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Published: December 10th 2006
If you like cities, you'll love Sydney. It's a top-notch example of all things good about top cities: a fantastic waterside setting, nice green spaces, a good transport system and a cool mix of peeps. There's plenty to see and do and within 30 mins on a train you can find yourself at the beach or deep in the bush (not Shepherd's although rumour has it there is a fast underground service connecting to London's for all Aussies - we didn't find it!).
We allotted four days in which to check out Sydney including a day in the Blue Mountains and another exploring Sydney's Olympic park.
Like any tourist who visits Sydney, there are certin iconic sights that you just have to visit - no visit can miss the grand shell-like Opera House and the magnificent Harbour Bridge (Laura claims it's just like Newcastle's although I would suggest it's a good deal grander). A drink and dinner in it's shadow is a wallet-buster but has to be done. That's one thing about Sydney, it ain't cheap (as is common of most major cities) and a meal on Darling Harbour's restaurant strip left us hyperventilating, especially since they added a
Sunday surcharge (cheeky buggers!).
Beyond the central city boudary, the city sprawls for miles although "sprawl" is really the wrong word - it's more Pleasantville suburbia than urban. Place names are reminiscent of London with copy-cat names such as Stanmore, Croydon, King's Cross and Lewisham.
It takes 20 mins to get to the Olympic park and we had to visit, having witnessed the event on TV in 2000. This Olympic park joins Munich and Helsinki to make it number 3 on Laura's and my, list. We hired bikes at the Visitor's Centre and cycled round the huge area it covers seeing the various stadia and centres along the way and even watching a bit of sport. Our visit coincided with a big U2 concert in the Telstra stadium (scene of the Olympic ceremonies, the track and field and more recently Johnny Wilkinson's famous drop goal in the Rugby World Cup), so we couldn't go in. Lots of gig goers were there well in advance, queueing for the best view from midday. With any gig you get pikey food sellers bringing a caravan full of overpriced, low-grade sustinence that would give a Food Standards officer a heart attack at
Volunteers Remembered
Every name of each person who helped volunteer for the 200 Olympics is scribed on these tubes.a glance. We gorged ourselves regardless! A quick sneaky elevator to the top of the on-site Novotel gave us the bird's eye view and the last one of the day.
The next day we headed into the Blue Mountains, a visit that will certainly stand out in our Ausralia memories. Instead of paying for a tour we went solo simply buying a train ticket and a ticket for the "hop on and off" bus that circumnavigates the park. We saved a lot of money and got the same experience if not better as we had no time constraints and could see things at our leisure.
The mountains are blue but if you expect to see anything more than a bluey haze you'd be disappointed. The Eucalyptus trees that cover most of the area give it the colour - the scented vapour risng from the trees creates the illusion.
Although only 2 hours from Sydney's city centre, you could be mistaken for thinking you're in the wilderness. Miles of bush stretch as far as the eye can see and from the high vantage of the ridge tops you see incredible views of the huge, rust-coloured rocky lumps exploding
out of the undergrowth. The place is teeming with birdlife with huge cockatoos, colourful lorikeets and other winged wonders swooping around the tree-tops. We did plenty of short treks using the bus as a means of getting from one to the next. There were plenty of people doing the same but the sheer size of the place means you can avoid them if you wish. The visit was rounded off in Leura with a cream tea and scone at a traditional English tea house: Laura was in Leura heaven, then back on the train to Sydney in time for dinner.
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