Home Update Log Summary of the Trip The Family Album Day 1 - Departing Day 2 - Amsterdam Day 3 - Veldhoven Day 4 - CttM Day One Day 5 - CttM Day Two Day 6 - The Holland Tour Day 7 - Off to Istanbul Day 8 - Seraglio Point Day 9 - Bosphorous Tour Day 10 - Exploring Sultanahmet Day 11 - The City Walls Day 12 - The Asian Side Day 13 - Taking a Break Day 14 - Leaving Turkey Day 15 - A Day in Singapore Day 16 - Arrival in Sydney Day 17 - Exploring Sydney Day 18 - ODDC Day One Day 19 - ODDC Day Two Day 20 - Toranga Zoo Day 21 - Off to New Zealand Day 22 - Road Trip to Tauranga Day 23 - Tauranga to Taupo Day 24 - Visiting Granny Stanton Day 25 - Leaving Levin Day 26 - Return to Auckland Day 27 - The Trip Home | |
Sunday, May 27, 2001.
After two nights trying to sleep in aircraft, a
night in a real bed is a luxury, and although we woke up late, we woke up pretty
darn content. After a fantastic shower (one of the best in any hotel anywhere,
EVER), we headed down to the Sunday buffet breakfast (which was the antithesis
of the shower). Afterward, we took a quick peek around the hotel and conference space -
both Ken and Brian were doing pre-conference sessions.
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From the conference area, looking at the
staircase down to the lobby. |
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A look down at the entrance way to the
lobby, notice the two huge columns. |
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Ken poses during the pre-conference
session. |
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Brian stays focused during the photo,
working on a demonstration. |
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Truman and Stalin? Not quite. Outside
the session rooms, we bump into Mitch and Erik. Mitch (on the left) owns
Informant Communications (who put on the conference) and Erik (on the
right) is the "speaker wrangler" and content planner for
Informant. |
With that, we headed off to explore Sydney
itself. After looking through the various guidebooks (unfortunately, there's no
Eyewitness book, like the one we had in Istanbul), we decided to visit the
Darling Harbour area of Sydney, where the Aquarium and Maritime Museum are. Both
were just a short walk from the hotel.
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Walking from the hotel to Darling
Harbour, we pass this impressive structure - Parliament buildings? Law
Courts? Nope, just a shopping mall. |
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But down the street is the clock tower
of the Town Hall and Mayor's Office. |
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On the Darling Harbour footbridge, we
can see the Aquarium over the monorail track. |
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Looking the other way, we can see
another shopping complex on the other side of the bridge. |
The Sydney Aquarium is comparable size to the
Vancouver Aquarium - no whales, though (yes, I know the orcas are gone, but
there's still the belugas). Of course, the exhibits are Australian-centric, so
there's lots of things we've never seen before.
From the aquarium, we walked back to the Darling
Harbour bridge and went across it, toward the Maritime Museum and its floating
exhibits - the Vampire and Onslow.
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Looking up at the Darling Harbour bridge
(and monorail) from the Aquarium. The Maritime Museum is on the other side
of the bridge. |
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As we cross the bridge, we get a good
look at the Vampire (the ship) and the Onslow (the submarine). |
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Looking back over the bridge, the city
of Sydney is behind Stacy, with the aquarium on the left and the monorail
on the right. |
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A floating restaurant beside the bridge. |
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The entrance to the Maritime Museum as we come down off
the bridge. |
The Maritime Museum is actually made up of a
number of parts. There are the two floating exhibits, the Vampire and
the Onslow.
There's the museum itself, plus a building called Wharf 7 and the James Craig, a
wooden sailing bark. We couldn't see everything, there just wasn't enough time,
so we started with the Vampire and Onslow, managing to get through the main
museum before finally heading back to the hotel.
We arrived at the hotel in time for a quick
shower (awesome!) and change before the speaker dinner.
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Tom, Peter and Jan interrupt their visit
to mug for the camera. |
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Stacy and Jan compare notes on how crazy
their husbands are. |
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The dining room where the speaker dinner
was served. |
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Jan and Peter sitting at dinner. |
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After dinner, Adam and Richard review
some XML code for Adam's session the next day. |
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Long after dinner, after much debate and
generally loud discussion, Adam, Richard and Brian are the last to leave
the dining room - Brian fully equipped for further debauchery that
evening. |
It was Adam, Richard and Brian that got caught
up in a long debate on the evolution of technology and other such esoteric geek
subjects, drinking beer and wine until there wasn't anymore to be had. But we
didn't last too long - still lagged and having to present sessions the next day
at the conference, we were all in bed before midnight. The next day would be the
first real conference day.
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