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An American's Impressions



 
 
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  #11  
Old November 14th, 2007, 05:34 AM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
Alan S[_1_]
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Posts: 2,163
Default An American's Impressions

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:24:06 GMT, kangaroo16
wrote:

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:49:14 +0100, "maxi"
wrote in :

wasn't belgium on a wendsday


Ron (from belgium)

As am a curious human (some would say in more ways than one) I
really do have to ask why!

Are there no "Wednesdays" in Belgium? If so, this must be pretty
confusing to European travelers.


The OP was wrong, Belgium was on a Tuesday. And roo16,
you've had a culturally deprived childhood.
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/2429...lgium/overview

Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
latest: Slovenia
http://loraltraveloz.blogspot.com/
latest: Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest
  #12  
Old November 14th, 2007, 07:58 AM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
kangaroo16
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 222
Default An American's Impressions

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:34:15 +1100, Alan S
wrote in :

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:24:06 GMT, kangaroo16
wrote:

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:49:14 +0100, "maxi"
wrote in :

wasn't belgium on a wendsday


Ron (from belgium)

As am a curious human (some would say in more ways than one) I
really do have to ask why!

Are there no "Wednesdays" in Belgium? If so, this must be pretty
confusing to European travelers.


The OP was wrong, Belgium was on a Tuesday. And roo16,
you've had a culturally deprived childhood.
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/2429...lgium/overview


You could be right, Alan. Depending on how you define "culture",
of course.:-) My wife was watching the musical quiz show,
"Singing Bee" I had never heard of most of the songs or the
groups.

Even as a child, I preferred Jazz & Classical. Never developed a
taste for most pop music. When Elvis Presley hit the national
scene, he didn't appeal to me at all, nor did the other rock or
pop music stars.

I often preferred early jazz rather than modern jazz. Have you
ever heard a Bessie Smith recording of "Empty Bed Blues"?

I did listen to some modern music, liked some of the early songs
of Bob Dylan. I like songs such as "The Gamblers Song", "The
Band Played Waltzing Matilda" by Eric Bogle. Some of the older
traditional Australian songs are pretty good, and easy to listen
to.

Most pop music since the 1950's or so do nothing for me. Even
some Country & Western is better than pop music, in small doses
at least. On radio, I seldom listen to anything but various
commercial free ABC stations on FM. ABC classical is good,
Radio National often has interesting programs.

A few months ago even heard one ABC station play "House of the
Rising Sun". The ABC must have a huge library of old songs. I
wonder how often it is played in the US these days? :-)

Basically, though as far as music is concerned, I could get along
quite nicely if I didn't hear anything composed after, say,
1955 or so. Perhaps I was born old?

Even then, though, all music is more of a ''background" sound for
when I'm doing something else.

I am a bit of a news junkie, though. When 9/11 news was on T.V.
I even slept in front of the T.V. If a radio is on in the
background, programs will still be interrupted with important
breaking news. I would hate to miss important items like
the outbreak of WW3, the possibility of the first contact with
extraterrestrials, a large meteor or asteroid strike, etc. :-)

I posted an item earlier about the group of pilots in the USA
who want the U.S. Government to start investigating UFOs again
after a about a 30 year gap.

I somehow doubt that they will though. See
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...l6ZR1ROk1DoR1A

final line of above report:
"When Callahan suggested the government tell Americans about a
UFO, the CIA official allegedly told him: "'No way, if we were to
tell the American public there are UFOs they would panic.'"

As they did decades ago when the Orson Wells broadcast
of "The War of the Worlds" was broadcast.

Actually, though, a fear of an extraterrestrial invasion is
probably the only thing that would ever unite the citizens of the
world to work together to prepare to fight the alien foe.

From memory, the first TV broadcast was of the Olympic Games
in Germany in the late 1930s. VHF and higher frequencies,
especially radar don't bounce of the Heaviside layer, but
are broadcast into space.

So if there was any race at our level of civilization or greater
within 100 light years or so, they would know we were here.:-)

To quote from
"The Growing Problem of UFOs and Aliens"

"Belief in UFOs and aliens is not just a fringe belief. USA
Today says that their surveys show that 43% of all Americans
believe in UFOs and aliens as being real. In 1977 a plaque was
attached to a spaceship leaving the solar system that showed
where we live in our solar system and what we look like. The
justification for this was that aliens outside of our solar
system would find the space ship and we needed to let them know
that we are friendly and that we welcome them."

http://www.doesgodexist.org/MayJun03...AndAliens.html

I somehow doubt that the level of belief is anywhere this high in
Australia, though!

Have you noticed that a lot fewer sightings and "aliens" since
people started carrying camera phones, cameras, video cams, etc.
around in the bush?

