October 10, Wednesday & October 11, Thursday

October 10, Wednesday   &  October 11, Thursday

Wednesday:  Harbour cruises  

I got a late start today, but finally took the bus near the hotel and made my way to Circular Quay to ride the ferries. 

Sydney is built around a beautiful natural harbour, and most cruises depart from Circular Quay. “It is the most beautiful natural harbour in the world;  240 kilometres of shoreline encompass approximately 54 square kilometres of water.   It is 19 km long with an area of 55 km². “ 

To the east, all the way to Manly Beach, where the there is a wide passage, called Sydney Heads, that leads to the Tasman Sea.  (I always thought it was the Pacific Ocean, which it is, but the area between Australia and New Zealand is called the Tasman Sea.)  The Paramatta River has its source near the Blue Mountains and widens as it comes closer to the Tasman Sea, where it becomes Sydney Harbour. 

The ferry I took was the Darling Harbour cruise which left from wharf # 5. 

One of the government run ferries.  I'll be riding on one just like this.

The Opera House from Circular Quay

 The Opera House from the harbour, near the bridge.

Still think that is WAY too high for me to climb, but there are always people walking on top.

Passing under Harbour Bridge
The ferry went under Harbour Bridge across  to the north side of the Harbour to Milsons Point / Luna Park (Luna Park is a huge amusement park and they had one in Melbourne as well),


 it continued to McMahons Point

 Love the architecture on this apartment house
before crossing back to the southern shore to Balmain East,

ANZAC Suspended Bridge, Sydney


 and on to Pyrmont Bay (Australian National Maritime Museum)

No Robert D., I did not visit the Maritime Museum and I know you must be very disappointed in me; I know you would have loved it.

and finally to the Darling Harbour Terminal.
I did not disembark, I simply stayed on the ferry for the return ride to Circular Quay.  

 Beautiful view of the Sydney Skyline from Darling Harbour

 I had about one hour before the next ferry I wanted to take was due to leave, so I found a nice restaurant with an open terrace area and stopped for lunch. Wow they give really big servings here.  And the apple cider went beautifully with my "pie"  (quiche for us).
 I had a few minutes to spare before my ferry would be leaving, so I made my way to the tourist information desk to find out about the Harbour Bridge Walk. Every time I looked at the bridge I thought about making the climb and almost immediately told myself there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I could do it. It is just TOO HIGH. But I wanted to know how much it would cost and how long it would take, how safe it was (obviously safe since so many people were doing it). Found out it cost $250 ! How much? Yes, that much, just to climb up; talk about highway robbery. But I guess that“supply and demand” goes a long way and obviously people were ready to pay that price. I was not. It ended up being the nail I needed to finally confirm that I would not be climbing Harbour Bridge. While I was at the Information desk however I booked a tour to Hunter Valley for some wine tasting. Now THAT, I’m willing to pay for. 

Time for my next ferry ride; I took the Eastern Suburbs Ferry that left from wharf # 4.  It hop-scotched along the southern shore to Garden Island, Darling Point, Double Bay, Rose Bay and finally Watsons Bay.  I chatted almost the entire time with a young Japanese lady who was going shopping at Watsons Bay.  Again, I simply stayed on the ferry for the return ride to Circular Quay.  

The view of the Sydney Opera House from the Harbour
 
I must have at least 30 pictures of this building by now.
 
Historical building at Darling Point
 
Historical houses in Double Bay
 
Sailboats in Rose Bay
 
 Watson's is a newer "trendy" area to live.  Houses are worth a fortune here 
 
It's a beautiful afternoon and many people have opted to go out on the harbour for a spring day sail.

Across from the Sydney Opera House is the area of North Sydney called Kirribilli.  It's one of the "trendy rich" areas of the city where the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Sydney is located. It's the beige house with the double peaks.
 
and where the Governor Generall's House is located.  It is also known as "Admiralty House".

It was quite windy out on the harbour and I was sitting outside the entire time, enjoying the sun, but it was much too windy at times.  It was late afternoon by the time I got back and I decided to call it a day and leave the Sydney Tower for some other day.

Thursday:   Rainy dreary day and I’m tired, so I rested.  In late afternoon I drove car to a car wash to get all the bugs off and not have to pay an astronomical amount when I return it tomorrow.

October 8, Monday & October 9, Tuesday

October 8, Monday    &   October 9, Tuesday

Monday:    Yep, definitely over did the walking around yesterday.  I had planned on either going to visit the Australia Museum or driving out to the Blue Mountains today, but I could not seem to get my butt out of bed.  It was a gloomy rainy day again in any case so I did not feel so guilty about staying in.

