Walking around Sydney

We spent every day in Sydney walking around with the occasional hop on some transport to get to another part of town.  Here's the iconic Sydney Opera House, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Sydney has its own Botanical Gardens, which were lovely but nothing like the huge and varied gardens at Mt. Tomah.  Still, I loved the colors and the warm sunshine.

These birds just sat there and let us take photos.

The Government House sits right along the Gardens.  It's the home of the Governor of New South Wales and was designed by Edward Blore, an English architect who was also involved in the design of Buckingham Palace. Reportedly Governor Bourke, in the 1800's, chose a British architect because he did not believe a "local" would be able to take on the design.  The current Governor, Marie Bashir, is the first woman governor to occupy the house.  I wanted to take a tour but it was closing and we never got back over to this area again...too much to see!
For more info on the Government House, click here.

Huge tree in the Botanical Gardens

We had quite a walk home through the rain, but at least it was warm-ish.  This is Hyde Park.

Monorail

Chinese Gardens

People doing tai chi along one of the wharves

Fountains

Christmas time on the waterfront

Woman fishing from the wharf

Out for a stroll

Nighttime on the water

I am actually finally winding down our vacation posts!  I might have two more so bear with me!

The Queen Victoria Building

The Queen Victoria Building is beautiful shopping center in the Central Business District.  It was designed by George McRae, a Scottish architect who lived in Australia and became the government architect of New South Wales.  He submitted four designs, Gothic, Queen Anne, Renaissance and Romanesque, with the Romanesque style winning out.  The building was finished in 1898 on the site where the Sydney markets had previously stood.  A statue of Queen Victoria reigns outside the entrance.

According to the QVB official site, "The elaborate Romanesque architecture was specially planned for the grand building so the Government could employ many out-of-work craftsmen - stonemasons, plasterers, and stained window artists - in a worthwhile project. Originally, a concert hall, coffee shops, offices, showrooms, warehouses and a wide variety of tradespeople, such as tailors, mercers, hairdressers and florists, were accommodated."

Later, the building housed the city library and various offices, along with "piano tuners, palmists, and clairvoyants."  During the 1930's, the City Council was the primary tenant.  On our visit, this Christmas tree was several stories tall, rising through the middle of the building and covered with gorgeous glass ornaments.

An original 19th century spiral staircase

The building was in danger of being demolished several times through 1959, but later the government put forth efforts to restore it and, in 1984, a Malaysian company called Ipoh, Ltd., took on a massive restoration project.  The QVB reopened to the public in 1986.  Another update took place in 2008-09.  Today, the building houses many upscale shops and eateries.

Stained glass windows

A huge clock is suspended from the ceiling.  It shows the time as well as the day and date, and a train makes its way around the top.

You could spend all day here, just looking at all of the many design elements and visiting all of the shops!  We managed to do a little Christmas shopping and especially liked an indigenous artists' store.  Unfortunately, we got to witness an "ugly American" trying to talk down the price of an object she wanted.  The clerk gave her a discount and she was still not satisfied.  She kept at it and at it till I was both embarrassed for her and irritated with her.  She was whining about how much she really wanted it, and the clerk held firm and said that was the best she could do.  After all that trouble, the woman changed her mind and left.  Ugh.  It was not a flea market or a garage sale,  so I am not sure why she thought she had any bargaining rights at all.

I'm looking wistfully at the Australian Santa.  I really wanted to go sit on his lap and have my picture taken but he was busy with kids and I felt a little silly.  What if Australians thought it was totally weird for an adult to want to have her picture taken with Santa?!  Crazy Americans!

Back to Sydney

 We stopped on the winding road for some pie and a drink.  Look at that huge pie in the back of the truck!

After our few days in the Blue Mountains, we braved the traffic once again and headed back to Sydney.  We were used to  the highway by then but it was a little dicey coming into the city.  Our GPS was working just fine till it started trying to direct us into a construction zone where the streets were blocked off. We couldn't turn where we were told to turn so we had to improvise and the GPS kept recalibrating to give us new directions. At one point we ended up between two big buses in a bus lane and couldn't get out.  

Finally we found the condo we'd rented, unloaded everything, returned the car without any mishaps, and walked back to the condo.  We liked it just fine except that there was no dresser in the bedroom for our clothes. We had a small closet but no drawers other than the nightstands.  I thought maybe it was just missing from our unit, but when I asked about it, I was told that none of the condos had a chest of drawers. Don't you think that's a little odd?  It was a Wyndham property, which are typically pretty nice.  I know it's kind of a silly thing, but we consider it a little bit of a deal breaker.  No fun living out of suitcases for another week.

