Australian cities (by Joe)

It's got to be said: the two Australian cities we've visited, Sydney and Melbourne, have been just fantastic.

Clean streets, lovely parks, beautiful harbour- and river-sides, modern stadiums and sports facilities, trendy bars and clubs, excellent restaurants and street-side cafes, great shopping, thriving business communities, low pollution, few traffic jams, and all easy to get around by walking or on clean and appropriate modern transport.

For me, best of all is the smart blending of well-maintained old Victorian buildings and terraces with the proudly-designed soaring modern skyscrapers which dominate the skyline .

Walking around keeps bringing back to my mind the term 'new-world' - but in fact it's the super-smart marriage of the best of 'old' with the best of 'new' that is the wonder: it's like seeing some of the best elements of Paris, London and Barcelona blended almost seamlessly with New York-style modernity ... and all this in warm sunshine with a cooling sea-breeze.

(Apologies if this all makes me sound like the bloke from Grand Designs!).

Here's a few pics of Melbourne:

Joe