View from Mrs. Macquarie’s Point
Several cities around the world are defined by a single building or structure. Paris and the Eiffel Tower, San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge and Sydney and its Opera House. Because of this strong association, the convenient location of our hotel and the terrible summer heat wave, I did little else in Sydney other than make short excursions exploring various views of the Sydney Opera House.
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My first visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial on Oahu was about 25 years ago. What is so striking to me about each visit is the large number of Japanese tourists in attendance. Many arrive by organized Japanese tour companies. I would really like to have the ability or nerve to speak to them and learn their impressions and thoughts during their visit to the site of their country’s surprise attack which killed more than 2,500 Americans. It is certainly an odd twist that anyone who visits Hawaii today quickly realizes the economic vitality of Hawaii clearly depends on the Japanese tourist.
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Oban Harbor, On Vacation
Continuing our practice of alternating between large cities and small towns on our European tour, from Glasgow we next headed for the small town of Oban, Scotland. While some scotch drinkers will recognize this a a brand name, most have likely never heard of this fishing village/tourist town on the west coast of Scotland. The scotch distillery is right in the middle of town. Along with my goal of tasting the local cuisine of where we visit, I went for my first scotch tasting here. I am no expert and that may be a good thing, both physically and financially.
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