Us enjoying Sydney (photo by Graeme of "Bike Buffs - Sydney Bicycle Tours"
Day 1 - Recovering from our flying petri dishes:
After being up all day and dutifully arriving at Seattle's airport several hours before our 5:00 flight, flying for 2 hours, enduring a 4 hour transfer at San Francisco, and flying for 15 more hours, we finally arrived in Sydney at 7 AM. Exhausted.
We swore that if there is a next time we'd fly Seattle to Honolulu, have an enjoyable day or two there, then fly on to Australia or New Zealand cutting the longest flight to a bit more manageable 10 or 11 hours.
The hotel's location couldn't be better - it's in a heritage building dating from 1925 in the midst of The Rocks ... a trendy area of older buildings that had been slated for demolition in the 1960's for a new freeway - it was saved by a public outcry. http://www.hioldsydney.com/explore-rocks The inside has been nicely remodelled as an atrium with rooms arranged around it. We don't look for luxury but do look for comfort and cleanliness - it met our expectations. The only drawback: our windows were not openable, so the room was a bit stuffy.
Luckily the hotel was able to check us in early. We immediately began exploring: it was a short enjoyable walk along the harbor to Circular Quay (the center of Sydney's tourists' world). We walked for hours along the wide plazas and promenades beside the harbor to the Opera House and through the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Sydney is excitingly cosmopolitan; we saw and met people from every corner of the globe (Mali, New Zealand,The Netherlands, China, and many other places.).
We walked and explored until dinner and afterwards immediately crashed into needed sleep.
From a distance the shell of the Opera House looks monolithic and white. We were startled to find that it is covered in a highly detailed, complex pattern of metal "leaves" that shine differently when various light strikes it at different angles.
Day 2: Cockatoo Island
We picked up Opal cards at Circular Quay (easier to use than most transit cards - makes getting around a breeze) and took the ferry to Cockatoo Island. We didn't know about it until it was recommended by our taxi driver from the airport. It was one of our unexpected HIGHLIGHTS - a huge variety: a mix of uses dating from the earliest 1800's: part an historical park (an old prison for convicts transported from England, part a military and shipbuilding area from WWI, WWII, and later; a warren of tunnels and caves in the cliffs from all eras); part a current mixmash of new industries using old buildings; a yacht harbor; and part a place to stay while in Sydney (old historical houses to rent, a massive "glamping" campground, a separate campground for backpackers) - all on a relatively small island only a few minutes by frequent ferry from downtown. It well deserves its UNESCO world heritage listing. http://www.cockatooisland.gov.au/visit/our-history
photo from https://www.sydney.com/destinations/sydney/sydney-city/sydney-harbour/attractions/cockatoo-island
The lives of the convicts were not easy.
Ports were constructed to enable guards to shoot into the convicts' compound in case of uprising. The guards' side of the ports were narrow so that if a prisoner grabbed a rifle's barrel the gun's stock would prevent the prisoner from pulling it through. The sides were splayed to allow a wide arc for firing.
On any picture in the blog, click on it to enlarge it.
Our hotel was only a couple of blocks from one of the stairways to access Harbour Bridge. We walked the full way across it across and back - fantastic views - one of our HIGHLIGHTS).
We debated doing the bridge climb but since some respiratory thing from the flying petri dishes was starting to take hold of us, and since we in our mid 70's, we didn't think we were quite up to doing it. If it were cheaper, and if we were younger, we definitely would have done it. I now have a few regrets that we didn't do it.
We all are familiar with views looking both towards and from Harbour Bridge, but on it I was surprised by its size. It has a walkway on the east side overlooking the opera house and Circular Quay, 7 traffic lanes plus a bus & taxi lane, 2 railroad tracks, and a cycleway on the west side.
From Harbour Bridge: Above: The Opera House and beyond it, the Royal Botanic Gardens
Below: Circular Quay and the cruise terminal
As soon a we got back from the bridge we set off to the ferry to Taronga Zoo,
To us, the zoo was meh: a huge number of exhibits overcrowded into too small an area - a bit of an old-fashioned zoo with animals in smaller areas than a few other zoos - at least they were not in too-tight cages. But we were happy that at least we got to see Australian wildlife there and we concentrated on that section. We expected it to be an introduction to Australian wildlife, but were later disappointed that elsewhere we just weren't in the right place at the right time to see other wildlife ... we didn't even see a kangaroo in the wild)
A koala bear (above) and either kangaroos or wallabies (in spite of the signs in the zoo, since both were in the same exhibit, we were unsure which they were.)
In late afternoon we ferried to Manly. The downtown itself seemed like many tacky beach towns, but the beach and its promenade were outstanding. It was still early spring and a bit chilly so few were on the beach. We walked the promenade past Manly Life Saving Club to the rocky point where we watched the surfers, then continued to Fairy Bower and towards Shelly Beach. .
On the ferry trip back we admired the Opera House at night (a must, especially from the ferry)
Day 4: Biking
This was THE HIGHLIGHT of our time in Sydney:
Against much advice, we decided to bike in Sydney. The biggest problem in a strange city is knowing where, and finding out where, you can safely bicycle. So we signed up for an almost-full-day with Bike Buffs Sydney Bicycle Tours. http://bikebuffs.com.au/
We made the right choice. The guide/owner Graeme met us near Observatory Park (a great viewpoint) with a selection of bikes on his truck. He encouraged us to use electric bikes, which proved to be a good choice - we covered a tremendous amount of ground.
By happenstance, we were the only 2 signed up for the tour that day, so it was like having a private tour.
Graeme is fun to be around - gregarious and a fount of knowledge about the history of Sydney and its current nature. We're a bit shy and reserved, so it took a bit of getting used to the music he blares from his bike when riding, but we soon appreciated it: (1) it alerts both drivers and people walking of our presence (in crowded mixed-use promenades people tended to part for us), (2) it helped keep us together, which would be even more important in a larger group, and (3) I suspect it helps maintain his aura - he's quite a fixture around Sydney and all day long people would recognize him, he'd introduce them to us, and we'd stop to chat.
We rode over Harbour Bridge's cycleway to a number of interesting places on the north side of the bridge including a great bike-oriented coffee shop, Admiralty House (the Queen wasn't there so we weren't invited in for tea), and notably Wendy's Secret Garden, a very special place.https://www.wendyssecretgarden.org.au/
We biked back to Barangaroo Foreshore Walk ( a very nicely done new sandstone-lined promenade around Millers Point), had one of the best lunches we had in Australia, and continued to Darling Harbour thence over pedestrian bridges to Pyrmont. That whole area is filled with newly constructed high-rises and is swarming with people.
We returned to our starting point on some busy main street (was it Kent Street?) that had a physically separated bike lane with signals for bikes - it was far better than any currently in downtown Seattle.
Would I have attempted it on our own? Nope. I'd have no idea of how to find a safe route and we would have missed the places that Graeme took us to and the fun we had with him.
We returned to our hotel in time for dinner, repacked, and went to bed to help us recover from the respiratory thing and to prepare for our early morning flight to Uluru.
Us on Prymont Bridge, headed from Darling Harbour toward Prymont
