Sydney pre-Christmas Part 4

The principal reason for our Sydney visit was to be at the wedding of our niece Justine. The ceremony was at St Brigid's the old Catholic Church at the Rocks, and afterwards at the Pavilion near the Art Gallery.
 The bride was of course very beautiful.

 It wasn't a huge event but the guests were multi-cultural: a contingent came from Colombia, and European countries were also represented, as well at least three Australian States.

The couple demonstrated their togetherness with a dance routine they had well prepared for show. On that performance they won't have to rely on their PhDs for a job.

We pray that their well being together may continue as brilliantly as it has begun.

This concludes our 2012 blogging. We plan a relaunch next year with a new name, or at least a new year title.

Sydney Pre-Christmas part 3

On Saturday we took a Sydney ferry up the river to Parramatta (1 hour 'express up and 1.5 hours all stops on the way back). Our $2.50 day excursion ticket covered that, and the train ride from Circular Quay. If there is a better public transport deal than that anywhere in the world we'd like to hear about it. The ferry is a catamaran:

Parramatta seems to close at lunchtime on Saturday but we eventually got a tasty hamburger and cider and strolled through the city to Old Government House Park (Governor Phillip's residence for a little while).

We walked back to the ferry along the river path.

In the evening we ate at Diethnes Greek Restaurant. This was another experience so good that we have again put a separate review on TripAdvisor.

Part 4 (the final episode) will come later.

Sydney pre Christmas part 2

We spent our 3 nights at Sheraton on the Park and were very pleased with the accommodation. I hadn't been there since a partners' conference many years ago when it was the newest luxury hotel in town. It has lost none of its sparkle. In fact it was so good that we decided to review it in TripAdvisor- if interest extends this far it should be posted in the next few days.

We ate at Billy Kwong on Friday night, fulfilling a long held ambition after viewing many Kylie Kwong episodes on TV. The ingredients were Australian, unusual (such as Stir-Fried Organic Old Man Salt Bush Leaves with Young Ginger) and delicious. We had to take a limited time  booking from six o'clock- it's not a place to linger. Pleasing to see the "fair trade" and "make poverty history" stickers on the windows as well as a small charity donation added to the bill.

Sydney pre-Christmas part 1

We spent 3 nights in Sydney at the weekend.
Day one we used to see the Alexander Exhibition at the Australian Museum. This is a collection from the State Hermitage at St Petersburg. We were somewhat underwhelmed, possibly our fault for being under prepared. Many of the exhibits were collations of small things where the curator had not effectively related the object to the title by numbering. Other exhibits were only marginally connected to Alexander from later centuries up to modern times.

More ruminaton on credit card costs and travel

Followers of this intermittent blog may recall our high praise of Citibank when they instantly refunded the price of an airline ticket last March when the airline filed for bankruptcy and shut down- no insurance, a few questions to establish the event, and done!
Then many months later when the card's 5% cash back on BP petrol was withdrawn and we wished to cancel the card, we remarked that there was some reluctance about closing the account, which was less welcome.
After more correspondence this was sorted out in our favour, and today we received a Citibank bank cheque for $25 for our cash back!
Verdict on Citibank- helpful on administration on the whole, and good bank to deal with but we didn't need the card without petrol benefits so...

Now for bank fee cost conscious travel needs - we do like to have a  main card and at least one back up card, so we have a platinum card (offered as a permanent free upgrade) for primary use because it includes gratis full international and limited domestic travel insurance. For backup we have chosen the cheapest Westpac card ($30 for 2), because the big W has international bank arrangements that enable fee free ATM withdrawals in Europe.

We also run an ING debit card account (obtained free) for extra cash overseas if needed, preferring that to various travel cards offered by banks because we can reload it (in AUD)  cost free by web bank transfer from our main bank account.

