Sydney Pictures

Pictures from our trip to Sydney in the Australian winter… 100_0482andrew This picture was taken by Andrew on Bondi Beach in Sydney-click on it to enlarge. From left to right: Lucia (Italy), Miloud (France), Elena (Italy), Francois? (France), Ben (Australia/Tonga, kneeling), Mari (Japan), David, Margarita, Christian (Austria), Sebastien (France), Tina (Denmark), Lee (UK), Sophie (Denmark), April (USA), George (UK). Yes, George is bathing.

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book review: down under

Bill Bryson’s book „Down under“ is probably one of the best-selling Australian travel diaries of the last years. Bryson writes about his travels in a very entertaining and easy-to-read style. Down under is quite entertaining and full of supposedly well researched peeks into Australian history, geography, foreign relations and politics. However, while „Down under“ might be an entertaining read, Bryson hasn’t done a great job in portraying the places he visited. Even though Bryson seems to have done a lot of research, he hasn’t done a great job in planning his itineraries and researching the destinations.

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The Parliamentary Triangle

I went to the Parliamentary Triangle today–a part of Canberra mostly occupied by Parliament House (=Parliament Hill), government offices, embassies and very expensive residential properties. Now that most of the trees have leaves and some are still in bloom, Canberra is getting nicer than it was in those cold rainy november (…umm…July) days. I felt as if I was cycling on a highway that had been built right through a park. Of course, highways wouldn’t have bike lanes.