Reading Rating: Grab ‘n’ Go Coffee
Davin Reporting!
Having achieved our objective of seeing the Jenolan Caves, today we headed back to Sydney. First, however, we had to try to finish cooking our French toast. When we aborted last night, we had at least another full loaf of bread left. So, first thing this morning I set out to drive 20 minutes to the grocery store to grab a spray cooking oil– of course it was in the absolutely last aisle of the store I looked in– and then drive 20 minutes back. Meanwhile Kristin was packing up our bags. When I returned with the spray oil, Kristin finished cooking up the French toast while I packed up the car. Things went smoother on the cooking front this time with actual spray oil! (Kristin Interjection: “THE RESULTING FRENCH TOAST BREAKFAST WAS GLORIOUS IN ITS ABSOLUTE DELICIOUSNESS! MmmMmmMmm– a wonderful taste of home!”)
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| "Yum." |
Because of the French toast marathon, we didn’t get on the road until around 10:30 AM. On the way to the Three Sisters we took in the beautiful scenery of the
Blue Mountain area. Some of it look oddly familiar, and the rest looked
like the green rolling hills of Europe!
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| Could be San Diego in Spring |
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| Green like in Europe |
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| Interesting Bike Storage! |
After a few hours drive, we reached the Three Sisters, and Scenic World. This whole area seemed like a bit of a tourist trap to me. For some reason, Kristin had us walk halfway across the town from Scenic World to the Three Sisters viewpoint, when we could have just parked outside. (Kristin Interjection: “We were already on the RIGHT side of the canyon, and Google claimed it was an 11 minute walk, AND Davin always says that the Google time estimate is at slow people speeds! How was I supposed to know it was uphill (and it was HOT out)!”)
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| First you can't see... |
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| ...and then you can! |
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| The Three Sisters |
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| The gorgeous view! |
The Three Sisters is basically three connected rock formations. While mildly interesting, I don’t know whether it was so amazing as to warrant the dozens of tour buses that were parked at the viewpoint. (Kristin Interjection: “The view out over (another) Eucalyptus Rainforest was quite striking! I couldn’t care less about the three rocks. There was of course a native aboriginal legend about the rocks, but if you want to see beautiful rock formations, go to the Grand Canyon! In my opinion, the three rocks were just one step up in impressiveness from the Arches we keep seeing at various ocean ports.”
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| Look at all the Tribbles! |
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| Sadly wouldn't be able to get them through quarantine, so I said goodbye to my tribble friend. |
Apparently the reason we went to Scenic World was to ride the world’s steepest train. (Kristin Interjection: “It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records. And I have a thing for trains!”) You start out at the station leaning back at a weird angle, and then end up sitting flat once you go over the side. (Kristin Interjection: “It was awesome! It was almost like an elevator. Sadly it’s only like a minute long ride experience! Hahaha!) There was also a skyway and a cable car, where we got some more views. Arguably there were some decent views from Scenic World, but overall I wasn’t that impressed with it. If you’re going to go to the Blue Mountains, I think you should really just go hiking and skip the touristy stuff. (Kristin Interjection: “Well, it didn’t really take that long, so you might as well drive to the Three Sister’s Lookout point. But, don’t pay for Scenic World unless you HAVE to be able to say you’ve ridden on the World’s Steepest Train!”)
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| View from the World's Steepest Train |
The final event for the day was a concert of Beethoven’s Fifth at the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House. In my opinion, Beethoven’s Fifth is possibly the best symphony ever created, and it’s also one that I’ve had the experience of hearing at the San Diego Symphony. The symphony was decent, and I think the orchestra probably played the piece fine, but I ended up coming away rather underwhelmed.
While it was interesting to attend an event at such an iconic landmark, I did not feel like the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall’s acoustics were actually that good. Granted, we were in the cheap seats, but I am suspicious that there wasn’t some favoring of form (appearance) over function (actual acoustics) in the construction of the concert hall. During the tour we were informed that they actually had to install “acoustic clouds”– clear plastic or glass dishes– above the orchestra pit to prevent the orchestra from hearing an out-of-sync echo. That really does not suggest the design of the building was truly optimized for performances, and I felt like it showed during the concert. (Kristin Interjection: “I really felt that the concert sounded muffled and you should really be able to hear crisp sound from every seat of the venue regardless of price paid. That’s what is so great about Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, you can hear from all of the seats, but the BEST acoustics are actually at the top back– right where we always sit in the cheap seats! That’s MY kind of Symphony Hall!”)
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