On Saturday we left Paris to continue our train travel down to Florence.
After a couple hours we looked at Google
Maps and detected what we thought was
an error: How could we be most of the
way to the mountains already? However at
the next town our position was confirmed.
Opening another app we saw our speeds,
which we now know reached at least
175 mph (285 kph).
Author: Nick
To Paris for a Short Visit
On Friday (June 12) we caught the Chunnel train to Paris as the first step in the trip to Tuscany. We wanted to go through the Alps during the day rather on the overnight train so we stayed in Paris that night and had a good walk around the touristy areas as well as a pleasant dinner over the course of our evening.
In and Around London
Arrival in London:
We arrived in London on Saturday June 6. Other than getting a few groceries and hitting a pub for dinner we mostly just relaxed until late in the evening when we watched the Pharaoh win his crowns. Sunday we organized our week, including the transportation to and around Tuscany. And of course we hit another pub for dinner, after which we walked over to the Ally Pally.
35 Woodland Rise, Highgate, London
In the back was the typical English Garden,
Reminding Janet of her “Gran”
Sunday roast was something good to eat at the Victoria Stakes.
Michael Jackson would weep for joy at the cask conditioned beer
served at 55-60F but showing the influence of US west coast hops.
A perfect melding as the US pale ales show their influence in the
land that inspired them.
The pub was in the Alexandra Palace area so we walked
over to look around. Alexandra Palace (aka “Ally Pally”) is
in need of repairs and restoration but is an interesting and
historic old place nonetheless.
Of course we found an ice rink… 
Looking south from the Ally Pally toward
London proper and south west toward the
townhouse on Woodland Rise
Cambridge:
Around Town – On Monday we took the train up to Cambridge. Walking around this little town one is constantly running into shadows of Darwin, Newton, Hawking, Watson, Crick, and others amidst incredible and historic architecture. Few nations can match that concentration of intellectual influence and certainly not many small towns.
Map of Cambridge University Area
Nice lady in front of Round Church built
by William the Conqueror’s henchmen in
1068, well before the University was founded.
Darwin spent just a few years at Cambridge as
an undergraduate and left a fairly quiet reputation
for smoking and drinking ale but they still gave
him a college and why not!
Janet behind Darwin College and across a
tributary creek of the Cam River
Garden along the Cam
Gate into one of the colleges
St. Mary’s Church
Another church
(down an ally – we didn’t catch the name)
Someone left a door to the grounds
of a college open so…
Very Brief Video of Hawking’s “clock”
Don’t ask what this is about because we have no idea!
At the “Eagle”
The Eagle also had an “RAF Pub”, an area with
graffiti on the ceiling from RAF squadrons stationed
in the area during the war. “Never have so many
owed so much…”
Corpus Christi College:
King’s College (celebrating 500 years this year)
Street-side entrance to the College
On the commons:
The inside of the street-side gate
The Chapel:
Exams were underway during our visit so much of the university access was restricted but we attended “Evensong” (prayer and choir service) at the King’s College Chapel early in the evening and so were admitted to the grounds and of course the chapel. Although you have probably seen it pictured many times, follow this this link to understand the history and magnificence of the Chapel. Photos of the chapel are from the town, the grounds, the river, and “The Backs” (beyond the river).
Approaching the chapel for the service
From a punt on the Cam River
Punting on the Cam
At our pub-lunch, watching the punts…
and a while later off we went.
Above/below is supposedly the site of the original
Cam bridge
Of course there are many Cam bridges now
Above, the “Bridge of Sighs”
St. John’s College
Brief Video of Punting on the Cam
A Day Trip South of the River to Greenwich:
We took the Underground to were we could
catch the “Emirates” cable car across
the Thames to the “O2” Centre…
Looking up past the O2 Centre
toward the City of London
Then we walked to 51.48N, 0.00 
Below, looking north along the zero meridian 
Having pictures taken, neither east nor west
If you are a nerd about sundials, this is the best we’ve seen. The time is shown at the point between the shadow of the tails. The waving lines correct for time of year. At 3:30 in early June the shadow was close to the bottom of the scale and read the time to the minute. (The plates can be change for British Summer time, their daylight savings time).
We had have a book about Harrison’s
clocks. The museum here had the clocks: H1
through H4
If you want to know the time or check
your yard stick, this is the place to come.
We saw the statue and wondered,
“That Wolfe?”
Yes
Looking North
We left the old observatory and walked
up to Greenwich, past the Maritime Museum
and the Naval College (above) and past the
Cutty Sark (nothing to do with whisky). 
