, some across the boardwalk - my hiking boots, just about worn through, did the job. There were the headwaters for some icy streams, which probably all join up to start the Snowy River; and there were some unseen but noisily croaking frogs keeping me company. The views across the Snowy Mountains were great; although strangely the highest peak of the country was not particularly prominent, it just appeared to be one of quite a few modest rises along the high plains, and it certainly wasn't obvious that it was the tallest. There was a steady stream of hikers making their way up to the top. So it may be a modest achievement, but I'm glad I did it, despite a bit of sunburn.

From Aussie Icons Nov 2009

Satisfied & worn out, I resumed the drive - there was some spectacular mountain scenery on the narrow mountain rows towards Khancoban, where the road levelled out. Back in Victoria there was a strange phenomenon a few times as I seemed to be driving through specks of foam; it might have been actual foam floating up on the breeze from a nearby river, or perhaps dandelion-like seeds, or even some sort of insect. The trip involved a short walk around Corryong, a spectacular sunset over Lake Hume, and dinner at a sweltering Wodonga. And then onto the freeway for the final cruise home.

Everything worked out perfectly - twice I had left my evening's accommodation plans until rather late (at Charlton and Queanbeyan), and twice my fuel gauge dropped a bit lower than I would like (into Broken Hill and into Wodonga), but my contingency plans weren't required.

Next time:
Wellington Caves - I had hoped to have time to do a tour but due to roadworks I got there a few minutes too late, and the schedule was a bit too tight to wait for the next tour.

New Zealand - October 2009

Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

(Click image above for the photo album)

I've been lucky to have hosted Amanda for MLX a couple of times and she had extolled to me the virtues of the Big Band Festival in Christchurch, & it would be great to catch up with some of the other Kiwis I'd met around the place, and flights were so cheap! I booked a week there - 21st to 28th October. Flying in, my first impressions were (as expected) of some pretty stunning mountains, but also an inordinate number of horse training tracks - seemingly in every 4th paddock. It was neat that the terminal was adjacent to the hangers/depots of various nations' Antarctic programs (I'll get there one day!). Once in town I found my billet accommodation - thanks Andrew! Dinner was with Canberrans and Swedes and then off for some dancing - firstly the workshop, then to the Yellow Cross pub in the slightly-artificially-cool Sol Square. The band was placed on a balcony running around the dance floor, which gave an amazing stereo effect. There were some young Japanese tourists looking very intrigued by all the swing dancing, and were delighted when I taught them a few steps.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

On the Thursday I met up with Angeline at the Bus Exchange (almost a tourist attraction in its own right) for a trip to the International Antarctic Centre, which was fun - we got to hoon around in a Hagglund, and I got pecked by a penguin during the 'backstage tour'. It was a little bit overpriced perhaps, but pretty interesting. I caught the suburban bus ride back into town along with a group of Italian high school boys that were tossing a rugby ball around. I dropped in on Ernest Rutherford's Den at what used to be the University of Canterbury, and the neighbouring Botanic Gardens weren't on my to-do list, but were actually really good; there was a great sundial and a Japanese Peace Bell. On my way back to the house I bumped into Andrew going the other way, and realised I was running slightly late, so we headed straight down to Laser Strike. It was a lot of fun, and I am very suspicious about my low placing. Then back for some music and dancing at the Sol Square - Fat Eddies. I had met some of the guys at MLX or other places around the world, or at least had knew a lot of mutual friends, so it didn't take long to find plenty of people to dance with. There seemed to be a lot of Americans for some reason.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

Friday morning I met up with Suzanne and Angeline for a gourmet brekky down on High Street, followed by shopping for props for that nights GI Ball at the Army Disposals store, and then tackling the big tourist attractions. We went punting, and since I was carrying my ukulele I was encouraged by my fellow passengers to have a bit of a quiet strum; this made a passenger in a passing punt very excited, and when we returned to the bank he caught up with us and introduced himself as Wesley, the owner of the punting company and a ukulele (and penny farthing) buff. He offered me a lift to the ukulele singalong in New Brighton that evening. Meantime, back to the sightseeing, and the obligatory tram journey, and then Suzanne and I went to check out the gondola. There was a marginally lame multimedia 'train' journey up at the summit, but the views were fantastic and it was great to get amongst the volcanic terrain. Suzanne enjoyed a snooze on the bus back into town before we met back up with Angeline, and then I went off to the ukulele night. It was great to meet everyone there - it was a bit more of a casual sing-along compared with MUK, but they asked me to sing a number so I hit 'em with the extended version of Slow Dance Baby. Many of the group knew of MUK and had relatives in Melbourne. Leslie announced that the next song was in the key of J, with the chords Jay, Say, Eff and Day. Back to the swing event - the GI Ball - and I made it just in time for the performances and supper. Incidently mid-swing supper is a great institution and there should be more of it.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

