sights of Sydney city, beaches, and suburbs

Another cool day down-under, only about 22 degrees, overcast and very windy. Everybody here is starting to apologize for the ‘bad’ weather, not knowing that we are quite happy with these moderate temperatures. We found a free internet cafe around the corner, family owned and operated “Caffetinis” run by Italians who make a mean old “long black one” and very tasty Turkish sandwiches. Updated our blog, added more pictures and checked our e-mails, undisturbed by other patrons or the staff.

The plan for today was a conference provided sightseeing bus tour through Sydney and surroundings. Promptly at 1 pm we were picked up by driver Brent in a very comfortable Mercedes Sprint. On we went to pick up the only other guests, a mother and son from Coventry, England. We drove through the inner city, along Circular Quay and out into the oldest part of Sydney, called ‘the Rocks’.

"Rock on car on the rocks"
  -  courtesy to Sietan

Sydney was built by the English convicts out of readily available sandstone, and many old buildings have been preserved or brought back to old glory. Many famous old pubs are still around from the earliest times and most popular with the inhabitants as well as tourists from all over the world. Brent gave us a good insight into the history of Sydney and Australia, spiked with many interesting stories about people and country. We drove through Woolloomooloo (say that fast 3 times and then spell it!!) where Russell Crowe (the actor) lives in a renovated shipyard building on the upper 2 floors with sweeping views and direct water access!! Take that for 28 millions!

On we went out to the famous Sydney beaches, most well known of all being Bondi Beach, where the modern life saving movement started around 1906 by 4 sailors who saved many lives over the following years and implemented a life saving protocol that’s now being used all over the world. The surf on most beaches around Sydney is quite big, and many young folks use it for surf boarding. Many beaches have shark nets at the end of each bay, not always successfully preventing shark attacks …
Brent ‘let us out’ of the bus here and there to take pictures and walk around popular areas. We were told about a pub that offered free meals on Thursday nights (heavy drinking is expected) and the gay area of Oxford Street where the pride parade happens every year. A little food shack in the harbour named “Harry’s” has been in service since 1945 and offers late night snacks and famous meat pies to sailors, tourists and late night revellers alike. It is still a shack and an institution in Sydney. VIP's who have frequented "Harry's" over the years were Frank Sinatra and Elton John, who btw has married his German born first wife Marianne here in a quaint and lovely church overlooking Sydney in the early seventies ...

After about 4 hours of sightseeing our tour came to an end – we dropped of the Brits and were delivered to our hotel safe and sound by Brent who had done a marvellous job informing us about Sydney and Australia alike in a very humorous manner.

An observation we made while walking about Sydney: Not only do Australians DRIVE on the left side, they also WALK there. We found that out the hard way, by way of constantly bumping into people or trying to avoid doing this...

Back at the hotel we needed a breather before heading out to dinner and installed ourselves on our lovely airy balcony. Laptops on laps we discovered that the internet worked perfectly fine outside the room without the hotel's password and daily payment of $10!!! Unfortunately there wasn't any table or chair outside. I (Bettina) came up with the most splendid idea, if I may say so myself, to make our internet sessions a bit more comfortable: Erecting the ironing board outside and placing our computers on it made for the perfect little office space where one could also deposit a cup of coffee or a beer... Check the pics for this excellent invention!

After another fabulous Chinese dinner at the neighbouring restaurant we went for Sigi's conference registration at the UTS (University of Technology, Sydney) only a block away from our hotel. Arriving there we were surprised by offerings of glasses of champagne and platters of hors d'oevres passed around by catering staff. The registration went fast and smooth. Sigi got a nice red shoulder bag with all the important conference materials inside and a dog tag with this name on it to wear during the next 3 days. We mixed and mingled with all the other academics, organizers and students and had a good ol' time enjoying the breeze on the roof terrace with great views all around.


Last but not least: Sigi's keen eye spied the yacht WILD OATS - winner once or twice of the Sydney-Hobart race! Here it is:

"Winner 2005 Wild Oats XI ... 2012 Wild Oats XI brushes aside challengers in Sydney to Hobart lead-up ...14-nautical mile race - a traditional Sydney-to-Hobart race lead up event.."