Sydney
With a good nights rest and a renewed sense of adventure, we set out to explore with Photo’s cousins. Our first stop was a brief visit to the Queen Victoria Building in the center of Sydney. We spent some time picking up some morning coffee and enjoying the historical building before setting out.
We strolled through Hyde Park and a little of downtown before arriving at the Botanical Gardens
Botanical Gardens
As we had spent our first “day” walking around the harbor, we wanted to see if we could get to a vantage point that would give us that “iconic” bridge and opera house photo. We were able to do this at Mrs. Macquaries point at the north end of the gardens. We spent a few moments here snapping some shots of the iconic view and enjoying the amazing weather we were blessed with.
Manly Ferry
Our next stop was to walk towards Circular Quay to board a ferry towards Manly Beach. We had heard that this ferry offered amazing views of the harbor and waterway. We weren’t disappointed! What an amazing ride and refreshing way to see a city! There have only been a few times in my travels where a practical transportation option was also an amazing travel experience! I highly recommend this to anyone visiting Sydney!
Manly Beach
Upon arriving, we took a short walk to Manly Beach, our first Australian beach! Through research and planning we’d often seen, read or been told that there were tons of beaches to visit. Many of our local friends had mentioned that the bigger “named” beaches tended to be crowded and “not that nice”. When we first arrived, our initial impression was it was breath taking. Being from the Pacific North West, we don’t see beaches often, so this was a pleasant surprise. However having now visited a few more beaches I can safely say that (like our local friends) there are better beaches elsewhere. Nothing against Manly, its great! However, we were able to visit others with less crowds or better views!
Palm Beach
One such beach that I enjoyed more was Palm beach. After strolling Manly for an hour Physio came to meet us and took us to Palm Beach. its an hours drive North of Sydney and quite secluded. We hiked up to a look out point atop a hill where the Barrenjoey Lighthouse sits. The view from the top was absolutely amazing. Because the lighthouse sits atop a peninsula, we were able to see a small strip of land with beaches on both sides! What an amazing sight! By far one of my favorite beaches/area to visit thus far.
Ippudo Ramen
With our “beaching” done for the day Physio took us to a suburb of Sydney where we all feasted on Ippudo Ramen. I hadn’t quite expected Sydney to be known for its Asian food, but it was very tasty and I realized that Asian food in Sydney would rival what we have in Vancouver!
North side of Sydney Harbour & Luna Park
Both Photos and I had wanted to head back to the harbour area to get some sunset shots, so we left shortly after dinner. However we weren’t going to make it back in time, so instead we decided to stay North of the harbour. We spent a bit time take shots of the city from across the river.
In the area was also something called Luna park. It looks to be some sort of amusement park. But it was ridiculously creepy at night! Photos and I went in, and it was closed, dark and quiet. It was like a scene from a clown horror movie! We ventured in for a few minutes and was scared enough to leave right away!
We then walked back across the Sydney bridge! Its pretty high off the water and it was a bit scary but the views were amazing. We tried to take some long exposure shots but it was difficult because the bridge vibrates a great deal from the car, bus and train traffic!
By the time we had got to the other side we were both hungry again. We searched for late night Thai food to satisfy Photo’s craving and stumbled upon Chat Thai! We shared some crab spring rolls and pad Thai. It was very good!
With another long day in the books we headed home for some well deserved rest!