Sydney, Australia

Day 11

We had an early wakeup call (5am) as our transportation company wanted us to leave at 6am for our 930am flight. The drive was quite rainy, but mostly uneventful, except for our driver being very sleepy, so we engaged him in conversation as Pat noticed him drifting off.

We were on a full flight (Airbus 350 in 3x3x3 seating). We both had aisle seats across from each other. Pat’s middle seat partner was a 6′ 4″ Fijian who struggled to keep within his seat boundaries. He reminded Pat of what it was like sleeping with a sick child in your bed – he was all elbows and knees.

We landed in Sydney and took an Uber to the Hilton Sydney Hotel. First impressions of Sydney … amazing! So developed, so clean. We checked into our hotel, then headed for the Sydney Opera House area to get something to eat before our 7pm performance. Walking through the city again, it was quite remarkable. Everything seems so clean, and there is so much “commerce” – retail, hotels, bars, and restaurants. There were lots of people out and about. Everyone looks very fit and in shape. Another big surprise is that they have palm trees. We weren’t expecting that.

The Sydney Opera House is absolutely amazing! Pictures can’t capture the beauty of this landmark. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is equally stunning. There was so much to take in at one time. More to come on each of these as we will tour them during our time in Sydney.

We grabbed dinner at Bennie’s right along the wharf at Circular Quay. It was very interesting watching all of the activity at the wharf. There was a cruise ship in port and an unending stream of ferries and private boats. We also really enjoyed watching how they maneuvered the cruise ship out of the very busy port.

We then made our way to the Sydney Opera House to have a look around the complex before our performance of Elgar & Vaughan Williams conducted by Simone Young. The entire building is stunning, inside and out. It was designed for beauty and function with no wasted space. There are several places to eat, bars to grab a drink, and different places to go for amazing views while waiting for your show. Prior to our show, there was a discussion about the composers and the pieces we were going to be enjoying that evening.

The Edward Elgar Violin Concerto was simply amazing and the violin soloist Andrew Haveron was sublime as he played for 48 minutes!

After a brief “interval” we returned for the Ralph Vaugh Williams piece which included a beautiful soloist from above (look above the orchestra in front of the organ in the last picture).

The experience was so overwhelming and Cheryl’s heart was so fu11 of joy from the experience.

As we started back to our hotel, we were greeted with the beauty of the city. What a fantastic first day in Sydney!

Day 12

We were up early and out the door for church this morning. We went to the beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral. It was a lovely church and we enjoy attending Mass in different countries.

Then we were off to the Syndey Harbour Bridge climb! What an adventure. It was a 3 hour tour. Our first hurdle was passing a breathalyzer test. They take safety very seriously. Then we had to get into our “climb suits”. No watches, bracelets, headbands, phones, etc. Our glasses were attached to croakies and attached to our suits. We also received a hat which was also clipped to our suit. There was extreme caution taken to make sure nothing would fall down from the bridge and harm the people/cars below. After harnessing up, we went through a simulator to practice our climb and then we were off.

At all times, our harness was attached to a safety cable and we had handrails on either side. The climb was about 2 hours. There were multiple breaks to take in the view, get pictures by the photographer and hear stories about the construction of the bridge.

A few “fun facts” about the bridge:

After our climb, we headed to lunch at Whalebridge, a lovely French cafe near the Opera House. We had hot crunchy baguette, ham, zucchini blossoms, a cheese and onion tart, and olives. It was delicious!

Later that evening, we headed to Bar 83 in Sydney Tower. Apparently we felt the need to be up in the sky once again since it is 83 stories high! They required Pat’s birthdate when he made the reservation (since it was a club), so they surprised us with a birthday treat. We had a lovely evening gazing over the city lights and reminiscing over other nighttime cityscapes we had enjoyed over the years.

Day 13

In the morning, we headed to Bondi (pronounced “bond-eye”) Beach for the Bondi to Coogee Coastal walk. It is a little over 3.5 miles of beautiful beaches, cliff tops and picturesque towns. Along the way, there were several ocean water swimming pools set up to swim laps. It was high tide when we were passing by and the waves would crash into the pool.

We completed our walk at Betty’s Burgers with a well earned lunch. We thought it was a cute unique beachside restaurant (we later realized it was a franchise).

