Sydney Bike Tour

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On the 19th of February, I was to take the Sydney Harbour Bridge bike tour, that tours downtown Sydney, then has a jaunt over the Sydney Harbour Bridge into the land over on the far side of the bridge for a bit, then back. There was little interest (it would have been just me and my guide) in the tour that I signed up for, so I elected to join a different tour (which had one additional person in it due to other folks not showing up) that would focus entirely on downtown Sydney and the Circular Quay area.

We started from very near the Sydney Opera House, then made our way around the Circular Quay, under the Sydney Harbour Bridge around and up to the Sydney Observatory, a quick jaunt through Darling Harbour and the Kings Wharf area, a quick look into Chinatown, a little bit longer pass through Hyde Park simply due to its size, then back around to the Sydney Opera House area.

Since I signed up for a longer tour originally then joined the shorter (classic) tour of the downtown area, I got some money back and was offered the ability to keep the bike as long as I wanted that day. So, I missed some photo opportunities on the tour, but went back and retraced a few steps before running over and catching a ferry over to the Manly Beach area for a couple of hours.

These photos depict what I saw of downtown Sydney on the bike that day.

Oh, here is something from the quite interesting department. Our tour guide today guided a group of crew members from a private charter the day prior. On this private charter were three pilots, two chefs, three flight attendants, and 50 paying customers. Each of the paying customers paid USD $80,000 for their ticket. The whole group of them were travelling the world for two months, staying in deluxe accommodations wherever they went, with a private jet to take them to their next port of call. All of them were from Iceland. That sounds extremely cool to me.

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Photos

Starting Point
I do have a collection of photos of just the Opera House as a separate blog entry.

Opera House Up Close
From below the stairs up to any one of its many entrances.

Starting Point
Another perspective.

Opera House Bar/Restaurant Area
The entire lower level here was mainly bars and restaurants, with a couple of souvenier shops thrown in. A very cool place to have a drink after a long bike ride. I paid NZD $8 for an Asahi draught, but was well earned.

Circular Quay
The operational side of Circular Quay that was always quite busy with ferries coming and going.

Sydney Library
Located just steps away from the water of Circular Quay, the library once hosted a celebration for David "Bend It Like" Beckham up there on the top floor, supposedly with music from Elton John. Given those two in the same room, if you heard the expression "more balls in the face than", you wouldn't be able to tell if they were talking about David Beckham or Elton John. Now that's funny, and hats off to Al Franken for that joke.

Sydney Opera House
From across Circular Quay.

AUD $16.5 Million Pad
Our tour guide told us that one of these units recently sold for AUD $16.5 Million. The good news is that you get the slip for free with condo ownership.

Sydney Harbour Ship Operations
This structure is now what is used to coordinate shipping traffic in Sydney Harbour.

Looking up to the Sydney Observatory
We were on the way there, stay tuned for more photos of that area.

Sydney Observatory (lower grounds)
Quite beautiful, but not nearly anywhere on the scale of Hyde Park.

Sydney Observatory Entrance
A rather hight point, in terms of elevation, of the area in general.

Sydney Harbour Bridge looking from the Observatory
Cannot see any bridge climbers from this perspective.

Huge Trees on Sydney Observatory Grounds
No people in the shot to help you understand the size of these giants though.

Midway Across the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Taking a quick break to view the scenery from this vantage point. Our guide (Anthony) made it quite clear that this path was a high traffic area for bicycle based couriers in the area so "stay clear" as they are a "hearty bunch". We managed to stay clear.

Sydney Harbour Bridge from below
Lots of lattice work there.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climbers
Once you are on top of the bridge, this is about the lowest point on all of the climb. It is only higher in elevation from this point.

Introducing Hyde Park
This was my first sighting of Hyde Park, and wow, was I impressed. A very cool, very large park. I am sure pretty tiny by NYC standards and Central Park, but quite beautiful to me.

Hyde Park Cement Pond
A nice water feature immediately opposite the Anzac Memorial.

Anzac Memorial
Note that it was a public offence to sit on these stairs. Punishable by some fine I would imagine. I dared not.

A short break in front of the Anzac Memorial
By all means, when taking a photo in front of a memorial, sport your best bike helmet hair you have.