The sun shone bright on the weekend - and I discovered that swing was not the only dancing that was to be found in town; there was a bunch of people acting out Michael Jackson's Thriller video in front of the Art Gallery. There was a great atmosphere in & around the craft market & I had a good poke around the Art Centre. In the evening we headed over to the Big Band Cabaret Ball - most of the bands were fantastic (there were a couple of exceptions) - I was very impressed that there were a whole lot of songs the MUK play, being performed by the big bands - including, strangely enough, Knock on Wood. I had a dance with Ruth which was quite an experience; it was remarkable how she could get from place to place, seemingly without passing through any of the intervening points. I also took the chance to sample some local beers; they were all quite tasty and went down very quickly what with all the dancing and supper.

Much of the weekend was spent doing dance workshops (I really must review my notes/videos to re-learn some of the moves) which were a good challenge; I found that despite expectations I was able to maintain concentration through to the end each day when a few of the others started to drop off, though I'm sure they all had me covered in actual skill! And my legs were seriously starting to sieze up, and my shoes were starting to disintegrate. The last workshop on the Sunday was a little bit late in starting so I serenaded the waiting dancers with Ghost Tram and All My Favourite Bits (they wanted a couple of fast ones) which went down a treat. Into the evening & more dancing and mingling - given the Hawaiian theme I was hoping to give the uke a bit more of a strum but I couldn't really compete with the DJ's sound system.

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

The Recovery Day was a great idea and I think that it was the event that I was most looking forward to! A busload of swing dancers headed north, via a generous brunch and a wine tasting, to Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools. It would have been nice to spend another hour there... although I probably would say the same thing regardless of how long we'd spent there. They were wonderfully therapeutic and I found that many of the swing people went very quiet in a relaxed kind of way. On the way back into town we stopped at Prenzel for some liqueur tastings, then pizza at Yellow Cross. I was still finding new people to meet, but as I started to wind down my fingers started to itch and I found a quiet corner to have a bit of a strum of the uke. Unintentionally I drew a small & enthusiastic crowd - it was a nice way to wind down the festivities!

From Christchurch (etc) Oct 2009

I went on a daytrip on the last full day - the tour to Mt Cook wasn't running due to insufficient numbers, so instead I did the 4WD/Arthurs Pass tour. Many thanks to Melissa at The Adventure Centre who organised the booking with aplomb, despite having had a long day; and she even chased me up the street with my tickets when I left them on the counter. Anyway - to the tour. I have since theorised that the tour guide (who bears quite a resemblance to sports reporter Mark Beretta) didn't realise he was rostered on that day, so we started a bit late and I had to wait for half an hour in miserable weather. While I'm grumbling, what was promoted as an adventure tour was mostly full of retirees; but I guess they were pretty good value. And the tour guide's jokes weren't as lame as most. And the weather cleared up beautifully. We did some basic 4WDing around a farm in the foothills near Springfield, and then headed down to the river for a spin in the jet boat - good fun. Then up to the mountains to Arthur's Pass, just in time to meet the TranzAlpine for the trip back to Christchurch. The scenery was fantastic - the freshly-snowed-on mountains and braided rivers were astonishing. Back in town & I shouted Andrew dinner at Strawberry Fare - when I first heard the name, I thought it was called Strawberry Fear which would have been pretty good as well.

On the way home I had to get up at Stupid o'Clock for a 7am flight (ie 5am to the airport, ie 4am shuttle pick-up, ie 3:30am wakeup, ie 1:30am Melbourne time), but it was a spectacular morning and the Southern Alps were stunning. Landing was a little bit delayed and we had a bit of a slow tour of South Gippsland (good views of the Prom & the power stations; Melbourne was blanketed by cotton wool, with Mt Dandenong a prominent island).

Thanks to Amanda, Andrew and all at Hepcat Swing for hosting a great weekend, and thanks everyone for all the dances and I'll catch you all soon!

