Sydney with Margaret, Kevin, and Gail

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Sydney

Margaret drove us into Sydney. We went to Mrs. Macquaries’ Chair at the Royal Botanical Gardens which gave us a view into the city from a different perspective. The chair was carved into stone and the Mrs. Macquarie, the governor’s wife, use to go and sit to view the harbor. We didn’t tour the gardens but spent some time in the park in this area. Beautiful old gum trees had twisted trunks and branches.

Next we went into the Sydney Tower which is the tallest building in Sydney (250 m, 850 ft). The views from the observation deck were fantastic and you can see as far as the Blue Mountains, where we had been staying with David and Carolyn, 90 km (56 miles) away. It was a great way to see the city which we had been touring over the past several days.

We then went to Chinatown and to Paddy’s market which has fresh fruit and veggies, flowers, souvenirs, clothes, .... It was a huge market!!!

At 2 pm, we went to Darling Harbor to meet Kevin and Gail Cornford, our friends we met when we toured Europe 2 1/2 years ago. It was so wonderful to see them again. Darling Harbor was opened in 1988 for Australia’s bicentenary. This former port and industrial area is now an entertainment district which has lawns, gardens, palm tree groves, waterways and marinas, and lots of shops and restaurants. The weather changed to a bit of a drizzle but that didn’t dampen our spirits.

We got a quick lunch and then headed to the Powerhouse Museum which houses thousands of items from the vast Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences Museum. The exhibits and galleries are on four levels and covers social history, decorative arts, music, technology, design, industry, transport and space exploration. We were able to play with many interactive displays. The highlight was viewing photographs from space of various constellations and planets.

We decided to ride the monorail which travels from the Powerhouse to Darling Harbor and back again. Sydney brought the monorail from Melbourne, where had been used for the Olympics there. There is some controversy about the monorail as some do not like the looks of it running through the city. It seemed well used and we enjoyed our trip back to Darling Harbor.

Steve and I took some time to check out the Sydney Aquarium. Steve wanted me to see a platypus but no luck here either. We feel that the platypus is much more elusive than seeing moose in New Hampshire!!

The four of us dined at Olivo. The food was wonderful and our waiter was from the Kansas City, KS. Our meal was terrific and we were able to visit outside along the water. It was great to catch up and we hope the Kevin and Gail can head our way one of these days! They were kind enough to take us back to Margaret’s home and we have packed our bags for our trip to New Zealand tomorrow.