Decades of American memories

In 1983-4 I spent a year as an exchange student living in upstate New York. Here I shared my life with the Kimball family in Syracuse. I was 17 at the time and had never travelled beyond the shores of my birthplace, New Zealand. This was also my first time visiting the USA (and Canada).

More than twenty-two years later,  the experience undeniably fuelled my love of travel. Since then I've been lucky enough to visit more than 45 nations, setting foot on every continent except Antarctica (don't worry, it's on my list of destinations to explore next).

Many of my childhood memories of America came to life during a two-week tour of the US East Coast in October 2005. Garry and I stopped off in Washington DC en route to London. This gave me a chance to see many of the places I recall visiting in 1983 and take in sights I’d missed the first time around. Meanwhile, Garry had his own set of memories to renew as he’d spent several weeks in DC four years ago.

For me, new experiences on this trip included a sodden visit to the Vietnam War memorial. It didn't exist 17 years ago. It's an incredibly poignant monument. One that strikes an emotionally stirring balance between sombre remembrance and simple reflection. 

However, it wasn’t the only new venue that affected us profoundly. We had the same reaction after visiting the Holocaust Museum. Its exhibits were incredibly confronting. You could see our mood change dramatically following such a moving experience.

We also caught a lift to the top of the Washington Monument for a stunning city view.  In 1983 I visited DC in Summer. At the time, we never ventured up to the monument's observation deck as a lengthy queue snaked around its circumference - and then some! 

However, this time, the weather was damp and misty the day we visited. As a result, our photos weren't exactly "award-winning". However, the observation deck was relatively quiet - so we could take our time.

I was delighted to also finally see the interior of the Ford Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on 15 April 1865. The theatre box where he was shot is easily identified. It's framed by flags and fronted by a portrait of the president. However, its elevation, almost four metres above the stage was unexpected. John Wilkes Booth lept from here onto the stage after firing the fatal bullet. I'm not surprised he sprained his ankle in the process.

We also enjoyed the popular tidal basin walk to the Jefferson Monument through the gnarled Cherry tree groves. When I visited in 1983, my host father and I drove there one evening. The monument was spectacularly lit but the surrounding grounds were shrouded in darkness. This time I got to see it in the light of day.

Garry showed me a few of his favourite haunts. This included a street near Dupont Circle where we discovered a new, mouth-watering variety of sushi. Called a rainbow dragon roll, it bore more than a passing resemblance to a Liquorice Allsort log.

During our time in the US capital, we took time out to visit many of its iconic institutions. This included a guided tour of the Capitol Building, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the National Archives.  The Library of Congress was a revelation for me. I don't recall visiting it in 1983. I'm sure I would have remembered the collonaded reading room and the soaring ceiling in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Likewise, the library's Great Hall is equally stunning.

I loved the National Archives. Here you can see an original copy of the Declaration of Independence signed by the nation's founding fathers, plus a copy of the US Constitution signed 11 years later. There's something magic about seeing the signatures of historical figures with your own eyes. I still recall how excited I was to see these founding documents two decades ago. A second viewing invoked the same sense of awe.

Finally, as you do in DC, we visited several museums including the Air & Space Museum. Sadly, this Smithsonian institution hasn’t aged well. Most exhibits were surprisingly dated and appeared unchanged since my first visit in the early 1980s. 

I think the Natural History Museum has aged far better. Its dinosaurs were as mesmerising as ever, and its dramatically mounted African Elephant exhibit is just as breathtaking. We also drove out to Arlington to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and pause at JFK's grave with its simple eternal flame.

Hooray! Goodbye

Garry and I head off on sabbatical next Saturday (8 October). Last weekend, we took time out to celebrate my 40th Birthday with a three-day weekend in the Hunter Valley. The celebration had been months in the planning before I accepted a relocation to London. As a result, it ultimately morphed into an impromptu farewell for Garry and me.

I booked six rooms at Peppers at the Convent, a stunningly restored white weatherboard building. I was inspired to host my birthday here after attending a work colleague's wedding here earlier in the year. It was built in 1909 as a Brigidine nuns' home at Coonamble in central New South Wales. It then served as a school until 1980. Threatened with demolition, it was relocated to the Hunter Valley and converted into a luxury boutique hotel.

In the end, eleven of us went away for the Labour Day long weekend. To kick things off in style, Garry and I skipped the traffic and flew to Newcastle on Friday, 30 September. My best mate, Brendan, then shouted us a chauffeur transfer to the Hunter Valley.

