Meandering in Melbourne

With Australia in the grip of devastating forest fires, I wasn’t too sure what would be waiting for me having arrived in Melbourne on a flight from Perth. Other than a slightly acrid smell in the air on arrival, and an intermittent smog it was business as usual – some torrential rain on the 2^nd day, whilst uncharacteristic for the season was much needed for those fires. A free walking tour was a fantastic way to see around the City, as our guide Tom took us through the streets and alleyways of the city – interspersing historical and cultural insights with tourist tips. As we explored the lane ways, we took in the street art of Melbourne – and learnt the etiquette that means that it can only be painted over if the quality will be better!

Tour complete, we knew the sites to go back and explore further – and it’s always a good day when you go to visit somewhere and it takes you by surprise by what lies behind the doors. The reading room of the State Library was stunning – and almost made me want to be a student again! 

Reading Room, State Library

Heading off to the Shrine of Remembrance I naively thought that it would be like a war memorial in the UK. How wrong I was?! Originally built to commemorate the men and women of Victoria who had served in WW1, it now serves to commemorate all Australians who have served in any War. It forms an iconic landmark and it is impossible not to be moved walking through the various galleries of remembrance and taking in the views across the City.

Shrine of Remembrance

Speaking of views, standing on the South Bank and looking out over the Swan River is one of the picture postcard views of the City!

Swan River

Melbourne has is known for its coffee and foodie culture – and there was no shortage of eateries to enjoy.

Rice Paper Scissors and Mamasita were two restaurant recommendations which I thoroughly enjoyed – it was just a shame I wasn’t there longer to enjoy more of the food scene. Like Adelaide, and Fremantle, Queen Victoria Food market didn’t disappoint and a foodie tour ensured we got to sample the very best.

Sampling cheese in Queen Victoria Market

A highlight on the food scene was stumbling across a live shoot of MasterChef Australia and finding ourselves on the front row of filming!

MasterChef Australia

One of the ‘must do’ day trips away from Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road Tour – a very long day but the views of ‘The Apostles’ (impressive rock stacks off the coast) were stunning – albeit incredibly windy!

The 12 Apostles

Melbourne will stick in my memory for being the place that I completed my personal Grand Slam of the tennis circuit, at the Australian Open – two days of tennis, together with an evening session continuing to midnight and almost later into the night – I was in my happy place!

The Grand Slam complete!

Foodie Freedom in Fremantle

If it’s one thing that the Aussies do well – it’s food markets! Finding myself in Fremantle for the second time in 6 months, the decision over where to go for lunch was an easy one. The website for Fremantle Market boasts “Listen carefully and you might just hear the horse and carts of yesteryear.” Yesteryear may take a little imagination – but it’s a tour through several continents in the space of just a couple of aisles, laden with an array foods and aromas to draw you in. Ironically with so much choice, I was still drawn back to ‘What the Bao!’ – Asian fusion food at its best, as I discovered on my first visit!

Fremantle Food Market

Less than 1km from the markets is a very different place – Fremantle Prison. Stepping into the reception area of the main cell block, a guide disguised as a prison officer, took us through the ‘Behind Bars Tour’ In 2010 the prison was the first building in Western Australia to be listed on the World Heritage List. Visitors of one kind or another have been welcomed since 1850, but it wasn’t until 1992 that guests paid to go by choice to have a look around! When you learn that the prison was home to convicts, colonial prisoners, prisoners of war and maximum-security detainees, you know you are standing on a piece of history. Add to that the fact that it still was home to prisoners up until 1991, in very basic conditions was a sobering thought.

Fremantle Prison

One word of caution – nothing is held back in the vivid descriptions provided in the execution chamber, and it’s not for the feint hearted. Post tour recovery ice creams in the Convict Café were the order of the day – if an excuse was ever needed!

A Postcard from downunder Part 2 - Ambling in Adelaide

By all accounts, Adelaide was a surprising choice for a mini – break from Perth. It doesn’t seem to be on the list of suggested places to explore – but at less than a 3-hour flight from Perth it proved to be a great location for a 3-night stay. My hotel was well placed in the central business district, the added benefit of streets laid out on a grid system meant that even with my poor sense of direction it was impossible to get lost! 

The Adelaide Tourist Office offers the possibility of being shown around the city by a volunteer Adelaide Greeter – as a solo traveler this was a great way of getting to know the city. Without the guide bringing its history to life I would have had no idea that it was a planned city dating back to 1836, with every detail having been carefully thought of including streets that were designed to wide enough for horses and carts! By the end of my 4-hour tour I knew my way around the main landmarks, had ridden on a tram – been shown a coffee shop by the river, and had lunch at Lucias – the first Pizza bar Adelaide!