Personally, am pretty skeptical. I've yet to see any convincing
proof of such encounters. There is or was a US female
Psychiatrist who wrote a book reporting stories told by her
patients, and she seemed to think UFOs were genuine.

I'm not saying that there is no advanced civilization somewhere
out there, but so far "Project Seti" hasn't found any intelligent
signals from space despite decades of searching. If there was
any alien civilization within 100 light years or so, we should
have detected it.

The universe, though, is a very large place, and when consider
the estimated number of suns in it, it seems a bit odd that the
earth, which is a minor planet in a solar system far out on the
edge of our local galaxy would be the only place with advanced
life.

Perhaps they can't be bothered to come check us out? Perhaps we
are "off limits" for some reason? :-) Given the total number of
wars in human history, we may be considered as too dangerous for
a civilized race to risk contact. :-)

Cheers,
Kangaroo16





Cheers, Alan, Australia

  #15  
Old November 14th, 2007, 08:52 PM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
Frank Slootweg
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 275
Default An American's Impressions

Janet Wilder wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:
wrote:
We have just returned from our 3 week cruise-tour of Australia and New
Zealand. W
Great report and thanks!!

I live in the States and have never been to Aussie land
but want to someday


A warning: Only do it if you can afford to come back!

Our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia was in 1995. Next year we
will go on our seventh-in-a-lifetime one! :-) It's a sickness and -
luckily - there's no cure. So don't say 'we' didn't warn you!


What will keep it a "once in a lifetime" trip for us is the plane ride.
Don't think we can handle that again.


It's not our favorite part either, especially not on the way back, but
since there is no other way to get there ...

What helps us is not to think how much longer it will take, because
that will drive you crazy. I.e. we are in the plane and 'suddenly' we're
out of it. Also we go into a kind of zombie mode, i.e. we absolutely
don't do anything significant, we're just there. Probably sounds silly,
but it works for us.

What also helps is a good/friendly airline. Contrary to all the
whingers, *we* loved Qantas, but they only fly out of London or
Frankfurt and we hate to spend another five our so hours for those small
hops. The last two times and the next time was/is Singapore Airlines,
highly recommended, especially if the plane is only one third full and
the steward serves you cappuccino from First Class (Granted, that
happened only once :-), but was a great experience.)

But nevermind all this, you *will* come back or I'll eat my wooden
shoes!
  #16  
Old November 14th, 2007, 11:30 PM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
Alan S[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,163
Default An American's Impressions

On 14 Nov 2007 16:05:40 GMT, Frank Slootweg
wrote:

wrote:
We have just returned from our 3 week cruise-tour of Australia and New
Zealand. W


Great report and thanks!!

I live in the States and have never been to Aussie land
but want to someday


A warning: Only do it if you can afford to come back!

Our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia was in 1995. Next year we
will go on our seventh-in-a-lifetime one! :-) It's a sickness and -
luckily - there's no cure. So don't say 'we' didn't warn you!


When are you going to drop in on the East coast again Frank,
so we can say g'day? You seem to like wandering the outback
too much:-)


Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
latest: Slovenia
http://loraltraveloz.blogspot.com/
latest: Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest
  #17  
Old November 15th, 2007, 12:33 AM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
Alan S[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,163
Default An American's Impressions

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:23:27 -0600,
.. wrote:

Janet, did you take a flight from your nearest airport to either one
of: DFW/SAT or IAH then to LAX and then a direct flight to ? [SYD].

This would make it an extremely long trip. I never have done it i.e.

But the direct flights are much better than years ago.
When Continental used to fly the route, their route was LAX to
Honolulu to Auckland then to Sydney/return same.

At that time, other airlines went via Honolulu, Rarotonga or Tahiti.

Cath


In '67 I went SYD-NAD-HNL-SFO in a 707. On the ground for
re-fuelling at both Nadi and Honolulu. Returned the same
way.

In '03 SYD-LAX was direct 13 hours. I prefered the broken
reverse trip in '06, LAX-HNL, three days in Waikiki, then
ten hours in daylight HNL-SYD. But if you use that one, make
sure you fly Qantas, not Jetstar. Same route and timing but
different carrier on different days of the week.


Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
latest: Slovenia
http://loraltraveloz.blogspot.com/
latest: Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest
  #18  
Old November 15th, 2007, 01:57 AM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
kangaroo16
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 222
Default An American's Impressions

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:23:27 -0600,
.. wrote in
:

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:51:54 -0600, Janet Wilder
wrote:

Frank Slootweg wrote:
wrote:
We have just returned from our 3 week cruise-tour of Australia and New
Zealand. W
Great report and thanks!!

