Travel from the 70's onward
Floriade 2023 – Canberra
Well we went to Canberra and it was closed!
Well not entirely closed but hardly anyone on the streets or cafes. Floriade flower show, an annual event was nearing it’s end and even that was very quiet. Some great sisplays from what we saw and after about 2 hours walking around there it was time to go find a cafe.
Not an easy task as a lot seemed to be closed
I think the 2 days in Canberra could have been spent better somewhere other than Canberra.
River Cruise and Breakfast Creek Hotel – Brisbane
During our few days in Brisbane we did a river cruise which included a lunch at the old historic Breakfast Creek Hotel.
A bit of a walk to the ruver cruise boat, then waiting around for a long time then we were finally under way.
A very informative trip with one of the staff pointing out a lot of things on either side of the river.
We finally got to the last stop and then it was about a 2km walk to the actual Hotel.
The quaint old hotel was very good with service and gave us a demonstration of tapping an old beer barrel which resulted in beer spraying up when the cork was removed and everyone got a taste of the freshly tapped beer barrel. Lunch was quite enjoyable, an old restored part of it was a huge bar with a very high ceiling and almost every choice of drink I could ever want.
Then since we had to be back for the return river cruise trip most of us walked back and waited under the trees on the boat.
A well worthwhile trip.
Beechworth Bakery
During out few weeks we did manage to visit three of the Beechworth Bakeries.
Bendigo, Echuca and Beechworth.
At each we did have one of their specials the “Beesting” as part of our lunch.
The crowd at all of them around lunch time is staggering. A massive selection of baked goods for both eating on the premise or for taking away. It seems a lot of locals just come in for their bread which is only a very small percentage of what they offer.
I did get one of Tom’s bakery books with a heap of recipes in it and a lot of guides for making a lot of their products including the “Beesting’s”
Chambers of the Black Hand Opal Mine – Lightening Ridge
First we waited in the hot sun for another tour to finish then several of us descended down the 85 steep steps into the mine. The guide had given us all hard hats and a safety briefing prior to the descent.
The tour was very informative about how the mine was formed and all the hundreds if intriate carvings in the soft stone down below.
As expected there was a small shop down in the mine selling hand carvings and various Opals.
Royal Flying Doctor Base and Museum – Dubbo
We arrived late at the Royal Flying Doctor museum at Dubbo, NSW so did not really get enough time there.
At the time we got there after many hours of driving the cafe was closed unfornitually.
We had a couple of people showing us around, one was a retired Nurse and an ex Pilot telling us how it all worked and they showed us mock plane setups of how the planes were set up inside, the medical kits they had on board and a good video of tome of the stories of rescues that had been done in the past.
The Nurse took us up to the top of a control tower and we managed to see one of their planes coming into land and take a stretcher off the plane.
The story behind it all and the experience was fantastic.
Our visit to Canada was great. My Wife and daughter met me in Montreal as they had been in UK. I flew to Vancouver then to Montreal and they met me the following day.
We spent a bit of time in Montreal and also did a trip to Quebec City and also another trip to Niagara Falls.
The Quebec City trip was great we had a good guide and she gave us an excellent walking tour of the old City plus we had a bit of time to explore some places ourselves before catching the bus back again.
The Niagara trip gave us plenty of time and we had lunch at a great place with a view of the falls. It also included a couple of stops, one at a wine tasting place and one in a small village. While there we did do a boat tour on the river below the falls, which was a bit wet but awesome, it gives a great perspective of how bit and how much water is coming over the top.
From Montreal we flew to Toronto and had a few days there. This is where our daughter stayed on for another few days to do a course while we flew next to Calgary.
We planned the Calgary stop wrong as it was bitterly cold and we had 5 nights there killing time until our planned Rocky Mountaineer train trip. We were picked up at our hotel by bus and driven to Banff, after a night there we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer and headed to Lake Louise. This part was supposed to include a Helicopter flight and also a Gondola ride. The Helicopter flight was cancelled due to fog and the Gondola was almost no view at the top also due to fog.
We got to Lake Louise and once again due to low fog no view up to the end of the lake. We were joined by passengers from the train in from Jasper and that extended the train a bit longer. We never thought of doing the Jasper part until then.
Next stop was Kamloops, and then next day into Vancouver. We were greeted by a huge line up of buses to take us to several different hotels around Vancouver. All in a nice line with everyone in uniform it looked really impressive indeed.
We had opted for the Gold Service with the double decker carriages with a great view, we also had meals on the train as well which were fantastic.
Another few days in Vancouver to look around and a lot of walking, a couple of bus tours, it is a place I would gladly go back to at another time.