The Cathedral

Orientation complete I felt safely equipped to explore further afield on the tram – having read that Glenelg Beach was one of the ‘must see’ sunset spots near Adelaide. Amusingly my plan to get off the tram where the locals did, backfired slightly as the people around me on the tram were tourists – and we all followed each other. The sunset was well worth the trip and absolutely stunning – and I enjoyed it on an almost empty beach. I also learnt that what a palindrome is – and that Glenelg is one!

Glenelg at Sunset

I took in several other sites on my visit including the cathedral, the Oval and the Botanical Gardens. Each location had friendly locals volunteering their time to host tourists – unsurprisingly, chatting to many of them soon led to a Brexit conversation as they were totally bemused as to what is happening in the UK – and I wasn’t able to shed much light!

The Botanical Gardens

Flying back early afternoon left the perfect space for an Early Risers’ breakfast tour of Adelaide Central Market hosted by Aus Food Tours. I had already discovered JamFace by Poh for brunch one morning following up on a great recommendation – Poh was runner up in Australia’s MasterChef and owns a great little café in the market. However with the tour I could look at the market through a different lens - after a lovely breakfast, the tour brought the history of the market to life and included numerous tastings – yoghurt, cheese, nuts, salami, truffle salt – and green ants (!) to name but a few! A great end to 3 nights away … and I felt that I had uncovered some of Adelaide’s hidden charms, with a little help from the locals who were so enthusiastic to welcome visitors and showcase their city.

Adelaide Central Market

A postcard from down under - Part 1

23 hours after leaving Birmingham and I was safely in Perth – and talked myself out of jet-lag by persuading myself that the total flight time was 5 hours or two films longer than the ‘4 nights in China’ trips which I have done frequently for work in recent years! The priority on this trip was always going to be catching up with family – but as it was my first visit to Perth, and only second to Australia (the first being over 20 years ago!), there was plenty of exploring to be done! 

I am in my happy place when I see a stunning sunset – they take me back to when I was 16 on a family holiday to Florida, and I was transfixed by a sky which was ablaze with a oranges, reds and purples – and a local commented ‘isn’t God the most amazing artist?’ So, fish and chips on Cottesloe Beach, watching the sunset and playing on the beach with my nieces was a perfect end to the 1^st day.

Sunset on Cottesloe Beach

The following day included a visit to the Botanical Gardens and the War Memorial – which showcased the Perth skyline – so together, the two days set me up well for the week to come!

Perth Skyline from Kings Park

Over the following days I took the opportunity to explore several of the Perth sites – interwoven with tennis, swimming lessons and a bit of crafting! 

If you visit Perth for the 1^st time, then a free orientation tour offered by the Tourist Board is well worth it. My guide struck the right balance between historical context and useful information - and took us to areas which I would have missed if it was down to me and the guide book. Importantly the best coffee spots were also highlighted! 

Being a Brit in Perth, it felt only right that I went and checked on the bells of St Martin in the Fields, London – now housed in the Bell Tower.  It seems that the bells were too heavy for the church in London and were due to be melted down and re-cast … until they found a home in Perth in exchange for the raw materials for new bells. A very costly project for the Aussies, as they needed to create a A$5.5million home for them – but the result is a pretty impressive building near Barrack Street Jetty.

Travelling away from Perth will generally involve several hours in the car … or a flight. However, just off the coast and 90 mins away lies Rottnest Island – originally discovered by a Dutch explorer, it has also seen part of its life as a prison island. Now all the original settlement buildings have been converted into holiday accommodation. That said, visiting in September I was in the low season – and having landed on a sunny day I had a stunning beach all to myself. 

Geordie Bay - my personal beach!

I had been instructed by my nieces to go Quokka hunting …. that wasn’t difficult – where there was food they appeared. What was more unusual was seeing baby Quokkas. I hadn’t come across a Quokka before – hardly surprising – the smallest member of the wallaby family, they are only found in south west Australia. I prefer to think of them in this way, rather than how they were described by that first Dutch explorer – he described them as ‘a kind of rat as big as a common cat’, and named the island Rottenest (Rat’s nest!). 

Meeting the locals!

Rottnest island is not to be explored on a windy day. I went on a calm day but it was still slightly disconcerted when the crew of the Rotto Express patrolled with sick bags, and I got the impression they would dole them out to anyone they assessed as looking a bit green! 

