In amongst the family related activities in Sydney, Tom and I were able to spend a couple of days wandering its older neighborhoods, the area around Circular Quay, The Rocks and Hyde Park. We were struck by the number of 19th century, Victorian and Edwardian public buildings and private homes still remain, often tucked up against ultra-modern skyscrapers and rise-rise apartments.
On one of these tall buildings, we observed something we’d never seen before: window washers rappelling down the face of the building, laden down with loads of equipment, but washing windows without the benefit of a platform, scaffolding or any other support. I was both nervous and spellbound watching them.
Although Sydney is now home to dozens of sparkling skyscrapers, right in the center of the city on Macquarie Street a magnificent Victorian era hospital has been preserved, still preforming its original function.
Next to it is the New South Wales Parliament—not some grand classical façade like many of Sydney’s public buildings, but a building of quintessential Australian colonial design.
Of course, we also strolled around the quay and took in the Opera House and Harbor Bridge—how could you ‘do’ Sydney and miss those? One of the days was warm but very gloomy and overcast, but the second time we were blessed by beautiful sunshine and we made the most of the weather by taking a ferry across the bay to get a look at Sydney’s iconic waterfront from the water.
On both occasions, gargantuan cruise ships were docked at Circular Quay, disgorging their hordes on the city and blighting the landscape, and we also watched several smaller ships pass under the famous bridge.
One thing we really enjoyed on the quay was reading all the brass plaques on the Writers’ walk dedicated to literary figures who had lived in or visited Sydney.
As we walked, we observed an outdoor chess match, replete with an Australian white ibis, originally a marsh bird, but now perfectly adapted to life as an urban scavenger and derisively nicknamed ‘bin chickens’, ‘tip turkeys’, ‘picnic pirates’ and ‘sandwich snatchers’ by the locals.
When you first encounter one, they seem so exotic and interesting, but after watching them with their long formidable bills squabbling noisily and viciously over someone’s leftover happy meal, they become about as attractive as your average city pigeon or seagull.
As we meandered about the city, we kind of stumbled upon the old governor’s mansion, built around 1830, and enjoyed strolling its beautiful grounds, peeking into its windows and lounging on its grand verandah, imagining ourselves back in the times of empire, sipping a cool drink and complaining about being stuck out in the backwater of Sydney, so very far from ‘home’ all the while gazing out at lush tropical gardens and the spectacular panorama of Sydney Harbour.
After walking through Sydney’s Hyde Park, admiring the lush tropical landscaping, interesting signage, and intriguing fountain we ventured into St Mary’s Cathedral, an eerily accurate nineteenth century reproduction of a European Gothic cathedral, complete with rose window, French gothic façade and English gothic nave.
We mastered the Sydney subway system, amusingly to us, modelled on the London Underground, with a similar logo and ‘mind the gap’ warnings at the edge of the platform. It’s a great system, and we got ourselves back and forth from Epping with ease.
After walking among the shiny new skyscrapers clustered along the waterfront, we ended one evening with dinner on The Rocks, as Sydney’s oldest neighborhood is known, admiring its quirky shops and alleyways.
As we returned to the quayside train station, we noted that the huge cruise ship had departed, leaving the harbour to the iconic ferries and restoring it to the vistas of the harbour we have all come to know from countless New Years Eve footage of fireworks shooting out from the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Sydney was never a place I spent much time when I lived here as a teen and young adult. The few times we had visited as a family, we were usually in our sailboat, so most of my recollections of the city are from the vantage point of the water. This time, exploring the city on foot with Tom, was like seeing it for the first time, as he was, and we both came away with a keen appreciation of Sydney’s beauty.
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