Sydney Personal Tour

Day 14   Tuesday, March 26, 2019    Sydney

We had a glorious day in and around Sydney, just the two of us with a local guide. We loved this iconic view, with the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. Bondi Beach, Manly Beach, various neighborhoods, and many scenic overlooks were highlights, before going to our Airbnb and meeting our hosts. Janet never felt too great, but was a real trooper in doing everything without complaint.

What an easy disembarkation experience we had, especially compared with the Escape in February! We just walked right off the ship, nonstop, and were out on the street within about 15 minutes of leaving our room.

Based on the hours it took to get off the Escape in NYC, we scheduled an hour. With a tour pick-up time outside the ship scheduled for 8:00, that meant getting to our assembly area at 7:00. We were actually 10 minutes early, but they already had sent off the 7 am group, and we just walked out with our luggage to the street. What a joy! Our alarm had gone off at 5:40 to allow time for showers and breakfast, so it was an early morning. Janet was still feeling under the weather, and didn't feel like eating more than a bite at breakfast.

 We waited under this tree for an hour, until our tour guy arrived right at 8:00. We texted Sarah to ask about #Badcat, and Janet had text conversations with Aaron and Sandy.

We zoomed off with Scott, to hear about Sydney and the sights.

The red star in the center of this map shows basically the area of Circular Quay (where the ship docked), the Opera House, and Mrs. Macquarie's Chair (see below). You can see the many little peninsulas sticking into the large harbor. Our tour took us eastward to each of them as we continued to Bondi Beach. (At the bottom of this map is the airport on Botany Bay, where the Great Fleet first landed in 1788 and wanted to establish their settlement, except that fresh water was lacking, so they moved in to the current Circular Quay area to establish their penal colony.)

After we visited Bondi Beach, we went straight north to South Head at the entrance to the main bay. We then drove west to cross over the Harbor Bridge and northeast to Manly Beach. Next we went down (SE) to North Head for incredible views. Finally, we drove back through fancy neighborhoods and across the Harbor Bridge to our Airbnb in Pyrmont, which is a little to the left of the red star.

From the ship, we drove east across the Botanic Garden to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, where we had incredible views on this fine fall day. In the photo you can see our ship to the left of the Opera House. (It was heading off to Shanghai later that day.)

This was the "chair" of Mrs. Macquarie's Chair. She was the wife of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. She liked the views (as we did), and it is said she watched for ships arriving from Britain.  This limestone rock was hand-carved by convicts in 1810.

Just off the "Chair" peninsula was old Fort Denison. It started off as a prison after the First Fleet arrived in 1788, when it was called Pinchgut Island. In the mid-1800s it became the fort, decommissioned in 1937. Now it's a National Park.

Just to the east of the "Chair" peninsula was their naval yard.

 At the base of the naval yard (in Woolloomooloo!) was this famous eatery, Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Scott gave us a long story of its origins and history, but to make it short, it's been there since WWII and has been a favorite for locals and the famous. Its name "de Wheels" comes because it had to move a few inches weekly to be considered non-permanent to avoid the law that said they had to leave. The city eventually gave up due to public pressure, and let them become permanent.

 It's completely covered with photos of the stars. There's Elton John.

There are Pamela Anderson, Chubby Checker, and Brooke Shields.

 Here we also have Russell Crowe, Jerry Lewis, and Barbra Streisand, among others.

 Harry's is most famous for its Tiger - pie, mash, peas, and gravy.

A cool street heading east to Bondi Beach.

 Our next stop was at the south cliffs above Bondi Beach, where the 2000 Olympics Volleyball was held. Scott corrected my pronunciation: The Olympic announcers on American TV said "Bon-dee", but it's "Bond-eye".

 This popular beach is straight east of Sydney on the Tasman Sea. Lots of surfers out there.

 Being from So Calif, it wasn't AS spectacular to us as it is to most tourists.

 Scott took our photo too. Aren't we cute?

From the center of the bay, looking back to where we had been a few minutes before. We stopped for a bite to eat.

 We went into the Pavilion so Scott could show us old photos and tell us more stories about the area.

One of the photos showed how crowded it was in the 20s.

We drove north from Bondi Beach to behind Watson's Bay to get more views of Sydney. We're on the peninsula separating the ocean from the bay.

We stopped briefly at Camp Cove, just above Watson's Bay. You can see the entrance to the harbor in the distance. That stone marker on the left, where the woman happened to me mooning me, marked where Governor Arthur Phillip, captain of the First Fleet in 1788, first landed after giving up on Botany Bay and coming into the protected bay. Under the tree in the center of the picture, some young people were taking some "artistic" photos:

We should have asked them what this was supposed to represent.

Scott was showing us those posts crossing the cove, indicating there was a shark net to protect the beach swimmers.

There's the secluded -- and shark-protected -- beach at Camp Cove, which apparently is a popular topless beach.

