Originally Posted by
Mike Jacoubowsky
I'll have to give some thought to what it means to be a "large provincial town." Perhaps I like LPTs?
My thoughts regarding Brisbane were probably highly skewed by its extensive cycling facilities. And my thoughts regarding Sydney were skewed by an overprice underperforming restaraunt in The Rocks, and the mistake of going up the Tower of Oz at night. Completely worthless; they had so much lighting behind you that you couldn't see through the glare on the windows. And we compounded the mistake by doing that silly tour of Australia "ride."
Shopping in Melbourne? The DFO outlet near Bourke Street was pretty strange. Virtually no signage at all, just escalators leading up to it, all tucked away in back of the street. But I'm certainly willing to go back; we saw very little of Melbourne, spending not much time there at all. It was basically just the end-point of our trip.
With four more days we would have hit up Cairns, and in retrospect, I easily could have spent four more days away from the business. But not sure the pocketbook could have survive much more of Australia. This wasn't one of my dirt-cheap runs through France. I'd be spending US $60/night at Etaps in France, vs $130 or so to keep my wife happy in OZ.
Well, if you'd said you wanted to cycling in Sydney I could have pointed you in the right direction, I do about 200-250km/week.
It sounds like your intin wasn't the best, Sydney Tower is a just there so tourists know how to find it. I'd definately second Orbit; really nice setting without the ringing of coin operated binoculars. There really is a plethora of at least decent eating (and assuming you ate in the Rocks no doubt you got charged for the privlege) in the CBD, regulars on this forum will list happily list them endlessly.
Aside from the CBD, there's the fish markets, Bondi, enjoy a beer at the Watson's Bay Hotel and watch the sunset, take a trip to Manly or Taronga or have a walk through Paddington.
I recommend if you come back you give us a go again, maybe start a thread in here next time and you'll get some great suggestions!
Originally Posted by IMOA
Yep, brisbane for bogans
At least you're honest.