Next time: Mt Cook, the Pacific, perhaps the rest of the TranzAlpine.

Singapore - June 2008

Photos

Saturday 28 June: With only a few hours and a daypack, I took Jacqueline's advice to head straight to Sentosa. I had hoped to get by without any cash, but the train ticket machines didn't accept credit cards. The ticketing system took a slight leap of faith but once I got the hang of it, it was quite a nifty system. In fact my impression of Singapore was that it was cheap, good value, clean, efficient; it strikes me that you'll be fine as long as you don't mind being very well behaved - luckily that suits me quite well.

Sentosa is a small theme park/resort/island (seemingly staffed largely by minimum-age workers!), and I went up inside the statue of a mermaid lion 'Merlion' (I think I went to a few cities with lions as their emblem on my trip), a museum of sorts called Images of Singapore, the Sky Tower - a sort of observation deck on a list, and I had to go on the luge after missing out on the top of Mt Pilatus. I went for a very soothing swim and watched some beach volleyball as the sun went down, and the jet fighters screeched overhead.

On the monorail back a couple of the 'locals' struck up a delightful conversation with me which was a great finishing touch on my travels - Wenna, a Chinese girl studying in Singapore, was excellent company on the short trip back to the city. Then - back to Changi airport for the final leg.

Home: Thanks to Jeanette, Rob and Matty who met me at the airport; it was great to be home; but I'd had a brilliant time, thanks again everyone & I hope to catch you all again soon!

London 2 - June 2008

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Tuesday June 22: I was heading back to London for a couple of days before heading home; Louisa was unwell so I had lined up a couple of nights' floorspace with newlyweds Leonie and Laurent. The problem was getting there... my flight into Gatwick was 3 1/2 hours late and instead of disembarking at a respectable 8pm we were heading headlong towards midnight - 1am Denmark time.

So, I arrived in Gatwick at a quarter past 11, my luggage didn't show up for half an hour - luckily I could bypass the 'EU Passport' queue at immigration, there were big crowds all pretty annoyed that they were up this late (who knows how everyone got home) then I have to decide on what train company to use, while the ticket machines were busy rejecting my card, and the single ticket window had a 20min delay and passengers behind me are asking to move in front because they need the same train that I do (we all made the train)... I got to London Victoria at 12:45 am, to find that the Tube had closed for the night, and none of the taxis would take Visa. Finally I relented and got out some cash, grabbed a taxi and arrived at Leonie's house at 1am (luckily I wasn't heading to Louisa's - maybe 4 times as far). A most frustrating night - but the next day made up for it!

Wednesday: I was still a bit rattled and woke early when I heard movement around the house a bit after 6am. I got up to say hi to my hosts, plus I thought it might be an idea to try to get to Wimbledon... it turned out that Leonie and Laurent were also planning to skip work and get along as well! We left about 7 and with a brisk hike to Tower Bridge tube we got to the Wimbledon queue at around 8am... I was queue ticket number 4323. Not low enough to get into centre court but no problems getting a ground pass. We had a couple of hours to kill but it passed quickly with nice weather, good company from the queue neighbours, and people selling newspapers (including a free radio!) and giving out suncream and chewing gum samples. The whole thing was very civil and well organised.

We paraded across to the stadium complex - Leonie and Laurent had a couple of matches they were keen to see and I decided to settle in to Casey Dellaqua vs Pauline Parmentier on Court 17 - Casey had a shaky start but came good and took out the match. I then watched a another great match where a small Italian girl who was a rank underdog took it right up to her seeded opponent. I went for a walk around the grounds, had the strawberries and cream, watched some of the big matches on the big screen, and then finished up watching a bit of Sam Stosur in the doubles.

I had to keep moving though - I had a date with Louisa for dinner. It took us a little bit of time to find each other at London Bridge, but then we were off having a lovely Thai dinner just near Trafalgar Square. To top off what was already a magical day, we headed off towards the Wednesday Ukulele Jam, which was a hugely enjoyable dose of madness. It was great to meet all the guys and girls and belt out some tunes with them. What a day!

