New York New York

Well, here we are in the Big Apple staying in Brooklyn with Lindsay and Judi Harris. It is 21 years since we were last here and we are looking forward to the revisit. On our first day here, Lindsay took us uptown on the subway and oriented us to the subway/public transport system, Times Square, Union Square and so on. We now each have a weekly ticket which means we can go anywhere at any time, which is great. Lindsay also took us to the Dallas Ribs Restaurant for that quintessential American culinary experience - “ribs”. Dianne and Richard Woods’ son Arron (from Mildura) is completing some work involving the U.N. in New York and is also staying with the Harrises.

So far we have been to the top of the Rockefeller Centre, visited the memorial at ‘Ground Zero, visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, been to Tiffany’s, been to a baseball game at Shea Stadium and Milton has walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with Lindsay.

The view at the ‘Top of the Rock’ is excellent (last time we went to the top of the Empire State) but we were a bit disappointed at Tiffany’s. We particularly looked at the sterling silver jewellery on the third floor with the intention of buying something for Judith. However, we were very underwhelmed by the design and range, even given that it is made by well known design houses. We also went to a jeweller, Aaron Faber, who is better known for contemporary jewellery and this was a lot better than Tiffany’s.

Milton is interested in Art Deco design and architecture, so when we saw the Fred French Building from the Rockefeller Centre we went down to have a closer look. While the exterior at ground level is obscured by renovations, the foyer is still accessible and is indeed very impressive.

After a great meal at an Italian restaurant in the heart of town, we all went to a rock musical on Broadway on Thursday evening called Passing Strange. This was an excellent show with a very tight band and first class production values. Although the second half was not as strong as the first, we all agreed it was an impressive show.

Friday afternoon Lindsay and Jude flew out for three weeks in Australia and Aaron flew out to London, so we now have the house to ourselves – not that that matters as we had a great time catching up with our hosts and seeing New York through their eyes.

Judith and Lindsay in Times Square.

Day four of our trip saw us driving John and Marlee’s Buick down to Brooklyn, Wisconsin to see ‘the old Whittaker farm’. Here we were made extremely welcome by Jerry and Garnett who have lived and worked on the farm for 30 years. Judith’s great great grandfather owned this farm before he eventually moved to South Australia.

Jerry and Garnett showed us over the farm and the local cemetery and were wonderful and generous hosts. We met most of the family and some of the neighbours and took photographs of this beautiful part of the country.

We stayed overnight and then Garnett took us into Madison, the state capital, where we had a little Frank Lloyd Wright tour.

Unfortunately, FLW's home (Taliesen) at Spring Green was closed, but we had a great morning looking over the Monona Terrace Conference Centre (which has only recently been completed years after FLW’s death) and the Unitarian Church Meeting House (below).

We travelled back to Chisago City where later in the week John and Marlee showed us over the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis. They are indeed beautiful and we had a great day with our hosts, finishing up with a performance of a very talented and tight Bluegrass band (Monroe Crossing) in the evening.

Saturday we travelled up to Duluth in the Buick and had a quick look at Bob Dylan’s birthplace – locally referred to as Little San Francisco.

Sunday we flew to New York via Chicago for ten days in the Big Apple. But more of that later.

GETTING THERE

Well, we’re off again! This time a small trip to the U.S. for four weeks finishing up with five days in Fiji. We have bought a new lap-top to facilitate with the blog, to keep up with our e-mail, to phone home (on skype) and to store and display photos. So far it is proving to be the best thing since sliced bread – an antiquated phrase for a technological miracle!

The flight from Melbourne to Minneapolis was OK but with a couple of problems. First of all we had a stopover at Auckland, NZ which we had not expected (we specifically asked for a direct flight). Then, when we got to L.A., immigration and customs took so long that we missed our connecting flight. This obviously happens all the time at the L.A. airport because they have a permanent desk staffed with four people specifically to re-route travellers who miss their connection. We had to wait a couple of hours and then take a flight to Fort Worth, Texas and then another to Minneapolis, arriving there at about 10.00 pm. The last hitch was that the baggage handlers treated our luggage so roughly that one of the wheels on Milton’s case was ripped right off and is lying on the ground somewhere between Melbourne and Minneapolis.

BEING THERE
We are currently staying with our friends John and Marlee Eret who have a house right on beautiful Lake Chisago which is about 30 minutes out of Minneapolis.

We have been treated with the best American hospitality and have really enjoyed catching up with old friends – or should I say friends of old? On the first day here, John drove me out on the metre thick frozen lake surface to ice fish. Although they were mostly very small we caught almost fifty fish, including sunfish and crappie, and had a great time.

This was my first experience of ice fishing and it was a lot of fun.

