A Day in Sydney

We haven’t been in Sydney in the lead up to Christmas for many years, so thought it was about time to have a day trip to play the tourist.

Lots and lots of photos here, so grab a cuppa.

The planets aligned for last Monday. Our calendar was free, the weather was forecast to be 23C and some friends were free as well.  We caught the early train down.

Our first Christmas tree - on the Town Hall balcony.

The first stop was morning tea with Karen at the Queen Victoria Building (QVB).  We have tried to catch up a few times before, but something always foiled our plans.  As Mick and I had breakfast at 4.30am, we treated ourselves to a second breakfast of French toast.  It was so good.  Karen’s banana bread was pronounced excellent as well.

Check out the floor in the cafe.

Now that we were fortified, it was time to start exploring.  Firstly, the Christmas tree in the QVB.  No Swarovski crystals on the tree these days, but it was still impressive.

And huge.

A kind lady took our photo.

The obligatory photo of the stained glass.  It’s hard to believe this building was nearly derelict for many years.

Time to have a wander through the CBD.

Surprisingly, many businesses had no Christmas decorations at all, while others were lovely.

The Strand Arcade is always a show piece and this year did not disappoint.  We loved how the main decorations were gum nuts and gum flowers.

A fun view of Centrepoint Tower.

Next, it was Martin Place, with its flower stall and Santa’s hut.  It would look lovely during the evening, when everything was lit up.

Another kind lady took our photo in front of the huge Christmas tree.

As we wandered along Mick and I were taken with a sculpture in front of one building.  I wonder why?  We have seen another of this artist’s installations at Forbes.

We also stumbled up on the art installation of bird cages to commemorate all the birds that used to live in what is now the CBD.

As always, there was lots of construction taking place and Mick had to stop and watch the crane lifting some air conditioning ducts to the top of a very high sky scraper. 

Once we reached Circular Quay, Karen headed off home.  It was great to have an explore with her.  Hopefully, we can catch up again at some stage.

We had a bit of time to kill before our next catch up, so had a wander around the Opera House precinct.

Looking back towards the city.

There was a bit of a traffic jam with all the ferries on the harbour.

There are plaques set into the pavement to commemorate Australian literary figures.  This is just a small sample.

A.D. Hope was a poet and received his high school education at Bathurst High School, so a bit of a local connection.

We then met up with Betty and Stephanie for a quick bite to eat before heading off to do some exploring through The Rocks historic area of Sydney.

The first spot that Betty took us to was underneath the YHA building.  It is a large building tha only received building approval if it was built on stilts to expose the archaeological dig on the site, which is called “The Big Dig”.  Very original.

All this exploring was thirsty work, so time for a cool beverage at the historic old Australia Hotel.

From here we wandered along, with no real direction to be followed.  There are some wonderful views, showing the vast contrast of our first settled city.

As we walked down one lane way we came across an art installation like the outline of a terrace house.  We didn’t think too much of it and didn’t take a photo.  Nearby was a cordoned off set of very narrow steep steps, with a more accessible set nearby.  We went down and discovered what appeared to be the footprint of rooms with bronze sculptures of furniture in the them.

It was set on the side of a small sandstone cliff and there were even more really steep steps going down.  

The handrails around our pathway had the cutest little bronze terrace houses as finials.

And looking back up.

We were suitably intrigued and were happy to find an information board that advised that there had been eight homes on the side of this cliff and that they were demolished in the 1930s.  There was a photo from 1908.  Oh my!  I can’t imagine living like that.  A little Google revealed that we had been visiting Foundation Park, which was established in the 1970s.  You can read more about it here.  

Once we reached the bottom, we passed through a narrow passageway into the vibrant section of The Rocks.  Such a hidden gem.

And, we found another giant Christmas tree.

From here we took the light rail from Circular Quay back to the QVB and a bit more wander around the shops, before farewelling Betty and Stephanie.

Mick and I continued to wander around and found a couple of more intersting shop Christmas windows.

A gaping hole in the Christmas landscape was the famous David Jones window displays.  The only Christmassy one was advertising their Christmas shop.  This was so controversial that it made the news on the TV and newspapers.  It will be interesting to see if they take note of the backlash and resume their windows next year.

Anyway, the day was getting on, so we walked back to Central Station to wait for our train.  There were some nice trees there as well.

We caught the later train, so didn’t get home until nearly 10 o’clock, so a very long day.  The “Bathurst Bullet” may be the slowest bullet in the west, but it such a wonderful service.

It was a rather enjoyable day, made all the better for being able to catch up with the girls.  We did all that we had hoped to do, as well as the bonus adventure around The Rocks.  We need to do it more often.