More Sydney

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Hey! I've found a Motel that gives free wireless internet access, so I'm going to stay here for ever and finish my blog! Sadly we are only here for one night but I'll do what I can to catch up because it's raining at the moment.

So how did we spend the rest of our time in Sydney? On the second day we walked (...and walked...and walked....), in the heat, through the city, via the extremely classy Victoria Shopping Centre, from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour, not knowing until later that we could have caught a ferry. But it was worth it, it's a very attractive place, lots of bars and restaurants, some Chinese gardens, and home to the Maritime Museum and Captain Cook's Endeavour, which caused such interest when it arrived in Whitby a few years ago. Personally I preferred the Diamond Princess, but you couldn't help but admire the guy and all he did on such a primitive craft. And he was the only English captain who went to Australia and never lost a Test Match. (boom-boom) Getting into the Maritime Museum was bizarre; the admission is free (why else would I be there?), so we just walked in, but were then marched back to reception by a security man, to have a sticky label put on our chests which allowed us to go in. Why? After all those years working with the administrators at LMU, (yes, you know who you are!) you just learn to go along with the flow.

After lunch we walked back through Hyde Park, past a few old, interesting buildings and back to our hotel. The exertions of the day would have been quite enough for most people, but not us. We then decided to take the ferry across to Manly, which is a popular place for commuters to live, and home to a famous rugby league team. It's also a great way to see the harbour, and cheaper than the harbour tours. There I go being tight again, you can take the man out of Yorkshire, but........

There's a really nice walk called the Manly Scenic Walkway when you get off the ferry. I'd somehow formed the impression that Manly was the rough end of town, you know, a bit like Rawdon, but there turned out to be some quite desirable properties down there. We didn't quite manage the whole walk, it goes on for about 8 kilometres, and it was getting late and besides, we were in danger of missing Happy Hour, so we turned round and found a French cafe in the middle of town, between the ferry terminal and the surfing beach.
By the time we caught the return ferry it was dark, which gave us yet another contrasting view of Sydney Harbour and the city, as well as being able to see the Southern Cross in the sky, a formation that they seem quite proud of over here.

Next day we got up rather sluggishly, after the previous day's exertions, and took a stroll outside the hotel to find the Rocks craft market, which had appeared overnight. We got away with only buying an Australia bag, which I'm sure you will see being flaunted around Cas market in a few weeks' time, so the damage was slight. After that we decided our legs couldn't take it any more, so we took a bus to Bondi Beach. (Why do people say that? It was clearly the bus that took us!) This trip was actually damage limitation, because even before we left home, we knew that there was a special "Dawn Chorus" on Bondi, where you sat and watched the sun come up, accompanied by a choir, at 5.30 in the morning. I could have sworn that it was on Sunday, but when I looked in my diary, it had been on the Saturday and we had missed it! Where are administrators when you need them most?

So we settled for an afternoon trip on a very busy bus to a very busy beach. But there it was, another box ticked, another T-shirt.

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Photos

Manly Scenic Walk
The "rough end of town"