Thursday: My last full day was a bit of an anticlimax... I had originally hoped to be going to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, but their show was cancelled. I went to Greenwich, and saw the signs for the Cutty Sark but it was closed for repairs. I went to the Observatory (I had been there before) back in 1990, and just as I stepped into the room with the Transit Circle an alarm went off and everyone had to be evacuated. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me triggering the alarm! I did see the time ball drop. A programme listing in a newspaper said that there was a show at the Globe Theatre at 2:30 so I jumped on a train to get to Southbank, arriving just to find that the show started at 2:00 and it was sold out anyway. Exasperated, I went for a walk along the Thames riverbank, then back to Trafalgar Square - finally finding the plaque indicating where distances are measured from in London (across the road from the Square towards the river), and basically wandered around for a while... it was good to find a couple of neighbourhoods that aren't on the tourist trail. Finally I headed back to Leonie & Laurent's having decided that I'd had an awesome trip but it was probably a good time to be heading home. I contributed some Victorian wine bought from the local Threshers to dinner, and we settled in to watch some of Wimbledon and Euro2008 on the telly.

Friday: London still had a few hours with which to entertain me; I started with having a bit of a jam session with Laurent which was great fun! Then after packing all my gear I took my hosts' advice to go for a riverside walk to Museum in Docklands, where there were exhibits on Jack the Ripper, and Sugar and Slavery, and lots and lots of schoolkids. I picked up my suitcase from Leonie's, and feeling that I'd been around long enough to be on top of things I assertively swiped my Oystercard on the bus... before the bus driver told me I was heading in the wrong direction. I made it to Heathrow, and checked my bag through to Melbourne. I had budgeted the weight of the suitcase to be around 19kg for the journey which worked fine - until Leonie asked me to carry a couple of books, CDs and small items of clothing back to her family at home. I had a little bit of trepidation putting the suitcase on the scales - 20.0kg exactly!

Next: Singapore

Denmark - June 2008

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Sunday 22 June: Advertisements in the Tube in London promote Aalborg as having a big concentration of nightclubs, but I was just keen to catch up with Birgitte- my penfriend since highschool- and her household, including 10-month-old Laura. Birgitte met me at Aalborg and we went for a drink and a Greek dinner at Hos Costa. Then back at her house in Suldrup I got to meet her partner Ken, and Laura, who was very curious about my ukulele.

Monday: Birgitte had taken a couple of days off work which was fantastic - however on my first full day we were both pretty tired - Birgitte because her dog had been unwell during the night, and me because I think I had had too much chocolate at Zurich airport... Anyway, we stopped for some supplies at a huge shopping centre in Aalborg (there was a shop there where you can design your own teddy bear), and then headed up towards the seaside summer resort town of Løkken. It was blowing an absolute gale - we were driving at 100km/h and the clouds were easily overtaking us... good weather for windmills. It was also fairly chilly so no swimming today! But with a bit of imagination you could see how it'd be a great place when the sun was out. We had a great lunch at local pub. It's awesome to check in with Birgitte every so often... but we also had a nod to being tourists with a visit to Børglum Kloster, an ancient monastery. In the evening I went along with Ken to help him move some furniture for a friend in Aalborg.

Tuesday: Birgitte took me for a drive across Jutland and we stopped for a while at Mariager, where we enjoyed a leisurely wander around town and lunch, all the while getting up to date with all the news and reminiscing about our previous visits to each other. On the way back it became a bit of a mission to find an ice-cream shop and to that end we had a look around Hobro. Nice to visit, and a cool music shop to poke around, no ice-cream.

Our quest was finally resolved back at the shopping centre, and from there Birgitte dropped me off at Aalborg - it was just a quick visit this time, but always fantastic to cross paths, hopefully we'll organise it again soon!

My flight from Aalborg to Gatwick was around 3 1/2 hours late! I didn't find out until after I checked in, and the initial estimated departure time wasn't too bad, but there were several postponements and I started to get concerned about the time I'd arrive in London. The one redeeming aspect of the flight was that we took off just after sunset, and after we took off we had the interesting experience of seeing the sun reappear over the horizon and it was quite an amazing view over the West Jutland lakes.

Next: back to London

Switzerland - June 2008

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Tuesday 17 June: I got in to Zurich Airport about half an hour late and it was almost deserted - I think everyone was at the France v Italy!? Even so, the plane parked on the apron and we had to get a bus across the tarmac to the terminal. Luckily Jacqueline was there to meet me. Jacqueline's place was great - a little way along the shores of Lake Zurich, only a few minutes by train from the centre of town. It was great to meet her sons when they were about, and like everywhere in Zurich, a stunning view over mountains and lakes is no more than a few steps away.