Tuesday:  Driving out to the Blue Mountains today.  Mark, the morning manager, gave me directions on how to get to the Great Western Highway and although I did make a few tourist detours in the downtown core, I finally got on a road that I THOUGHT was the Great Western Highway.  It’s always hard to tell because as I’ve mentioned before, there are no road signs for the road you are driving on, only for the cross streets.  PLUS, the street names change every few miles in any case.  I knew I was driving in the right direction however, and the road was going straight west towards the mountains, so I just kept going until I finally saw a road sign (Parramatta Road, Highway 31, Great Western Highway = all the same) where the road merged with Highway # 4 (which is also the Great Western Highway ! ! ? ?).  Now I was sure I was on the right road.  At one point the divided boulevard became an expressway (Still # 4, but now called the Western Motorway and the speed increased all the way out to foothills.  At this point the road narrowed down again, became Highway 32, but was still called the Great Western Highway.  The base of the Blue Mountains are about 50 km outside Sydney, but I was driving within the city almost the entire way until I reached the other side of Parramatta (the town). This is when the drive became beautiful, meandering up the foothills into the high country.  There were a lot of slow downs here however since they are widening the roadway into a divided parkway.

The Blue Mountains consist mainly of a sandstone plateau, the area is dissected by gorges up to 760 metres(2,490 ft) deep. The highest point of the range is Mount Werong at 1,215 metres (3,986 ft) above sea level. A large part of the Blue Mountains is incorporated into the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site, consisting of seven national park areas and a conservation reserve. The Greater Blue Mountains Area was unanimously listed as a World Heritage Area by UNESCO on 29 November 2000.”  

When I reached the town of Leura,  I left the highway to go and see Wentworth Falls.

Great views from the lookout at Wentworth Falls

The falls however were very small since the water levels are low

On the way back to the Highway, I spotted a sign indicating the “Scenic Road” which was going to be my next destination, so that was really surendipidous.  Most of it was along Cliff Drive all the way to Katoomba  (1,010 m or 3,314 ft).

 The views from Katoomba Lookout.  The formation on the left is called "The Three Sisters"

 They have aboriginal names relating to a legend, but for today I renamed them: Aline, Yvette, Hélène.

 Great views from both lookout levels

 There was a small walking trail which I decided to follow so I could stretch my legs and get away from the crowds. I followed it for a few hundred meters until it became too steep and too uneven for me to keep going.

 While I was walking, I could hear these birds chirping and chattering, like they were having a great conversation.  They were magpies.  I managed to capture the sound on tape, but was not able to film them.
As I walked back toward my car, I spotted this cockatoo in the park, pecking away at bugs or worms.

I can't get used to seeing them flying around, FREE.  And we keep them in cages.  But they are really noisy.

I got in the car and drove around the rim of the cliff until I reached the other side.

 Even more impressive

From Eagle Hawk Lookout

I continued driving around and taking pictures.  At some point I decided I had seen enough and I wanted to get back to the Great Western Highway to make my way back to Sydney.  Although I stopped to ask for directions a few times, I never did find it and the maps I had in the car did not help SINCE THERE WERE NO STREET NAMES ON THE STREETS !  After getting completely lost, I just happened to stumble back onto Cliff Drive, so I decided the easiest thing to do was just retrace my entire route.  And that’s exactlly what I did.  Mind you it was a lot faster getting back since I was no longer stopping to take photos.

 Returning to Sydney

 Sydney skyline is really impressive
When I got back into the city, I decided to stay on Highway 4 into the downtown core. 

Driving across the ANZAC bridge

Unfortunately the signage was not clear and instead of exiting into downtown, I ended up on the Harbour Bridge. Oh Crap !   

Driving across Harbour Bridge.... whether I want to or not !

Oh Well !  it may have been a tourist detour, but it was an interesting one.  I ended up in North Sydney, took one of the exits and although it took about 1 kilometer of manoeuvring through one way streets, I finally made my way back onto Hightway 1, and crossed the bridge again to return to Sydney, I took the first exit and got turned around yet again.  I drove around for at least 10 minutes before figuring out that I had ended up on the west side of the bridge instead of the east side.  I was on Millers Point, so when I finally got my bearings I was able to get back on Sussex Street (which I had taken this morning) and made my way back to Oxford Street.  It did not help that in that part of the city, Oxford Street is named Liverpool Street !   But I made it back to the hotel.  What an adventure !   I was SO TIRED from all those tourist detours.

October 6, Saturday & October 7, Sunday

October 6, Saturday  &  October 7, Sunday

Saturday:  Gloomy rainy day and I’m really tired from that long drive yesterday so I’ve decided to just relax and walk around the Paddington neighborhood where the Arts Hotel is located.   I located a nice deli during my walk and purchased a turkey and cranberry sandwich on sourdough bread.  That’s the closest I’m going to get to a Thanksgiving Dinner.

Sunday:  They have daylight savings time here so I’ve “sprung ahead” another hour.  I’m now officially 15 hours ahead of Ottawa time.  By 11 am I had my maps in hand and had obtained some information from the hotel manager/owner who was at the desk this morning.  He confirms that I can easily walk to the Australian Museum which I was planning to visit today.   It is such a beautiful sunny day however that I don’t want to be indoors.   I walked all the way up Oxford to College.

 Hyde Park & the Army Memorial

 A statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park

 I went into St. Mary’s Cathedral (no pictures inside)

 then returned to Hyde Park

and it's fantastic fountain.

