Musings, photos and general bits 'n' bobs about my trip to Australia and New Zealand, September 2013

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Sydney - Day 2

Saturday 21st, September (more internet connection issues . . .so this post was prepped on the day, but I can only post it now!)

Weather: Hot and Sunny again!

Into Sydney for our second day, and this time we toured around on a ‘Hop On, Hop Off’ bus, in comparison to the boat. 


What another great way to see the city.  There was onboard commentary and we saw many highlights including great architecture, street performers, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge etc., etc.,! 




This Coca-Cola sign is listed (I am not sure what the proper term is - like a heritage building, the outside cannot be changed) which is great news for the company.  What great advertising!


Ah yes, the Opera House, but from land this time.
 

This is what the tiles on the Opera House look like close up - herringbone ceramic tiles.  

My only criticism of the bus would be that it is very zippy, and there are not many chances to take photographs, however, it is a great way to see what you like – and get off an visit it later.

We got off at the Opera House and took a few more photos.  Some of the side roads were closed off as there appears to be a marathon happening tomorrow – with the finishing post being the Opera House.  Wow – what a fabulous run that would be (says the woman who has only run 5km charity runs around Birmingham!!!)  

The Opera House has over 1000 rooms, and up close looks rather dingy – very 70’s with the cream and brown.  We didn’t get chance to look inside, but I plan returning in the future.  I could easily spend a few weeks in and around Sydney, and next time it will be with the Mr.!


After our bus trip we visited the Maritime Museum.  There was a submarine that we could climb all over – HMAS Onslow:







As well as a boat, HMAS Vampire;






Being the granddaughter of a submariner from WW2, as well as the niece of two sailors, it was fantastic to wander round.  ON HMAS Vampire, the mechanical areas of the ship take up about 40% of the available space.  Quite amazing.  I would hazard a guess that the submarine lost even more space.  Boy was the sub cramped – height-wise it was OK, although crawling through the hatches was a pain (pun intended) with my owie knees, but well worth it to see what it was like on board.

We took a look around the regular exhibits of the museum, and it was interesting to see how much the convicts are mentioned as part of the heritage.  Before coming over, I wondered whether or not the whole issue of the UK sending convicts across the ocean to serve their sentences would be a bit ‘hush-hush’ and not mentioned, but quite the contrary.  The Viking exhibition was also interesting, in particular a piece about them dyeing fabrics/yarn etc for their clothing.  I had the impression that they wore dark or natural color clothing, but that was not the case.  They were able to dye primary colors and even mixed some (eg: yellow and blue to get green), but there was no evidence to support them mixing red and yellow to make orange.  Well, I found it interesting!

We had (very expensive but) tasty burgers at the Hard Rock CafĂ©, then took some breathtaking photos of the Cockle Bay at night, before returning home to our beds.  Tomorrow we are up at 0330am for our flights back to Adelaide . . . .




I have to say that the time spent in Sydney has been exhausting, but worth it.  I love this city and I have only seen a small, bitesize portion of it!  Au revoir Sydney!  BeaJay - I promise to stay longer next time!!

1 comment:

  1. I'll hold you to that! And yes - we Aussies are proud of our convict heritage and it is quite a feather in the cap if you can trace your heritage back to a convict.

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