Brisbane and the Prado

We took  a quick zip to Brisbane mainly to see the "Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado" exhibition. Though a small sample, there is enough there to occupy a full afternoon. At the entry there is a trompe l'oeil of what we suppose is the real Prado, which we can't remember much of from our visit to Spain several years ago:

 There are startling royal portraits, this one of Infanta Isabella by Alonso Coello taking the lead:

And intense Christian representations (this by Juan de Valdes Leal):

 as well as remarkable, and for the time possibly dangerous, etchings by Goya:

(This one titled unbridled folly may be given a sexist interpretation.)

We also found Brisbane City more scenic than we expected. I wonder what lies behind landscaping the Courts buildings with a plethora of eyes?

If there are voyeur enthusiasts out there I have uploaded a larger selection of our Brisbane photos to my photo site at
yanton.smugmug.com/Travel/Australia/Brisbane-October-2012

Citibank Credit Gets the Last Laugh

Followers of this blog will recall my praise of the unnamed credit card that instantly refunded the price of airline tickets when the airline went bankrupt before we could fly. The card can now be revealed as the BP-Citibank  Mastercard.

We have owned this card because, and only because, it provided a 5% rebate on the purchase of BP petrol and a rebate of 0.5% on all other credit. Thus although the annual fee is $89 and and additional card fee $30, the expense of $119 is economic if annual expenditure on fuel is $2380, or somewhat less in proportion to additional ordinary credit used.
Mr Micawber can see that this is a reasonable economic proposition, since rebates received  from this source could equal or exceed cost of credit. BP-Citibank Mastercard of course charge merchants a fee and merchants are glad to have our custom, so it was win-win-win.

However one negative is that the chip is unreliable overseas and my attempts at use almost invariably led to rejection, so the risk of reliance substantially exceeded its utility for travel credit.

Citibank is terminating its arrangement with BP on 31 October. They intend to issue a automatic replacement "Classic" card at the same cost but no comparable benefits. So we have no further use for their credit services, and today sought to cancel the account. Citibank have however informed us that we have an open "unresolved dispute", and that our account cannot be closed unless we repay the refund they gave us for the cost of the frustrated ticket on the bankrupt airline.

 Our choices in October are therefore either to pay the $119 annual fee that then accrues, (and keep paying it in perpetuity, since the "dispute will never resolve in favour of getting money from the dead airline) or to hand back the refund (which is only marginally more than the annual fee).

To get this particular useless monkey off our back the latter choice seems as if it may be more economic.

So I rescind my previous recommendation of this Bank and its plastic.

Last Waltz in Vienna

For our last treat for dinner we had booked Motto am Fluss, a restaurant on the bank of the Danube that just about every reviewer in TripAdvisor was lyrical about. They were right! We were given window seats above the river. The service was total unobtrusive attendance, the food uncomplicated but sophisticated (Tony loved the tarte tatin topped with figs and Balinese pepper ice cream). The waiter commended the red Austrian wine we selected (a brilliant deep ruby merlot so good that we finished the bottle before we realised) and took our photo for us. This part of town, especially at night, felt very different and somehow more friendly than the grand baroque buildings that surround our apartment. Everything set the upbeat mood to end our Viennese interlude. Tomorrow morning we decamp to the airport.

Cemetery, Seccession and Beyond

We are gluttons for punishment. We went to the cemetery again as I found some more possibilities. Searching for graves in the Jewish section is difficult because while there is basic care for the rest of the place there is nothing done in the Jewish areas and they are very overgrown, including with stinging nettles! Possibly says a lot about attitudes around here! We found what we we looking for i.e three great grandparents, two of whom are in the same grave so I have assumed they are related. Having bush bashed around the appropriate areas we built up a hunger so stopped at a seat nearby to have a sandwich which we brought with us.
The tram ride back was uneventful and we got off just before Schwarzenbergplatz and walked to the Seccession building where we viewed the grand Klimt frieze. There was not much else to look at for us so we wended our way home via the Karlskirche arriving in time to go out for dinner. This had not been planned as we expected to find the supermarket open, and to eat in. But that was not to be! However we were well rewarded with a nearby pub which served us an excellent schnitzel with potato salad. An ice cream on the way home was a great finish.
As we walked back from the pub last night we noticed a statue of one Herr Lessing in the middle of the Judenplatz. There was no explanation as to who he was!
Today it's warm again so we've had a stroll down to Hermanngasse and Kandelgasse where my father lived and went to school respectively. We were amused to note that on the ground floor of the apartment building was a bar called LOUNGE purporting to be a place to chill out! There also seemed to be a few businesses inhabiting the building and we couldn't tell whether there were still apartments there.
Tonight we eat at a place called Motto am Fluss at Schwedenplatz on the Danube not far from us. Looking forward to that and beginning the trek home tomorrow.

