Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 02:05:12 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Greetings from the 3rd-most beautiful city in the world!
Today morning (today's the 30th) I woke up early, and was out the door by 9 AM,
walking toward "Beverly Hills" train station for the 20-minute train into the
city. As I was walking it was cold, overcast, and drizzling lightly. But the
next two days are holidays, so I didn't want to miss anything just because of
the rain....
First stop: the star attraction -- Sydney opera House.... ok, a 4-star
attraction in my book .... This place is the same age as me (inaugurated in
1973) and it's aged a lot better than I have! I bought a ticket for a 1-hour
tour, which consisted of a visit to the Opera theater (largest theater inside),
along with 3 other smaller theaters. Nice. Sorry .... 4-stars means excellent,
so "excellent." But I liked the external views better than the inside. By the
time I was out it was noon -- and the rain had completely stopped, the dark
clouds were replaced by white ones, and the sun was shining! Beautiful!
Quick lunch, a so-so chocolate pastry, and a lot of photographs later, I
started walking, without any destination in mind. Ended up at "The Rocks" area,
which is the older part of the city, and kept looking old. Coincidentally
(through no fault of my own), this was on the way to the Harbor Bridge, so that
became my next stop.
If the opera house is 4-star, Harbor Bridge is 5! But mainly because of the
views of the opera house from here... I went to a small room under the bridge
which is the start of the "Bridge Climb experience" and asked inside about the
1300+ stairs climb to the TOP of the bridge. Apparantly a once-in-a-lifetime
experience. BUT: they charge $220 for the climb, and they do not allow you to
take anything with you --- no cameras allowed. Then they take your picture on
the top of the bridge and give you 1 picture for free, any others for $15 bucks
more/picture! No thank you. I was out of there pretty quick.
The place I did climb was the southeastern tower -- only 200 stepsto the top of
the tower, for an open-air view of the city, including the bridge and the opera
house. This was fantastic -- I must have lingered there for at least an hour!
There was also a cool breeze blowing so that was great after climbing up 200
steps. All the yachts were in the harbour, people were sailing.... and all the
ferries were going by to their destinations around the harbor.. also a lot of
seagulls etc... all of it made it a perfect spot to linger!
When I finally did come down, I didn't know what else to do -- by now it was
4pm, so I just roamed around the harbor area, eating ice cream, listening to
the street performers singing, watching them juggle knives and firesticks, and
eating more ice cream (had 5 total scoops during the day). Finally decided to
leave there and go to Darling Harbor.
The ferry from "there" (Circular Quey -- in between the bridge and the opera
house) to Darling Harbor goes under the bridge. So I thought that would be
nice, in spite of my "thing" with boats. Well, by the time I made my way to the
wharf the ferry had JUST left, and the next one was 40 minutes later. hmmm....
decided to take the land route instead: train to Central Station, then a
lightrail to Darling Harbor. This is all new -- as of the late 1980's sometime.
Before that it was an industrial area. Now it's a tourist destination, with the
Sydney Aquarium, the convention centre, IMAX theater, etc. I went to the IMAX
-- saw "Ocean Adventure" in 3D. I highly recommend this if it's playing
anywhere near your area -- it shows coral reef (Great Barrier Reef and a coral
formed by a shipwreck in the Bahamas) and all the ocean life surrounding it.
And its in 3D.
Well, after that it was time to head back... lightrail to the train station,
then train to Beverly Hills, then 10 minute walk back here -- total travel time
= 1 hour. Not bad at all!
Tomorrow is the big day -- what I've waited for ever since the disaster last
year at Paris. Best new years fireworks show in the world, and in the
summertime, with great weather :)
[p.s. to those of you who read the subject line: 1st in my opinion -- and my
opinion ONLY -- is Paris (the one in France); 2nd is San Francisco. And
Vancouver, Rome, Venice etc may all be close behind]
Sydney:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
