Sydney is the capital of New South Wales and the largest city in
Australia. The name Sydney, so
designated by Captain Arthur Phillip, was originally only meant to apply to the
cove into which Phillip and his ship sailed.
Capt. Phillip had been sent on a mission to find new colonies for Great
Britain after they lost their American colonies. He first sailed into what is now Botany Bay
on the south eastern coast of Australia, but it was not as safe as he had been
led to believe. He then sailed up the
coast and on 26 Jan 1788 (today known as Australia Day), discovered what is now
one of the greatest harbors in the World and founded the first city (or penal
colony) in Australia. Phillip had wanted
the town he founded to be called Albion, but that name never stuck. The name Sydney came from Phillip’s immediate
master, Thomas Townshead, the first Baron Sydney, who was also the home and
colonial secretary.
Prior to our arrival at the Cairns airport we made a stop at Rex Lookout
to admire the beautiful coastline of northern Queensland.
The beaches are pristine and the water a
perfect blue – there is one problem – “salties” (crocodiles) inhabit these
waters and therefore you cannot swim in them.
Well you could if you do not value your limbs or life!
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| Beautiful coastline of Queensland |
Our flight from Cairns to Sydney was the best flight so far. It was on an Airbus 330 with plenty of
room. We arrived in Sydney at 4 PM and
by 5:15 we were at our hotel, The Sydney Boulevard Hotel. Although the evening meal was not included in
our tour, Ben had made a reservation at a local pub and we all decided to join
him. He took us for a short orientation
walk through Hyde Park which is about 3 blocks from the hotel. We then walked to the Lord Roberts Hotel
where we had a wonderful dinner. I had a
fish burger and Bill had a chicken schnitzel.
Friday was our day to discover Sydney.
Our day started at 7:45 with a bus tour around some of the scenic bays
of Sydney.
Our first stop was at Mrs.
Macquarie’s Chair where we had an iconic view of the Sydney Opera House and the
Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Mrs. Macquarie’s
Chair was a chair and steps that were chiseled out of a cliff at the end of a promontory
point that looked out over the harbor.
Mrs. Macquarie was the wife of one of the early colony’s governor who
liked to watch the ships as they sailed into Sydney harbor.
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| Iconic view of Opera House and Harbor Bridge |
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| Mrs. Macquarie's Chair |
From there we drove around some of the most beautiful (and expensive)
homes that have been built around the little coves off the harbor.
We left the bus at the Gap, an area where
there was a nice walking path along the coastline of Sydney.
The scenic views of the high cliffs and rocks
with the ocean below were so worth the walk (which really was not difficult –
it was all downhill).
From there we
walked across Robertson Park (Sydney has lots of little parks scattered
throughout the city) to the ferry dock in Watson’s Bay where we caught a ferry
to Circular Quay.
Watson’s Bay was the
oldest fishing village in Australia, founded in 1788.
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| Island that was once a prison |
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| Beauty view of Sydney Harbor |
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| One of the many beautiful coves around the Harbor |
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| Cliff's along our coastline walk |
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| Watson's Bay |
Circular Quay is the location where Capt. Phillips and the First Fleet first set foot in
Australia and built the first penal colony.
It has one of the best views in the world,
looking out at the harbor with the Opera Sydney House and its gleaming white
sail-tiled roof on the right, and to the left the magnificent Harbor Bridge
(which can be seen from every corner of Sydney).
And in the waters in front of you are
old-fashioned ferries and sail boats.
The Sydney harbor is 16 miles long, but there are so many little inlets
and coves, that its actual shoreline is 152 miles.
The Harbor Bridge is 1650’ long.
When it was built between 1923 and 1932, it was designed to be the
world’s longest single arch bridge, but unfortunately, two weeks before the
bridge was completed, New York’s Bayonne Bridge opened and it was 25 inches
longer than the Harbor Bridge.
And yes,
you can walk atop the bridge – if you have a death wish!
You do have a harness that is tethered to the
bridge and it will only cost you about $240.
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| You can just make out the people walking on top of the bridge |
After disembarking the ferry, we walked around Circular Quay where
little round bronze plaques show the original shoreline from 1788.
Our destination was the Sydney Opera House;
perhaps Australia’s most iconic building and the youngest UNESCO Heritage Site.
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| Plaques marking original shoreline |
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| Sidney Opera House from the water |
Planning for the Opera House actually began in the late 1940’s when the
Director of the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music began lobby the
government to build a venue capable of housing theatrical and musical
productions. In 1955, a request for
architectural designs was released and they received 233 entries. The winning design was done by Jorn Utzon of
Denmark.
The design of the Sydney Opera House was very controversial when the
design was first announced, especially what appeared to be the white sails of
its roof. But, in fact, they “were not
designed to be sails, but to be sections of a sphere.” Before actual construction could take place,
engineers had to take the drawings and determine how to take the design from
the paper to an actual building. And
during the actual construction there was a lot of in-fighting between the
engineers and the architect. A change in
the government in 1963 resulted in criticism about the project’s costs and the
new governor’s opinion that the design was impractical. In 1966 Utzon resigned and Peter Hall was
tasked with the job of finishing the project.
