Australia2023

 After a 14-hour flight from roughly 10:30am Monday to 7am Monday, we are back in the US. Customs and agricultural screening were minimal. The light rail that goes through the airport also goes to our hotel, so that was easy. We got to the hotel by 8 and actually had a room by 9. We met Chas, had another breakfast, visited a garden he knew, and had lunch in the hotel. Chas in hotel room

 We are pretty much touristed out. We are agreed that there is nothing remaining that we would be sorry not to have done. Train into the Blue Mountains? We've seen mountains, and it would take all day. Ferry from the harbor? Nowhere in particular we want to go. We walked/scooted extensively, checking out maybe 15 places to have lunch, and ended back at Friday's Pontoon. I had an Aussi Burger, Paula had a pumpkin & feta pizza with pine nuts and rocket (= arugula). The building I had been referring to as the "cheese grater" turns out to be the Sydney Conference Center. Sydney Conference Center After lunch, we came back to the apartment and took naps. Next: Dinner on assorted leftovers, packing, bed.

 Paula phoned the Sydney Opera House this morning and arranged a tour. When she got off the phone, she remarked how often it was that something she dreaded turned out to be easy. We had breakfast, walked/scooted to the Town Hall stop, and took the light rail to Circular Quay. We browsed around there a bit, and a store selling some nice scarves (she had been wanting one with a typical Aboriginal pattern). I found one we both liked, then she found one she liked better and wanted to put the first one back, so I said we should get both. Then she another one (with turtles on it!), and wanted to put one or the other of the first two back. So we bought all three. If my wife were anyone else, this would seem like she were being devious; but it's Paula. Case closed. We got to the Opera House early and had lunch there. Lunch at the House Canteen At the arranged time (2:35) and the arranged place (Stage Door), we met our tour guide and went on the one-hour tour. I have to say, it's a gorg

 I think I mentioned earlier that a bushing on the scooter came loose--one holding the seat in place, so it was no longer possible to pick up the scooter by the front shaft and the seat without pulling the seat loose. Paula found a video on how to repair it (epoxy). So I went--day before yesterday?--looking for epoxy. I stopped at a likely-looking store and asked the lady at the counter if they had any. They didn't, but she clearly knows the city very well, and drew a map for me to the nearest hardware store (a Mitre IO). Then I made a mistake. I entered the store into Google maps--okay so far--and tried to follow its directions. It seems Google maps has a (mostly) reasonable idea of where I am, but it was hallucinating pedestrian directions. I followed it as best I could for about 20 minutes (to a store that was 2 minutes away), gave up, located myself, and followed the saleslady's directions. Well, I got to see a lot more of the city than I would otherwise have. The epoxy wor

 Things I like about Australia: Essentially a cashless society. No tipping--waitpersons get an adequate wage. No Second Amendment. Wide availability of fish & chips. Aussie burgers. As accessible as the US. Definitely a younger country. One of the things I don't like is that they don't understand duvets. A duvet should be enclosed in a cover, rather like a pillowcase. Where we have been staying, the duvet blanket is separate, with a sheet above and a sheet below, so it's going to end up tangled. It was even like this on the train, where the narrow bunks made things worse. Also, avocados are really expensive. One of the best parts of traveling on a train is the meals. You end up sitting with some other random couple, and they're usually fascinating people. One couple we sat with more than once (deliberately after the first time) were Lynn and Mike. Paula's been avoiding politics, but we talked quite a bit about both Australian politics and American politics. (Her

 I didn't expect to have great signal on the train, and I didn't. The wi-fi in the lounge was excellent, but most of the time there wasn't any signal to pick up. The Indian Pacific There was a free light breakfast at the train terminal. The Indian Pacific is, after all, a tourist train. Train Station in Perth Train station light breakfast Our compartment In the lounge We had only a limited amount of space in our room, so we checked our two big suitcases through to Sydney; they would be unavailable during the trip. Mostly we chose well, but I didn't have any white plastic electrical tape with me. That would have been useful for two repairs. One, my wristwatch and backpack don't get along, and I had torn the wristwatch band while putting on the backpack. I had temporarily fixed it, but the fix only lasted about half the trip. Two, one of the bushings that holds the scooter seat in place came loose, and I had no way to repair it. Our first excursion after Perth was Kal