Wednesday: The sun was finally out on my European trip! After a great breakfast Jacqueline pointed me in the direction of Küsnacht HB railway station and gave me a bunch of information to help me find my way around. I found a bank, and suitably cashed up I headed into the city. Zurich Public Transport has fantastic tickets - quite indecipherable for non-German speakers (fair enough), with bulk, patterns and silver thread to put many banknotes to shame. I went for a wander to get my bearings and found the lakeside football fanzone. I managed to spend 4 euro on a small bottle of Coca Cola, and decided that the fanzone wasn't going to be a place for me to grab any bargains!

Zurich was very picturesque - where in Edinburgh the citizens would walk around with golf clubs, in Zurich they had hiking poles. Also the fountains were brilliant!

I joined up with a city walking tour, then caught a suburban commuter ferry to Zürichhorn before walking back along more fanzone festivities to watch one of the Euro2008 matches on the big screen floating on the edge of Lake Zurich along with a few thousand other fans. I needed a fair bit of help finding the right train home, lots of stations and destinations have virtually the same names (eg Kusnacht and Kussnacht, Uerikon and Uetikon and Oerlikon), but some friendly locals saw my bewildered looks (it also doesn't help when you don't know the German word for 'express' and risk missing your station). The trains themselves were great but it was sometimes a logistical exercise to make it to the right platform in foreign.

Thursday: I had to go to Mount Pilatus since Dermott had recommended it on Getaway. Unfortunately I was suffering from almost debilitating hayfever for much of the day (was it being caught in the rain in Edinburgh? Or adjusting to the altitude or humidity, or perhaps the farmlands around were drying out and getting dusty?) but I still managed to soldier on, from Lucerne through to the cable car up to the Pilatus Kulm, then down by cogwheel railway to the lake cruise. We were worried on the approach to Pilatus that the clouds would be below the summit, but while we were up there the clouds just lifted enough that we could see down to Lucerne and all the neighboring towns and lakes, and quite often we would get a puff of cloud come across that didn't have the oomph to clear the summit first time, making for some quite spectacular effects. I had decided that a lot of things in Zurich were quite expensive, even coffees and lunches, so I ended up just ducking into a handy supermarket every time I felt like a snack and this worked quite well.

With a bit of a snooze on the coach I picked up a bit and met Jacqueline for dinner, after which we made the most of the plentiful evening light and headed across to the rotunda next to the harbour where there is a tradition of free-form DIY swing dancing each week. No matter that there was a huge crowd in the open air bars just across the road! I met up with Ursi and (in between my sneezing and apologising) had a good catch-up.

Friday: After another exceptional breakfast Jacqueline dropped me down at the station and organised with the ticket person a fun little DIY excursion for me. I caught the train to Uetliberg which is only a few kilometres out of town but is up on a mountain. There's a bit of a lookout and a hotel - all pretty spectacular. Then you hike 4 or 5 km along to Felsenegg and catch the cable car back down to the suburbs and get the train home. It was a brilliant day - the weather was perfect and I was really enjoying being on holidays. My camera's screen finally gave up the ghost but I decided that it was still taking photos OK, so I could make do. The path included a 1 to a billion(?) scale model replica of the solar system, the 'Planetenveg', which struck me as being peculiar but interesting all the same. The Sun is about 1-and-a-half metres across and up on a pole, each planet has its own stone plinth; Saturn and Uranus are a maybe 3 and 4 km away and are about the size of billiard balls. I had been set the challenge to write a song about Microwave Background Radiation by Ben from Melbourne when I was in Edinburgh, and this environment provided the perfect backdrop and I pretty much finished it in one hit.

I caught the bus back from the centre of town and Jacqueline had given me instructions to stay on an extra stop; we were having a BBQ at some neighbours'. As I found many times during my trip it was a delight to get to visit the homes of the locals in each place. On this occasion the big screen was set up for the night's soccer - it was a particularly boring game until the last 2 minutes of extra time when each team scored a goal and penalties proved the decider.

Saturday: a couple of Jacqueline's friends were going to climb a mountain, and we joined them. I got the feeling that for many of the locals it wasn't anything more than a bit of a weekend stroll, judging by some advanced ages and the things they took with them (eg novels, the newspaper) but for our little crew it was a good challenge to keep up. Again the weather was idyllic and there was a bunch of gliders overhead riding thermals. The mountain was 2101m and I think we started at around 1280m - we could just start to feel the effects of altitude by the summit. The whole way we were treated to spectacular landscapes and even when we reached the top we could see ridge lines all around that all seemed higher still.

