Map of Our Travels This Week

Kings Canyon from the Rim Walk

Another Picture along the Ayres Rock Base Walk

Along the Ayres Rock Base Walk

Lance and Dahlia at Ayres Rock at Sunrise

The Olgas at Sunset

View of Ayres Rock (Uluru) from the Airplane Window

Rainbow off Palm Beach

Sunset in Palm Beach from Hazell Home

Hazell House Exchange in Palm Beach from Carpark

Sydney, Australia – 15 - 21 June

The longer we stay in Sydney the more we like it. With every new hike, or bush walk as they call it here, we discover more beautiful corners and gorgeous water vistas. Our first exchange, home of the Mizia’s in Cremorne, put us within very easy reach of the center of Sydney. We took a lovely walk down to the ferry wharf and two short ferry rides to a lovely point called Watson Bay. After a pleasant lunch at Doyle’s on the pier we took a nice hike to the head along a beautiful path and took the ferry back to Circular Quay. We have almost gotten used to the gorgeous views of the Opera and the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

One of the most wonderful things about Sydney are all the great well maintained paths, boardwalks and paved walkways which lead you into the most delightful scenery, along the harbors, bays, rivers and mountains. There are miles and miles of these walks all organized with rest stops, restrooms and benches located at strategic points. You are surrounded everywhere with beautiful almost tropical vegetation, grasses in places or, many varieties of Eucalyptus trees, sandy beaches in others. The most exciting views other then the waterways around us, are those of a seemingly endless variety of colorful and interesting birds, and gorgeous, huge very old trees.

Another lovely walk from Cremorne took us to the Torranga zoo which was lovely with many interesting animals. Dahlia fell in love with the chimps and the gorillas and could have spent the whole day at their enclosure taking pictures. A sample of this cute chimp made it to the blog, although Dahlia could have filled it with a few more gorillas.

We were also lucky to have connected with the Hazell’s for another exchange which included a few days stay at their beautiful home in the Blue Mountains between the towns of Leura and Katoomba. The house feels like a tree house overlooking a panorama of the Blue Mountains. It is perched over a steep garden that looks and feels like a rain forest, Rod and Yvonne, who know the mountains intimately took us around to see the most beautiful views of the Grand Canyon like area and pointed out some nice hikes which we took on our own. The valley is covered with a jungle of Eucalyptus trees, and as the days grow warmer the haze of the Eucalypt vapor creates the blue haze you see, hence the name “Blue Mountains”. There were beautiful cliff walks, and waterfalls and rainforests with ferns and fern trees… How many ways can we say Beautiful???? We ended our stay there with a wonderful dinner in Katoomba with Rod and Yvonne.

Today we conclude our stay in Cremorne and said good bye to our wonderful hosts, Ray and Margaret Mizia who let us have their home for two weeks, while they stayed in a downtown hotel. We home to reciprocate this wonderful kindness and hospitality.

Our next couple of days will be spend at the Hazell’s home at Palm Beach, a North East Suburb of Sydney, located at the tip of a peninsula and then we are on the a tour of the Australian Red Center.

Map of Some Places we Traveled this Week

Beautiful Sunny Day in Sydney from the Ferry

Chimp in the Taronga Zoo

Kookaburra in a Park

Cockatoo in a Park

Katoomba Falls, Blue Mountain

Stream in the Blue Mountains

Yvonne Hazell and Dahlia in Hazell's Bush Garden

View of the Blue Mountains from the Hazell's Window

The Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains

Mosman Bay from Old Cremorne Wharf

Lovely Mizia Exchange House in Cremorne

Sydney, Australia – 7-14 June 2006

It was difficult to say goodbye to Helen and Wolf in Melbourne. It really felt like home being with them. We arrived in Sydney after a short flight and were greeted by our gracious host here, Margaret Mizia. Margaret and Ray are staying at alternate accommodation and are making their lovely home available for us, as they were forced to cancel their trip to California to stay in our house. Here again, through doing house exchanges we keep encountering wonderful people and humbling acts of kindness.

The Mizia home cozy and lovely and is located on a quiet street in Cremorne, just north of the Harbor Bridge and has wonderful access to buses and ferries. We can take the bus and be in the city within twenty-five minutes. From there we can take ferries trains and buses anywhere else we need.

Margaret gave us a tour of the house and a great orientation drive in the surrounding area which helped a lot to feel settled and comfortable. Over the following three days we took advantage of dry gloomy spells to go into the city and see some of the famous highlights of the Sydney. We saw the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, “The Rocks” area which is the birth place of the city with its quaint old buildings, art galleries and a nice Saturday market. We walked through the Museum of Contemporary Art (wish we could say we liked it..) and also attended a screening at the Sydney film festival the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” about global warming by Al Gore which we found most compelling.

On Monday, we woke up to a glorious sunny day and decided to check out the famous Sydney beaches. The beaches we have seen so far, Manley, Bondi and Cronulla are spectacular. Long, wide, white sandy beaches, bordered by beautiful walkways and parkland with all the conveniences you would love to see at beaches, including cafes, restaurants, picnic areas, and wonderful salt water, tidal pools which provide great swimming areas protected from sharks. The walkways extend for many miles and are well maintained. These are great place for jogging and walking with endless views of beaches and coastal cliffs with crashing giant waves.

