Friday September 20th
Weather: Sunny (hot, not sure how hot, but hot)
Flight to Sydney was a quick and easy - hotel was walking distance to the airport (I wonder if that is good or bad news?!), and we all slept well.
Woke up bright and early and caught a commuter train into
downtown Sydney – dead cheap, and quick.
They have double decker trains you know (Mayor Nenshi – are you reading
this?!)
We decided for our first day
that we would take a harbour cruise on Captain Cook’s ‘Hop On Hop Off’ Sydney
Harbour Explorer. It has a round trip of
90mins with 7 different stops. It left
from Darling Harbour – the same harbour that houses the Aquarium, Madame Tussaud's, the Maritime Museum etc.
Up
until now we had not seen any of the famous landmarks, but once we were
underway, all that was to change. (I’ve got to interrupt this to say that the
TV is just showing an advertisement with Status Quo dressed up in Antarctic
gear, singing ‘Down, Down, the Prices are Down’ advertising a supermarket . . .
. ) Ah yes, Sydney Harbour! Just as we came out of the wharf we saw the
bridge – quite fabulous:
And then the Opera House:
Wow. All round. Wow!
Like pretty much everyone else, I thought that the opera house would be
white, but actually it is brown on the bottom with cream ’sails’. Very impressive though. You can walk throught he botanic gardens to
reach the Opera House – there are wide, wide steps leading up the front, so I
think we will try that tomorrow.
We continued around the bay with a commentary from the boat
crew – we saw all the posh harbourside houses including one owed by Disney (on
the right. Apparently Oprah Winfrey
stays here) and one (one the left) owned by the Star Wars franchise. These properties are worth 10 of millions of
dollars . . . . and then have tourists on their little catamarans whizzing past
taking photos.
We hopped off the boat in Watson Bay for lunch, and then
walked up to the bluff to see the Pacific Ocean. It is HUGE and the views were fabulous.
Our next stop was Circular Quay – it is the quay in between
the Opera House and the bridge. It is
the area that was originally settled by the Europeans and where many of the 160,000
British convicts ended up. The stories
in the local museum were fascinating.
The area is called The Rock and was considered a slum. Although most of it was pulled down following
the death of two residents from bubonic plague, many of the older building
still exist. It is also where the huge
liners berth when they come into town – we didn’t see any there, but you can
certainly imagine!
Owies indeed! Looks like you gonna be a bit sore for a couple of days. Try some of nanna's miracle cure? Or maybe not, TCP may not be acceptable these days!! Great to see the 'local' landmarks, and your commentary makes it all the more interesting. Looking forward to your next installment. Love and Hugs to all. M&M xxxx
ReplyDeleteOuch! That has to HURT.Loved reading your thoughts of Sydney. It is a shame you only have 2 days here. There is so much to do. And yes - the Aussie sun will always find you - must use sun block!
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