I think it took about 6 hours to get up and back down again; we stopped for a drink near the base and I was ready to just about keel over after the exertions. But, back at Jacqueline's and after a bit of recovery time, we were ready to head out dancing! There are a few other swing dancers I know from Switzerland and I had hoped to see a few of them there but it was a very quiet night as it was only a week before Herrang and apparently lots of people were at a dance camp at Como. Still I managed quite a few dances and it was good fun.

Sunday: Off to Denmark! Jacqueline completed her stellar hosting duties by once more negotiating the picturesque yet very winding roads on the way to the airport. We boarded the plane at the scheduled time... and then it was nearly an hour before we pushed back. I've no idea why, but it seemed that the planes were taking off at half the normal rate. As soon as we were over Germany the weather closed in...

Next: Denmark

Scotland - June 2008

Photos

Thursday 12 June:

I arrived in Edinburgh on time! I was excited and looking forward to the "Highland Swing" swing dancing weekend (thanks Nicki for the recommendation) and getting to hear lots of Scottish accents. I was also looking forward to collecting my luggage but this didn't eventuate - disaster! - I was one of half-a-dozen or so people whose bags failed to get routed through Oslo airport. The baggage staff assured me that bags generally get delivered a day or so later, and it actually suited me a little bit because my host Anna was out for the day and I didn't want to have to lug a suitcase around.

I headed into the city and was immediately struck by how blackened it looks - perhaps years of polution have soaked into the stonework and given it a distinctive, not particularly attractive, industrial look, but after a couple of days it just seemed natural. My first port of call was Edinburgh Castle, whose namesake is the venue for the rehearsals for my ukulele band in Melbourne. Quite apart from that link, I've also seen the Tattoo on TV a few times and it was good to get there in person and see a place with such an amazing history. I still had some time to kill before Anna could welcome me to her home so once I'd found her apartment buildings and wandered through The Meadows (managing to evade all the golfballs) I retired to a nearby pub - to watch the evening's soccer. I picked up a freshly printed guide to the upcoming Edinburgh Festival and was delighted to find a show called Learn To Play The Ukulele In Under An Hour (How George Formby Saved My Life). Finally I managed to rendezvous with Anna at her spacious apartment, and I could settle in and unpack my meagre possessions.

Friday: No news from the baggage handlers, so I was heading to the weekend festivities without danceable shoes or any changes of clothes. Anna, Katherine, Ben and myself walked up through town (stopping to admire wedding dresses whenever possible, for some reason) to meet the bus that would take us all up to the highlands. There we met a couple of people I knew from Melbourne - Ahn, Ben and Helen; it was great to catch up with them all! (I was slightly disappointed there weren't more Scots on the weekend - virtually everyone was from somewhere else.) As we travelled up to the highlands I found the roadscape somehow very familiar - at first I thought it was perhaps that I was back on the 'correct' side of the road, but then I noticed that the Scottish freeway road signs were the same design as the ones at home - the fonts, colours and so forth (except for distances being in miles).

On the way we visited Glenmorangie Distillery and did the tour (I felt a theme was developing since I had been to Mack Brewery only two days earlier) - we all had the opportunity of inhaling fumes from one of the vats which I think cauterised the entire inside of my skull. I took the opportunity in the gift shop to buy a reserve T-shirt and also a bottle of whisky.

Altogether it was a few hours' journey to Carbisdale Castle (including getting slightly lost), but the trip was worth it as the Castle was awesome - spectacular, cosy and very comfortable. There were about 70 of us on the weekend and we had the entire castle to ourselves. It was great to meet everyone - they had travelled from all over Europe (a few were from further afield originally) and the teachers were top notch. We had an excellent dinner and danced the night away - and although the sun went down eventually it never really got completely dark.

Saturday: Still no word from the baggage handlers, so I adopted defensive tactics including frequent excursions to the brisk air outside to get as cold as I could before getting all hot again from the dancing (I got to hang out with the smokers a fair bit!). If there had have been any clothes shops nearby I would have been there like a shot but the closest town was several miles away and too small to have much in the way of fashion shops. We had dance workshops all day - normally I write down all the moves and techniques we were learning but with the luggage situation, and with all the other excitement of the holiday, I didn't quite get around to it and so probably didn't make the most out of the weekend.