After exploring Manley beach and taking a nice long coastal walk and having the most wonderful crepes, we took the ferry to the Circular Quay with beautiful views of the city. From there we took the ferry to Darling Harbor which is a really “happening place” with shops museums, a shell shaped performance stage on the water, which had a jazz concert going at the time. We came to see an IMAX movie about India and by the time it was over it was already dark so we took the opportunity to get night views of the city from the water and took the ferry back to the center. What a spectacular day!! Another glorious day was spent exploring Bondi Beach and taking a three mile walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach. It will be redundant to say the views were great.. It is hard to find places without great views around here! Today we went to Botany Bay to see the birth place of Australia, the landing place of Captain James Cook, and the Cronulla beaches with Margaret, who spent her childhood in the area. As a bonus we got to see many of the native birds: The yellow crested Cockatoo Magpies, Rosellas, colorful parakeets and many other birds all when standing under one tree for a few minutes.

Today we are heading to the Blue Mountains, about two hours west of Sydney, where we will stay for two nights before returning to Cremorne and Sydney.

Map of Sydney and Some The Places Mentioned in the Blog This Week

Sydney Bridge & Opera House by Moonlight

Ocean Near Bondi Beach

Bennelong Restaurant at Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House from Ferry

Sydney from Circular Quay Harbor

Bondi Beach

Luna Park Near the Sydney Bridge

Manley Harbor with Ferry. Manley is Not Far from Cermorne Where We Are Staying

Melbourne, Australia – 1- 8 June, 2006

Our week in Melbourne flew by in a blink. What made it extra special was spending it in the home of Dahlia’s cousins Helen and Wolf Sharp in Melbourne. We felt so very much at home and Helen spent most of the week showing us the major attractions of this beautiful city. The highlight of the trip was a family dinner in which we met the extended Sharp and Wegrow families, with all the kids and grandkids. It was fun to hear all the talented musicians in the family playing and singing together. The little video clip will give you an idea what it was like. Lani and Stephen (Helen and Wolf’s son and daughter in law) put together an incredible dinner party in their gorgeous home. It was a really memorable evening. It was so exciting to get to knows we have such a wonderful family on the other side of the world. Helen and her late brother Jacque are Dahlia’s Mother first cousins. Jacque was a marvelously talented artist and Colette; his wife invited us to her home and showed us all the beautiful paintings and silver sculptures he created. At the Melbourne Jewish Museum, we saw Jacque’s amazing painting in memory of the holocaust victims. The painting actually has 6,000 faces representing the 6 million victims. It took 5 years to complete.

Helen took us to the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary about an hour out of Melbourne. Here we saw kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, beautiful white parrots with yellow crests, Galla’s with pink breasts and grey backs, graceful white ibis, laughing kookaburras, pelicans, platypus, Tasmanian devils, lyre birds in a mating dance and emus and many more.

We took a 14 hour bus tour along the Great Ocean Road and saw the “Twelve Apostles” land formations and the remains of the “London Bridge” land formation as well as the famous surfing beaches. It was beautiful scenery but our California Route 1 is no less impressive. The other highlights of this tour were seeing Koalas in the wild!!!! How cute! Although they usually sleep we were lucky enough to see them scampering up the tiniest branches reaching for the freshest leaves. It was hard to walk away..

The city of Melbourne is gorgeous! A very cosmopolitan, diverse city of about 4 million people built on the banks of the Yarra River, with lots of gardens, many lovely neighborhoods, lots of terrific eateries, fabulous markets, and interesting ethnic neighborhoods. Melbourne has a vibrant downtown area with many interesting buildings; new fanciful skyscrapers alongside graceful old buildings and public buildings with marvelously interesting architecture. The Ian Potter gallery on Federation Square which exhibits primarily Australian art was most interesting.

On our final day we spent with Helen visiting the Royal Botanical gardens and the highlights of the CBD (Central business District), Collins and Bourke streets, which are lovely wide, tree lined boulevards with smart shops beautiful old buildings and an authentic Chinatown.

The only unfortunate thing about this visit was that Wolf spent the whole time at the Hospital awaiting surgery. Hopefully all will go smoothly and we’ll see Helen and Wolf in Los Angeles in the fall.

Movie of Some of the Sharp Wengrow Clan in Melbourne

Map of Our Travels 1 - 8 June

"The Beggar Woman", a Sculpture by Dahlia's Cousin Jack Wengrow in Melbourne

Sunset at the "Twelve Apostles"

"London Bridge" on the Great Ocean Road

Some of the "Twelve Apostles" on the Great Ocean Road

Koala in the Wild Along the Great Ocean Road

Wild Parrots Along the Great Ocean Road

Kangaroo at Healesville Wildlife Sancutary

Federation Square in Melbourne

Helen and Dahlia on Balcony of Helen and Wolf's New Apartment with Melbourne in Background

Dinner with the Wengrow/Sharp Family (Dahlia's Cousins) in Melbourne