We took the “River Bus” from the
Cutty Sark to the London Eye
Under the Tower BridgePast the Traitors’ Gate at the
Tower of London
To the Eye, with a good view of
Westminster
And finished a long day at a nice
pub near the Charing Cross
Sydney and Nearby Wine Growing Areas
Our flight from Cairns arrived at the Sydney Airport on Friday the 24th around 1:00 pm and after we rented our car we headed north to Gosford on the Gold Coast. This was a chance to spend a brief time in this area while getting a start on our next destination, the Hunter Valley wine region where we arrived on Saturday morning.
Our first winery visit was to Adina Vineyard. Nice wine
but better olives! We bought a jar for our picnic lunch
and enjoyed leftovers for several days.
We were actually back to this Winery for dinner
and happy to get in. It was an important holiday
in Australia and NZ – 100th anniversary of Anzac Day.
Then on to more vineyards…McLeish had nice wines and was very
proud of their Scottish roots.
Then back in the car and more pastoral scenes.
Lindenman’s is a big winery, that admitted that
their best wines don’t make it to the US market.
Then on to Tulloch.
We had our picnic lunch at First Creek Winery,
but we were not the only visitors…
More Kangaroos Video – 1
More Kangaroos Video – 2
More Kangaroos Video – 3
More Kangaroos Video – 4
We then drove to the Bimbadgen Winery
We spent Saturday Night at the Kurri Motor Inn at
Kurri Kurri (no relation to Curry with that spelling)
and drove on to the Mudgee Area on Sunday morning.
Our first visit in this area was to a very small but
interesting and well represented farm and winery
called Short Sheep.
These are Facebook pics of our
hostess and the farm/vineyard.
Then nearby was the Pieter Van Gent Winery
Despite my first impression, the cat
did not handle the wine tasting nor
wine sales.
Lowe’s is perhaps the largest winery
in the area.
The head wine maker was handling
the tastings on Sunday afternoon.
He worked for a while in California and
makes perhaps Australia’s best (and
not quite only) Zinfandel wines. He
won this award (below) in London
and called his buddies in Sonoma to let
them know, ignoring the time changes.
We found the Mudgee Brewing Company
and enjoyed some craft beer and a snack.
Then we crossed the street to the Lawson Park
Hotel. This establishment was recommended by
Simon (Dr. Simon Pedder – my old CEO at Chelsea
for anyone who doesn’t know him). He was a
patron some years ago when the hotel still had
rooms to rent. Today you can still get good local
wines and a big steak to grill yourself.
Monday morning we drove to Sydney.
We returned the car to Avis (so no more
driving on the left for at least 6 weeks!) and
found our accommodations, the apartment
of a friend of a friend on Darling Point, with
nice view of the harbour.
Monday we took the train into the city
to see the sights and explore Sydney.
They have quite a nice Opera house here,
which photographed from every angle
and from various parts of the city.
And they have a bridge. The shot below
was taken as we walked to the train station.
As I lined up the shot above I thought I
recognized this bridge from somewhere
closer to home.
On the bridge: 
Lots of birds, although we took no pictures
of the ubiquitous sea gulls. These birds
were hustling for sugar where we got coffee.
And these guys are busy all over town.
We had lunch at a Belgium Beer Restaurant
located in an very old (for Sydney) building.
Other shots from around the city:
Above is taken from the Sydney bridge, looking
east. The building in the middle is where we
stayed at Darling Point.
Below is now a pass under the approach to the
bridge but originally it was a cut through “the
rock” to easy transportation between eastern and
western areas of the town. The solution to doing this
back in the 19th century was convict labour. Such
servitude was banned before they finished, slowing
the pace and increasing costs considerably! 
The next several shots were taken at
the Queen Victoria Building (see link)
City hall 
Wednesday the 29th was our last full day down under. We
got in to town in time to get some dim sum in China Town
and to walked around a bit in the area before heading over
to The Australian National Maritime Museum where we
spent the remainder of the day.
Outside the museum were a couple ships to tour: a
destroyer – HMAS Vampire and a submarine – HMAS Onslow
The crew facilities on both were perhaps the most
fascinating. Above and below are crew berths on the sub. 
Above, galley space on sub. Below is berth for
officers or petty officers (was not clear)
Below is the captain’s quarters, just off the command
centre with the periscopes and sonar stations.
Below is the officer rec area. They played
Battleship? Really?
Now used for tourist entry and exit, this
opening was used for loading torpedoes.
Also in the museum, the ~38′ sailboat that a Sydney
woman sailed around the world, becoming the first
woman to circumnavigate alone.
If you can see it, note the extent of the fore and main sails
compared to the ~18′ length of this sailboat. Don’t know
how it doesn’t get rolled with that amount of sail.
A sailboat made of beer can. What can one say about
those folks isolated up north in Darwin?
The ships bell from a US ship, named after an Aussie
ship sunk in WW2 fighting with US Navy
Near the end of our touring we encountered this
deep-see diver and Hornblower-era sea captain.
