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Gerbie on tour 25
Jan. 3rd, 2001 10:12 amI hope everybody has had a great holidays. I do thank the exactly two (!) people who helped me remember that my previous newsletter got number 24, even though 23 hadn't been yet. Oops, sorry. But I will continue now anyway, as otherwise the numbers would go bezerk.
The last two cities before leaving to New Zeeland, tomorrow, for those of you who don't read this immediately I will be there already then, were Canberra and Melbourne, that way completing the east coast of this huge country.
Somehow Canberra gets avoided by a lot of travellers or it is seen as a short stopover. Which is a shame, as, even though it is not a big city (numberswise, territory it is), there is plenty to pass the time there. It being the capital of the country, obviously there are plenty of official buildings to visit. Walking around in the heat on christmas day was a strange experience though. With no sort of public life at all (in this I don't think the Australians differ much from the rest of the world), I didn't really bump into a lot of people in the ghosttown that day.
The only thing open that day was the Aboriginal Embassy. This is not an embassy, in the conventional way of the word, but it started as a tent, way back in the seventies, nowadays it is inside a container, size: reasonable garden shed, opposite the former parlement. Very interesting are the posters, pictures, drawings and especially the news paper clippings on the wall and ceiling. I have read quite a few things I didn't know beforehand, the most shocking thing the fact that South African police came over here to see how the local police treated the Aboriginals, during the days of the apartheid. Isn't this a lovely world...
The new parlement I visited the day afterwards. A beautiful building, inside the top of a hill, with the hill restored afterwards, so you can stand on top of the hill/the building and see over the whole city. The guided tour through it about the history of the country and its political system I thought very interesting. It's one of those things you get on a school excursion, without being interested at that particular moment, though afterwards you wished you had paid more attention.
Anzac parade is completely dedicated to several war memorials. All major wars and battles during over 100 years, are being represented, all parts of the army get their own monument. My cynical eye did discovered two more empty spaces, could this be for future wars? The museum at the end of it was much bigger than I though. I was very impressed, again, with a sea of information, it was almost too much to soak up within a day.
After the schooltrip to the capital I arrived in the second city of the country, Melbourne. And yet again I have to differ with the public opinion. It was not as brilliant and spectacular as everybody seems to think. Offcourse, it is a very nice city and I was happy to spent a couple of days there, but the extreme positivity of other travellers is, in my opinion, not appropriate. The thing I enjoyed most was buying a daypass for the tram and cross the city several times in different directions. Sometimes I ended up taking a tram though I didn't have a clue where it went. Looking out the window you see parts of town you would normally not get to and see buildings that on 'normal' sightseeing tours are being left out.
New years day I got up earler than ever before, as I left at half past seven in the morning on an excursion over the Great Ocean Road. That road definitely deserves that name. A coastal road with plenty of spectacular views, which are too big for any postcard. On a busy day we also had stops to see some kangaroos on a golf course, see koala bears in the wild (though wild might not be the most appropriate word for an animal that spents 20 of its hour each day sleeping, a record only to be challenged by one of my Chinese fellow travellers on this excursion, who managed to fall asleep inbetween every single stop that day, though at the end of the day got off the bus and concluded that she had had a very nice day), we walked through a piece of tropical rainforest and obviously saw the world famous 12 apostels, some rocks near the coast in the sea.
Tomorrow it is flying time again on my way to the next country off this journey.
Keep writing, the thoughts on christmas are very welcome, white or not white, and though I have heard that emailing from New Zeeland is not as easy as from over here, keep coming those notes. Has everybody clicked on the links off my previous newsletter yet? Have you left a message in my guestbook on my website, http://welcome.to/gerbie, yet?
Until next time,
Gerben
The last two cities before leaving to New Zeeland, tomorrow, for those of you who don't read this immediately I will be there already then, were Canberra and Melbourne, that way completing the east coast of this huge country.
Somehow Canberra gets avoided by a lot of travellers or it is seen as a short stopover. Which is a shame, as, even though it is not a big city (numberswise, territory it is), there is plenty to pass the time there. It being the capital of the country, obviously there are plenty of official buildings to visit. Walking around in the heat on christmas day was a strange experience though. With no sort of public life at all (in this I don't think the Australians differ much from the rest of the world), I didn't really bump into a lot of people in the ghosttown that day.
The only thing open that day was the Aboriginal Embassy. This is not an embassy, in the conventional way of the word, but it started as a tent, way back in the seventies, nowadays it is inside a container, size: reasonable garden shed, opposite the former parlement. Very interesting are the posters, pictures, drawings and especially the news paper clippings on the wall and ceiling. I have read quite a few things I didn't know beforehand, the most shocking thing the fact that South African police came over here to see how the local police treated the Aboriginals, during the days of the apartheid. Isn't this a lovely world...
The new parlement I visited the day afterwards. A beautiful building, inside the top of a hill, with the hill restored afterwards, so you can stand on top of the hill/the building and see over the whole city. The guided tour through it about the history of the country and its political system I thought very interesting. It's one of those things you get on a school excursion, without being interested at that particular moment, though afterwards you wished you had paid more attention.
Anzac parade is completely dedicated to several war memorials. All major wars and battles during over 100 years, are being represented, all parts of the army get their own monument. My cynical eye did discovered two more empty spaces, could this be for future wars? The museum at the end of it was much bigger than I though. I was very impressed, again, with a sea of information, it was almost too much to soak up within a day.
After the schooltrip to the capital I arrived in the second city of the country, Melbourne. And yet again I have to differ with the public opinion. It was not as brilliant and spectacular as everybody seems to think. Offcourse, it is a very nice city and I was happy to spent a couple of days there, but the extreme positivity of other travellers is, in my opinion, not appropriate. The thing I enjoyed most was buying a daypass for the tram and cross the city several times in different directions. Sometimes I ended up taking a tram though I didn't have a clue where it went. Looking out the window you see parts of town you would normally not get to and see buildings that on 'normal' sightseeing tours are being left out.
New years day I got up earler than ever before, as I left at half past seven in the morning on an excursion over the Great Ocean Road. That road definitely deserves that name. A coastal road with plenty of spectacular views, which are too big for any postcard. On a busy day we also had stops to see some kangaroos on a golf course, see koala bears in the wild (though wild might not be the most appropriate word for an animal that spents 20 of its hour each day sleeping, a record only to be challenged by one of my Chinese fellow travellers on this excursion, who managed to fall asleep inbetween every single stop that day, though at the end of the day got off the bus and concluded that she had had a very nice day), we walked through a piece of tropical rainforest and obviously saw the world famous 12 apostels, some rocks near the coast in the sea.
Tomorrow it is flying time again on my way to the next country off this journey.
Keep writing, the thoughts on christmas are very welcome, white or not white, and though I have heard that emailing from New Zeeland is not as easy as from over here, keep coming those notes. Has everybody clicked on the links off my previous newsletter yet? Have you left a message in my guestbook on my website, http://welcome.to/gerbie, yet?
Until next time,
Gerben
