To travel is to live...Christine's rambles on rambling.

Hire cars - aim high

June 20th 2010 11:40

Another trip to Queensland, another hire sports car needed! Most hire cars are so pedestrian you could die of boredom driving them. I know I would be the family pariah if I booked another Nissan Tiida, but the BMW M3 was a little out of the budget for three days. Thank goodness for Europcar, the only mainstream hire company with any interesting cars.

The Audi A5 cabriolet seats four and has enough room for luggage. It also has flappy paddles on the steering wheel, which impresses the Top Gear fanatics in the family. (If you don't know what they are, you have so much to learn.)

The A5 doesn't have as much grunt as the M3 but for $150 a day, it does the job.

And that Endless Summer pass to Movie World that we bought at Christmas was still valid, so we finished off a great weekend with a zillion rides. Scooby Do we love you...

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Sydney's harbour is still the one

April 26th 2010 00:30

Sydney gets bad press for being brash. And the Melbourne-Sydney rivalry has been ramped up even further with the NRL/Melbourne Storm debacle.
But when you're kicking back on one of Sydney's many dockside bars, sipping a Pimms, who really cares?
Sydney still has it. It's late April. In Queensland there's a cyclone, in Melbourne the scivvies have been dusted off, but in the Emerald City, it's never been better. Sun shining, no wind, sparkling blue water. It's heavenly.
This week, I spent two nights at the Sebel Pier One, in the Rocks. I haven't visited this hotel for years and I'd forgotten what a hidden gem it is.
It was built as a shipping wharf in 1910 and ended up as the P&O cruise terminal in the 60s. When I was a kid in the 80s, it was the place to go for amusements, especially while Luna Park was closed. in 1999, it opened as the Pier One Hotel. Much of the original architecture has been kept, meaning high ceilings in the rooms, lots of metal beams and big, warehouse style windows. My room had a view of the Harbour Bridge.
The window sills in my room were about 1.5m wide - so big that I had to use a chair to climb up onto them to pull the blinds down. (Unfortunately, I could wave to my colleagues at the time, arriving for the conference held next door at the WaterEdge. No-one admited to seeing me in my underwear.) Note to hotel: perhaps electric blinds?
The bar and Front Restaurant have one of the best locations in the city- views across to Luna Park and Milson's Point and up the Parramatta River towards Balmain.
My only gripe, the bar closed at 11pm on a Thursday night. Much too early, in my opinion and very embarrassing, considering how much I bagged out San Francisco for the same issue.
Last time I looked it was under $200 a night for a room, which is an absolute bargain for Sydney.

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My lucky day in New York

March 10th 2010 02:08

When they said my room wasn't quite ready at 5pm, I almost lost it. I'd flown for 6 hours back from London, caught the Long Island Railroad into NYC and then dragged my 25kg bag two blocks from Penn Station. Hours on the road. Sore feet. Tired eyes. Cranky mind.

How could my room not be ready at 5pm? But for some reason I bit my tongue. I meekly sat in the huge, crowded lobby of the Affinia Manhattan, waiting for... something to happen.

Ten minutes later and one of the porters, Zolio, was escorting me to my room on the 28th floor. That's right to the top, ma'am.

He opened the door.. to paradise. Separate bedroom with King size bed and pillow menu. Walk in closet. Marble bathroom. Full kitchen. Living room with three sofas and a desk.

On the desk was my 'gift' as part of the 30 Rock package. Inside were tickets for: an NBC studio tour, ice skating at the Rockerfeller Centre and a NY Fire Department demonstration. Then there was the gift-boxed Ralph Lauren scarf. (Price tag still on: $50.)

Could it get better? Once Zolio left, I opened the door to the balcony. Well, more like a terrace, with a magnificent view over New York City. Yes, indeed.

My only regret was not having enough time to do everything. I made it to the ice skating rink and did a few turns with a US Olympian. Not too bad for an Aussie. At least I didn't fall over.

But I had to go back to the hotel. It seemed wrong not to retire to my own private New York penthouse. So, retire I did.

(Stay tuned for photos)

Penthouse view

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The US of A - bar heaven

March 10th 2010 00:29

America, the land of the free... and the totally over-educated barman. Anyone who travels alone spends alot of time at the bar. It's my place of choice for eating dinner. Who wants to sit at a table solo, when you can have a chat with Dr Joe?

That's the thing. In the US of A, there are more PHDs running bars than anywhere in the world. My extensive empirical research suggests that the barman is usually the smartest person in the venue (apart from me, of course

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London - it's really old

March 6th 2010 15:26

I'm such a colonial. Whenever I arrive in London I'm struck by how, well.. old everything is. It's so bloody historic that occasionally when you come across a modern structure like the Lloyds building in the City, you feel annoyed. What were they thinking? Only old stuff allowed here.

Residential Street in Holland Park

I'm not complaining. It's like being in a museum all day long. And then there are the actual Museums. Today I toured the State Apartments at Kensington Palace (£12.50). Full of old furniture, paintings and even a few people dressed up from the olden days

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New York's secret, swim-up bar

March 2nd 2010 05:07

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hit New York City during the biggest snow dump for 60 years. Rug up? Snuggle under the covers? No way. I want to go for a dip

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San Francisco's best bar - Gitane

March 1st 2010 13:26

San Francisco's bar scene is rather like Melbourne's. The bars are small, intimate. You want to hide away in them all night, or at least until you get kicked out due to San Francisco's odd rules about opening times.

Gitane in Claude Lane fits in perfectly. It has

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Departure Lounge - the Qantas Club

February 24th 2010 03:01

I'm a wanker, obviously, because I love going to the Qantas Club. Call me shallow or even snobby, but there's nothing better than beginning your travel in style. Expensive wines laid on, as much food as you can eat, free wi-fi and nice toilets. All this and more can be had at the Qantas Club. And the bircher muesli is really very good.

So, I'm sitting here right now, eavesdropping on people's conversations. There's the two businessmen next to me talking about sailing on the weekend. There's the well-dressed Dad with his 'mini-me' son, all decked out in the same outfit, just smaller. They're arguing about which ride to go on first at Disneyland

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Top Gear on the Gold Coast

February 4th 2010 01:53

It was a difficult decision, but in the end we chose the BMW M3 over the Porsche 911 for the sports car splurge during our recent trip to the Gold Coast. And what a ride it was.

The bar was set very low, after we spent the first 5 days of the holiday driving a Nissan Tiida. This is possibly the most boring car on earth. Every time we had to look for it in the car park of Movie World, it would take forever, because it was so forgettable. We literally couldn't see it

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Port Arthur - living history

January 31st 2010 12:27

I love history but some museums are boring. Ask any seven-year-old. But Port Arthur Historic Site is not one of them.

I spent seven hours there today and then came back for the Ghost Tour tonight. The whole day was outstanding. I became a TV journalist partly because I have the attention span of a gnat. This was the perfect day out for me. Not too many glass cases full of "stuff", but rather, interactive exhibits, historic properties set up as they were in the 1800s when Port Arthur was a notorious secondary punishment centre and quite a few ruins

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June 2010

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April 2010

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March 2010

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