Sydney Day 2

We woke up this morning and headed into downtown Sydney again.  There is just so much to do and see that it is hard to take it all in.  We had a little shopping to do so that was our first order of business.  My watch band broke and the battery on Katie’s watch died.  We spied a Woolworth’s store near Victoria shopping district so rode the train there.

Woolworth’s is like Shopko or Target.  Anyway we found inexpensive replacement watches.  It is so nice to look at our wrists and know what time it is.  While in the area we walked past St Andrews Cathedral,

Town Hall,

and Victoria Center

We found an Orange Snail there,

We discovered the snails are part of the Cities Art and About festival.  There are 24 scattered about the city and all are called Snail Ovation.  We enjoyed seeing them.  Most are yellow, but there are a few of other colors.

From there we headed to Circular Quay and took a “Hop on, Hop off” cruise of the Sydney harbor.  The harbor is large with many bays.  Circular Quay is located near the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.  It is hard to take a picture without either one or both being in the picture.

Bridge,

Opera House,

 

Here is the city skyline from the harbor,

Although the city looks new and modern in this picture, it has a really interesting mixture of old and new buildings.  That, in my mind makes it a fun city to visit. 

These are some of the high price homes and apartments in the area of Double Bay, and then a picture looking into Double Bay.

These sailing dinghies looked like a class on sailing.

Of course no Harbor would be complete without sailboats.

The boat we were on made numerous stops including the Sydney Zoo.  We stayed on board until reaching Watsons Bay.  There we had lunch at Doyles.  This is a well known restaurant right on the water.  Here is the view from our table.

On our menu was Ulladulla fish and chips and Scallop, fish, prawn pie.  both were delicious.

Here is a view of the restaurant from the wharf.

We “hopped back on” the boat and headed back to Circular Quay.  There we took the Hop on, Hop Off bus ending up at the PowerHouse museum.  It was a science based museum (versus art) housed in an old generating plant building.  It had some really interesting displays.  I took in the mechanical displays while katie took in displays on design and The Beatles.

This is the No. 1 steam engine used on the Australian Railroad.

From this picture you can see they had a lot of displays on transportation through the ages.

We were finally chased out when they closed the museum.

Other places of interest; this is the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Center.  It also was the Olympic swimming event center during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

This Coke sign is on the Australian National Register.  In other words it is protected by law.

This fountain is in the center of a traffic Round About…..maybe an idea for Norfolk?

This is a painted wall ad for a Bakehouse…..I couldn’t resist taking this one with the people.

We ended our day with a nice simple meal at a sidewalk café on Circular Quay.  One the menu was Minestrone Soup, and Spaghetti with meat sauce.

I will leave you with one more view of the Sydney Harbor bridge.

Tomorrow we are off to the Blue Mountains and Canberra….

For Dayna…..what city in US is most like Canberra?

Till tomorrow

Sydney Day 1

Today was a day for sightseeing around Sydney.  It was a fun and interesting day.

We took the train into central Sydney (Circular Quey) and purchased tickets for the City Tour buses.  These are double decker buses that tour through the city and allow you to get on and off anywhere along the route.  We had done the City bus in the past, but they have added a bus to Bondi beach.  The tickets work on both buses with the ability to transfer between buses.  We spent most of the time on the buses but did get off at a few places.  It is a good way to get an overview of the city, its various neighborhoods plus stop at for a while and explore an area in more detail at your leisure.

Here are a few highlights of the tours.

Here we are on the upper deck of the bus ready to go.

Victoria shopping area.  This building started out as a produce market many years ago.  Now it has many stores and shops on multiple levels.

A statue of Queen Victoria is located at the main entrance.

One of the finger wharfs that has been converted into an apartment complex.

New South Wales State Library building.

Sydney’s famous and picturesque Opera House.

Bondi Beach and the Pacific Ocean (Tasman Sea).

Victorian style houses.  These are on the national register.

Couldn’t resist taking a picture of the Mushy Peas sign…..sounds really appetizing.

Sydney Harbor bridge also known as the “coat hanger”. 

An Ibis that was running around in The Rocks area.

Some of the back area in “The Rocks”.  The Rocks is where the initial English settlement took place.

Another view of the Sydney Opera House from across Circular Quey. 

We are not sure of the significance of the yellow snails, but we saw a lot of them around the city.

 

Finally we went to the top of the Sydney Tower to watch the sunset.

We hopped the train after the tower tour and headed back to our hotel near the Sydney airport.  Tired but had a fun day.

We end with a quiz for Dayna:  Can you name the individual that “discovered” Australia for England.  Extra points if you can name the location where he first set foot in Australia.

Kings Canyon

It has been a busy three days since my last entry in this blog.  Internet service here in this part of Australia is spotty at best.  In Kings Canyon it was available but expensive and very slow.  In fact there was no cell phone service in that area.

We traveled by motor coach from Ayers Rock Resort to Kings Canyon.  It is all in the outback which is essentially the entire central section of Australia.  This area is classified as semi-arid instead of arid only because they get 30 to 50 mm (millimeters) of rain annually over the amount to be classified as arid.  It is however NOT barren.  It is full of interesting trees, bushes and grasses.  In addition we have seen some interesting wild flowers and beautiful birds.

While waiting for the coach we noted this old Austin that is being used as an ad.

We stayed at one of the 4 hotels at Ayers Rock Resort called the Outback Pioneer.  It had nice rooms and good food.  Ayers Rock resort is actually a complex that has a small town with shopping (including and IGA, Post office, Bank, etc.) and three other hotels plus a camping area. There is a shuttle bus that will take you to any area in the complex.

The distance  between Ayers Rock Resort and Kings Canyon is probably only 75 to 100 kilometers, but because of the lack of roads it was a 320 kilometer trip.  We rode in very comfortable motor coaches with stops along the way. 

We stopped to view Mt Conner, which reminds me of the mesa’s of Arizona and New Mexico.  In that area was a salt flat.  Very foreboding looking.

We also stopped at a couple of ranches for breaks and food.

At Kings Canyon we checked into the resort (the only one around) and had a nice meal at the local bistro.

Then the next day we had a choice of a rim walk around the top of the canyon or a walk up the river bed at the bottom of the canyon.  I elected the river bed walk since it was much leveler.  The rim walk required climbing 500 steps plus lots of sloped other climbs.

The walk back the canyon was beautiful.  Some select pictures.

Here is a picture of my sister and myself.  The netting is a necessity.  The flies are really thick.  To keep them off you face and other parts you need the netting and really good bug repellent.

That afternoon drove back to Ayers Rock Resort.

Today, we fly to Sydney and back to civilization.  We have to go from our “outback” attitude (laid back) to more of a formal (but relaxed) atmosphere.