This morning was a driving morning. We got up, organized and hit the road for Sydney. The drive was basically freeway driving and the landscape reminded me of the Edmonton area.
There was lots of traffic but on a expressway or freeway everyone moved quickly. However just before it was too late we noted a sign on the roadside talking about tolls and we had turned the instructions to Karen to avoid toll roads off. We quickly made a change and she found us a new route providing us with the ability to avoid all tolls. Remember that here in Australia there is no way to pay on route. You are expected to have an electronic device or to buy 24 hour passes. Failure to do so is VERY costly.
Wes had some research and found a campsite on the outskirts of town (North Ryde) but there is a metro station about 700 meters from the campsite. We had decided that we would avoid driving in Sydney and use the metro system which seems to be very well organized. So after we made a late lunch we headed to the metro station to go downtown and scout out things. We had paid for two nights but are prepared to add a 3rd night if we feel it is worthwhile.
The metro train was very easy to catch and it turns out that if you buy a return ticket it is way cheaper than 2 one way tickets. Tomorrow we are thinking we will buy an all day pass which costs 20 each but you can take any train, tram, bus or ferry in the system all day.
The receptionist at the campsite gave us some very useful information and suggestons. She suggested that we get off at the last stop before the Sydney Bridge and walk over the bridge, stop at the Pylon Lookout and then proceed around through the Cahill area over to the Sydney Opera House. We did just that and the views on this sunny day were spectacular. Many have experienced the views from the bridge and around the quay that I do not feel I could describe it completely. We did stop to help a couple from Germany who were trying to get their picture taken with the Opera House in the background and spent about 20 minutes just chatting with them. What a wonderful couple (and they also took a picture of us which is included here). The pictures are grouped by views from the bridge:
Views from the Pylon:
Views of the Opera House:
Views of the Bridge:
Views of Bridge walkers over the top: (cost of $198.00 each)
We considered tickets for a show at the Opera House but there really was nothing on that interested us and at a cost of $100 for the cheaper tickets we felt we should be interested in the show and not just a “I have been there” event. However we did learn about tours of the Opera House so we will do that instead.
As an alternative we noted that the Harry Potter movie is showing at a theatre around the corner so that is something that interests us more so we will do that before we leave Sydney.
Other options for our visit here is to that one of the city tour buses (hop on and off) like we have done in other cities, or get the all day $20 ticket and travel on our own to all the places. But we did decided after looking around that tomorrow we will do an inner city exploration and the following day do a tour of areas outside the downtown area. This means we will be extending our stay to 3 nights from 2.
After all this heavy thinking and planning we decided it was time to explore a bit of the city – the gay section in particular. So we walked down pass the Royal Botonical Gardens (to be explored tomorrow), through Hyde Park (beautiful fountain and St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral) and onto Oxford Street. We found a bar called Oxford (how original hey?) and had a beer relaxing before walking back to the metro and heading back to the campsite to make a late dinner. It has been a great day with beautiful sunny skies, reasonable temperatures and relaxing travel.
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