I’m not sure if it was more fun catching the fish, drilling the hole in the ice, or the experience of drinking a couple of stubbies in the middle of a frozen lake with a mate. While we were doing this Judith and Marlee went for a walk and then took a scenic drive around the area.

Our second day in Minnesota was characterised by a heavy snowstorm which transformed the landscape into a beautiful North American postcard. John and Marlee took us to see the Mall of America which is the biggest shopping mall in the U.S. We had lunch there and also bought a new case to replace the damaged one.

The mornings are characterised by a sumptuous breakfast prepared by our hosts, the evenings by a wonderful meal, a judicious amount of wine and a great many laughs. I would like, though, for someone to explain to me how come Australian wine is cheaper over here than it is in Australia!!?

More Tassie photos

Tracey and Carol share a joke

At Salamanca Market on Saturday morning. Fairy's DH, Rachel, Tracey's daughter, Carol, Vicki, Judith, Fairy, Tracey and Karin



Sitting from left - Carol, Judith, Fairy, Tracey and Karin. Vicki standing behind.

Trip to Tassie

We have just come back from an enjoyable 4 days in Hobart with some of the "girls" and their husbands from the Simple Savings website GO Crazy threads. We all had a great time together with lots of eating, laughing and talking (especially a lot of the latter). In the space of four days Hobart turned on some fine weather, rain, cold temperatures and snow.

Out for dinner on Saturday night - from left Judith,Rachel,Carol, Fairy and Tracey











Tracey and her daughter with Karin at the Salamanca Market

On the road again (soon)

It's been a long time between entries however suffice to say we arrived home safe and sound via a night in Hong Kong.

Since we are now mentioned in this particular website it seemed appropriate to create a new post in anticipation of the many hits we will no doubt get from it!

After five months back in Australia we are heading off to the USA at the end of March so longs2go will be on the road again. First stop will be the twin cites of Minneapolis and St Paul, then on to New York.

Belgium, Cologne and back to Paris

We have just completed an amazing ten days in Belgium (in the battlefields of the first world war), Brussels (one day), and Cologne in Germany with some family friends. Judith and I attended the 90th anniversary commemoration of the battle of Paeschendale, where my great uncle William Christopher Smith was killed, and the re-interment of the remains of five Australian soldiers. We also located the graves of four of Judith's great uncles and relatives killed around the same time.












We managed a close-up photo of the Governor-General who spoke to us as he walked past. In a long holiday of eating out and looking at cathedrals, museums and art galleries this part of the trip was welcome and extremely important to us. It was cerainly a part of the trip that we will never forget.

The city of Ypres (pronounced "eeper" by the way) was completely destroyed in the first world war. The main town hall, the Cloth Hall (so named because of the cloth trade conducted there through the centuries), was totally destroyed and was completely recreated in its original form after the war. It is a beauiful and impressive sight.

On a lighter note, we hired a car in Lille for the three days for this part of the trip. We ordered the cheapest automatic we could, but when we went to pick it up they said they didn't have any automatic cars so they upgraded us to a manual Alfa Romeo! So we had to drive a six-gear manual Alfa around for three days - damn!!

After our three days in Ypres we took the fast train to Brussels where we had a look around the centre of town and only stayed one night. We then took another train to the border town of Aachen where we were met by the Ehrlich family who were our extremely generous and hospitable hosts for the next three days. It was great to catch up with Joerg, who lived with us for three months in 1996-7, and to meet his family.

The Ehrlichs and Joerg showed us the cathedral, which was the church of Charlemagne, and the Treasury museum connected to it in Aachen and these were indeed impressive and beautiful. It is here that Charlemagne was buried in 814 AD. All through Aachen and Cologne can be found the remnants of the Romans and Roman buildings.

The Ehrlichs took us to their house in Cologne and we had a wonderful two days exploring Cologne, Bonn and the surrounding countryside. The Cologne cathedral dominates the cityscape and is indeed as impressive inside as it is outside. We again saw the attached Cathedral Treasury which is full of treasures from centuries past.

We visited Cardinal Clement's summer rococo palace on the outskirts of Cologne and had a good look at Beethoven's birth town of Bonn. The last night in Cologne was indeed a treat as Jurgen and Elisabeth took us to the city's underground concert hall where we heard the Cologne Symphony Orchestra directed by Markus Stent who only recently returned from Australia where he directed the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for six years.















We returned to Paris the next day by fast train (four hours from Cologne to Paris) and are staying in a flasher part of town at a flasher price! (300 dollars a night). We are taking it easy these last couple of days in Paris and mixing a bit of sight-seeing with shopping.

We have had a brilliant trip with some incredible highlights but it is fair to say that we are looking forward to going home.