In the late afternoon we staged a 'Swing Highland Games' which was fun, and I also have fond memories of the great statues and paintings which really added to the regal atmosphere of the castle.

We had another big dance on Saturday evening - I had a couple of memorable dances including one with Frida - one of the rockstar swing dancers from the Harlem Hot Shots, and also with Vanessa who figuratively grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and had me dancing some nifty blues. Also I was using Whisky as a deodorant - if I drank enough of it I could forget that my clothes and myself were well overdue for a freshen-up! - and this worked fine until I went to stomp a big 'hit'... and missed the floor. Irn Bru proved very recuperative. I also managed to get a bit of ukulele action happening in the foyer outside the dance which was fun.

Sunday: Still no word from the baggage handlers. Anders generously leant me a shirt. There were a few more workshops, then it was time to start packing into the buses for home. Altogther it was a great weekend with a fun bunch of dancers, excellent teachers, an awesome venue, and great organisers (Christi and Paul); I just felt very self-conscious and scruffy without my luggage for so long, as much as the other dancers said it wasn't a problem.

The atmosphere on bus home was rather sleepy! But needless to say - as soon as we got back to Edinburgh everyone made plans to meet up at the Merlin for more dancing. (It was great to meet Lee and Seema - their enthusiasm was infectious and made up for my sleep deprivation!) I was much more cheerful because word had come through that my baggage had been found and was in Edinburgh. I think the airline must have sent the bag on their next Oslo to Edinburgh flight, which are only bi-weekly; rather than using another airline to get it there a bit quicker. After the Merlin there was another after-party at one of the dancers' houses (to the slight and polite consternation of the neighbours) - I was starting to fade and skipped any further dancing but enjoyed the music that some of our Eastern European colleagues spun up - they coincidently played a few songs that the Melbourne Ukulele Kollective have had in their set list, including a variation of Sao Roma.

Monday: I sat by the doorbell to await the bag - sometime between 9 and 12 - at 11:30 the phone rang to say that the courier was outside but couldn't see the address. I ran outside in my socks and shorts and luckily saw him - he was a block away outside number 24, not 42! I felt I couldn't have looked more scruffy but I didn't care, I had my bag back and I could wash and shave and wear some other clothes.

Suitably refreshed, I went to climb Arthur's Seat which was a fair hike but the views were great; I actually tumbled a couple of times on the descent but no damage done. I did the tour of The Palace of Holyroodhouse (including an exhibition of The Royal Collection) which was quite similar in design to Versailles - it lots of function-specific rooms with not much of a corridor to connect them - instead to go into inner rooms you have to pass through a succession of other rooms on the way. The ruins of the abbey and gardens were very nice and were being prepared for the Queen's garden party. I walked back through town (bought some tartan scarves for my sisters from a souvenir shop whose proprietor was Bosnian or something but wanted to ask me all about Rex Hunt), and then back to Anna's house. We then met up with some of the others for dinner and then back to Anna's house for drinks later... and later... and later..... Ben (Melbournian) challenged me to write a swing song about Microwave Background Radiation (and it couldn't be a love song but I ignored that criterion) which fleshed itself out over the next few days.

Tuesday: I had decided to accidently sleep in but Zsolt and Sasha rang the doorbell and since I only had a few more hours in Scotland I swung into action. Ben (from Holland) joined us headed up to Calton Hill where Kilts Across America were setting off on a fundraising motorcycle ride - in kilts. We then headed towards the Botanic Gardens although Ben and Zsolt weren't that interested and stopped off at a pub instead. Then the heavens opened and I took refuge in a glasshouse (what I did see of the gardens was pretty good but I was mainly trying to keep dry). Time was starting to run short so I went to find the pub with the others but just then a bus came so I sent some apologetic farewell messages to the others and headed back to Anna's to say goodbye (although I could look forward to seeing her in Melbourne in just a couple of weeks!) and collect my much-treasured luggage.

Edinburgh is building their first tram line out towards the airport but that'll still be a couple of years away so I took the bus. I flew with BA via London City Airport to Zurich - these were the only flights of my holiday that were not virtually full. London City Airport was full of business travellers, a welcome relief to all the backpackers and bucks parties, and the planes park at 135° to the terminal so they don't need to be pushed back.

Next: Switzerland