Jeremy has booked me into a hotel next to a flyover! The Icon of Sydney

Old Meets New Crazy Juggler


























Why don't Vauxhall make sensible cars like this?

Well the ankle has put up with a day tramping round Sydney. Still having problems going down stairs and hills and uneven ground is painful. But overall it’s doing fine. Which is a good thing as Sydney is a great city for walking in. I walked from the hotel round to the Opera house this morning. Didn’t get going until 10:30 as I had my best nights sleep yet. Mind and body have adjusted to the new time zone just in time to go to New Zealand and another 3 hours further on in the day.

The area around the hotel, Darling Harbour is a fabulous combination of tourist attractions, bars and restaurants and residential/business developments. I had a good walk round last night and again this afternoon. Looks like there is some kind of free concert this evening so I’ll be going back later. Also found an Indian restaurant, so curry for tea later I think.

From Darling Harbour I walked through the working docks past a cruise liner and a car transporter ship. The area between the docks and the skyscrapers of the central business district is full of quaint colonial houses, mostly painted in mellow fawns and browns, looking glorious in the sun. I then found my way into some very expensive and trendy looking pier developments for my first good view of the harbour bridge. The expensive was confirmed when I noticed that each one comes with a parking space and yacht mooring.

I then went under the bridge and round to The Rocks. The Rocks is old Sydney, with warehouses, terraced shops with verandas and a couple of large traditional hotels (pubs). I had a mooch round the rocks and thought about giving it all up to become an outback opal miner. They must make a few quid looking at the price of opal jewellery. From The Rocks I carried on to Circular Quay, the main ferry terminal and ferry rail connection.

The Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art is also at Circular Quay, but unfortunately only one of the four floors was open as ‘a major installation’ is going on. The sign didn’t say what was being installed. The one floor that was open had an exhibition of Australian poster art and signage from the 1930’s to current. Some great stuff including a fantastic gate sign reading ‘Beware of the god’ maybe you had to see it to appreciate it.

On the grass next to the museum is a 50 foot high TV screen erected especially to show the cricket. I didn’t hang around there long. Instead I moved along circular quay to listen to some aboriginal didgereedoo players busking. I bought a copy of their album and I’ll see if I can post music on the blog or at least post a link to their website. So high tech these aboriginals. Sorry the typing slowed down there but it has just gone 6:00 pm so I had to stop and open a cold beer. For the connoisseurs it is a Carlton Draught. Not as good as the Pure Blonde I had in the week, but OK. I though the guys from Imperial were winding me up on Wednesday evening when they sent me to the bar for 4 Pure Blondes. Was disappointed when the barman gave me four bottles of lager.

Anyway back to today. I then spent nearly half an hour watching a crazy English fire juggler build up a crowd from nothing and then get $5 off of each of them including me, for his wild and very funny show. I went from Circular quay round to the Opera House and had a lunch time beer in the bar on the terrace below the Opera House with a fantastic view of the harbour and a pleasant sea breeze. From the Opera house I walked round to the Botanical Gardens for a stroll in the indigenous trees and then from there back across the peninsula to Circle Quay for the ferry back to Darling Harbour.

I am going to post this blog entry, drink me beer, take a shower and go find something to eat and, hopefully, watch a free concert. Had a text message from Julie Dunn this morning and her flight was delayed out of Heathrow so she won’t be in Sydney now until 7:15 on Sunday morning, so not sure if I will see her, may just pass like ships in the harbour. That reminds me I have to send her an email.