We continued southwest along the bay and saw the Wentworth Mausoleum. Wm Wentworth was an Australian explorer, journalist, politician and author, and one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales. He and two others were additonally famous for finding a route over the Blue Mts to the west of Sydney, which opened the grazing and agricultural lands inland. He bought this area in 1827, and this mausoleum was built when he died in 1872.

Just a short distance away was Vaucluse National Park, and this is Greycliff House. Wm Wentworth had it built for one of his daughters in 1852, but she and her husband never lived in it, instead leasing it to prominent Sydney citizens.

We drove slowly through some fancy neighborhoods, with Scott telling "rich people" stories, but we eventually got back to near where we began the day.

Here we are crossing Harbour Bridge on our way to Manly Beach.

 Scott and Janet are walking in Manly Beach to where we would have a beer. It was our lunch stop, but we were still full from the snack we had at Bondi Beach, so we ordered only local beers.

 The pretty trees lined the entire bay.

 Manly Beach is extremely popular, as you can see on a fall Tuesday. Governor Phillip named it "Manly" because "...the indigenous people's confidence and manly behavior..." LOL. I'm sure they were manly then and are manly to this day.

 The pretty beach and pine trees looking north.

 We are strolling along the Corso, the wide shopping boulevard at Manly Beach. If you keep walking a little ways, you get to the beach on the bay side of the peninsula. Scott said that many beachgoers start the day at the ocean beach, then walk to the bay beach for the latter part of the day when the wind picks up .

 A large 1926 hotel/restaurant along the Corso. It's difficult to see, but on the top is a large neon Corona Beer sign.

Scott told a LONG story about the guy who copied Burger King and vowed to run them out of business (and did) because they wouldn't agree to become part of his fast-food empire. Even Hungry Jack's menu names are identical to Burger King's (e,g, Whopper, Char-Broiled burgers).

This is Sydney Harbour National Park, south of Manly Beach, at North Head. It is a wildlife preserve, so oftentimes Scott would see wallabies or snakes out on the road. There sure were beautiful views, as you can see above and in the three photos below.

Looking due south, across the bay entrance and in the direction of Bondi Beach. Those cliffs are dramatic!

Looking west into the city. You can see one of the frequent ferries heading into Manly Beach from Circular Quay.

Looking across to South Head and the Hornby Lighthouse. Camp Cove and Watson's Bay are just on the far side of that peninsula, where we were earlier in the day.

Our final stop was at the base of Harbour Bridge on the north side of the bay. Our ship is still over there.

The bridge was opened in 1932, the 6th-longest spanning-arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 440 ft from top to water level. Until 2012, it was also the world's widest long-span bridge, at 160 ft wide.

Those massive concrete pylons (faced with granite) on either side have an interesting story. They have no structural purpose! They were included to provide a frame for the arch panels and to give better visual balance to the bridge. The pylons were not part of the original design, and were added only to allay public concern about the structural integrity of the bridge. LOL

Scott also told how teenagers in the 50s and 60s would hop the fences to climb the upper frame all the way to the very top of the entire arch. Police had such difficulty stopping this, that the city decided to make it a touristy thing to do. The city now makes big bucks on their BridgeClimb Tour. Climbers must wear special jumpsuits. Cost is about U.S. $125.

Scott dropped us off at the Airbnb at 3:30, and left us with a box of TimTam chocolate cookies, which he said were his favorites. Wow, did we ever see TONS of those cookies everywhere in Australia and New Zealand over the next three weeks. We brought home 8 boxes as gifts, and ate a box or two ourselves during our travels.

We were much earlier at the Airbnb than I had told the hosts we would be, so we figured we'd have a long wait. I called and left a message for Vinh. I hiked around looking for a bathroom for Janet, since she couldn't just go in the bushes the way I had, right in front of our Airbnb. A fellow told me where to find a public restroom, so we walked down a couple of streets to one. During that, Vinh called back and said he'd be there in 45 minutes.

He was quiet at first, but Vinh opened up and was very talkative and helpful. He even carried our suitcases up the steep stairs to our room. He and Stuart are married, and they manage artists. Art pieces were all over the joint. There was a view of Jones Bay to our west, where smaller cruise ships ported.

We rested and did computer stuff until 6:20, during which we had a Happy Hour with the bottles of Tennessee Honey and Jim Beam Black that we had purchased onboard the ship. We had inquired of a passenger from Sydney whether the ship prices were truly good, or should we just wait and buy our booze in Sydney. She said to buy it on the ship, and boy, did she turn out to be correct! We ended up sharing the TN Honey with Vinh and Stuart, and they liked it too.

We walked a short distance to the little place Vinh recommended, BarZini, for their "Pasta Night". It was a tiny hole-in-the-wall, but fine. A glass of wine came with the dinners! We headed off to bed, especially since Janet was still coughing and feeling bad. Being up a steep set of stairs, and with the bathrooms downstairs, it could be a bit tricky when we needed to use the facilities in the middle of the night.

We had an early-morning excursion, and needed to take an Uber to get to the pick-up spot in downtown by 8:00.