Australia travels, Sydney

Day 8Paddy's marketChinese Garden

3/3/2013

Sunday 3rd March 2013

Today, weather permitting, we have decided to visit a couple of attractions that are quite close to our hotel, “The Park Royal” on Darling Harbour. We have decided to visit Paddy’s Market and the wonderful Chinese Garden. We had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel today as it was Sunday and we do not have very far to walk. The weather was dry to start with, but with showers forecast, I decided to borrow another umbrella from the hotel and we set off for the market.
The sun started to shine as we made our way on foot and I began to use the umbrella as a sunshade. We reached the famous market after a ten minute walk along roads thronged with people enjoying a Sunday morning in Sydney. The market is huge with many hundreds of stalls selling almost everything you could ever possibly need and more besides. Margaret needed a scarf to wear in the evenings and she quickly found a stall selling what she was looking for and purchased a new scarf at a very reasonable price.
We wandered around taking in the atmosphere and marvelling at the huge range of goods on display for sale. The interesting thing that strikes you about ”Paddy’s Market” is that the stallholders are mainly of Chinese and Oriental extraction. I think this was a wonderful contradiction in our expectations, until one realises that “Paddy,” must have been a very shrewd Irishman who set the whole thing up.
I needed a new chain for my St Christopher pendant and I purchased one from a very personable and friendly Oriental lady. I also bought a very nice blue Opal stone set in a pendant on a silver chain for Margaret as a souvenir of a wonderful week in Sydney. I like buying light blue colour for her as I think she has such beautiful light blue eyes.

We wandered through the busy Sydney streets to the Chinese garden which is just around the corner from the market. There were many people queuing for tickets for a concert along the way and when we reached the Chinese Garden, we found there was a huge Turkish cultural festival in full swing across the road. We chose not to bravely cross over and attend this festival, as we were quite tired from getting jostled in the market.

We needed the calm and tranquillity of the Chinese garden. We paid for our tickets and we included the cream tea option of a nice cup of tea and a scone at the end of our visit.
The gardens are absolutely beautiful, restful, with plenty of seats located in some wonderfully strategic spots where one can enjoy peace, tranquillity and calmness. After the hustle and bustle of the dynamic Sydney streets and the commercial bartering in Paddy’s Market it was pure heaven on earth. The wonderful Australian birdlife was in evidence, with about a dozen or more resident Ibis, some perched on weeping willow trees and many mynah birds were flying here there and everywhere. Ducks were swimming in the many pools that were located throughout the garden, some of the larger pools were home to some very big and beautifully marked golden Koi carp, swimming in shoals of about a dozen looking for food.

Water and rocks are a huge feature in this wonderful garden, with some lovely man-made waterfalls cascading through flowering trees and shrubs to streams that are crossed by stone bridges and flow into a large lake set in the middle of the garden. The path around the lake takes you past some wonderfully shaped rocks, apparently rocks are hugely significant to the Chinese people. We noticed also that the garden is home to a variety of lizards and we photographed about five different varieties that were sunning themselves on the rocks as we strolled around. We then enjoyed a very welcome cup of tea and a scone in the restaurant at the end of a very memorable and wonderful visit.

It started to rain again as we returned to our hotel, where we had a rest and washed and changed for our evening meal. It was still pouring with rain when we left the hotel and we had to take the umbrella with us. After wandering around Darling Harbour for the last evening of our visit looking for a place to eat, we decided on a restaurant called, “The Harbourside,” which was a steakhouse that served Portuguese chicken for me, and Margaret had lamb shank. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and left the restaurant to return to our hotel. The rain was still pouring relentlessly, but we slowly wandered back sheltering under our umbrella. We have had a super time here in Darling Harbour in Sydney and I am certain we will return again and repeat the experience. We then took to our bed to sleep the night away before we travel to Brisbane tomorrow.

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Day 7New south Wales Art gallerySydney Botanical gardens

2/3/2013

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Saturday 2nd March 2013
The showery weather was still with us but we had decided to visit the New South Wales Art gallery today, and weather permitting, the Botanical gardens next door. We set off with another borrowed umbrella to have breakfast in our favourite little restaurant on Queen Victoria mall, it was fairly dry when we walked there from the hotel. By the time we had finished our meal, the heavens had opened and the rain was teeming down again, we took refuge in the mall to plan the rest of our day.

Our decision to catch a bus to the art gallery was not without little snags, firstly you are expected to pay for your ticket in advance before you board the bus. The obvious first thought was, where does one buy the tickets? After enquiries from the concierge inside the mall it became clear that bus tickets are purchased from newsagents here in Australia. Having bought our tickets the next question was, which of the numerous bus stops do we need to locate to catch our bus? Enquiries were made from several sources, eventually we managed to locate the correct stop, board our bus, and we soon arrived at the art gallery.

