Sydney

Well - what can we say?!!  Sydney was “Amazing”.  We stayed at a caravan park called  Lane Cove which as just outside the centre, though when you were there you wouldn’t know you were so close to the city apart from the sound of aeroplanes overhead. Lane Cove is a national park and it really felt like you were in the middle of the jungle at times with the sounds of the birds, possums, bats etc.  Lovely site.  Original plans were to stay for 4 nights but we soon changed that to 5!  

 

We arrived on the Thursday and had arranged to meet up with Eric and Margaret from Redcar who were staying with their daughter in Lilyfield, just outside Sydney centre, on the Friday.  A rather eventful journey to Lilyfield to meet up with Eric and Marg - toll roads - argggghhhhh!  Anyway - the sat nav got us there ok - and we went out for lunch with them.  Was lovely to see familiar faces from back home and to catch up on all the news.  We brought them back across to Lane Cove so they could see our ‘ouse (caravan) and where we were staying.  The journey back was awful - Geoff has gone grey overnight with the stress - and we’re still not sure how much we owe the toll companies.  (They’re not like England where you stop and pay your cash - you go through the tunnel or over the bridge then, if you don’t have a pre-paid tag, you have to phone up or go on-line to pay - problem being the toll roads are owned by different companies and we don’t have a clue which ones we went through … could be a fine coming up!)  Anyway we made it!  And taking Eric and Marg back we programmed the sat nav to avoid toll roads and you know what - it was a doddle!! 

Saturday we went into Sydney Centre.  We were able to get the train from Lane Cove direct into Sydney centre … hey - double-decker trains too!  One thing we have noticed in Oz is how their transport systems are so efficient.  We bought a pass for $20 each which allowed us to ride on as many trains, bus’s or boats as we pleased for the day.  So we made good use of them!  We took a boat trip over to Manly and had a wander around there - it was lovely- even though the weather wasn’t too fantastic.  

 

 

We looked around ‘The Rocks’ and the markets and the quayside.  

 

 

 

 

We’d arranged to meet up with a friend who we’d met in Lennox Head, Bill, and he took us across to The Gap to see the beautiful views from there.  

 

  

Must say though - eating out in Sydney is expensive … Geoff had a great laugh at me complaining about the cost of a salad $20 and not even any meat!  The day went so fast and we’d hardly seen any of Sydney, so we decided to stop until the Tuesday morning and spend Monday in the centre again - and arranged to meet up with Eric and Marg again.

Sunday we went to Hill Songs Church - which was fantastic.  Geoff felt it was very much stage managed - which I guess it is because it’s all filmed and recorded - but it was really good and the speaker was fantastic.

Monday - we got the train into Sydney Centre again and met up with Eric and Margaret.  As they’ve been to Sydney several times before they were able to take us around the touristy bits …

  

Sydney Opera House where Geoff did his Pavarotti thing on the steps! 

The Botanic Gardens where we did some tree hugging!  (and Eric and Marg rode some lions!!)

The Hyde Park Barracks Convict Museum - where Geoff tried out the shackles.  The convicts had it real tough - and many for stealing a loaf of bread or a hankerchieff!  We have decided that the Government got things totally wrong when they sent the convicts to Australia - they should have sent everyone else and left the baddies in England!

 

Lunch at the Sydney Art Gallery which was showing some of the Terracotta Warrior Display from China. 

And a farewell drink at the Quays before we waved goodbye to Eric and Margaret.  Was lovely spending time with them.  And a massive 10 out of 10 for Sydney - even Geoff who hadn’t particularly wanted to go to the Big City loved it!