Trains, boats and planes

Wednesday 22nd – a lovely day out with Oisin and Jen while Flynn was in day care, it was lots of fun from start to finish. We walked ten minutes to get the train so that was exciting for Oisin. First stop was the NSW State Library, we’d been there before and would go again. It has the most beautiful reading room in the middle of the original building with richly coloured stained glass, an art gallery with a portrait section (even has two Gottfried Lindauer paintings of Māori), landscapes and generally paintings describing the settlement and history of the state.

The old entrance/exit has huge old pillars outside and in the lobby on the floor there’s a stone map of the Pacific showing Abel Tasman’s voyages including (as seen in the photo) his 1642 expedition where he mapped the top of the south island and lower north island – easy to see our Nelson home and Farewell Spit. And the doors are huge with brass or bronze (not sure which) panels depicting Aboriginal life and also portraits of important colonists who contributed to the founding of Sydney.

The main reason for going to the library though, was for a small exhibition of children’s books highlighting their illustrators and how they went about their work. There were lots of books with an emphasis on diversity but also well-loved Australian books. Oisin was very excited to see the Grug and the painting of its house. https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/imagine-t…

We headed down the hill to Circular Quay and had lunch at an Italian place Pete and I had been to last year, friendly service, good food – and the peach and passionfruit spritzer was pretty good. Oisin and I spent time looking at the big buildings and watching the ferries come and go, very exciting for the boy.

I love seeing the old sandstone buildings and got a few photos. There’s so much history in Sydney, well worth a visit and a lot to see especially around the Rocks area and the gardens near Circular Quay but that’s just the start. We’ve been here a few times now and see something different each trip.

After lunch we walked along towards the Opera House then headed home on the train again – Oisin was pretty tired and well ready for his bed at 7pm.

We ticked the train box, ticked the boat (ferry) box, and the plane box? Ashfield is under the flight path to and from the airport so planes are frequent but you get used to them. And we'll be heading that way ourselves in a few days.Read more