History Hound Travels

I should totally be packing, and in fact, there are clothes spread all over my bed, but I am still waiting on a piece or two to come out of the dryer, so I am wasting time on the www. In fact, I am visiting the Botanical Gardens in Brisbane. Did you know the original gardens are open 24/7 and the paths are lit at night? The new gardens, at Mount Coot-tha, at open 8 to 5. Admission is free.

Here is a public domain photo of the pond in the original gardens. Doesn’t it look relaxing? The new gardens are even more impressive, with displays that include

* Tropical Display Dome
* Japanese Garden
* Bonsai House
* Fern House
* Arid Zone and Cactus House
* Exotic Rainforest
* Australian Rainforest
* Fragant Plant and Herb Garden
* Temperate Garden
* Lagoon and Bamboo Grove
* Australian Plant communities
* National Freedom Wall

Of course, if you go, you’ll need to find Brisbane Accomodation. Hotels in Brisbane run the gamut, just like everywhere else, so it’s worth investigating your options on line to make sure you get the best deal but remember that your Brisbane hotel will be a small portion of your vacation memories. My motto remains spend your money doing and seeing, not sleeping.

I said Sydney, didn’t I? Right down there under the post about my Memory Walk, I talked about Perth hotels and I mentioned Adelaide hotels and I talked a bit about teh Arts festivals in those cities, and then I said, “Next time, though, we are going to Sydney!” So, here’s a link to some Sydney accommodation, and now let’s see what we can find to do there next Spring!

AHA! Here is the Sydney Festival. Now, going to this festival is going to make you extend your vacation just a bit. It runs from Jan 5-26, 2008, and then you’ve got a little time to go WalkAbout before the International Arts festival starts on Feb 8. All told, you’ll need to be in Australia about 7 weeks to hit all three major festivals. Oh, the torture, right?

I suppose if you need to tighten up your schedule a bit, you could eschew the Sydney Festival in favor of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. At least the dates work out better.

Oops. I’m really not quite sure what happened here, except that I have been crazy busy, and that hasn’t lent itself to being able to research new places to tell you about. Sorry, ya’ll. I’ll try to do better. Please forgive me, and I’ll take to to International Arts Festival in Perth. Sound like a fair deal? This fair is each summer in Perth, and it’s a huge event. Now, by summer, I do mean the Australian summer, so we’re talking about 8 February–2 March 2008.
As you can see from these pictures which I borrowed from the site, there is plenty to see and do during the festival. You won’t be spending a great deal of your time in hotels in Perth, because you will be busy! Along with the performances, there will also be food and shopping and all sorts of other fun. You might even take the opportunity to book a couple of nights in one of the fine hotels in Adelaide and visit the 2008 Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts between 29 February and 16 March 2008.

Heh, I bet you could even find something to do around that time in Melbourne. Here’s a link to find Melbourne Accommodation, but I am going to let you find your own fun because my time is up, unfortunately. Next time, though, we are going to Sydney!

I just found out today that Phantom of the Opera is playing again. Good news is there’s a new Christine. Bad news, you have to go to Australia to see it! Anthony Warlow will be starring again as The Phantom. Marina has performed the part of Christine as an understudy all over the globe, but this is her first time as the lead.

This might be worth booking a trip and investigating hotels in Melbourne. And if you can’t get over there until next year, the show will be in Brisbane beginning next February, so here are some Brisbane hotels for your consideration. Those are the only venues at this time, so hotels in Sydney won’t be much use for this I would have totally expected them to play the Opera House though!

Have any of you seen Ten Canoes? I saw the trailer today, and I was disappointed to find that I had missed it, since it opened in June. It’s set in
Northern Territory - Australia, and tells a story of ancient aborigines. It’s no surprise, even after seeing just the trailer that the Northern Territory is a top travel destination. It’s incredible natural beauty, both lush and stark in a way I can’t quite explain, is as much a draw as it’s indigenous populations. And I think just the privilege of seeing the art of the aborigines would be worth the cost of the trip to some.

Did you know that there are only about 200,000 people there? And we haven’t even touched the wildlife yet! There are about 400 species of birds, 50 kinds of frogs, over 400 kinds of birds there, let alone the mammals, reptiles and fish.

The diversity of the habitat lends itself to numerous activities as well. Back-packing, fishing and canoeing are all popular sports. Believe it or not, you can even dive there, and visit some of the wrecks from WWII in Darwin Harbour! And then there’s walking, just following the trails and seeing what you can see. Plainly, you will never run out of things to do in Australia’s Northern Territory.