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Published: October 14th 2009
Bus
The Big Red BusWednesday October 14, 2009 Sydney
Well to put it mildly Italo may have my father's name but he is not a very good cook! Rich and I spent most of the evening fighting over the Rolaid bottle. I am not quite sure if the food was too spicy or if our digestive systems have become accustomed to eating just rice and chicken.
Poor Rich had to be up for a 7am meeting at least I could finally get some sleep after the heartburn ended. So much for making that great effort to finally have breakfast. I have not even seen the breakfast buffet which Rich tells me is wonderful. Maybe tomorrow.
I was determined to get on the Big Red Bus today and see some of the sights of Sydney beyond where I have been walking. So once again I headed down through The Rocks region to Circle Quay which is where you can purchase tickets to board the bus and start your adventure. It became quite apparent to me that all the folks from Singapore that cannot chew gum or litter the streets must have moved to Australia. I am not sure if it is that I
am more aware of it but the sidewalks are literally dotted with dried chewing gum. Maybe Singapore is on to something although I think Wrigley would certainly put up a stink in the US. Maybe we should all learn to just not throw chewing gum on the street. Makes me curious now to check the streets in Atlanta.
The other thing that has become apparent is that the ADA must not have gotten to Sydney yet. There are stairs everywhere. When you leave our hotel you have to follow a labyrinth of stair cases just to get down to The Rocks area. The coming home part is what always wears me out, literally there are no fewer then four flights of cement stairs through alley ways and steep hills reminiscent of San Francisco to reach our hotel.
OK, back to the bus. I finally found the red open top bus and anxiously awaited my turn to board. I found a seat on the top deck close to the front so that I would have unobstructed views of the city. It wasn't long before a swarm of young children boarded the bus with their mothers who elected to sit
Bus Tour
City Hall as far away from their children as possible. You guessed it the children wanted to sit at the front of the bus too! So I spent some of my time making sure they were not standing on the seats, grabbing at leaves as we went by, sitting when the bus was to move so that they did not go flying across the bus. Well sure enough the littlest one stood up just as the bus took off and managed to whack his head against the bus. As he burst into tears the Mom comes running and scolds the children! OK this is just my opinion here, but how about you sit near your children since the oldest is probably 6 and help them learn the rules of riding the bus! Thankfully they disembarked before one of them fell overboard.
The ride through Sydney was delightful as you can imagine it is much more spread out then Singapore. This tour gave me the ability to see a lot in a short time and to also pick out some areas I may want to return to. One of the areas we went by was The Queen Victoria Building which originally opened
Queen Victoria Mall
Toast to Jackie at Lunch in 1892 and described then as the very latest in shopping center design. It was almost destroyed in a fire during 1976 and was threatened to be torn down. Thankfully after sitting in disrepair for four years a Malaysian firm purchased the building and spent 75 million dollars refurbishing it to todays grandeur. I decided that I would continue my bus tour and get off at this stop when the tour was over.
We went by the Botanical Gardens which I hope to take in before we leave. The driver also pointed out along the way how some of the old buildings are protected so are sometimes sandwiched between two more modern ones. Sydney resembles any large city you may see in the US, lots of stores, banks, offices and lots of people walking and talking on their cell phones.
As the tour began to come to end the weather decided to turn to rain thankfully I was able to get to the lower level and waited one stop to get off at the Queen Victoria Building.
Once I walked into this amazing building I could see why Pierre Cardin has referred to it as the “most
beautiful shopping center in the world”. I couldn't help but take many pictures to help you all have a glimpse at this amazing structure.
Since I had skipped breakfast and it was now close to 2pm I was famished and found a wonderful little cafe in the mall to have a light lunch. I don't usually drink alcohol with lunch but when I found a Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand I knew it had my name on it. So I toasted Jackie and enjoyed a great glass of wine.
After looking at one boutique after another I decided to head towards home. Which was only a short walk. The rain had stopped but it was quite cool, the locals have told me that spring has been slow in coming this year. I arrived back to the hotel and retreated to the Executive lounge for my daily cappuccino. Life is good...
Rich came home and we again ventured to the Executive Lounge for cocktails, tapas, and friendship. Tonights gift of beer from our new friend was a Melbourne Bitter brewed by Fosters of Australia.
We decided we were quite full enough and retired for
Queen Victoria Mall
Stairways...notice the tile work from the 1800's the evening so that Rich could catch up on his work.
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