Sydney Day 2

After breakfast we got a couple buses from Little Bay into the City Center. Our first stop was St. Andrew's Cathedral. We almost walked past the small cathedral because it was hidden behind some tall trees. The doors were locked when we got there, but an information poster listed dates for free lunchtime concerts on Wednesdays, which was today! The concert was in about 45 minutes, so maybe they were getting some things ready. We decided to visit some nearby sites and come back for the concert.

Next door to the cathedral is Sydney Town Hall. It was a pretty cool building , especially from the side when you could see all the different towers and sections. There were also some interesting red artificial flowers decorating part of the exterior. It was sadly closed for visits, so we walked across the street to the Queen Victoria Building which is a shopping center. The building looked like a standard shop or government building from the outside, similar to town hall, but it extended pretty far back for about a whole block. Looking at it from the side helped appreciate the size. We walked into the building and up to the top floor. Each floor has different mosaic tile designs. There was also a red and green glass dome in the center of the building. Hanging from the ceiling were two large clocks. Each has different moving designs. The first one we saw was more playful with little doll-like characters revolving and moving to change the scene. The second has different scenes that relates to the history of Australia, like James Cook's landing. It also has the days of the week on it.

After we walked through the Queen Victoria Building, we went across the street again and had a peak at the State Theatre, the most beautiful theater in Australia. Guided tours are available on Thursdays, so we had a small look around the room that was open to the public, and took a picture of the outside. The outside of the theater didn't reflect the opulence inside. Now used for live performances, it used to be a place to go and watch movies. The tiled floor and gold ceiling were a fraction of the fancy decor that we peaked through heavy iron doors to see in the next room with marble landings and flooring. It would have been a cool building to look around.

Once we finished at the State Theatre, we took the short walk back to St. Andrew's Cathedral for the performance. The Australian Police Band performed. The first group was a brass quintet that did a medley of things. Then a woodwind group performed Rhapsody in Blue. Finally there was a small jazz group of three people. We left as the jazz group was starting to make sure we had enough time to see all the things we wanted to. It was a nice venue and lovely music.

We got some lunch and then made our way to Pitt Street Mall. The pedestrianized area was lined with fancy stores and nice cafes. Branching off of the street was The Strand Arcade. This glass roofed building reminded me of the Queen Victoria Building. It also has tiled mosaics on the floors with colored glass ceiling. This building was also full of very nice stores and cafes. It was a beautiful building.

Our city center walk then brought us towards Hyde Park. We stopped in at St. James Church. We walked right past it at first not realizing it was a church. It looks more like a government building. We later learned that the Anglican church was originally meant to be a courthouse until the governor was overruled and the convict architect added a steeple to turn it into a church.

Across the street from St. James is the Hyde Park Barracks. We spent a couple of hours here on a really interesting self guided tour with a free audio guide. Entry was also free and well worth the time. The audio guide tour walked us through the history of convicts in Australia and some of the crimes that brought convicts to Australia and who lived in Hyde Park Barracks. After the history lesson, we went across the courtyard to the barracks building to learn more about the day to day life of convicts and what happened in the building after it wasn't used for convicts post 1848.

The audio guide was a combination of narration and storytelling from former convicts. We saw a bunch of old clothing, buttons, tools, and even old gambling tokens. We also learned about the impact that the British had on pushing our the aboriginal peoples and some of the wars and conflicts that took place. The top two floors were about the history and lives of the convicts who occupied the building when it was built. The bottom floor focused on the asylum seekers and female immigrants who came to Australia after the Irish Potato Famine. Majority of the narration on the bottom floor was from first hand accounts which was a nice touch. There were so many different artifacts that were discovered under the floor boards and in the walls. Many were lost through cracks in the floor or dragged under by rats, which were apparently a big problem. So many personal tokens, puzzle pieces, pieces of clothing, the list is long. It's one of the largest collections of it's type. There was also hundreds of porcelain tubes from old tobacco pipes. Apparently convicts and women alike enjoyed their smoke!

After our visit to the barracks, we walked through Hyde Park over to St. Mary's Cathedral. This was a huge building, unlike St. Andrew's. It wasn't highly decorated inside, but has some lovely paintings of the stations of the cross as well as some nice stained glass windows of some of the saints. The naves were very wide and spacious and the vaulted ceilings were very high. We didn't stay long so we could get the Manly Fast Ferry and see the opera house.

We walked for about 15 minutes to the wharf and caught the Manly Fast Ferry. It was about 20 minutes across the water to Manly, but gave us the best views of the Sydney Opera House from the water without paying for an expensive boat cruise to see it. It was pretty cool to see the opera house and bridge together from the water and then the skyline of the city as we got further away.

Once we disembarked in Manly, we had a short walk around the cove, keeping an eye out for the little penguins. Sadly we didn't see any, but it was still a nice walk around the beach. Given more time it would've been a nice place to relax and have a drink. We didn't linger in Manly, and got back on the ferry to head to Maroubra.

After the ferry and a bus, we got to Rosemary's house. She and Brad kindly cooked dinner for us. We enjoyed Thai green curry and nice conversation for a few hours. Brad even gave me a small flight of some of his favorite gins! Around 9:45 we said our goodbyes and got a bus to the airport to pick up a car. Tomorrow we plan to do a little day trip to the Blue Mountains which will be a lot easier with a car. Once we had our fancy electric mystery car sorted, we drove back to the apartment, had quick showers, and went to bed before our early-ish start tomorrow.Read more