Sunrise in Sydney Sundown in Canberra
Sunrise in Sydney Sundown in Canberra
I woke up this morning in the northern suburbs on
Sydney and tonight I am going to sleep in a few
minutes in Canberra, the national capital of
Australia, a designed city, designed by American
architect, Walter Burley Griffin and his wife, Marilyn
Mahoney. Both were young designers with Frank Lloyd
Wright at Talesin when WBG entered the international
competition for the design of Canberra many years ago
and won.
Canberra is a completely park and nature filled city.
Just a short walk to a local grocery store with my
host Chris showed me examples of the beautiful use of
trees, shrubs, plants and flowers and the integrated
architecture.
This morning Ian and I went to the Kaoloa Park (a
private zoo). I didn't make it to the Sydney Zoo
yesterday with the mobs of people overflowing the city
at every seam and the off and on again downpours of
rain that occurred from 9:30 am on until 4:30 pm.
We petted Kaoloas, Kangaroos, Wallabees, roamed around
with Wombats and many species of Parrots and many
other birds and walked by cages of not so nice native
animals like dingoes, eagles and other predators. The
trees all had 2 or 3 or more Kaoloas in them all fast
asleep. There were statues of the size of Kangaroos
and Wallabees from prehistoric times that were
gigantic.
Then off to the Central Train Station for me to catch
the train to travel onto Canberra. Of course I went
wandering off with 45 minutes before my train
departure in search of lunch at an oriental
restaurant. Found an appealing Japanese restaurant
and ordered "combo" tempura. That alone should have
warned me of scenes to come.
In what seemed a great deal of time leaving me very
few minutes to eat and run back to the train station
to keep from missing my train my "combo" came. It
consisted of a large plate with roast beef, shrimp,
crusted chicken and crusted pork tenderloin along with
a bowl of soup and 5 separate dishes, all like nothing
I had ever seen on a table before, plus some green
water (cold green tea). The 5 dishes were each highly
spicey things I discovered.
Off I ran to catch my train with 90 seconds to spare.
The ride from Sydney once we left the Sydney
metropolis area was through very beautiful rolling
hills and short mountains covered with farms and
ranches of sheep, goats, deer, horses, more sheep and
still more sheep. The individual farms were divided
by lines of very tall and very dark green evergreen
trees. Occasionally we went through paperbox forests
or evergreen forests and then tunnels cutting through
large hills or short mountains.
After a couple hours I started to see kangaroos
running, jumping that is to keep up with the train
every so often.
Quite a 4 hour ride through the countryside of New
South Wales, one of the 8 states and territories of
Australia.
My host picked me up at the train station. This
evening he, his housemate, some friends and I went to
a French restaurant and to a comedy show at the Civic
Theater in the Canberra Town Centre.
Great day, great sites, great fun.
Goodnight my scattered around the world friends.
Wandering Alan
I woke up this morning in the northern suburbs on
Sydney and tonight I am going to sleep in a few
minutes in Canberra, the national capital of
Australia, a designed city, designed by American
architect, Walter Burley Griffin and his wife, Marilyn
Mahoney. Both were young designers with Frank Lloyd
Wright at Talesin when WBG entered the international
competition for the design of Canberra many years ago
and won.
Canberra is a completely park and nature filled city.
Just a short walk to a local grocery store with my
host Chris showed me examples of the beautiful use of
trees, shrubs, plants and flowers and the integrated
architecture.
This morning Ian and I went to the Kaoloa Park (a
private zoo). I didn't make it to the Sydney Zoo
yesterday with the mobs of people overflowing the city
at every seam and the off and on again downpours of
rain that occurred from 9:30 am on until 4:30 pm.
We petted Kaoloas, Kangaroos, Wallabees, roamed around
with Wombats and many species of Parrots and many
other birds and walked by cages of not so nice native
animals like dingoes, eagles and other predators. The
trees all had 2 or 3 or more Kaoloas in them all fast
asleep. There were statues of the size of Kangaroos
and Wallabees from prehistoric times that were
gigantic.
Then off to the Central Train Station for me to catch
the train to travel onto Canberra. Of course I went
wandering off with 45 minutes before my train
departure in search of lunch at an oriental
restaurant. Found an appealing Japanese restaurant
and ordered "combo" tempura. That alone should have
warned me of scenes to come.
In what seemed a great deal of time leaving me very
few minutes to eat and run back to the train station
to keep from missing my train my "combo" came. It
consisted of a large plate with roast beef, shrimp,
crusted chicken and crusted pork tenderloin along with
a bowl of soup and 5 separate dishes, all like nothing
I had ever seen on a table before, plus some green
water (cold green tea). The 5 dishes were each highly
spicey things I discovered.
Off I ran to catch my train with 90 seconds to spare.
The ride from Sydney once we left the Sydney
metropolis area was through very beautiful rolling
hills and short mountains covered with farms and
ranches of sheep, goats, deer, horses, more sheep and
still more sheep. The individual farms were divided
by lines of very tall and very dark green evergreen
trees. Occasionally we went through paperbox forests
or evergreen forests and then tunnels cutting through
large hills or short mountains.
After a couple hours I started to see kangaroos
running, jumping that is to keep up with the train
every so often.
Quite a 4 hour ride through the countryside of New
South Wales, one of the 8 states and territories of
Australia.
My host picked me up at the train station. This
evening he, his housemate, some friends and I went to
a French restaurant and to a comedy show at the Civic
Theater in the Canberra Town Centre.
Great day, great sites, great fun.
Goodnight my scattered around the world friends.
Wandering Alan
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