Touring Sydney

Walking tour

I headed out to find some breakfast the next morning, walking directly under the monorail track that is suspended in the air just in front of our hotel.

There were several of these birds around.  The one perched overhead seems a bit eerie.

A bakery in Chinatown was open early, and had lots of pastries.  One called a "sugar bun" was certainly as advertised.

Our guide met us at the hotel lobby, and we embarked on a walking tour of downtown Sydney.

The first place we went was Chinatown, because it was adjacent to our hotel.

We passed shops filled with nothing but, well, bling.

This pub had an interesting three-monkeys theme.  It used to be a bank.

Many of Sydney's buses are of the double-length articulated kind, like this one.

Does this place remind you of anything?  I wonder if they're just ripping off Burger King's decor, or if it's actually Burger King but they don't have the rights to use that name here.

City hall was under renovation, complete with a life-size picture of the end result hiding the scaffolding.  Scaffolding or no, the flowering trees were beautiful.

Queen Victoria's statue graces the square in front of, what else, the Queen Victoria Building.  There's a statue of her little dog as well.

The structure was built between 1893 and 1898 as a shopping center.  Over the years it had many uses, including offices of the Sydney County Council.  It fell into disrepair and was threatened with demolition in 1959.  After a couple of extensive (and expensive) renovations, it is again a shopping center, this time filled with up-market boutique retailers. (See the Wikipedia article.)

The entrance nearest the statues.

Much of the original floor tile remains and has been restored.

Above the floor, it's a very modern high-end mall.

Talk about bling: how about Swarovski Christmas ornaments?

Back on the street, we saw Sydney Tower (a.k.a. Sydney Tower Eye, Centrepoint Tower, and several other names) between the tall buildings.  It's 309 metres tall (1014 feet), a bit less than the tower we saw in Auckland, New Zealand.  That was Sky Tower, 328 metres (1076 feet).   There seem to be a lot of towers in the world with heights between about 300 and 350 metres.  There are 14 towers whose heights lie between those of the Sydney Tower and Sky Tower, including the Eiffel Tower.  All this is from Wikipedia, of course.

In addition to the standard-issue restaurants and observation decks, one floor near the top of Sydney Tower is Sky Venue, an event space that can hold up to 200 people.  It's the highest event space in the Southern Hemisphere.  Imagine having your wedding reception there.

We walked past the State Theatre, a well-appointed art deco performance hall.  An act from back home is advertised on the marquee.

Wait a minute, Thursday 15th Nov 2012 is today.  But why would we want to come halfway around the world to see American performers?  Instead, we'll attend a concert at the Sydney Opera House today, with the soloists being the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. ;-)

Another view of the monorail, which runs through the central business district.

The tower again, as we walk toward the grounds of St Mary's Cathedral.

Remember the ibis-looking birds from early this morning?  Here they are, hanging out with the pigeons.

Our guide told us a bit about St Mary's Cathedral as we looked at it from the outside.  It's a handsome red stone Gothic building with elaborate gardens.  We did not go inside during our walking tour, but some of the group returned later for Mass.

Eike Richter photo

We walked through the complex known as Hyde Park Barracks, which is now a museum.

Remember Mrs Macquarie's Chair (or bench)?  This gentleman was her husband (and incidentally, also her cousin), Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, CB, Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821.

Taking a shot of the Sydney Tower.

Just in case you don't know it's a kiosk...

Passing Sydney Hospital, we found this bronze stature of a wild boar.  Rubbing it's nose is supposed to bring good luck.

More interesting statues:  This gentleman is Matthew Flinders, an explorer who was first to circumnavigate Australia.  The cat is Flinders' cat Trim, who also circumnavigated Australia and so should share the credit.  The statues are life size; the cat can be seen in the first photo on a ledge just beneath the large arched window.  Flinders wrote the tribute in the last photo.

This bronze medallion was set into the pavement (sidewalk) as we neared the Royal Botanic Gardens.  People used terms less politically correct in years past.

We only had time to walk through one corner of the botanic gardens; it's a very big place.  According to maps, the gardens' grounds run all the way up to the Sydney Opera House.  Here, everyone was shooting photos of the red flowers.

An interesting fountain and an equally interesting tree.

From the Royal Botanic Gardens the Sydney Opera House can be seen.

Eike Richter photo

Captain Arthur Phillip RN, the first governor of New South Wales.

The two-storey brick structure is an historic colonial-era building.  It's now part of the Intercontinental Hotel and the Southern Cross University Hotel School.  The high-rise structure was built within the walls of the historic building.  The facade of the old building had to be maintained unchanged, but within the walls nothing remained the same.

These wooden poles reflect, somehow, the early culture and settlers of Australia.  They seemed to be emitting a humming noise, due to the wind.

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Eike Richter photo

This obelisk marks the central point in Sydney from which all roads into the city were measured; it may still serve that function.

We passed some interesting bits of sculpture as we continued walking toward the Opera House.

We entered an area of Sydney called The Rocks, with some of the older colonial-era buildings.

Some of the shops look like they could have been in the Queen Victoria Building -- Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton.  Then there's the Fortune of War pub, which has been there since 1828 and claims to be "Sydney's Oldest Established Pub." 

For something completely different, there's the Museum of Contemporary Art just across the street.

This school group was on a field trip.

These three "negative statues" represent the settlers, soldiers, and convicts of the early colonial period.  As in America, the indigenous people were invisible.

The yellow building contains several apartments (flats), and is government-subsidized -- it's a council house, or public housing in US terms.  The area is adjacent to the quays where cruise ships and all manner of ferries and water taxis tie up.  Just beyond is the glittering jewel of the Opera House.  The only residential housing in the entire area is this building.  It seems very strange.

This little guy is Biggles, "A Loved Friend of the Rocks".  But the plaque doesn't say why.

Near the yellow house, there are the ruins of some buildings used as housing in colonial times.  This was not an upscale neighborhood, and the ruins have been stabilized and preserved to show to school children how the people here lived then.  A school group is listening to their teacher in the ruins of one house.

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At this point we said goodbye to our guide, and our walking tour ended.  Next on the agenda is some lunch, then (for eight of us) a concert at the Sydney Opera House, and finally (for all) a tour of the Opera House.  All that is in the next blog post, though.  This one is more than long enough!