We spent a week in Sydney in an AirBnB in North Sydney next to the historic North Sydney Oval (the first cricket pitch was laid here in 1867, making it one of the oldest in Australia). It’s a nice place to base yourself with easy access to buses, trains and ferries to Circular Quay and beyond.
As we had visited Sydney back in 2009, we spent some time simply revisiting places we had loved before. There’s been a lot of changes – the new light rail now runs just behind Circular Quay and now huge cruise ships dock right in Circular Quay and dominate the skyline – rather ruining the iconic view of Sydney Harbour Bridge (imho).
We revisited some of our favourite walks, along Writers Walk, through the Rocks (the weekend market here is still good value), under the bridge and up to the Observatory for great views across Sydney Harbour and then another day we walked the lovely trail from Circular Quay, past the Opera House,
through the Botanical Gardens, around Governor’s Domain and around to Woolloomooloo where we had to stop for a “pie” from Harry’s Cafe de Wheels (operating between 1936-1938 and then from 1945 until now). The Tiger pie was delicious with mash and peas and gravy on top – as good as it was back in 2009, but the area has been redeveloped since we wandered the area 14 years ago.
Before the mercury rose to 38 degrees, we took a lovely ferry ride up the harbour to Cockatoo Island. There were lots of informative boards, although you could do an audio tour if you wanted, describing the maritime history of the island from the mid-1800s up to 1991 when it closed. The old slipways are still visible, and lots of the old workshops, design buildings, and steam cranes are still in place.
There’s a convict precinct, historic residence precinct (you can stay overnight here or under canvas), the ship design area, industrial area and the old powerhouse area to explore and a couple of tunnels that run underneath (1 is closed for renovation). It’s all free too, although there are a series of organised tours that you can pay for. Definitely worth a visit.
After the heatwave, the temperature dropped to a much more pleasant 26 degrees, so we jumped on the Christmas bus (decorated for charity) to Circular Quay and then a ferry to Darling Harbour and had a great walk back along the shoreside, watching all the boats traversing the harbour full of commuters on ferries, Christmas party boats, a little steam boat (Waratah, one of Sydney Heritage Steam ships),
the tugs and pilot for the cruise ships and pleasure boats of all shapes and sizes.
We enjoyed revisiting Sydney; there’s always lots to do and see, and it’s easy to get around. You can spend a fortune doing things like scaling the heights of Sydney Harbour Bridge or simply have a quiet picnic and watch all the comings and goings in the hatbour – whatever suits your mood and your budget. It’s easy to use public transport either with a free Opal card that you can preloaded or just tap on and off using a debit or credit card.
After Sydney, we spent a couple of days in Australia’s capital – Canberra. We took the Murrays Express coach for a very smooth trip (cheaper and quicker than the train!).
It was pretty hot, but we did manage to walk to the Australian War Museum and spend a very interesting 5 hours there and attended the Last Post. It’s performed every day, and one of the Fallen is honoured every day with a brief reading of that person’s role in the military – a very moving and fascinating end to our visit.
There’s a lot of building work going on as they remodel it all (continuing up to 2028), but there is still a lot to see. We walked back via Anzac Parade, a wide boulevard with some impressive memorials on each side, and at the far end in the distance, you can see the new Parliament buildings.
We didn’t get to Parliament House in the end, but both old and new Parliament buildings are open to the public.
Then, it was back to Sydney on the coach to pick up a hire car for the next leg of our journey