Sydney Day 4

We had another sightseeing day in the city center after our day in the Blue Mountains yesterday. The Lonely Planet book for Australia has a lot of small walking tours so we decided to do one of those again.

We got the bus to the Customs House which also serves as a library and visitors center. The floor inside has a 3D model of Sydney underneath glass floor panels. It was pretty cool to see, especially from the balcony of the library floors above. They also have a cafe on the top floor of the Customs House with a good view of Harbor Bridge.

Our walk continued past the Museum of Contemporary Art, which we didn't visit so we could see more of the city, and then past Cadmans Cottage. This is one of the oldest buildings in Sydney and was the home of the government coxswain. It was right on the harbor, which made perfect sense for someone in charge of boats and sailors. It didn't sound like a very fun job though. The building was designed by Francis Greenway, the same convict architect who designed St. James Church and Hyde Park Barracks.

We walked through The Rocks seeing different buildings and alleys. The area is called 'The Rocks' because of where it is placed near the rocky harbor. George Street was full of old pubs and hotels. If you kept walking down the street, it turned into the nicer area we were in the other day with brand shops and nice restaurants and cafes. Off of George Street is Suez Canal, so naked because it sounds similar to sewer. It's an alleyway that's very narrow at one end, and gradually gets bigger. Apparently a gang called The Rocks Push used to operate in the area and you didn't want to be caught down one of these alleys. They had a specific style of dress and they heavily influenced public perception of the area (that it was to be avoided). The Rocks consisted mainly of working class people, and the violent gangs didn't help its image.

We kept going through The Rocks and walked through Greenway Lane, so named after the convict architect who lived in a house here for a bit in order to make better improvements to buildings for the governor. The cobbled lane was discovered under asphalt and restored. You could see the lines from old carriage wheels. Down from the lane, we stopped in at The Rocks Discovery Museum which takes your through the history of The Rocks, Sydney, and Australia as a whole. It also covers a brief history of colonization around the world.

We started heading out of The Rocks and passed under the Argyle Cut. It's a huge underpass that was dug out with shovels, and eventually some dynamite, by convicts. Shortly after passing under it, we walked past the small Garrison Church and Argyle Place which is lined with some nice houses. We crossed the street up to Observatory Hill which is where you can find the Sydney Observatory which does evening tours. We also had a great view over the harbor from here.

With our walking tour finished, we decided to walk across the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was a nice day for a walk, but a bit windy. Luckily the rain we saw in the distance held off! We walked across the bridge and took some pictures from the other side. We then got the ferry back which passed underneath the bridge. Back on the other side of the harbor, we visited Fortune of War- Sydney's Oldest Pub. It was unfortunately undergoing renovations inside, but we had a beer outside it in their garden area instead.

After our quick pints, we rushed for the bus to get back to Little Bay to shower and change before heading back to the city center for our performance at the Sydney Opera House. We saw Daniil Trifonov perform a piece by Rachimanov alongside the Sydney orchestra. It was a lovely performance and he is a very animated pianist. After the intermission, Daniil was finished performing, which I didn't expect, and the orchestra played a five part piece.

After the performance we rushed over to The Spice Room for a curry dinner. It was a bit of a mess because our booking was for 2 hours from 9:15, but when we arrived they told us the restaurant closed at 10:00 and they were doing last orders! I was a bit annoyed, but luckily we kind of knew what we wanted. The food was nice which sort of made the trouble worth it.

It was raining when we left the restaurant, but we wanted some pictures of the opera house at night. We did get some nice pictures, and decided to walk around the building as well. It was a nice temperature, but the rain did start to pick up which was unfortunate. We kept walking back towards The Rocks to go for a drink. We assumed Friday night it would be pretty lively with all of the pubs there, but when we got there, we were disappointed to see most things had closed or were closing within the hour. A bit defeated, we walked back to the bus stop and got the bus back to Little Bay. In hindsight, it was probably for the best, because on the bus a wave of exhaustion hit us and we started feeling tired.

Back in Little Bay, we sorted out some laundry we'd started and I did a bit of organizing before we get ready to head to Cairns in the morning.Leggi altro