As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'd always wanted to visit Australia and, when no one would send me, went ahead and sent myself. My last visit was in 1994, roughly a year before I was bitten by the web bug. And ever since that last visit I wanted to return. Which I did, finally, in October, 2001, accompanied by the most recent in my long line of digital cameras. On this trip I revisited a couple of old favorites and explored some new territory. One thing is for sure: Australia is a big place with a lot to see:
I began my adventures in Sydney, giving myself a chance to explore at
leisure and recover from jetlag. (Seems to me that this thing was a
lot easier when I was younger.) My first destination was The Rocks,
the site of the city's (and country's) original settlement. The Rocks
is a good place for tourists to get their bearings, as well as to part
with a few hardly earned dollars. It's also a good place to get a
first view of Sydney's famous Harbour Bridge, about which more in a
moment. Next to The Rocks is Circular Quay, leaping off point for
Sydney Harbour ferries and all manner of other watercraft. The ship
at right is a replica of the Bounty, not from the classic
Charles Laughton film
or the Marlon Brando
version I remember from my childhood, but from a rather less
celebrated Mel Gibson
version. Apparently you can take dinner cruises on this Bounty. Do
you think beatings cost extra?
You may be surprised to learn that Circular Quay isn't; circular, that
is. In fact, it's a semicircle. But Semicircular Quay just doesn't
have the same ring to it, does it? Which isn't nearly as shocking as
Rio de Janeiro not having a rio. But I digress. I wanted to
mention that The Rocks is (are?) at one end of the quay and the
famous Sydney Opera House
is at the other. Which makes a lot more sense
with a semi- than with a whole circle. Circles don't have ends, after
all. At least they didn't when I was in school; who knows what's happened
since.
Among many other destinations, ferries leave Circular Quay every half
hour for Taronga Zoo, perhaps
the most happily situated zoo in the
world. It's a fifteen minute ride across the harbour, followed by a
cable car to the top of the hill. All so I could get my picture taken
with a koala. Well, maybe not all; I did
stop for a look at echidnas, duck-billed platypuses (or is that
platypi?), kangaroos, emus and the rest of the antipodean managerie.
But there's just something about the koala. Maybe it's kinship; my
friend Heather thinks she sees some resemblance between the two of
us. As for the koala, he seems remarkably unimpressed with that
idea.
Next to the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge (see, I told you I'd
get back to it!) is the most instantly recognizable landmark of this
city. (Sit on the left side of the plane on the way in and you're
likely to get a fine view of both.) This trip, I had a special reason
to note the bridge: my travel agent had signed me up to climb the thing.
At right you can see a group of worthies approaching the summit; my
turn would come the following day at dusk. Surprisingly, my
acrophobia remained in check and I thoroughly enjoyed spectacular
views of the harbour and the city. Highly recommended for those who
don't mind a little exertion. And I do mean little; the welcome
center's testimonials include a hundred year old woman, Australia's
first heart transplant recipient and those world-class athletes,
the Olsen Twins. If
they can do it, surely I can!
Most everybody knows about the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
But the Queen Victoria Building
is the sort of landmark you pretty much have to visit Sydney to
discover. Described by Pierre
Cardin as the most beautiful shopping mall in the world, the QVB
is four floors of shops and cafes in an elegant setting we don't often
see in our less ornate age. The building began life around the turn
of the century as a produce market and was almost destroyed in the
1950s to make way for some no doubt eminently forgettable structure.
Fortunately, this was a rare case where wiser heads managed to
prevail.
Not that I have anything against urban renewal. Darling Harbour is
the kind of project that could give planners a good name. A corner of
the harbour that had fallen into disuse with the advent of
containerized shipping, it was redeveloped in the late 80s as a
shopping and entertainment center. The dusk view at left was taken
from a nice little restaurant with the unlikely name of Thai Foon, the
night scene from the north side pedestrian bridge. You can see the
tracks for the Sydney Monorail in the right hand picture, another
example of mass transit that must have seemed like a better idea on
paper than in practice. Like the Detroit
People Mover, the monorail runs in one direction on a loop around
downtown. Not the most practical service I've seen, although I did
find myself riding it on occasion.
Speaking of mass transit, a new addition to Sydney's network is a
light rail line that was built to link the central rail station to
some of the Olympic sites. Nowadays it's a great way to get to the
fish market, one of the city's more interesting examples of real, as
opposed to tourist, life. Sydney has the second largest fish market
in the world; only Tokyo boasts a bigger one. I couldn't bring myself
to get up in time for the arrival of the catch. So I settled for a
fairly wonderful seafood lunch and a visit with a rather
self-satisfied looking pelican.
Every summer, all the cities in the Bay
Area have their little arts & wine festivals, with food and
wine and lots of craft stalls. It's one of the things I like about
the place. But I have to say that Sydney's weekend markets are way
better. I particularly enjoyed the Paddington Bazaar, held every
Saturday on the grounds of a church a half hour's walk east of the
central business district. It's a neat collection of professional and
just plain goofy, sometimes in the same stall. More touristy but just
as much fun was the weekend market back at The Rocks, with more
touristy and mass produced junk but the same sense of fun and the
feeling that the perfect souvenir might be right around the corner.
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