The New South Wales Art gallery is housed in an imposing building. The works of art are very well displayed on several floors, and there is a wonderful selection of works by many artists from all over the world, as well as from here in Australia.
There was absolutely no charge for entrance and we were able to check our bags and umbrella in as we entered. We were allowed to take as many photographs of the works of art on display, as long as we turned the flash on the camera off. We were not permitted to photograph any of the aboriginal artworks on display or any works displayed in private exhibitions held in the gallery.
We slowly wandered around the floors for a couple of hours savouring the beauty on display. There was a magnificent collection of paintings including several works by very famous artists, reflecting life in the early days of the colonies of Australia and many depicting life in Victorian and rural England. These paintings were intermingled with some very impressive sculptures in marble and there were many statues and urns, the whole cultural experience was wonderful. After passing through the gallery containing the Aboriginal paintings and cultural works of art we visited the Chinese and Oriental gallery which is magnificent. There were many Oriental pictures, statues and showcases containing some well preserved and valuable Chinese artifacts. We enjoyed a very welcome cup of tea in the gallery restaurant and continued browsing and photographing the exhibits on display. Sadly we did not have enough time to see everything, and we left the art museum and gallery, vowing to return in the future, when we are visiting Australia again.

We then entered, and began to stroll through the beautiful Sydney Botanic gardens, we were visiting at a different time of the year since our last visit here and we could enjoy a whole different range of plants in flower.

There was a slight sprinkling of rain as we started out and the sky looked quite threatening. It was wonderful to observe the variety of plants in bloom and the wonderful diverse range of bird life, that are happily co-existing in these wonderful gardens. We continued on our way taking many photographs as the gardens run along the seashore to the Sydney Opera House. The views of Sydney Harbour and the many craft moored and sailing in the bay, from pleasure craft, sailing vessels, ferries and some quite large ships, were also spectacular, and it was really quite hard to make our minds up where to point the camera. Then the sky suddenly darkened and it began to rain heavily, Margaret and I sat down on a bench under some large palm leaves and put the umbrella up. It was so romantic just sitting close together and sheltering under an umbrella with heavy rain pouring down all around us. Once again we continued on our way as the rain eased off, and I continued to take many photographs of the wonderful bird life which is so varied and beautiful. I got so carried away, I wandered off with the camera and Margaret lost track of me, when we caught up with each other Margaret said if we lose one another we should meet up on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. I laughed at that romantic thought.

Then, tired and hungry we decide to find somewhere to have a meal before returning to our hotel for a good night's sleep. When we got off the bus on our return to Sydney, we got caught up in the crowds taking part in a Gay Pride march, and there was also a VIP function underway in the Civic centre. The crowds of people were rushing, pushing and jostling everywhere. We searched for ages for a reasonable restaurant without much joy, everywhere we looked we seemed to find fast food takeaways or pizza houses. Eventually, like an oasis in the desert, we came across a small “Coffee Club” restaurant, we have eaten in a branch of this chain in Australia before, and we know they serve reasonable food. We had a very nice, well served and well prepared meal, then returned to our hotel and went to bed.
Another extraordinary experience in a truly wonderful land, generating memories that will stay with us both for many years. Thank you Australia~~~~.

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Day 6~~Rain all day~Washout

1/3/2013

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Friday 1st March 2013

Rain and more rain is the story of today. We started the day with a sumptuous breakfast in the hotel dining room, where we were able to watch the Sydney morning rush hour traffic on the freeways outside the windows, speeding by in the heavy rain. The rain continued without letup for the rest of the day, so we stayed inside our hotel and relaxed, reading and watching the world go by from the comfort of the hotel lounge.

In the evening Margaret did a search on her iphone and located a Nandos restaurant, quite close by. With the aid of an umbrella borrowed from the concierge, we ventured out in the pouring rain to enjoy an excellent meal, following this we went straight back to our hotel for the night.

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Day fiveVisit toEcho Point~~The Blue Mountains and Featherdale Wild Life Park

28/2/2013

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Thursday
28th February 2013
We had a very early start today as we were booked on a coach trip to the “Blue Mountains” and the “Featherdale Wildlife Park”. The shuttle bus was due to collect us from the hotel at 7.30am so we had decided to stay in the hotel for breakfast. What a great idea that was, we had an amazing array of choices and everything was freshly cooked, the price of breakfast here in the hotel is very expensive but the quality is excellent. We were transported by the shuttle bus to a local coach station where we were transferred to a super luxury coach. We actually travelled across the iconic Sydney Harbour bridge on our way to the first stop of our day out. The driver gave us a very informative commentary on the history and construction of the bridge as we travelled across.

