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On the first day of our extra long weekend we were up at our usual time to have breakfast and walk the dogs before dropping them off at Granite Hills Boarding Kennels down at Tynong. Our friends who live at Maryknoll recommended these kennels highly so we hope that our spoiled twosome, who are accustomed to having 'run of house', will cope with being housed like dogs for the weekend!
With the dogs all organised we returned home to finalise our packing and head to the airport. We allowed plenty of time for contingencies (just yesterday morning traffic on the Monash Freeway was thrown into chaos by a truck driver driving along the freeway the wrong way) and arrived at Tullamarine way ahead of our flight time. Not to worry, that's what Qantas Club is for! Our flight left on time and just over one hour later we were in Sydney. Collecting our bags from the carousel we noticed some rugby players in maroon gear in the arrivals hall. There was a mad rugby fan getting them together in twos and threes to take 'selfies' with them. The players were all very obliging.
Bernie organised Opal cards (Sydney's Myki
equivalent) for us so that we could use public transport to get around Sydney over the weekend. He was sure that he had activated them and put $40 credit on each card, but when we tried to go through the barrier to the Airport station the computer said 'No, insufficient credit'. Uh-oh, that was unexpected. An attendant took some cash from us and went somewhere to put the credit onto our cards. He said we would need to ring the customer service line to find out about the $80 that Bernie thought was already on the cards. With credit on the Opal cards it was easy to take the train to Central Station and then walk to the Metricon Apartments on Campbell Street.
We checked into our apartment and then walked out the back entrance of the Metricon and down a lane and came out on Goulburn Street right opposite the Sydney branch of my office. Blagh, I had no idea that we were staying so close to my work. Having organised a few meetings held in the Sydney conference room I found I was already familiar with the Coles store that we were heading to for a few
supplies for the weekend!!
After stowing our supplies in the fridge we headed back to Central Station to catch the train to Circular Quay in time to see them flick the switch to turn 'Vivid 2014' on at 6.00pm. Wow! The Opera House was AMAZING all lit up. We were disappointed to discover that the bridge is lit from the other side so not very spectacular from Bennelong Point. However, we could see the bridge climbers wearing their light vests climbing all over the bridge like pulsing light worms!!
We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant in The Rocks and then headed back down to the harbour to photograph the Opera House opposite. With the weather so fine and mild we decided to take the train over to Milsons Point tonight to see the lights on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was after 10.00pm by this stage so it was very quiet over there. There was no queue at the Intel interactive touch screen booth where you can 'Colour the Bridge'. Bernie took the opportunity to choose the colours while I looked after our cameras and tripods. We chatted to a couple of photographers while we were there;
one from country NSW and one from a village near Barcelona in Spain. Both were back for their second 'Vivid' and said that it was amazing to see no-one queued up to light the bridge. Apparently last year people queued for an hour and a half to have their turn at colouring the bridge!
By the time we returned to the Metricon after midnight I had recorded 24,858 steps for Friday, 23 May 2014. That's 16.98km.
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Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 15; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0622s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
VIVID=WOW
We were at 2014 Vivid Sydney last weekend...wow...your shots are fantastic. How did you get the harbour waters so calm for your Harbour Bridge shot from Milson's Point? I did a blog of 2013 Vivid Sydney with the many faces of the Opera House. Maybe I'll do one for 2014 as well. Isn't Vivid Sydney fantastic?