Blog 10 - Sunday 14th October - Sydney first day

Wow are you still really with us here?! Definitely the longest postcard ever written but the best way I know to remember where and when we were. OK onwards

Sunday morning - catching up on email etc. Then walked on through Hyde Park to the Botanical Gardens for my first view of the iconic Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.

I found the BGs really odd - wonderful exotic foliage (and birds like Ibis, maybe they are) neatly laid out in Victorian formal beds and offset by skyscrapers behind. The great views of the harbour were only possible when walking round or sitting on the hill above as sitting down meant they were partially hidden by the harbour wall. I was troubled by my first view of the OH as it seemed much more clunky than I'd expected, till I realised that it was the bottom third of massive concrete that did nothing for the wonderful sails above. From the higher view the proportions work fine and then when we took a ferry later and saw it from the normal side it is broken up by strips of windows and actually looks like a paved area around the sails rather than chunky walls.

We walked over to it in search of refreshment and again a surprise - a wonderful walk up the steps towards the towering cathedral vaults of the sails and then once inside the foyer a disaster of lost opportunity; low concrete ceilings, dim lighting and pure ugliness meets the disappointed eye. However, it might just be forgiven for my first experience of floodlit toilet paper(!?!) We decided to find refreshments outside and enjoyed a sunny view of the harbour nearby instead.

Various galleries enticed as we wandered towards the ferries and we learned yet more of Aboriginal art and then a really good ferry trip back to Darling Harbour was just what was needed by flagging legs. The view of the OH and bridge (what maniacs were those walking over the top of it!!?) was the expected one, but no less terrific for all that, but it is interesting how important it is to get the backside and insides right too.

A yummy splurge in Chinatown at Marigold's fine cuisine set us up for some interesting dreams (at least it did me). Onwards now for our first weekday in this fine city.