Policemen
in shorts and knee hi socks, as seen in Bermuda, was a common sight.
I like the look!
A
road train is 3-5 18-wheelers hooked together. They are quite
common in the sparsely populated Australian outback and those trucks
are really long.
Mount
Lofty House is outside Adelaide, in the Lofty Mountains. It is
a beautiful 150-year-old mansion, built 1852-58. Originally the house
was built as a cool summer home for politician, lawyer, businessman
Arthur Hardy and his family. The sandstone mansion had seen many
owners before it was destroyed with only the massive stone walls
surviving in the bush fires of 1983. An architect bought the estate
and rebuilt the mansion to its former splendor. The new mansion
opened in 1986 with eight guest rooms; the next 21 rooms in the
Summit Wing were opened in 1988. Our room was huge with a large
sitting area and French doors that opened out onto the manicured
grounds. What a gorgeous place for a quiet, restful vacation!
From
Mt Lofty one descends down into the Barossa Valley, which is called a
hung valley because one end of the valley is 600’ above sea
level while the other end is only 150’. The valley is a well known
wine producing area with many small wineries and tasting rooms and
where 16 varieties of grapes are grown. We ate dinner at one of the
larger wineries and were served kangaroo which is a very lean meat
with only 10% fat content compared to beef’s 25%. Because it is so
lean it can quickly become tough, so is best if marinated and
undercooked.
In Europe the toilet
is exactly that or the WC. When we were hiking in England and was
nowhere near a loo and needed to revert back to nature we used
the green room, a rather nice euphemism. In China on long bus
rides through the countryside we’d often stop for the happy
room.
In
Tibet at the Potala Palace we stopped to watch people making crushed
gravel from boulders. There were people at different stations, first
breaking the boulder up, then hammering away to make smaller stones,
then another pounding to make pebbles. Incredible!
Ten
resident cats at the palace keep a mice/rat population under wraps!
China’s money is
called Renminbi (RMB). The basic unit is the yuan, pronounced
Juan as in
Spanish, which is divided into ten jiao, which again is
divided into ten fen. One US dollar
was equal to 8 yuan.
was equal to 8 yuan.
Crusty hard
rolls. Impossible to eat without making a mess but ohhhh so good.
All through
the Alps on our Alps hiking trip we noticed an unusual structure
over various
parts of roads. Some were log enough to simulate a tunnel, but were open on the down side
parts of roads. Some were log enough to simulate a tunnel, but were open on the down side
of the road and supported by
posts every few feet. The mountain side of the structure seemed to
be built into the mountain itself. The roof slanted ever so slightly
to the valley side of the road. After inquiry I learned they allow
the avalanche to continue over and past the road with the snow
dumping over the side. They kept the road clear in avalanche-prone
areas. What a simple solution!
I often have a spitze at home. I picked up the half cola, half lemonade in Austria while bikeing and I really like the combination.
China clay, a kind of clay not a Chinese clay,
is quarried, but only
a small amount of it is sent to the china industry. It is the paper industry
that has a big demand for it, as it is the substance that makes shiny paper
for all those colored ads.
a small amount of it is sent to the china industry. It is the paper industry
that has a big demand for it, as it is the substance that makes shiny paper
for all those colored ads.
