Sydney - Day 2

Saturday 21^st, 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 Café, 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!!

Sydney - We Have Arrived!

Friday September 20^th

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!

It was at this point that things all went horribly wrong.  We managed to catch the wrong ‘Hop on Hop Off’ boat, and instead of returning to Darling Bay, we went on some commuter trip across the bay returning to the exact same place that we had left 40mins earlier.  Doh!  On the way back to the hotel, I took a tumble and now have owies on my knees, which added to the panda eyes (that incidentally, I am rocking!) brought a very eventful end to the day.  Note to self.  Although it may be windy, and also rather chilly, when you are on the water you WILL catch the sun.  :: sigh ::