A stunning skyline arriving back from Rottnest to Elizabeth Quay, Perth

I like to think that I had chosen well on the tourist trail when the next day, the people that I sat by on the Rotto Express were on the same tour, as I explored some of the Vineyards of the Swan Valley and the town of Guilford. Guilford had a ‘colonial’ feel to it – but the highlight was brunch in in the Garden Design Centre and Café – a world away from garden centre cafés in the UK. It was a lovely precursor to my afternoon exploring 3 vineyards. My new travel buddies wanted to know what I was up to the following day – I half expected them to show up at a game of tennis with my brother!

Whilst in Perth there was also the opportunity for a family road trip and a long weekend in the Margaret River region. This is a must see area - in 2019 its has taken the top spot on Lonely Planet's must see places in Asia Pacific. Air BnB didn't disappoint and we had a lovely sea view rental in Dunsborough. 

Margaret River itself is a small town - and if we blinked we might have missed crossing the river! However the wider area is known for its stunning vineyards (we visited House of Cards, Amelia Park and had a beautiful meal at Xanadu Estate) and chocolate factories (Gabriel’s Chocolate was a particular highlight offering numerous samples!) , as well as some stunning coastal scenery at Canal Rocks and Surfers’ Point. From Surfers' Point there was also an unusual sight of the River meeting the Indian Ocean. No trip to Margaret River would be complete without making a little room in the hold luggage home for a bottle of wine, chocolate – and lemon curd! That said I think my nieces were perhaps more taken with the visit to Simmos Ice Creamery - but as their global award winning magic formula is based on an Irish recipe it would have been rude not to! Good food, wine and chocolate combined with some stunning views - I think a return visit might be necessary.

Berlin - in two evenings!

More often than not, travelling with work, leaves very little time for exploring – but the invitation to speak at a conference in Berlin, provided an opportunity to explore a city I had never visited – as long as I took a very efficient approach to sight-seeing during the two evenings!

Fortunately, the conference was taking place very close to Alexanderplatz which is a really central location – although after a 3-hour delay to the flight, I did find myself wondering just how safe it was to be walking from the airport bus stop, through deserted streets, to my hotel around midnight!

After a full day at the conference, it took a bit of self-motivation to get my trainers on, ready to walk. Spurred on by the sunny evening I managed a ‘speed tour’ – taking in several of the ‘must see’ sights -  Berliner Dom (cathedral), Reichstag (German Parliament) and the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). I also went to visit the ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.’ It was a slightly unusual installation of 2711 concrete slabs covering 4.7 acres – if I had stumbled upon it, rather than deliberately found it on a map, I am not sure I would have known what it was. The only drawback to the speedy tour of Berlin, was not finding anywhere decent for food – thankfully conference catering was 5 star!

An evening stroll

The second evening was an opportunity to see things from a different perspective – firstly on a boat trip, which provided some great views, particularly of the cathedral. From the water’s edge I then went up 203 metres (in 40 seconds!) to the top of the TV tower. With a clear evening and bright blue skies, the panoramic view from the top was spectacular.

What a view?!

At the end of another full evening of sightseeing I realised I hadn’t seen the one thing that I was on my ‘must do’ list – the wall …. or at least a bit of it (given that not too much I still there). It was totally worth the sunrise walk before breakfast to the East Side Gallery, where art works are painted on a 1.3km section of the older inner Berlin Wall – the longest section of the wall that has survived. It was a slightly surreal moment having walked through residential areas to get to the wall, standing at a spot which represented so much history, whilst life in the post Wall era, is now thankfully the norm.

A little piece of history

Rhodes - the Sunshine Island (except in April!)

Rhodes – with more than 300 days sunshine per year, then it is almost guaranteed, right?! Except it would seem, in April when I visited! Staying in a beautiful setting on the coast (The Kresten Royal), with views and pools to die for, I think this week was a lesson in slowing down and stopping, after a particularly busy period at work with almost non-stop rain for the 1^st part. Fortunately, the hotel had lots of spots to sit with a drink or a coffee, to admire the view and will those black clouds away!

View from the balcony

Mid way through the week, with a break in the rain, the exodus from the hotel began! It seemed though, that the local bus service hadn’t quite woken up from the season. Having checked times at reception, we waited …. and waited. Twenty mins later a taxi came past …. by the time he passed a second time, we decided that might be the quicker option! The old town of Rhodes (known locally as Rodos) is full of character, and worthy of its status as a world heritage site. The entrance is via one of several gates in the city walls. Narrow alleyways and winding cobbled streets, closed to traffic, are a total contrast from the commercial harbour on the other side. I can imagine that the heat and the crowds in the height of the summer might give a very different feel – but this time of year was perfect.

Rhodes Town Centre - without the crowds!

TripAdvisor ‘near me now’ delivered and recommended Mama Sofia’s – a family run restaurant away from the main square. Lovely food with a warm and welcoming atmosphere – and a waiter with a sense of humour. I ordered a small beer (having seen someone at coffee time being served in a glass the size and shape of a boot) – and it arrived in a tankard the size of a shot glass!