And in the harbour, a cruise ship
had arrived during the day.
Our fight left Sydney around 1:00 pm on Thursday, April
30 and arrives in Dallas about 1:30. Dan and Shelly
picked us up at CLT and we were home by about 11:00 pm.
Cairns and Surrounding Area
On Sunday we flew into Cairns (pronounced “Cans”), arriving about 6:30 pm. It’s a bit startling to fly from the Outback into Cairns, with its humidity, palm trees and general greenery. Like Florida, the state of Queensland is the closest state to the tropics along the more populated east coast.
Although much smaller than Miami, Cairns is a tourist town and rather pleasant for being small. Near where we are staying it’s nearly wall to wall restaurants, many quite good.
North Queensland is a lush and fertile peninsula pointing north and separating the Afafura Sea to the west and the Coral Sea to the east with the Torres Strait to the north separating it from Papua New Guinea. South of this peninsula, Queensland extends into the outback to the west with the eastern coastal areas continuing down to Brisbane.
On Monday April 20 we headed north to the Daintree River to explore the river up stream into what is essentially a rain forest and down stream into the tidal portion of the river.
Our guide grew up on or near this farm
(below) and assured us they would only
lose “a few” calves each year to the crocs.
In the winter one expects to see crocs of up to
three-quarters of a ton basking in the sun but the
big guys were still in the relatively warm autumn
water and out of sight to tourists. We saw this
four year old that apparently can rip your arm off
but she would not have been good for more than
a couple pairs of shoes. 
Still it was a different geography with interesting
birds and plants including the mangrove
root systems in the tidal area, as well as a
tree snake or two.
The trip up and around the area passed
through thousands of acres of sugar cane.
Somewhere I had read about Caribbean
plantation workers enjoying the cane right
from the field so with all deference for Dr.
Atkins we had to try a little. 
The cane is fibrous but the fibers not so tough
as to be difficult to bite through. Chewing will
free up the sweet juice but you have to spit out
the fibers once you’ve had enough. That didn’t
take long. The juice is certainly sweet but
somewhat watery, requiring boiling no doubt
to concentrate the sugars.
Driving back we took a few shots of the coast
despite the overcast.
You should be able to see the floating
breakwater arms above. These support
nets that keep out the box jellyfish, one of
many Australian surprises that can kill quickly. 
We had a very nice seafood dinner in Palm
Cove, north of Cairns, including a local favorite,
“mud crab”. The cost of a mud crab in no way
reflects its humble name but it was quite
tasty, especially its lobster-like claws.
On Tuesday we were at the wharf before 7:00 to catch “Rum Runners” overnight dive trip out to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). 
The trip out was quite rough but the two of us were
among the minority who retained their breakfast.
Short video – Rough Seas
Captain James Cook explored the region in 1770. The
reefs in the area where we did our dives were
so difficult that this incredibly competent explorer
ran aground there, forcing him ashore near
Cairns to make significant repairs.
Above you can see breakers, miles from shore.
Below you can see where columns of coral (more
greenish in the blue of the water) rise to
within a few feet of the surface at low tide.
In other places, the coral extends to
the surface, as below.
Below are a couple stock pics from the
dive group’s Facebook page.
Fall is not the best time for water clarity so we did not have the legendary 200’ visibility on these dives but the coral, coral structures and fish lived up to the billing. Jan saw a little shark and I saw the biggest moray eel I have ever seen, with a head of perhaps 7 or 8” in diameter, centered by some very awesome teeth.
Heading back to Cairns
As we arrived back in Cairns we noted
a large cruise boat at the wharf. It
was also visible from our hotel room.
Short video of cruise boat
Big gamblers that we are, we won
laundry change at the slots at the
casino that night, although we probably
lost that much in paper money after.
Thursday we were back in the car for a tour of the “Atherton Tablelands”, east and southeast of Cairns. To get to this area we drove up through the switchbacks to a plateau at an altitude of 2000’+. If the coastal area reminds us of Florida, the tablelands are more like California with an incredible array of farm products including mango, avocado, coffee, sugar cane, corn, peanuts, macadamia nuts, bananas and other fruits as well as beef and dairy cattle. There are also beautiful vistas with the higher areas looking down on green and fertile valleys and there is some interesting geological scenery.
Climbing
Mango trees? We weren’t quite sure.
The Mount Hypipamee Crater was created by volcanic
gas as explained in more detail below. It is located
south-east of Herberton on the Tablelands and is
61 metres in diameter and 82 metres deep.
Hiking in the same park…
Video – Falls-1
Video – Falls-2
Video – Falls-3
And more Tableland vistas…
Early Friday we were in flight to Sydney to explore
some of the surrounding areas (mostly wine producing
areas) before settling back to Sydney for a couple
days there, and then catching our flight home.
