I had a fantastic time in Sydney Casey, and I will try and remember everything I learnt and saw during the day.
Sydney is the capital of NSW and the largest city in Australia with a population of over 4 million people. Many tourists like to come here for their holidays and it is famous for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
The city is in Sydney Harbour, also known as Port Jackson, which is a drowned river valley and the largest natural harbour in the world, and many people say it's the most beautiful.
Inside the harbour there are several islands and you can see many boats. Ferries and high
speed catamarans take people to others parts of the harbour including Taronga Zoo Park and Manly, a famous harbour and seaside suburb. There are two main bridges, The Sydney Harbour Bridge and a modern day one called the Anzac Bridge which is the longest cable-stayed bridge in Australia, and amongst the longest in the world. I think it is a beautie. That's a photo of it on the right and you can just see the Harbour Bridge in the mid background.
In the Sydney area there are more than 70 harbour and ocean beaches, including the world famous ocean beaches of Manly and Bondi so you can understand why the Aussies love their water sports.
First, I'll tell you a little bit of what I've learnt of the history. Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip as a convict settlement and was the first European settlement in the country. Until that time Aboriginals had lived there for at least 30,000 years. In a letter sent back to England, Arthur Phillip wrote that they had been very lucky in finding a very big and safe harbour. The British and Irish convicts were put to work to build roads, bridges, wharves and public buildings. When ships began arriving from the British Isles, with immigrants looking to start a new life in a new country, the town grew very quickly. By the 1840's the first suburbs were started and the town was declared a city in 1842.
Pat minded Reagan so that Craig and Shannon could take me sightseeing. First we had a walk around the city. Here and there, amongst the tall skyscrapers were many beautiful old sandstone buildings. Two of the most famous are the Sydney Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building which are adjacent to each other. Sydney Town Hall was build in the 1880's and is the only old building in the city, besides some churches, which is still used for it's original purpose. It contains one of the world's largest pipe organs and is one of only 2 organs in the world that has a 64 foot pipe. Under the building is the Town Hall Railway Station. That's me waving on the steps of the building in the photo on the right.
The Queen Victoria Building, [upper right photo] was built on the old Sydney markets site and was completed in 1898. It is a grand building taking up a whole city block. They were going to pull it down in the 1960's
but decided to restore it instead to it's former glory. On the roof is a huge centre dome with many smaller domes around it. Stained glass windows are everywhere and lots of skylights. Inside, the building now has four main shopping floors full of upmarket shops. Underneath, a passageway goes across to the Town Hall Railway Station. The red flags are for the world famous City to Surf race which is held every year. This is a 14 km running race which starts in the city and ends at Bondi Beach. In the photo I'm standing next to Queen Victoria's statue which was a present from the people of Ireland. While we were here we had some smoko. Craig said this is an Aussie slang word for coffee break usually used by people in the building industry and he grew up with the word as his dad was a builder and so is he. Even Tara knows what the word means.
From here we decided to walk across Pyrmont Bridge. [photo on right] This is a swing opening bridge finished in 1902. At the time it was one of the largest swing bridges in the world and one of the first to use electricity. Now it is only for walking across and the monorail, a Bicentennial gift to Sydney, runs above it. Here I am with my camera and the city is behind me.
That tall tower building on the left of the photo is Sydney Tower, sometimes called Centrepoint and is the tallest building in the city. It boasts the highest public observation deck south of the equator, sitting 250m above land, where you can see all over Sydney and 55km out to sea. It is the 2nd tallest building and has the highest restaurant in the Southern Hemisphere. The restaurant revolves so you can see the whole city while you eat and brave people can even skywalk outside on the roof where you will experience sensational 360 degree views of Sydney and surrounds.
The bridge took us to Darling Harbour, a large recreational park on the western side of the city. It used to be docks and a railway goods yard but it was developed into a tourist centre. There was so much to see and as we didn't have the time to cover all of it Craig told me about the area while we walked. The Darling Harbour area includes the Entertainment Centre, Chinese Gardens, Maritime Museum, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife Park, an Imax Theatre plus restaurants and retail outlets. That's part of Darling Harbour below with another view of the city in the background.
After wandering around the many shops and buildings and stopping for a spot of lunch we started heading back along the walkway on the far side [behind me in the photo] to reach the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The bridge is the world's largest steel arched bridge and was nicknamed the "coathanger" because of its shape but now everyone just calls it the bridge. It links the city with North Sydney and the North Shore. As more and more cars crossed the bridge a tunnel had to be built under the harbour to make travelling easier.
I was very surprised when Craig said we were booked in for a bridge climb. This sounded so exciting. He said we'd walk right over the top of the bridge. First we had to listen to a safety talk and then we put a special suit on over our clothes and a safety harness and we were given a radio and headgear. Next we practised in the climber machine so we could get use to how it would feel. Then we headed off. We weaved through catwalks, up ladder after ladder until we reached the Upper Arch Climb. Here we had a birdseye view of the beautiful harbour and city. When we reached the middle it was stunning. I could see all around me. We crossed over the bridge to the other span and climbed back down again. What a fantastic experience and one I'll never forget. We couldn't take our cameras up but the leader took our photo. Here I am wearing my sunnies [Aussie for sunglasses] with Craig and Shan. Isn't that a spectacular view behind us of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour.
After our climb we wandered through The Rocks and Circular Quay to catch a ferry to get a better view of the harbour.
As the ferry pulled out we looked across the harbour to the North Shore and we could see Luna Park a famous historical amusement park, and the largest in NSW. It was opened in 1935 but has been closed a number of times during it colourful 70 odd year history. They say the design of the face was based on illustrations of Old King Cole.
Heading east and after passing the Opera House at Bennelong Point we saw the beautiful Royal Botanic Gardens overlooking Farm Cove. This was where the first farm was built during the settlement days.
It was here in the gardens that the final scenes in The Matrix were filmed. The gardens are the largest in Sydney, it's free to enter and it's open everyday. Then we travelled past Fort Denison, originally a large sandstone rock, it was a prison site in the early days. A fortress was built there in the mid 1800's during the Crimean War as it was feared there would be a Russian invasion of the harbour. It is now a museum and has Sydney's only island cafe. The weather is measured there every half hour and at 1pm each day a canon is fired from the Fort. In the photo you can see the end of the gardens and the city buildings behind the fort.
We continued
along the foreshores, passing the
Eastern Suburbs and Watsons Bay, home to the world-famous Doyles Seafood Restaurant. Then, having reached South Head, we crossed the harbour mouth to North Head and Manly, one of the most popular beaches in Australia. From here we started the return trip and onto Taronga Zoo where we had a quick stop. The view across the harbour was breathtaking from here. We could see the city, Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Those animals certainly have a perfect spot!
After passing Kirribilli House, the official home of the Prime Minister of Australia we headed back to the Quay. It was getting dark by now and the harbour looked great with the twinkling lights. We had some dinner before returning back to the house.
Craig said he had a surprise for me the next day and we needed to get up early so I headed off to bed as I was bushed [very tired].
Catch you later Casey, Stanley
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