Our first stop of the day was a place called Echo point, which is about 4 hours away from Sydney where we stopped to enjoy the view and also enjoy an Aboriginal dance performance. The dancers were dressed in traditional Aboriginal costumes and they were heavily made up and painted with red and white paint signs on their faces and most of their visible body parts. There was a serious side to this very colourful and interesting stop as the tourists were treated to a very interesting lecture about Aboriginal history, culture and lifestyle. A very good way of drawing people's attention to the plight and the circumstances of the original inhabitants of this wonderful continent.

We boarded our coach for the next part of our journey to the Blue Mountains. The name is a description of the hazy blue atmosphere surrounding the mountains that is visible when they are viewed from a distance. The scenery along the route became gradually more fantastic with beautiful views of the rainforest and sandstone and granite rocks and valleys. We stopped at an attraction called Scenic World where we took a skylift down to the top station, the rainforest scenery was stunning as we travelled down to the Scenic World top station. We passed a fantastic waterfall, that fell many hundreds of feet down a sheer cliff face. In the distance was an amazing rock formation of three huge rocks standing upright on the top of a cliff, the aborigines call these rocks the “Three Sisters,” and they are a very photogenic attraction. From here we entered a cable car which dropped us down to a valley in the rainforest that was laid out in trails for the tourists to wander around and explore. The trails are well maintained and allow easy navigation through the rainforest with storm shelters and many different species of rainforest trees and plants. There was a sad lack of wildlife around, but the combined noise of the many tourists from all parts of the globe that were excitedly visiting this wonderful forest today, probably frightened the wild creatures away. A wonderful experience, with the beautiful views and scenery, but I do think we could have been allowed more time to explore before we had to catch the cable car to re-board our coach.

Our next stop was Leura, a very picturesque village in the Blue Mountains where we had lunch, most of our fellow coach passengers had signed up for lunch with the coach firm. Margaret and I had decided to wander around and explore the village and we found a lovely little cafe where we enjoyed a very nicely prepared sandwich and a pot of tea. “Leura has been given the name of ‘The Jewel in the Mountains Crown’ and is also known as "The Garden Village".
The name Leura itself is Aboriginal for ‘lava’. Many volcanic stones have been found in the area.” We wandered around the handicraft and souvenir shops before taking our seats on the coach to continue our journey.

Then sadly it began to rain quite heavily as we headed for our next stop, Featherdale Wildlife Park, this for me was a highlight of our whole day as we were able to photograph and get up really close to the unique wildlife of Australia. Margaret and I had very wisely packed some rainwear and we were able to wander around taking many fantastic photographs of the wildlife on display in this wonderful park. There is a huge variety of wildlife around as soon as you enter the gates of the park. Many species of birds are on display, both caged and free and you can get really close up to them and admire their plumage and habits, including, eagles, owls, brolgas, emus, cockatoos and penguins. There were many koalas on display as we strolled around and many other marsupials including, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, bilbies, wombats and also reptiles including, crocodiles, lizards, snakes and frogs.

Not to mention the caged dingos and the tasmanian devil that was restlessly running round and round his enclosure wearing a pathway in the soil. We were lucky enough to be present when he was fed and he consumed a whole rabbits head, bones included, using his very powerful jaws to crush the bones. I was amazed to see some owls and a wild kookaburra tamely sitting on separate logs as we passed along the pathway and I wondered why they did not just up and fly away. I enquired if they were under sedation from one of the friendly keepers and she assured us they were injured and they were being nursed back to full health. Margaret and I snapped many photographs on our way around the park and I will have to put another slide show together to do them justice. The rain began to get heavier so we decided to head back to the coach. Another wonderful visit where we could have done with more time and less rain to enjoy the experience.

Our coach driver informed us that we could finish the day with a cruise back to Darling Harbour for an extra payment of eight dollars each. We decided to decline this offer as it was quite chilly and we preferred to go back to our hotel in the comfort of the coach. We arrived back at the hotel 45 minutes later tired and hungry.

The rain was still teeming down so I borrowed an umbrella from the hotel and we went off in search of a restaurant. Margaret‘s fantastic sense of direction then came into force and she remembered an Italian restaurant, named “Mama’s” that we have dined in before, on our last visit to Sydney. The food was as good as last time and we enjoyed a very well prepared, well served meal at a reasonable price. We then slowly made our way back to the hotel through the pouring rain to enjoy a well earned nights sleep and to re-live the day with the wonderful memories we have stored away.

