Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Round The World 2004
Re-discovering Sydney
I got up about 0730, as I was anxious to get some laundry submitted before the cut-off time. Once I had got myself washed, fed and organised, I was ready to start my sight-seeing in earnest shortly after 0900. Sydney, along with San Francisco and Hong Kong, is one of the great harbour or bay cities of the world. Many of the city's greatest attractions are right beside the water and I decided to begin my programme with these. I walked the fairly short distance round past Circular Quay to Bennelong Point, site of the world-famous Sydney Opera House. The sun was quite strong at this stage and I spent some time just strolling around what can seem a reasonably large site, taking photos. I checked to see if there were any performances on during my stay that took my fancy, but there wasn't much on and it didn't really appeal. I considered doing the tour of the complex, but as I had done it before and as it was such a beautiful day, I decided that I was better off outdoors.
Next, I entered the lower part of
the Botanic Gardens and made my way round to the next headland,
known as Mrs Macquarie's Point - apparently because the wife of the
former Governor was homesick and used to sit there watching for
ships arriving from home. (I heard it being explained to a tour
group
) After taking in the view at the point, I
returned to the gardens and sat down for a while.
For lunch, I found a place near
Circular Quay that was frequented by business types and had an
absolutely delicious plate of penne pasta
By the time I had emerged into daylight, a bit
of cloud had gathered, but it didn't look threatening. I made my way
into the busy city centre and called in at the barber's shop in
Gowing's store. You have to think about these things on a 6-week
trip! I then strolled around, taking in some of the more notable
buildings and areas, including the Martin Street Mall, Sydney Town
Hall and St Andrew's Anglican Cathedral.
Finally for the afternoon's activities, I went up the Sydney Tower for a different perspective on the some the places that I had already been and some that I would soon be going to :-
I had arranged
to meet fellow-FlyerTalker EnhancedByCO (a.k.a. Austin) for
drinks and dinner. Austin is originally from New Jersey, now
resident in California and had arrived in Sydney just a couple of
hours before me. We met at Circular Quay and had a beer nearby,
before catching the 1900 ferry to Darling Harbour. After having a
quick look around the various eateries, we decided to go for plain
fare : Austin had bangers & mash and I had mince pie & chips! Well,
there comes a point when you just can't face any more of all that
rich food
Austin is a self-confessed 'transit geek' as well as being into
travel on a larger scale, so there was a great deal that we had in
common - we were never stuck for a topic of conversation! We caught
the 2125 ferry back to Circular Quay and went our separate ways. I
was starting to feel shattered by this time and fell asleep almost
immediately when I got back to my hotel.
Once again, a meet-up with a fellow FTer had been
a great success and I must thank Austin for coming up with the idea
in the first place
