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Published: January 5th 2011
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Following Christmas back in Adelaide with Auntie Susan and Uncle Dave we set off on our travels again for the big one – Sydney !
Tuesday 28th December – Arrived mid-afternoon and checked into our apartment on Darling Harbour. Explored The Rocks area and had a meal at a lovely restaurant, The Waterfront with the Harbour Bridge as our backdrop ! Moved on to explore the pubs of Sydney and met the lovely locals, the Sydney-siders. We met a lovely couple from Newcastle (Australia ), Lynn and Tim who showed us the Sydney sights...it was a late night !
Wednesday 29th December – Woke up with sore heads and made our way (slowly) around Darling Harbour. It was a very hot day. We went to the Maritime Museum and aboard the HMAS Vampire, a WW2 Destroyer and the Onslow(Mrs Bucket!) Submarine. The sub was fascinating though very claustrophobic. We then went aboard James Cooks HMB Endeavour , a magnificent Australian-built replica of “Endeavour”. We learned about how they used a Colliers ship from the North East of England to sail from Whitby to New Holland as Australia had already been named and take it for the English ha ha
shipmates!
Thursday 30th December – Set off with good intentions to book the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb and instead did the Pylon climb with amazing views over Sydney Harbour. Vicky took video of the harbour, the bridge, the Opera House but someone deleted it ! (John the Technophobe !). The Harbour Bridge was being prepared with the fireworks for the following evening. The pylon climb was enough for anyone with a fear of heights (John the Acrophobe !). It was cheaper as well, $19 rather than $200 !! (John the Cheapskate)......anyway, the views are just the same.
We then went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay to view the Annie Leibovitz exhibition – photographer to the stars including Jack Nicholson, Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Queen Elizabeth II...some iconic photos over the years...remember the one of Jack Nicholson playing golf in his dressing gown while smoking a ciggy!
Friday 31st December- Hit the shops on New Years Eve, new shoes and matching bag.... for Vicky ! Got into the New Years atmosphere of Sydney a real buzz of expectation.
We had (thankfully!) pre-booked our restaurant for the evening last August ! – Peter Doyles
on the Quay. We arrived at 7.30pm amongst the one and a half million other visitors for New Years, the streets were buzzing and in usual Australian style it was extremely well organised.
We were greeted at Doyles by Shannon from Chicago, who looked after us all evening. We had a great table with magnificent view of the Harbour Bridge to our left and the Opera House to our right. It doesn’t get much better than this !! The meal was beautiful, Doyles is famous for its seafood and it certainly didn’t disappoint. We particularly enjoyed the mango daiquiri.....(Nicola, learn how to make these !!).
The wine and champagne was flowing and at 9pm we all gathered in the Doyles courtyard to watch the ‘taster’ fireworks over the City and the Opera House and some teasers from the Bridge !
After our meal we went again into the Courtyard to dance to the live band....we then took part in the biggest countdown and cheered as we watched the world’s biggest firework display take place....it was amazing and Sydney we salute you !
Happy New Year !.......we then staggered back.
Saturday 1st January 2011 – Sore heads
all round this morning.
It was another hot one and we got the bus to Bondi Beach ! What a way to spend New Years Day. It was pretty busy so we paid $5 to gain entry to the famous Iceberg Club.
The Iceberg is a seawater pool overlooking Bondi Beach and famous for its swimming club. Founded in 1929 by a group of local lifesavers the club and it’s pool and gang of colourful swimmers has since become an Aussie icon. It is the only licenced swimming club in the world and offers a panoramic view of Bondi Beach. We had a great spot and watched all the activities on the beach while cooling off in the pool. The music from the club above got louder and rocking during the day. The club is visited by all sorts of celebrities,..the Hoff arrived while we were there...can you believe it !
Caught the bus back to the City and stayed local tonight as our apartment was right in Chinatown so we ate Thai (?!). Practicing for our next location Thailand, we went to Capitol Thai, it was lovely !
Sunday 2nd January 2011 – We spent
the day at Circular Quay and went aboard the historic tall ship the Southern Swan for a leisurely sail around Sydney Harbour, cruising past all the iconic landmarks including Sydney Harbour Bridge ! The crew provided an informative briefing on Sydney’s only authentic timber tall ship and it’s amazing history. John helped to hoist the sails(Hoist up the John B sail!) and Vicky relaxed and took in the views. We ate at Nick’s seafood restaurant on Darling Harbour.
Monday 3rd January 2011 –The Ashes. Up early, breakfast at Hyde Park Cafe (!) and we walked to the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) to watch the fifth and final test and celebrate retaining The Ashes with the Barmy Army. Had a great day out and found ourselves with the Army amongst Vic Flowers and Jimmy the Trumpet (weh hey!) once again being entertained and we joined in the sing-alongs. Altogether now...Everywhere we go....people wanna know...who we are...where do we come from...shall we tell them....who we are.....where we come from....we are the England....the mighty mighty England...we are the army...the barmy barmy army...,barmy army barmy army etc etc .
Unfortunately the rains came down around about 4pm (by then we were all
bladdered so it was a great day!) and England had worked themselves into a good position for the day on their way to what we hope is a memorable Ashes Victory. England last won the Ashes in Australia in 86/87.....come on England !
Tuesday 4th January 2011 – Happy 20th Anniversary of your 21st Birthday Nicola !!
Our last day in Sydney and we went on a tour of the Sydney Opera House. We learned the history behind the building of the Opera House, it was originally supposed to take 3 years to build on a budget of $7 million and ended up taking 16 years and cost £102 million ! The building is a masterpiece of late modern architecture and has earned itself a reputation of world class performing arts centre and has become the symbol of both Sydney and the Australian nation and is world heritage site. The famous ‘sails’ design become one with the harbour from wherever you are within the building. There are five theatres in the Opera House and we were treated to a few minutes practice performance of the forthcoming Grand Cirque Adrenalin when we were able to hear the acoustics for real
– brilliant !
We took our last glimpse of the harbour before we set off for the airport ready for our next and last stop of the tour – Bangkok here we come !
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