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DAY FOURSYDNEY HARBOURTARONGA ZOO

28/2/2013

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Wednesday 27th February 2013

Today we have decided to visit Taronga Zoo in Sydney Harbour, we visited the Zoo before and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
We breakfasted in the same excellent little cafe in the Queen Victoria mall where we dined yesterday as we had been very satisfied with the food and the experience. The waiter remembered us and seated us at a nice little table by the window and yet again we were able to watch the commuting world rush by in droves. It was very interesting to note the obvious business breakfast meetings that were in progress while we were eating, the tables are laid out with seats for two diners and several of them were obviously in use for meetings or interviews.
After our breakfast we crossed the road to a food store with the intention of buying some food to take with us to the Zoo for lunch, we chose to buy two large foot long Subway rolls. We then made our way to Darling Harbour to buy tickets and catch the ferry to Taronga Zoo.
We were just in time to catch the 10.15am ferry and we enjoyed a wonderful ride across Sydney Harbour, past the Opera House and under the impressive Sydney Harbour Bridge. We stopped at Circular quay where we picked up some passengers. The Arcadia, a huge P&O cruise ship was docked there and quite a few of the passengers boarded our ferry to the Zoo. The sun was shining brilliantly and there was a nice breeze as we sped across the harbour past the Maritime Museum to our next stop which was Fort Denison. We were taking photographs of the wonderful view and the sights as we made the crossing to the Zoo. Sydney Harbour is reportedly the largest natural harbour in the world and the numerous ships and vessels using the harbour are a wonderful sight to savour.

We reached the docking area of Taronga Zoo where we had to catch a bus up the hill as the cable car that takes passengers to the Zoo had been damaged in a massive storm and was under repair. The numerous animals and birds from all over the world that are housed in this fantastic place are so obviously well cared for, it was a very great pleasure to wander around taking many photographs. My personal highlights were the many varieties of bird life on display and a very impressive photogenic male lion in the lion house with an impressive mane and eyes to match. There were so many other examples of amazing wildlife on display that I will only be able to do them justice with the aid of another slideshow of my photographs.

We had our lunch at a picnic area and there perhaps I really did experience my personal highlight of the whole visit. As we lunched a wild Kookaburra landed in front of us literally begging for food, he was shortly joined by another light coloured Kookaburra who landed on a branch overhead. There were also a number of exotic Chickens and a Rooster running around freely and a Brush Turkey, who had been stacking twigs behind us to make a nest made an appearance. The noisy Mynah birds were also vying for scraps of our food and then suddenly we noticed a wild lizard sunning himself on the top of a rock nearby. We quickly grabbed our cameras and snapped off some wonderful photographs during another truly memorable lunch time. We continued on our way and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting Elephants, Giraffes, Bears, Mountain Goats and many other wonderful creatures from around the world.

We then caught the 5.15pm ferry from the Zoo back to Darling Harbour, we were both very tired from our Zoo visit so we decided to have our dinner in a restaurant quite close to our hotel overlooking the harbour where there was a very good meal deal if we ate before 6.00pm. The food was good and very well prepared. We enjoyed this wonderful experience at the end of a lovely day together, the evening sun was warm and we strolled back to our hotel, hand in hand, to sleep and dream.

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day three Darling harbour sea life aquarium.

27/2/2013

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Tuesday 26th February 2013

We found a lovely little cafe-restaurant in town that served a delicious breakfast, this is situated in Queen Victoria Mall in a little square that is in the heart of Sydney city commuter land. It was very interesting just sitting enjoying some very well prepared food watching the people rushing by on the way to work. It is absolutely true that faces mirror the mind as there were hardly any smiling faces among the passers-by, reflecting the mundane daily worries going on behind the facade. The weather is absolutely gorgeous here compared to what we have been used to in England, it is so nice to wander around covered in suntan lotion in shorts and sandals without socks.

We had planned to visit the Sealife aquarium on Darling Harbour today and then finish the afternoon in the quiet of the beautiful Chinese garden nearby. We started as planned and began exploring “Sea Life” which is huge and is spread out on three floors of tanks and aquariums. Margaret and I were overawed by the colours, shapes and sizes of the varieties of marine life on display, and we began to take many photographs as we leisurely walked around the exhibition. I think there is every conceivable example of sea life imaginable on display here from deep sea sharks, turtles and numerous examples of brightly coloured reef fish. These fish are all kept in conditions that resemble their natural environment as closely as possible, and they are fed a natural diet mingled with whatever else is available that is acceptable to the fish. The tanks are cleverly built so that they run both over your head and on each side of the walkway, and they even run underneath the walkway in some places. This added a wonderful richness to our visit as it seemed as if we were in the water with this incredible array of marine life.
I could not help noticing how many varieties of fish and marine animals were all closely confined together and yet they all seemed to coexist without too much trouble. I think lessons could be learned from this coexistence by keeping a healthy distance without intruding on the space or the way of life of others. We spent all day just wandering around this wonderful aquarium and we both felt contentedly tired. We decided to postpone our visit to the Chinese Garden and we headed back to the hotel where we changed for our evening meal.