I live in the States and have never been to Aussie land
but want to someday

A warning: Only do it if you can afford to come back!

Our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia was in 1995. Next year we
will go on our seventh-in-a-lifetime one! :-) It's a sickness and -
luckily - there's no cure. So don't say 'we' didn't warn you!


What will keep it a "once in a lifetime" trip for us is the plane ride.
Don't think we can handle that again.



Janet, did you take a flight from your nearest airport to either one
of: DFW/SAT or IAH then to LAX and then a direct flight to ? [SYD].

This would make it an extremely long trip. I never have done it i.e.

But the direct flights are much better than years ago.
When Continental used to fly the route, their route was LAX to
Honolulu to Auckland then to Sydney/return same.

At that time, other airlines went via Honolulu, Rarotonga or Tahiti.

Cath


When I flew down on Qantas in the sixties, their shortest great
circle route was LAX/ HNL/ SUV/ SYD [Los Angeles/ Honolulu/
Suva, Fiji [Nandi airport] / Sydney.

Shorter route than the others from memory.

Cheers,
Kangaroo16

From memory, was a 727 aircraft. I don't remember whether the
18 hour trip included the one hour refueling and rest stops at
HNL & SUV or not. Watched the lights of LAX on takeoff, as first
time had flown in a passenger jet. Nothing to see until HNL, so
went to sleep. The HNL / SUV leg was more interesting, so
stayed awake for my first sight of the south sea atolls and
islands. More than had expected, actually. Had enough sleep
on the LAX/HNL leg, so didn't bother with more from SUV/SYD.

  #19  
Old November 15th, 2007, 02:45 AM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
Janet Wilder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default An American's Impressions

Frank Slootweg wrote:
Janet Wilder wrote:
Frank Slootweg wrote:
wrote:
We have just returned from our 3 week cruise-tour of Australia and New
Zealand. W
Great report and thanks!!

I live in the States and have never been to Aussie land
but want to someday
A warning: Only do it if you can afford to come back!

Our once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia was in 1995. Next year we
will go on our seventh-in-a-lifetime one! :-) It's a sickness and -
luckily - there's no cure. So don't say 'we' didn't warn you!

What will keep it a "once in a lifetime" trip for us is the plane ride.
Don't think we can handle that again.


It's not our favorite part either, especially not on the way back, but
since there is no other way to get there ...

What helps us is not to think how much longer it will take, because
that will drive you crazy. I.e. we are in the plane and 'suddenly' we're
out of it. Also we go into a kind of zombie mode, i.e. we absolutely
don't do anything significant, we're just there. Probably sounds silly,
but it works for us.

What also helps is a good/friendly airline. Contrary to all the
whingers, *we* loved Qantas, but they only fly out of London or
Frankfurt and we hate to spend another five our so hours for those small
hops. The last two times and the next time was/is Singapore Airlines,
highly recommended, especially if the plane is only one third full and
the steward serves you cappuccino from First Class (Granted, that
happened only once :-), but was a great experience.)

But nevermind all this, you *will* come back or I'll eat my wooden
shoes!


We flew domestic flights in Australia on Qantas. Wouldn't use them
again. The overseas flight was on United. The fact that the little
bottles of wine are free for international travel made the trip a bit
easier :-).

The flight from Sydney to San Francisco was terribly bumpy, but the wine
helped a lot.

--
Janet Wilder
Bad spelling. Bad punctuation
Good Friends. Good Life
  #20  
Old November 15th, 2007, 02:50 AM posted to rec.travel.australia+nz
Janet Wilder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 439
Default An American's Impressions

.. wrote:



Janet, did you take a flight from your nearest airport to either one
of: DFW/SAT or IAH then to LAX and then a direct flight to ? [SYD].


I wish we could have gone direct. The cruise line did the air
reservations and we had to go from IAH to Denver then to LAX. On the way
home it was Sydney to SFO, then Denver then IAH. In some way, it might
have been a blessing because we got to stretch our legs more often that way.

We also had to do the hop from home to Houston. It's a 5 and a half hour
drive from here to IAH and they charge half a vacation to park the car
there. We had neighbors who took us to Harlingen and spent the night
before and the night after at a motel near IAH.

This would make it an extremely long trip. I never have done it i.e.

But the direct flights are much better than years ago.
When Continental used to fly the route, their route was LAX to
Honolulu to Auckland then to Sydney/return same.

At that time, other airlines went via Honolulu, Rarotonga or Tahiti.


Some people on the East Coast came through Shanghai, IIRC. Some folks on
the ship came through Honolulu and Tahiti.


--
Janet Wilder
Bad spelling. Bad punctuation
Good Friends. Good Life
 




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