Bedroom

The internet addict (guess which one of us!) was happy to have wifi along with the condo. The bad news was that we managed to leave the laptop charger at the hotel in the Blue Mountains. By the time we discovered this, the battery was almost dead and the Apple Store was closing. 

There were two small stores right by the condo but they seemed to be more like convenience stores with mostly junk food and odds and ends. We were directed to the mall, World Square,  several blocks away,  so we walked there and had a burger at a place called Grill'd.  It's an Australian chain and I cracked up at their sign.  A little profane but pretty funny. And the food was good, too.

We went downstairs to Cole's grocery and stocked up for our stay. They had these cool little baskets on wheels, which I'd never seen before.   Have you?  Maybe I just don't get out much.  :)  The store was super busy and everything was pretty expensive, even compared to Alaska prices.  We didn't buy a whole lot since we were on foot and had to make our way back to our home away from home.

The next day we packed a lunch and first headed for the Apple Store to replace my charger.  Funny thing was that we had to buy an Australian charger and then stopped at another store to buy a US converter so I could use my computer when I got back to Alaska.  We also passed a huge bookstore called Dymock's and made a mental note to return when we had more time. After enjoying a picnic in one of the parks, we  set out to walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  If you are an adventurer and have several hundred dollars,  you can take a "bridge climb" with a guide and actually climb up the arch.  We considered it but didn't really want to spend the money.  We did walk through the visitor's center and saw photos of all the celebrities who've done the bridge climb, including my favorite, Mr. Bruce Springsteen,  and his two sons.  :)

According to the Australian government website:  "The Sydney Harbour Bridge construction started in 1924 and took 1,400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Six million hand driven rivets and 53,000 tonnes of steel were used in its construction. It now carries eight traffic lanes and two rail lines, one in each direction, but at the time of its construction the two eastern lanes were tram tracks. They were converted to road traffic when Sydney closed down its tram system in the 1950s."  For lots more interesting info about the bridge, click here.

 
The city and the Sydney Opera House from the bridge

Milson's Point on the other side of the bridge

Milson's Point seemed like a quiet residential area, at least the parts we walked.  After looking around for awhile, we caught the ferry back to the other side.  I love using public transport, and in Sydney, this also includes a great ferry system for just a few bucks.

 Riding the ferry

  Stopping at Neutral Bay

 Lots of sailboats

Kurraba Point

Sitting outside on the deck

Ferries lined up at the dock

Featherdale Wildlife Park

I was convinced that we were not going to get to see any koalas or kangaroos in the wild so after the Botanical Gardens, I talked Rich into going to the Featherdale Wildlife Park, where I'd heard you can "pet" some of the animals.  Although the drive took us halfway back to Sydney, Rich was a good sport and indulged me.  Seriously, you can't go to Australia and not see a wallaby and a dingo, right?!  The drive took longer than we thought it would and we arrived with only about an  hour left till closing time,  but it was just long enough to see everything we (I) wanted to see.  We paid our money, walked in the front gate, and got to pet some cute little wallabies right away.  I was excited!

 Kangaroos

Pelicans

 Magpie

There are quite a few koalas at the park and a staff member brings a different one out every so often and lets people get up close enough to touch.  How cute is he?!  His fur was kind-of woolly feeling, not super soft.   I am not sure how much the koalas enjoy this but he didn't really seem to mind.  I know, there are all sorts of ethical issues about confining wild animals and using them for our pleasure...I get that.

A vending machine held ice cream cones filled with grass/hay to feed the animals.  This kangaroo did not want much--I am not sure if it's a good thing that people are feeding them all day long.  I wish we had a picture of the giant ostrich stealing the rest of this cone out of my hand!  I held it out to him, thinking he'd just nibble at it but he snapped his beak onto it and grabbed it hard!  I screamed and Rich burst out laughing. Luckily the ostrich did not take my fingers.

We felt sorry for the birds and the flying squirrels who were stuck in cages and couldn't fly free.  Some of the animals were out in the open and had a lot of space to roam but others were confined.

Another koala.  You know that koalas are marsupials and not bears, right?

 Penguins

 Echidna

Mama kangaroo with baby in her pouch!

And I got to pet a different koala on the way out.  :)

We also saw dingos, tasmanian devils,  wombats, bandicoots, and more, but didn't get the best photos of them as they were in enclosures or lying in the shadows, under logs, or running around.   By the time we were finished, I had mixed feelings about the park and wished the animals were out running free.  At the same time, I was happy I got to see them.  I guess it is people like me who keep the place in business.  :)