Sydney

Our first stop on this trip to Australia is Sydney, the largest city. Sydney is a vibrant and beautiful harbor city that captivates anyone who arrives. The Harbor Bridge and the Opera House are the icons, but there is much more to see and do in this great city. We started our trip a few weeks early so we could attend Stanford’s season-opening football game against Rice. The game was a bit of a bore as Stanford won 62-7, but we still enjoyed our days here.

Linda's Souvenir Scarf

 A New Building

Old and New

We started our visit with the HopOn/HopOff bus to get an overview. We immediately were seeing one of the great architectural aspects of Sydney. Their heritage laws allow remodeling of old buildings, but the facades must remain unaltered. We see old two and three story buildings right next to a modern skyscraper. In one case, the new building rises just behind the facade so we have three floors of the old building backed by ten stories of new construction.

The world's largest green building. The mirrors in the
middle reflect sunlight on poorly lit areas.

Australian Ibis enjoying the park. They are abundant.

Another friendly aspect of the city is the large number of parks, large and small. Hyde Park in the middle of downtown covers two full blocks and is the site of the ANZAC memorial and the large Archibald Fountain, built by publisher JF Archibald to honor himself.

The Archibald Fountain

Beautiful Church

The Harbor Bridge

Observatory Park above the Rocks district (the oldest part of town) offers great views of Sydney Harbor and close access to views of Harbor Bridge. We visited this park late Saturday afternoon waiting for a Stanford meetup the night before the game. Joining us in the park were five or six wedding parties taking advantage of the picture opportunities. Our meetup was in the Lord Nelson Hotel/Brewpub, the oldest continuously operating pub in town.

Street of old buildings

The last iron pissoir in Sydney. It is still in operation.

We arrived at the Lord Nelson after a day at Manly Beach and a walk through the Rocks. Old buildings dominate this area including the oldest actual pub, the Hero of Waterloo. It was out of service a few years so it has to share oldest honors with the Lord Nelson. Another small park, the Paddock, offers views of wharves built in 1910 to improve Sydney as a port. Today all shipping has moved south leaving Sydney Harbor for tourists and private boats. The wharves have been repurposed as offices and apartments. Much of the harbor area is undergoing construction as the city grows and develops. Sydney supposedly has more cranes in operation than any other city in the world. Seattle leads the USA in this statistic.

Bondi Beach

Two of Sydney’s most popular beaches are Bondi Beach and Manly Beach. We stopped at Bondi on our bus tour and Manly by boat later. Bondi was beautiful and is best for surfers. The curved beach makes for the best waves. It was cold and windy on our visit, so the beach was quiet. We wandered the area and had lunch before returning to the bus. It would be interesting to see the area during a hot summer day, but it did not seem to be an exciting area beyond the beach itself.

Relaxing at Manly

Football volleyball on Manly Beach

That is quite a contrast to Manly on a warm and sunny afternoon. Upon departing the ferry, one has to walk about six blocks down a touristy shopping street before reaching the beach. The beach was busy with sunbathers, families on picnic, and volleyball  players. Two of the nets were set aside for teaching volleyball. Four guys at another net were putting on a great exhibition of soccer volleyball - no hands allowed. We walked up and down the beachfront where we found more shops and a nice restaurant for lunch. Overall, Manly seemed to be a lot more fun than Bondi.

One of those many harbors

I think the best aspect of this city is the fact that Sydney Harbor is ringed with many smaller harbors increasing the size of the waterfront. We passed by several of these on our tour and saw them from our ferry to Manley. Any of these small harbors would be a nice place to live and play.

Darling Harbor is ringed with new apartments and shopping

Sydney offers many opportunities we have yet to sample. The fish market is one of the largest and best in the world. Several interesting art galleries and museums remain to be visited. Last time we were here we did go to the Aquarium and the Maritime Museum. Both would be worth another visit. As always, even with five days in this city, we do need to come back. Travel always leaves us wanting more.

A silver gull. I think it is one of the most beautiful of all the gulls.

The grill work is reminiscent of New Orleans (or perhaps vice versa)