We spent our first night as a group at Roberts, a superb fine-dining restaurant at the end of a tree-lined driveway leading to Peppers. Afterwards we retired to the hotel's spectacular balcony, which runs the breadth of the building, and knocked back more wine, chocolate, and nibbles. If truth be told, Garry and I were desperately trying to clear out the last of our liquor cabinet. 

A fabulous private bus tour of the Hunter Valley’s best boutique wineries was arranged for Saturday. We visited seven wineries over the day. This included several cellars that don’t usually open their doors to the public. Lunch was held outdoors on the garden patio of Belltree@Margans, a funky café on the edge of Pokolbin. More wine and more laughter is a rather apt description of our meal.

Along the way, we sampled plenty of wine, cheese and even a few locally grown olives. Sadly, Garry and I couldn’t buy anything as we’re flying out next weekend (and we’ve already shipped half our existing wine cellar to London). However, others in the group made it their mission to restock their home cellar. That night dinner was held at The Cellar, another well-regarded dining establishment in central Pokolbin. 

Sunday was set aside for my official birthday celebration. The day began with a sumptuous buffet breakfast in the Convent’s sunroom. We then retired to the hotel grounds for a fully catered picnic lunch. Three of us walked the grounds searching for the most idyllic spot before settling on a partially shaded lawn overlooking neighbouring vineyards. 

My good mate, Jon, organised catering with the same woman who’d handled his commitment ceremony a few years ago. His father also threw in a selection of wine from his private vineyard. The group also surprised me with a giant celebration banner. I honestly can’t remember who organised it (Brendan?), but it made me feel rather spoiled.

It was such a fun afternoon. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and the weather played its part. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors. Lots of drinking and lots of laughter. We ended the day with dinner at the award-winning Terroir Restaurant, part of Hungerford Hill Winery. However, it'd be fair to say we ate very little after feasting all afternoon on oysters, salads, baked salmon, cake and other delights.

Monday, the public holiday, was spent exploring stalls and sideshows at the nearby Wollombi Market Day. The fete, which runs three times a year in the town’s sale yards, attracts people from miles around. It's a surprisingly popular event. Once we'd had our fair share of local produce, crafts, and bric-a-brac, eight of us went for lunch in the garden bar of the local tavern. 

I loved the weekend. Everyone contributed something to the occasion, making it more personal. For example, Paul Battye designed and printed the event program that greeted everyone in their room. Brendan handled the planning logistics. Jon organised the catering and supplied a dozen bottles of wine. The girls organised my birthday cake. It really was a fitting way to farewell our life in Australia.

NOTE:
This is a retrospective post published in 2025. I wanted to tell the story of the farewell weekend that kicked off our overseas adventures in Europe.

Paris in a day

In July 2005, I flew to London for an executive board meeting. Garry accompanied me to undertake some initial recognizance for our eventual relocation three months later. It proved to be an eventful trip. In addition, to a week in London, we also visited my brother Hamish and his family in Austria, as well as enjoying a day in Munich. 

My company gave us a limited budget for Garry’s travel costs. He took this on as a challenge, did some hardcore research online, and found an incredibly cheap business-class airfare courtesy of SWISS airline. The final route we booked took us via Singapore, Zurich, and Munich to London. The fare was so rare that my hardcore travel agent struggled to find it in her reservation system. In the end, I had to send her a copy of the fare conditions we'd sourced from the web.

The only negative about these discounted fares was the SWISS business class seats. They didn’t fully recline so our dreams of a lie-flat bed were thwarted. Despite this drawback, we slept reasonably well in our flat, but sloping, beds. Although, a group of passengers seated in the cabin's bulkhead row was rather creative. They convinced the cabin crew to elevate their footrests into a near-horizontal position by propping them up with eskies from the galley.

Source: Getty Images

A few days after we arrived in London the city was shaken by the deadly 7 July suicide bombings on the Underground. 52 people lost their lives on that fateful day. Another 700 were injured as four suicide bombers struck during rush hour. The wreck of the Number 30 double-decker bus, pictured above, has become a defining photograph of the attack. It was blown apart in Tavistock Square by the fourth, and final, suicide bomber.

I was in my board meeting at the Baglioni Hotel when the news broke. Upstairs, Garry was preparing to take the tube into town for exploratory meetings with recruiters. He was understandably shocked by how close to home it felt. His appointments were canceled soon after as public transport shut down citywide. Not an ideal introduction to life in the UK capital.

