Monday 6th April Brisbane to Sydney, Tuesday 7th Sydney
UNITED KINGDOM | Tuesday, 7 April 2009 | Views [184] | Comments [5]
Having completed our journal on Sunday, we called in at the Casino (housed in a building that used to be The Treasury, but now makes more revenue for the council than it did before!) Unfortunately we have contributed to their coffers as we lost $1 on the fruit machines, but had good fun watching people lose a lot more on the tables.
Paul created a wonderful cold chicken and salad meal which we had in our hotel room on Sunday evening, before retiring to bed ready for an early start on Monday morning.
We were at the Train Station by 6.45am for our XPT (Express Passenger Train) to Sydney which left at 7.30am. We travelled first class for our 14 1/2 hour, 615 miles journey which meandered through lush green countryside, rolling mountains, banana plantations and many forests. We saw lots of wildlife including our first sighting of kangaroos in the wild. What a wonderful sight these animals were bouncing along beside our train. We saw giant anthills, flocks of Ibis birds, along with many herds of cattle, but very few sheep. For more information about Ibis see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibis. The first 2 hours of our journey was taken up with some good fun with some fellow passengers in our carriage. We had some good laughter especially with Betty who had just attended her grandsons wedding in Queensland and recounted many stories from her weekend. The weather was again excellent for the whole journey, but we were very tired at the end of it and decided upon a taxi to transport us to our hotel.
What a fantastic surprise awaited us. We decided to upgrade our hotel room to a studio apartment with a view of the river and we have the best apartment ever. We have a large lounge/diner, kitchen, separate bedroom and bath/shower room. We also have a dishwasher, four ring hob, large oven, fridge/freezer, washing machine and dryer, and a balcony with table and chairs. The whole hotel is very new and very modern.
A really good nights sleep was followed by a quick visit to a local supermarket to stock up on essentials for Paul to cook a superb breakfast. We then ventured out of our hotel and headed for the local Information Office at Darling Harbour where the assistants we extremely helpful. You need to look out for a yellow and blue "I" for Information as these are the local council run information centres, who will give you unbiased advice.
We set off on the free Green Bus for a quick trip to Circular Quay where we sat and had a cup of coffee on the river side, just looking at two famous icons - The Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Sydney Opera House and what fantastic structures they both are. We had to nip ourselves to make sure that we are really here and not dreaming.
It was then off for a tour of The Opera House with Declan our guide who gave us an enormous amount of information about the planning, building, construction and running of this now 8th Wonder of the World and World Heritage Listed Site. Construction started in 1959 but it was not completed until 1973, at a cost of 102 million dollars (australian) and was opened by The Queen in 1973. The original architect was danish born Utzon whose design was chosen from 220 submissions. Sadly he fell out with the government half way through and never saw the completed building, but thankfully he was asked, just before his death last year, to redesign some of the interior, together with his son. His original design was based on seashells and segments of a sphere. It is a stunning design and is a building that is always immediately recognised. It consists of 6 theatres - 4 minor theatres and 2 concert halls mainly for operas and ballet. We could not go into one of the concert halls as tonight there is a world premiere of Star Trek see http://www.flickr.com/photos/camoby/3419980468 also for more information on The Opera House see http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com
It was then off to The Royal Botanic Gardens and we jumped aboard the Choo Choo Train for a 30 minute tour around these magnificent gardens, including the area where 20,000 Fruit Bats hang out in the trees!! These huge bats have to be seen to be believed, so much so that after our train tour we walked back to see them again, and on the way we were pleased to see 4 white Cockatoos.
We then walked around the area known as The Rocks (eating our McDonalds ice cream which we have become addicted to!!). This area was going to be demolished in the 1970s but thankfully wasn't. It is full of some of the oldest buildings here in Sydney. This area is full of character and a great place to wander round in.
Australian fact of the day - Captain James Cook called this area 'New South Wales' and no one has any idea why, as it is mostly on the east coast.
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