 I stopped in to visit the old convicts barracks, constructed under the orders of the first Governor, Lachlan Macquarie.    I’ve read many historical novels about Australia so it’s great to actually see some of these historical sites. Not only was it used to house male and female convicts, but at one point it housed girl orphans from Ireland who were brought over to be maids and other workers. Very sad stories. In later years the building was used as an asylum and then to house administrative government offices.

 From the third floor I got a great show of the cement walls below.  Check out the intersecting open gate; very symbolic.  It could be interpreted as being the convicts' gateway to a new life in a new world,  or the fact that they were jailed and would not be free until their sentence had been served doing hard labour.

On the third floor of the building, they have reconstructed what it would have looked like at the time.  There would have been a second level of hammocks above this one.

There were a lot of archeological items which were found in the building and are on display.

I kept walking down Macquarie street past the Parliament Buildings and the National Library and entered the Royal Botanic Gardens

 Sydney's downtown skyline from the Botanic Gardens

 A huge "Bottle Tree" from Queensland

 More of a big park than Botanic Gardens, but full of people enjoying the day.

From Farm Cove I got my first sight of the Sydney Opera House
I made my way around the waterfront to the Opera House and went in to book a tour. 

  While I waited for the tour I spotted climbers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

 Wow, that’s REALLY high.

Can you see the people standing between the two flags.   NO !  Not going to try that

We were not allowed to take pictures during the tour, so I unfortunately cannot show you the main hall.

 This however was the ticketing area, where we were allowed to take photos

and the supporting structures of the great arches

 and this one from outside the main concert hall, looking across the bay to a trendy area where housing is VERY expensive.
After the tour I decided to treat myself to a nice glass of wine at the outside Opera Café and join then hundreds of people who were also there enjoying this gorgeous day.

 Outside, at the Opera Café area

looking over to Circle Quay, where all the ferries depart from

CHEERS !   Another check mark on my bucket list !  

 So many people out, enjoying this bright sunny day.
It was getting late in the afternoon so I decided to walk to Circular Quay to get some information about the various ferries.I purchased a 1-week pass that would allow me to ride buses, ferries and trains within the central part of Sydney.

   As I walked around Circle Quay getting information about the ferries, a cruise ship sailed under Harbour Bridge.   UNDER IT !   A BIG CRUISE SHIP !   No way am I climbing up to the top.  That would be more than two cruise ships tall ! ! !

There is a free shuttle bus that does a loop of some of the downtown streets and I decided to catch that bus to get back to Oxford street.Since it was Sunday, the regular bus would not be coming by often, and it was still sunny so I decided to keep walking back to the hotel.

 Oxford Street in Paddington

Arts Hotel where I am staying.  My room is at the back, looking into a quiet courtyard.

 

I think I may have overdone it a bit today.   BUT IT WAS WORTH IT ! ! !

October 5, Friday

October 5, Friday

Left Lake Entrance at 10 am for my drive to Sydney.  The first problem I encountered was finding out that I was still about 600 km from my destination.  This would not be a problem in Canada since I’ve driven a lot further in one day before.  I quickly realized that I would not be averaging 100 km per hour since the road went through every small town along the way.  The views were spectacular however and Gilles P. would have loved driving through here in his Porsche. 

I drove through the ‘’Snowy River’’ area; from the movie ‘The Man from Snowy River’. I drove over mountains and valleys the entire day.

 
Sorry, not many pictures because I needed to concentrate on the road. I was waiting to finally be driving along the coast again, but only saw a glimpse once or twice. The “highway” was more inland than it had appeared on the map.
 
  I was not making good time, and if I had not already reserved my hotel in Sydney I probably would have stopped and found a motel along the way. But I needed to get into Sydney that evening.
 
 
 The other thing I had not factored in was that the sun was setting a lot earlier than before now that I was on the eastern coast. By 6 pm it was dark and the road was a bit better, but I was still 200 km from Sydney. The road would widen into 4 lanes and 100 km / hour then go through a city or town and slow down again. The only good news was that I never knew when I “arrived” at the Sydney city limits because it was continuous city driving, in the dark. All I needed to do was stay on Highway 1, so I took all the turns along the way and was no longer seeing any mileage signs. I kept watching for the turn off to Cleveland Street and it FINALLY came up, then merged onto Dowling, just barely missing being in the wrong lane and a long tourist detour. I crossed Flinders Street (have you noticed yet how often the same city and street names are repeated?) and knew I was close so I was watching signs for Napier Street. Oh oh ! the next cross street was Oxford, so I had missed Napier. Luckily there was a red light and no traffic coming in the other direction, so I pulled a U’y and just as I straightened the car, there was the sign for Napier. (I later checked this out and there was NO sign for Napier when you were coming down Dowling.) I arrived at the back of Arts Hotel where the entrance to the car park was located and got the very last spot for my car. I was so proud of myself for having manoeuvred all that traffic in the dark. 

My room at Arts Hotel

By 8:30 I was in my hotel room; definitely not a 5-star establishment but it is clean, the bed is very comfortable, it’s in a good location and it includes free parking and free wifi.   The receptionist indicated that there was a pub next door so I went there for dinner and then called it a night.