The following weekend, on a sunny Saturday, Garry and I took time out from our hectic schedule to enjoy a more appealing aspect of London life. We caught an early morning train to Paris for a quick day trip. This was my second time through the Channel Tunnel on Eurostar. My first trip was another day trip in 1998. If you ask me, it’s still mind-blowing that you can board a train in London and arrive in the City of Lights three hours later.

Our day trip started with a visit to Notre Dame. While we didn’t climb its iconic bell towers, we did stop to stand on the Zero Mile marker in the plaza out front. This is the point from which all distances are measured from Paris nationwide. From here we walked across the Seine to Place de la Concorde via the ornate Hôtel de Ville, the Louvre, and the eternally exquisite, Jardin des Tuileries.

We then embarked on a metro rail tour of central Paris featuring some of its more distant sights. This included the Arc de Triomphe, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. Looking back we covered an impressive distance in a relatively short space of time. Undoubtedly, one of the more memorable moments that day was a postcard-perfect view of the Eiffel Tower framed by Baroque-inspired buildings on Rue Buenos Ayres.

Finally, before dashing back to Gare de Nord, we completed our French excursion with a brief visit to Montmartre. It was here, on the steps of Sacre Coeur Basilica, that we joined the tourist hoards for a classic sunset view of the Parisian skyline. Then, shortly after 10:00pm, we were back at Waterloo Station in the heart of London. 

I must admit that 18 years later I can’t recall many details about the trip. For example, did we venture up the Eiffel Tower? I don't think we did. If I recall correctly the queue to climb it was insane. Did we stop for a drink while wandering along the Avenue des Champs Élysées? I'm sure we bought at least a cold drink. After all, it was a July Summer’s day.

Kaprun Hochgebirgsstauseen

Here’s another retrospective post on our travel adventures. Shortly before relocating to London Garry and I flew to Europe for an initial recognizance visit. At the time my company was keen to reassure Garry that our relocation would be a positive experience. We flew SWISS airline to Zurich and then on to Munich before finally arriving in the UK.

The trip to Munich was shoe-horned into our itinerary in part to allow me to meet with several key European executives based there, and visit my brother in Austria. At the time, Hamish and his family lived in Kitzbuhel, approximately two hours by train from Munich.

We flew into Munich early on the morning of Friday, 1 July. I then spent the day in meetings with the team in Munich while Garry ventured out to grab a late breakfast and explore the neighbourhood. The Munich office was located about 15 minutes walk from the grounds of Nymphenburg Palace, one of the city’s popular tourist attractions.

Nymphenburg Palace was originally built as a summer residence for, Max Emanuel, who was born in 1662 to the Bavarian Elector Ferdinand Maria and his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. It subsequently became the primary residence of Bavarian royalty for the next two hundred years, The complex and its expansive gardens cover more than 200 hectares in the middle of the city.

Unfortunately, Garry never got to see the palace. In a rare moment of culture shock, he abandoned plans to tour the grounds after struggling to order breakfast in a local café where no one spoke English. Instead, he returned to the office and spent most of his time hanging out in the lobby.

Once I’d completed my duties for the day, we caught a late afternoon train to Wogel where we were met by Hamish. He then drove us back to Kitzbuhel. My parents were also staying at the time, so our arrival kicked off a minor family reunion. We spent a busy weekend with the family before heading on to London the following Monday.

While we were in Kitzbuhel, Hamish took Garry and I on a day trip to the Kaprun Hochgebirgsstauseen, one of the region’s popular tourist attractions. It’s an incredibly scenic hydroelectric complex consisting of two high mountain reservoirs, Wasserfallboden and Mooserboden, embedded in the alpine landscape at 2,036 meters above sea level. 

Hamish drove us into the area via the picturesque Thun Pass. We then bought a combined travel pass that included two bus rides, separated by an exhilarating transfer on the Lärchwald inclined lift. This is the biggest open platform inclined lift in Europe and the largest track gauge in the world for a passenger rail car. It carries up to 185 passengers at a time and lifts you 431 metres over a length of only 820 metres.

During the construction phase of the Kaprun high mountain reservoirs, this was the only means of transporting heavy equipment, construction materials, and lorries into the mountains. After the completion of the dams, it was converted into the tourist attraction that we enjoyed. Likewise, the narrow winding mountain tunnels our tour buses passed through are another enduring dam-building legacy.

The multi-modal journey is well worth the effort. As our final bus came out of a spiraling road tunnel, we were greeted by a breathtaking view of Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria. It’s 3,798 metres high and is surrounded by equally photogenic snow-clad peaks. On the day we visited, everything simply dazzled in the brilliant summer alpine sunshine.