Peasant and Poet

Today has been a day of blobbing about. It has been drizzling all day and not very conducive to anything much. At about 11.30am we managed to gird up our loins to take a walk towards Stephansplatz with a view to strolling down the Graben to look at various buildings which still have their original Kaiserlich und Korniglich imperial and royal warrant. All these buildings date from the Baroque and the Belle Époque periods. Originally this boulevard was the town moat. One must speculate as to the "moatation" as this is only about 200m long! The monument in the centre is to the deliverance from the plague in 1679.
From there we strolled back towards our apartment in search of sustaining food as the opera starts early tonight and there won't be time for dinner. We found this at the Gosser Bierklinik. It was so sustaining, including a stein each of the bitterest beer we've ever tasted, that we could barely walk back to the apartment!
Well tonight was a treat indeed. We went to the Volksoper to see Die Fledermaus and we thought it was spectacular. We had to pick up our tickets an hour before the performance started which meant being there by about 6pm. Then we had to hang around. When we checked the tickets and saw our seating we were very unsure about how enjoyable this was going to be as they were front row seats! They proved to be about the best in the house. They were well back from the stage as there was a wide orchestra pit, so we had a great view of everything including the English surtitles. We both thought it was one of the most enjoyable evenings we've spent in a long time.

A cemetery search with coffee and cake

Today was the day we decided to see if we could find some ancestors graves so we trundled off by tram to the Zentralfriedhof cemetery which houses the Jewish cemetery in one corner. You'd think that a whole section of cemetery would be easy to find but we walked around for what seemed like hours before we found someone who pointed us in the right direction. We got off the tram far too early which was our major problem. Once we found the right place help was at hand and we quickly found the right section and then it didn't take long to locate one of the graves we were looking for. Unfortunately, apart from the name, it was all written in Hebrew so we are none the wiser and will have to get it translated. The other grave, was not locatable but not to worry, the first one was the one of most interest. Because it was drizzling and generally wet under foot we both had sodden feet but were not to be deterred. We jumped back on the tram and went to Belvedere which was a Hapsburg palace and now is a museum housing some of Vienna's collection of Klimt paintings as well as a moderate collection of other art. Currently his 150 years is being celebrated so there is advertising and souvenirs everywhere.
The Belvedere is a beautiful building so whatever one might think about the Hapsburgs, they knew how to build a great looking house and garden! No doubt it was about as comfortable as a house could be at the time.
By the time we left the Belvedere it was mid afternoon and no lunch had been consumed so we decided the time was right to have coffee and cake at the cafe Sacher which is precisely what we did and most enjoyable it was. Of course, we had to order a piece of Sacher torte, what else could one do in the circumstances! We both had a cappuccino which was not so great but that was the only real alternative to the various coffees with cream and/or alcohol on offer. The walk home was with a chocolate weight in the stomach but it was well worth it. A quiet evening was had by us in preparation for the opera tomorrow evening.

A couple of pictorial afterthoughts

Tony: like Scylla and Charybdis, the collectors of revenues on the right with their schedule of fees, and the scourge of heretics on the left, form the channel at the entrance through which all visitors to St. Stephan's Dom must pass. (Is that a shillelagh he is carrying?)
While Frommer's guide book says that Steirerek's "restrooms count among Europe's quirkiest", Petersplatz is also not without toilet quirkery. Note the pigeon about to do business as well as the fountain.