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.
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.
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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