Coming Home 12-15-2008

12-15-2008

The end of the holiday: Yes in two hours or less we will be boarding our A380 bound for LA.
It has been a good vacation - a lot of concentrated effort went into the planning and execution. We had a 95%+ success rate on everything. The flights were on time the rental cars were there, when we had a potential down day we converted it into something worthwhile. There were a couple of accommodations that were marginal but really only in Melbourne. The people we dealt with were all very nice. This is a nice part of the world. I never got the feeling that some one wanted me to take down my pants for a good shagging.
Our last couple of nights were spent in a low budget motel next to the Melbourne airport. The accommodations sucked so we rented a car and had a great day in downtown Melbourne. That is a great city, promenades, river walks, first class art museums!!, terrific public art and wonderful street performers. I even got into the act as one of the helpers for a comedian juggler who was really funny and cheeky as they say here. He had a very mixed crowd with a lot of young kids and he had several references to his balls and all of the kids laughed. The kids knew what the jokes were about, I guess that is what happens when you grow up in a pretty rough and tumble culture. It was kind of nice.

The best deal on the trip was the car rentals and the price of gas. It probably cost us about $8 US for every 100 miles we drove and our car hire expense for the 35 days was probably around $750. Rooms averaged $75 a night which is around $2800. Food and drink was probably around $1600, Gas around $150 and tours etc $500 Air fare around $2200. Ok so what does that up to = $7500 US for the total cost of 5 weeks traveling with a car, with nice accommodations, traveling to 2 countries (almost 3 considering Tasmania) and taking the occasional tours. Not cheap but a great value.
This time we took advantage of the lessons learned in previous trips we stayed at several locations for 2-3 days and 4 days in one case. It made the trip much more enjoyable. We also brought a cooler with us which was the right size - it was great we used it for food when we got somewhere and for packing stuff when we flew. I highly recommend that. Kathy used a clip on reading light regularly; I used a flashlight for the occasional midnight pee. Having a car when you are in an undesirable place is key - just get in the thing and drive to the nearest vineyard.
Kathy thinks that the trip went on about a week too long. I know what she is talking about - how many vineyards and harbor cruises can you go on until it becomes meaningless. That said I enjoyed the last couple of days exploring Melbourne and we would have had a very negative impression if we had just returned and gotten on the plane home.
The architecture in this place is first rate and superior to most things being built in the US. Over here Frank Gherry would be considered a marginal architect in my opinion because he is all about the form and puts little effort into the space.

I am looking forward to getting back at it even though it will be frustrating and slow at times. I need to get back to some training routine just for my health.