It finally opened on 20 October 1973.
Taking 15 years to complete (it was planned to take 3 years), it has
since become an iconic emblem of the city and a source of pride among its
citizens, especially for its perfect acoustics.
The Boardwalk (or walkway) around the Opera House offers some of the
most beautiful views of the harbor and bridge.
As a side note, Jorn Utzon never returned to Sydney and never saw his
design in person.
We had tour inside the Opera House.
What an incredible building it is!
It has over 1000 rooms, and several large performance halls including
the Concert Hall, which seats over 2000 people.
The organ alone cost over $2,000,000 and has over 10,000 pipes.
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| Looking up at the inside one of the sails |
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| Inside the Opera House |
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| Close-up of the sails |
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| Concert Hall and organ |
From the Opera House we walked around Circular Quay to the Modern Art
Building for lunch. We had a beautiful
view of the harbor with its many ferries and the large Royal Caribbean Explorer
of the Seas that was leaving today on a repositioning cruise to Singapore.
After lunch we met another guide who took us for a walking tour of The
Rocks, a small conclave close to the Sydney Harbor and nestled next to the
Harbor Bridge.
Once the rowdy home of
sailors and ex-convicts, it has been renovated into a respectable neighborhood
of restaurants, boutiques, and galleries.
The first homes were constructed shortly after Sydney’s penal colony was
established and were used to house the convicts.
These buildings were constructed of wattle
and daub, with thatched roofs.
Wattle
refers to a type of construction where the thin branches of the acacia tree
were woven tightly together between upright stakes forming a woven
lattice.
Daub refers to the sticky
material (usually a combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung, and
straw) that was then put over the woven lattice.
Later the homes were made of sandstone.
One reminder of its former notoriety is the
Lord Nelson, the city’s oldest continuously operating pub.
The first stop on our tour was the Cadman’s
Cottage which was built in 1816.
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| Cadman's Cottage |
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| One of the oldest buildings in The Rocks |
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| Street made of blocks of wood |
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| Remains of a house built into the cliffs in the Rocks |
Tonight was a free night. Many
of the group had made plans to attend a play or concert at the Sydney Opera
House. We tried to get tickets to the
play but it was sold out, so we just had a quiet night at the hotel.
Saturday (our last in Sydney) was a free day.
We left the hotel about 9:30 and went first
to an electronics store to buy a new camera and a charging cable for Bill’s
iPad.
With those purchases made (at
least we will get the taxes back at the airport) we walked to the Anzac
Memorial in Hyde Park.
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| Obelisk in Hyde Park |
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| Kookaburra in a tree |
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| ANZAC Memorial |
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| Inside the ANZAC Memorial |
From there we walked down toward Darling Harbor and the Chinese Garden
of Friendship.
What a serene and
beautiful oasis in the middle of cosmopolitan Sydney.
You enter the garden through the Hall of
Clear Shade and into the Courtyard of Welcoming Fragrance.
(I’m harking back to our walk through the
Forbidden City in Beijing with all these unique and colorful names).
Inside the garden you will find bamboo,
Himalayan Cedar trees, cascading waterfalls, carvings, hidden sculptures, a
lake filled with lotus flowers and colorful koi, weeping willow trees, and many
pavilions.
We also saw several Eastern
Water Dragons and large carp in the ponds.
At the same area as the Friendship Gardens was the Thailand Grand
Festival. We stopped for a few minutes
and saw many Thai women and children in their beautiful native costumes. As it was a very hot and humid day, we left
and walked back to the hotel, stopping at Happy Jacks (the name the company has
to use in Australia as there was already a Burger King) for our lunch. Along the walk back we saw the Sydney Town Hall and St. Mary's Cathedral. Back at the hotel we packed up our suitcases
(again!) as we have any early morning departure tomorrow and got ready for our
Farewell Dinner.
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| Thailand Grand Festival |
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| Sydney Town Hall |
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| St. Mary's Cathedral |
Our dinner was in Darling Harbor and it was very windy and cold.
Fortunately we were indoor but right along
the waterfront.
Darling Harbor is the
trendy part of town with lots of restaurants, hotels, convention centers, and
boats in the harbor.
After several weeks
of fish and chips, both Bill and I opted for the steak which was
excellent.
Then it was back to the hotel
to say goodbye to our guide for the last three weeks: Ben.
Ben was outstanding – he was funny,
knowledgeable, and cool – nothing seemed to faze him – not the fog delays in
Melbourne where 1/3 of his team were stranded in Sydney for a while, the
bushfire in Uluru, and the threat of Cyclone Trevor.
It was sad to say goodbye, but he assured us
we would be in good hands with Lindsay in New Zealand.
Ben will be at the airport with us in the
morning, but he can only get us to security before he has to leave and travel
by train to his home in Newcastle, about 2 hours north of Sydney.
His plans once he gets home – do laundry and
go to sleep.
And he deserves it – he was
one of the best guides we have had.
Lindsay has some outstanding boots to fill!
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