During my trip to Australia in February, I toured a couple of wineries in the Hunter Valley, located two hours north of Sydney. The other day, in an article in the New York Times, comes a report that the Australian wine industry has fallen on tough times. As always, the reasons are varied and complicated,…
It’s a recurring phenomenon with me: a feeling of melancholy during the last few hours of any long distance train journey. It’s happening again as I finish a last drink in the lounge car and shake hands with two of my fellow passengers in case we miss each other on the platform. In less than…
Over the next several days, I’ll be posting photos taken on my recent trip to Australia. My rail adventure began in Sydney, where I boarded the Indian Pacific for the three-night, 2700-mile journey across the continent to Perth. I arrived at the Sydney station almost two hours before the scheduled departure time, eager to start…
Yesterday was a full day, starting with a 7:30 a.m. pick-up at the hotel and ending – finally – with a very welcome drop-off more than 12 hours later. In between there was a little wine tasting and a lot of driving. The wine country, an area known as Hunter Valley, is north up the…