After lunch, we went back to the Sydney Opera House for a tour. The building’s sail-like roof was inspired by the white sails of ships in the harbour and was designed by Jørn Utzon from Denmark (it was selected from the 233 designs submitted in 1956). The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was $7 million. The final cost was $102 million and it was largely paid for by a State Lottery. Construction was expected to take four years. It took 14 years. Work commenced in 1959 and involved 10,000 construction workers (there were no deaths). There are more than 1 million specially designed Swedish roof tiles (they have only had to replace 60 of them over time!).

Due to many issues during construction and a change in government, the leaders made many design changes which annoyed Jørn Utzon. He quit the project and left Australia. A new architect named Peter Hall was hired to design the inside of the Opera House since Jørn didn’t leave his plans behind.

We went to the Marble Bar in the basement of our hotel that evening for dinner and live music. It was a beautiful venue originally built in 1893.

Day 14

Today, we headed over to Circular Quay to catch a ferry to Manly Wharf. This is a very quaint area with pedestrian streets, beachside restaurants and lots of ice cream and gelato shops.

We stopped at Fins and Ribs for the Hoki (New Zealand deep water whitefish) and Chips special.  While there, we enjoyed the restroom signs…”Beauties” and “Mateys”.

We then went to the beach to watch the action for a while.  The waves were really high, probably because of the tropical storm north of us. It was very entertaining to watch the surfers negotiate the waves. There were also a lot of beginner classes going on.

No trip to Manly beach would be complete without a trip to Anita’s Gelato. We would highly recommend it. Cheryl enjoyed Hazelnut Biscuit and Pat tried Hazelnut Mousse with Crispy Chocolate and Banana with Caramel Cookie. We would rate them 5 stars!

We returned to our hotel to rest and get cleaned up for our night out with Josie Chekouras and her husband, Stephen. Pat and Josie went to school together in Lorain. It had been over 20 years since they last saw each other. We were really excited to be able to see her and meet her husband while we are in Sydney.

We headed back down to the harbour and caught a ferry to Mosman Bay. Josie and Stephen picked us up and we went to the Public Dining Room in Balmoral for dinner.

Day 15

This morning we took the train up to the Blue Mountains (they are named for the eucalyptus trees and all species are on the mountains). It took over 2 hours, but the time was well spent working on the Sydney blog. We arrived in Katoomba and boarded a Hop-on Hop-off bus to Scenic World.  Upon arrival, we rode the Scenic Skyway.  We were supposed to have an excellent view of the “Three Sisters” and the second longest waterfall in Australia.  Unfortunately, it was all foggy and we really couldn’t see anything. 

We then boarded their Railway Car which is the world’s steepest funicular railway (52 degrees).  From 1878 to the late 1930s, there was coal mining in this area. The Railway car was used to move the coal up the mountain.    As we descended, we passed through a natural rock tunnel and stone and shale from the Triassic period (205 to 250 million years ago), then down to the coal seams, sandstone and shale of the Permian period (250 to 300 million year ago).  It looked and felt very prehistoric.  When we reached the bottom,  the sky started to lighten and the sun started to burn off the fog.  Success!  We were able to view the Blue Mountains.

This area is a National Park and they have created a wonderful boardwalk through the ancient rainforest valley floor, allowing us to walk along the path for about 30 minutes.  The area was filled with tree ferns, which are ancient, dating back hundreds of millions of years and pre-dating dinosaurs.

After we completed our journey below, we rode up a Scenic Cableway to the top.  From there we viewed the Jamison Valley and were able to see the Three Sisters! They are an unusual rock formation representing three sisters who according to Aboriginal legend were turned to stone.

We then boarded our bus and headed to the village of Leura for lunch. Along the 30 minutes ride, we continued to enjoy the spectacular site the Blue Mountains provided.  In Leura, there was a little cafe in the By Gone Beautys Treasured Teapot Museum, so we had to stop there for lunch.  They had over 5,000 teapots onsite of all different shapes and sizes!

We caught the train from Leura back to Sydney, enjoying the 2 hour ride after a busy day in the Blue Mountains.

That evening, Josie & Stephen graciously invited us over to dine at their beautiful home, where we had the opportunity to meet Stephen’s his two boys, Zach and Daniel, and his brother, David.

Josie spent the day cooking and we enjoyed a delicious dinner of spanakopita, pita and tzatziki, pastitsio, and fresh Greek salad.  As a surprise, Josie also baked a red velvet 60^th birthday cake and we sang happy birthday to Pat.  He truly is enjoying his 60^th birthday! It was a special day, and yet another reminder of the wonderful friends we have.