We were then faced with the decision of where to eat and as we were still quite tired from our fishy visit, we decided to dine in a restaurant called “The Hard Rock Cafe” which is quite close to the hotel. This proved to be an interesting decision, we did not know quite what we were letting ourselves in for. The music was very loud, the place was packed with diners which can be a good sign and we had to wait 20 minutes to get seated.
When we did get seated and served, we found the food was good and the portions were huge and we soon began to put up with the music volume and enjoy the food. After our dinner we made our way back to our hotel and went to bed.

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Day two Park Royal Hotel Darling harbour.

26/2/2013

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Monday 25th February 2013

We caught a shuttle bus from the airport at 8.45am. We checked into our hotel, “The Park Royal”, on Darling Harbour at about 9.30am, we were very fortunate to be informed that our room was ready for us and we could move in straight away. We deposited our suitcases in our hotel room 729, where we discovered we had a beautiful view of Darling Harbour from our window and the room was welcoming and comfortable. We both freshened up and changed our clothes into something a lot more summery, to gel with our new beautiful first taste of Australia’s wonderful sunshine.
We headed out to explore the beautiful harbour area where we had lunch as the memories of our last visit to Australia came flooding back. Tiredness and jet-lag began catching up with us and we returned to our hotel to sleep the jet-lag off. In the evening we went out again to Darling Harbour, where we enjoyed a really nice Thai meal and had a wonderful time exploring. The area around Darling Harbour is very vibrant and alive with many people just wandering in the warmth of the evening enjoying life. After dinner we returned to the hotel and a good nights sleep.

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Day One ~~Heathrow to Sydney

24/2/2013

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Saturday 23rd February 2013

The weather was freezing when we were collected from home by our driver Roger at 2pm. His mission was to take us to Heathrow Airport, A taxi ride to Heathrow Airport that was interesting in the way that we learned a very great deal about Roger and his life as a taxi driver. Apparently he is a part time employee of the taxi firm that we use,and he is employed to cover the overflow. The traffic was very light and we had a clear way for most of the journey.

We arrived at the airport and checked our luggage in and made our way through the customs which we cleared pretty quickly and easily, We then settled ourselves down for a long wait as our flight was due to take off at 9.30pm. Margaret had prepared some delicious baguettes and we made short work of those. There is nothing more interesting than people-watching at a very very busy international airport, all shades and descriptions of human life are on display. Margaret went off to purchase some duty-free perfume as a birthday present for Liz, while I sat and studied the varieties of human life that were travelling from London to many different areas of the world.

We boarded the aeroplane which was in the very familiar Qantas colours, and settled ourselves in our seats ready for the long flight ahead. Cramped seats, airline food and watching the progress of the flight from the flight path view on the monitor. Sleeping for much of the time and thirteen hours later we arrived at Singapore airport, stiff and ready for a break. An hour later we re-boarded our aircraft and took the same seats to continue our journey to Sydney. Two more delicious airline gourmet meals? Whoever decided to serve spaghetti aboard a cramped aircraft with a plastic knife and fork is an evil genius. Seven hours later we arrived at our destination, Sydney airport at 6.45am, on Monday, on the wonderful continent of Australia. We then got through customs very easily, Margaret declared some Pork scratchings that she had bought as a promised present for son-in-law Mark, and I declared a straw hat that I was wearing, because of the straw content.

We had left our home at 2.00pm on Saturday 23rd February and arrived at Sydney airport at 6.45 am on Monday 25th February. The various time bands meant we had lost a day somewhere, no doubt to be gained on the way back.

The sun was shining gloriously~The exact opposite to England in the Winter~All the horrors engendered by the long haul flight vanished instantly.

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Day 8Paddy's marketChinese Garden

Day 7New south Wales Art gallerySydney Botanical gardens

Day 6~~Rain all day~Washout

Day fiveVisit toEcho Point~~The Blue Mountains and Featherdale Wild Life Park

DAY FOURSYDNEY HARBOURTARONGA ZOO

day three Darling harbour sea life aquarium.

Day two Park Royal Hotel Darling harbour.

Day One ~~Heathrow to Sydney

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