After 14 hours of sleep Ina and I decided to wake up with a swim. Our room is on the 14th floor, and the pool is up a flight of stairs, and actually has a portion looking out over Sydney. We got to watch the sun rise and wake up our bodies for the day ahead.
For breakfast #1 I ate some cereal we purchased the day before. We then headed back to the bank and Starbucks for breakfast (#2 for me). I had a sausage roll, which is basically ground seasoned meats wrapped in a light pastry dough. It came with “tomato sauce” aka ketchup. I do not think I will be having another one of those anytime soon.
We then took a train into the Circular Quay (pronounced key). We bought week long transit passes that let us on most trains in the city, all busses and all ferries. Circular Quay is on Sydney harbor, between the harbor bridge and the opera house. Naturally the first thing we did was head to the opera house. It is pretty amazing on the outside, and interior tour is $35, too much we think. The entire outside of the building is tiled, and it is a lot less white close up. We went around the entire building, Ina jumping into most of my shots. We wanted to see if any interesting shows were going on. “Last night of the Proms” had tickets starting at just $31. when we spoke to the box-office it turned out there were only 4 tickets left, two VIP seats, and two others. The VIP had been dropped in price to $99 a piece and the other seats were something like $70 a piece. After a little debate Ina and I decided that we should take the opportunity, we would be sitting in row K, dead center that evening.
After the opera house we strolled through the Royal Botanical Gardens where some birds were quite friendly.
Next we headed back towards the harbor bridge, but not before we followed my directions to an elevated sidewalk that we had to double back on. Of course we got a fantastic view and this panoramic shot.
The area below the harbor bridge is called The Rocks. It is the oldest part of Sydney and named the rocks because of the out cropping. There are a number of free museums, by which I mean small old buildings to look through.
| Cadman’s Cottage | www.npws.nsw.gov.au |
| Customs House | www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au |
| Gannon House | www.gannonhousegallery.com |
| Rocks Discovery Museum | www.rocksdiscoverymuseum.com |
We then proceeded up a stair case to the pedestrian access of the harbor bridge. Following a few wrong signs we walked into one of several outfitters to walk you over the top of the bridge. Ina did not want to do it because it is about $180 a person, lets just say I don’t like Farris wheels. Still we walked out to the middle point of the bridge to say we had and got even more pictures of the opera house.
For a snack we stopped at a collection of food stands and each got a Gyoza combo platter, goyza=fried dumplings and buns. There are a ton of little cafes and bars and shops in The Rocks. On our way back to the ferry terminal we came across The Big Dig, I know who would have thought Boston was in Sydney. We did not get much information about The Big Dig, but there were several buildings on stilts so you could see original foundations and sewers of The Rocks.
We also walked by a large sporting facility, a giant indoor wooden floor court. A sign on the door said basketball $5. Upon looking inside they were using quite a small ball, and the hoop was literally just a hoop, no net, and no backboard.
We took a ferry to Darling Harbor, which took us by Luna Park, which we might visit. It looks similar to Coney Island. The ferries are a great cheap (free with transit passes) tour of the harbor. Again I took pictures of the opera house.
In Darling Harbor we went to the Aquarium, www.sydneyaquarium.com.au .
They have two areas where you can walk through underwater tubes. One has Dugongs, the other has sharks and turtles. Ina and I both had our moments with the turtle. I also found what I wanted for dinner.
Finally I was a little hungry and had yet to have my first Australian beer. We walked down the water front stopping at a few bar/restaurants and decided on James Squire. They had a micro brewery on site and I had a nice pint of a cloudy lager. Ina sampled a great NZ Savioungon Blanc that had the distinct, Cat Piss on a Gooseberry Bush. Both drinks went well with our potato wedges, served with sour cream and a chili jelly.
A little tired and underdressed we headed back to the hotel where Ina took a nap and I visited KFC. We then threw together outfits, I had some slacks a button down and a tie paired with my sweatshirt covered in dog hair and sneakers. When we got off the train Ina and I spotted a couple, mid twenties, the woman had union jack socks and the man had a union jack on his vest. Interesting we thought. When got into our seats in the concert hall we were in the 7th row dead center. The seats in the hall are bright pink. Sydney also puts lights on the opera house at night that change colors ( or should I say colours).
There were little UK and Australian flags as well as rolls of red, blue and white tape. It turns out that this performance was before the queen’s birthday. Most of the songs were for coronation, including pop and circumstance. There was a solo by a opera singer that was pretty good, but the solo violinist was amazing. She won some young talent thing for solo violin and I was amazed. Fortunately I did not miss all of her first solo because Ina woke me up, a cup of coffee at intermission woke me up for the second half. During some of the more UK patriotic songs people threw the rolls of tape like streamers over the audience and waved their flags and sung along. It was the most energetic symphony performance I had ever been to. The Sydney concert choir also performed during some songs. I don’t plan on coming back to Sydney in the near future so I think that seeing the show was well worth it, especially for such a special show. I think I am around 5/8ths English and need to learn a few songs.
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