Some of the sights of Sydney

Our visit to Sydney is pretty much over so I figured I would take a few minutes to recount some of the high lights of our 2 and a half day visit.

An advantage of staying in the down town core is that you are within minutes of all the main sights that Sydney has to offer, especially the Opera House and the bridge. On my previous visit here, back in February of 2008, I was in Sydney for less than a day but spent most of my available time walking around and got to see quite a bit. We stayed at the same hotel as I did that trip (the Radisson on O’Connell) and were down to the harbour within 10 minutes. Janice wanted to see the zoo, as already reported, and others had recommended a ferry tour of the harbour. So we bought tickets first to take a ferry to the zoo for Sunday that also included the ability to hop on and off the ferry where ever and when ever we wanted in a 24 hour period. And we bought tickets for a buffet lunch cruise of the harbour for today, Monday.

While in some ways we got to duplicate the same areas two days in a row it did have the advantage of being able to provide additional insights the second time around. The reason for this is that while we had not planned on taking advantage of the hop on-hop off portion of our zoo tickets we did and got to see everything from Darling Harbour, to Fort Denison, Shark Island and Watson Bay, including a view of the entrance of Sydney Harbour and the Pacific Ocean, many of which were repeated with the luncheon cruise.

Here is a view to the west as we took the ferry to Taronga Zoo:



Out in the middle of the harbour is a small island on which, back in the 1850’s, they built a small fortress called Fort Denison to help defend the harbour and which is now a National Park:



As the city is built all along the harbour and as it is so large we got to see parts we would not have seen any other way. Here is a short video that shows most of the south side of Sydney Harbour, including the Royal Australian Naval base, downtown Sydney, the Opera House and the bridge. Pardon the commentary as I have not altered what was recorded at the time. While we looked at getting tickets to a performance at the opera house there wasn’t anything available in the price range we were willing to pay for Madam Butterfly.



Here is a picture of the bridge from the west side as our ship was moving into Darling Harbour, the next cove on the harbour west of Circle Quay (or Key as they commonly pronounce it here):



And here is a picture of a reconstruction of the Endeavour, the ship that Captain James Cook (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook) was aboard when he came across what is now Sydney Harbour, located at the Australian National Maritime Museum on the west side of Darling Harbour:



Here is a view of Darling Harbour looking north with shops on both the west and east sides followed by a view of a paddle wheeler, one of two, docked at the east side of the harbour, just north of the bridge you can see in the first photo:



Another “tall ship” that we saw is the James Craig, a steel hulled sailing ship from the late 1800’s that is still in use today. In fact they were just getting ready to sail out just before we left Circle Quay this afternoon:



So this brings to an end of my latest commentary. It has been an interesting trip. I have no idea if either of us will ever be this way again. Sydney, while I enjoy the sights, is just too expensive to spend much time visiting. Outside of going to MacDonald’s one can expect to pay close to $20 and over for just a burger! Maybe we are seeing just what the tourists are expected to pay with better prices elsewhere, but somehow I don’t think so. Personally I am glad to have given Janice a chance to see the place too but if I ever come back again myself that will be too soon. Shame to say that for such a beautiful city but it seems you have to be a millionaire to live here (both Russell Crowe and John Travolta own places here). Apparently the median price for a 3 bedroom bungalow is around the $350,000 mark but don’t expect to be any where near water. Noumea is much more affordable in comparison from a travelers perspective. Now, that is one place I would go back to if I ever get the chance, even if I have to learn to converse in French!