Sydney 28th and 29th February

Opera House at Dawn

Our first view of the Bridge

We woke up at about 6.30 to see Sydney Opera House inching past our window as the Captain manoeuvred the ship into dock, so we rushed up to the deck and got some pictures of the Opera House and Bridge in the dawn.  Our dock must be the best location in town with great views to rival those of any of the hotels and centrally located for shopping and attractions. 

Sydney is huge  with around 4.5 million people, it is centred around two Quays – the Circular Quay where we docked which is the hub for all of the ferries and leads into the centre of town and Darling Harbour which is home to the Aquarium, Museums and Exhibition Centres.  Behind our ship are the original wharf buildings which have been regenerated as in London docklands, and the oldest house in Sydney (maybe in Australia) dating to 1816 (first settlers came in 1788) – plus a statue of Captain Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty) who was governor of New South Wales – presumably after he recovered from the mutiny.  The outskirts are not so attractive and ressemble some of the more run-down suburbs of London or Brimingham – it also seems to suffer from traffic problems as we discovered when we went on a trip.

Manly Beach

As soon as we could we left the ship to take a 30 minute ferry ride to Manly beach.  We had been told that the ride would give us a great view of the harbour (which it did) and that Manly was just as good as Bondi – don’t know if that is true as we didn’t have time to see Bondi as well, but the locals said it is.  The sea looked so inviting that we had to go in several times – would have loved to be able to surf as it looked great fun and the sea was actually warm.  It was a very hot day – about 30 C.  We returned from the ferry and went for a close-up look at the Opera House which really is amazing – it was finished in 1973 having taken 14 years to complete (instead of the promised 6) and cost 102 million dollars instead of 7.  The main problem seems to be that although Jorn Utson came up with a super design neither he nor anyone else actually knew how to build the roof.  He worked it out eventually but later left the project due to forced cost cutting on the design of the interior – he died in 2008 having never returned to Sydney, but his son has recently been employed to try to redevelop some of the interiors to his original design.

Following that we walked into the town centre and then explored the old part behind the ship, called The Rocks.  There are still lots of old buildings dotted around  the town dating from around 1840 – some are still used as hotels,  and have been refurbished keeping the old style.  We also did a circuit on the monorail which weaves in and out of the buildings.  In the evening all of the world cruise passengers were treated to a posh dinner in the Town Hall – an impressive Victorian building which houses one of the biggest organs I have seen.  It was a super dinner, we were treated to a short organ recital and then speeches from the head of Cunard and the captain – they put a lot of effort into trying to make their guests feel special, and it seems to work as so many people keep coming back!  Anyway the food and drink were good and we did a bit of dancing and really enjoyed ourselves.

We stayed overnight in Sydney and had booked a trip to the Blue Mountains for the next day.  This is marked in a book at home as one of the hundred places to see before you die!  Unfortunately it bucketed down with rain all day and we didn’t see the Mountains at all, though we did descend on the world’s steepest railway into the rainforest in the valley  - I suppose it was atmospheric to see it in the rain but not really much fun!  We returned by cable car but again it was too misty to see anything.  The highlight of the day was the small wildlife sanctuary we visited on the way there where we could get up close to some of the indigenous animals – lots of koalas and kangaroos and wallabies of all kinds were wandering around. 

Let’s hope the rain stops when we reach Brisbane in two days time!