A second day of sunshine was an opportunity to walk 20 mins down the road to the Kallithea Springs – visitors to the springs can be tracked back to 700 BC. New facilities were opened in 1929 and welcomed visitors through to 1967. Restored in more recent years, in the height of the summer it has become one of the most popular attractions on the island – that said, in April it hadn’t fully opened for the season. On the plus side this meant a reduced entry fee – and no competition for a seat in the sun! Buildings ‘not quite’ open is a bit of a theme on the island at this time of year – its quite strange seeing huge hotel complexes with shutters down and no signs of life. 

Kallithea Springs

The week ended with a more successful adventure on the local bus to the town of Lindos. Very different from Rhodes town, it features white washed walls and a clifftop acropolis – they know how to charge when you get to the gates of the acropolis …. but having explored a maze of streets and alleys, and climbed the numerous steps to the entrance, it seemed worth exploring. There was evidence of lots of restoration activity (including a couple of abandoned cranes?!) – but enough original stone to wonder how on earth it got there in the first place. The acropolis gives a great vantage point over Lindos – and in the midst of the white washed buildings, numerous roof top restaurants could be spotted. With so many possibilities, our lunch spot was a restaurant called Dionysos – and we weren’t disappointed – the best moussaka I have ever tasted! 

Lindos

Chengdu to Chongqing

Chongqing by night

Travelling to different countries, and experiencing the sights, sounds and tastes of different cultures is a huge privilege. I first experienced China on a holiday over ten years ago – a fantastic trip but a fortnight in which I knew I was very much on the tourist trail with our guide planning and taking care our every move! Since then I have been back five or six times on business – which provides another fascinating window on the country, its’ people and the way things get done. In every city I have been to, one thing always holds true – the Chinese are perfect hosts, nothing is too much trouble, and I am very much treated as their guest. I value those opportunities to spend time with the locals – to have an insight into the way they ‘do life’ …. Except the times when they order food and forget that the British are perhaps not so keen on cow’s stomach (according to my host – its not as bad as it sound!) or intestines!

I am just back from my first visit to Chonqinq – a city in south west China on the banks of the Yantzee River, a couple of hours from Chengdu by high speed train. With a population of 29 million it is bigger than Shanghai. 

The view from the highest point in Chongqing

As a business trip, the location of the hotel was very much driven by meetings – and as such I had the unusual experience of not seeing any other Westerner during the four days I was in China. With every visit I learn more about the approach to ‘doing business’ in China – but away from those meetings (which were fully translated!) I was very struck by the language barrier. A few episodes stood out which still make me smile thinking about them.

First, the seemingly simple task of buying a coffee in the hotel lobby coffee shop. I thought I had it nailed when they understood ‘Café Latte’ – until I noticed that no one pays by cash, but instead ‘waves’ their mobile phone in front of the card reader because they pay through the Chinese version of Whattsapp (WeChat!). You can imagine the gesturing needed to try and persuade them to take cash when its not how they are set up! Encouraged by my coffee success I went to reception to order something from the room service menu for lunch (don’t even think about trying to phone room service – history in other Chinese cities tells me that wouldn’t go well!). Pointing to what I wanted on the menu with 4 different members of the team eventually resulted in success …. The normal reaction on seeing me was for them to laugh nervously and hide until one was brave enough to try their English! Talking of reactions to seeing me – at least 3 toddlers stopped and stared at me for the best part of ten mins (as their parents watched!). I like to think that I have contributed to their education and they now know the world isn’t all Chinese!

In an attempt to get some exercise I thought I would undertake the relatively simple task of going to the gym … as a reasonably regular gym user in the UK – how hard could it be? Well it seems – quite tricky! Six running machines and I totally failed in my efforts to get any of them to work – with no one around (and after the coffee and lunch challenges of the previous day) I decided that a conversation with reception was not going to get anywhere. When I relayed the experience to my Chinese host, it was quite straightforward …. Chinese people don’t go to the gym before lunch, so the running machines were probably not switched on?!

Short work trips understandably leave little time to see places – but I was grateful for the opportunity to get out for a couple of hours for a meal in a traditional restaurant and visit to a Tao temple – another fascinating insight into Chinese culture. 

Tao Temple, Chongqing

Admittedly I did have to politely decline the opportunity to pray to the Tao gods (including one known as the CFO!) , albeit that I may have said a quick prayer when I saw the state of the kitchen at the local ‘restaurant’ we had lunch. Food was lovely – and locals know where to go – but 24 hours later I am thankful for no side effects!