Sydney for Easter 2004

Bridge Climb, Bridge Pylon (for the view), Harbour cruises, and catching a show. We went to see the Lion King at the Capitol Theatre. Beautiful theatre and a great show. The Market at the Rocks is worth a visit, and take time to see Argyle Stores.

Quick Tips:

Choose a hotel in mid-city. The rocks, the theatres, the Opera House, and Darling Harbour are all within easy walking distance. If you are flying to Sydney from interstate book tickets with Qantas on line. Quick check-in for e-ticket holders saved a long wait in the queue!

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking, monorail (to get to Darling Harbour), bus from airport (there is a station, but the bus is cheaper and goes from the airport termainal to the door of your hotel). Price one way was --a one way ticket is best as it is too hard to coordinate things to get the same bus company back for the return journey.

The rooms were comfortable. Ours, in the older section of the hotel, had a very comfortable king size bed and was reasonably sized. It had the usual television with cable sports, which we never actually found time to watch. Sadly the gym and pool were similarly underutilized!

The breakfast was excellent. Great variety, including some Japanese fare that was hard to identify and remained untouched by my wife and I! The downstairs bar had brewed coffee "on tap" and also provided a nice area to sit and read.

After returning from seeing the Lion King, we found that Sydney had all but closed (10pm on Sunday!) but the hotel's piano bar had a very helpful bartender who organised some food. (well, it was too early to eat before the show and afterwards, nothing was open!)

I would recommend this hotel for its comfortable beds in reasonably sized rooms and most of all for its friendly and helpful staff! Interestingly we had a room near the lift, but could only vaguely hear a wooshing noise that sounded like wind blowing. It was not enough of a problem to disturb sleep, and I am a light sleeper! The rooms are well insulated for sound. (So, if you get up to mischief, you can make a bit of noise!) Our room was one of the more expensive Parkview rooms. The park was not impressive, but it was probably better than looking directly into the office blocks opposite!

We would definitely stay here again. The location was ideal for exploring all that Sydney had to offer, and the price was reasonable by comparison with other hotels in the area. Having spent the weekend in Sydney, I would certainly stay Mid City again rather than the Rocks (which was generally too expensive anyway!) or Darling Harbour. Staying at the Harbour would really lock you into catching the monorail or water taxis to get around. It was at one end of the tourist trail.

City Extra has a newspaper theme. The menus are printed in a newspaper format, and considering the cost of news print, the prices were high! The food was excellent, but not cheap. Fish and chips cost a little over $20 and coffee was over $4 a cup. Still, you could sit outside and watch the people watching the buskers!

The setting was great, the service was good, and the servings were huge! We struggled to get through all the food, and managed to save some for the next day's lunch!

A nice place to eat, and the outside area on a sunny day is very pleasant, with busker music for background entertainment! Although the restaurant was flat out, service was efficient and they didn't seem to mind if you took your time to eat.

Awesome, although the ladders are risky. (The harness is not particularly well suited for slowing a downward drop on the ladders. The harness is attached to a cable running alongside the walkways and ladders.) Basically the harness is designed to prevent climbers from going over the edge, not dropping down the ladders!

Twilight is the best time to climb. You get the daylight views, see the sunset, and catch the city lights. All from the unique viewpoint of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Arch!

The climb itself is not too strenuous and there are plenty of stops for photographs along the way. Unfortunately these stops are for the climb guide to take photos and there were no opportunities for the paying guests to take their own photos. This was to prevent climbers dropping their cameras onto cars and people below, but also allowed them to sell digital images to climbers. (NOT CHEAP!!) They do provide a free pass to the pylon where there are plenty of opportunities to take photos of the view from the bridge. The views are just not quite as good!

The view from the top of the pylon is spectacular. It is not quite as high as the bridge arch, but you are permitted to take as many pictures as you like! The only downside is that it is only accessible in daylight hours. The view of the city lights from here would be sensational.

It was interesting to see the complete lack of safety equipment for bridge workers given the heights that they were working. Photos and models depict workers doing their job with no safety harnesses, hard hats or other protective clothing. Amazingly, only 16 workers died during the bridge building and only two of these were in falls from the bridge. They were real men in those days!

This is the bargain in Sydney sight-seeing! Spectacular views mixed with a bit of historical information. One not to be missed, particularly by those who baulk at the $200+ that the Bridge Climb Company wants!

An unusual mix of exhibits. Free entry to the museum, but some exhibits, such as the submarine, destroyer and tall ship attracted a charge for entry. They also had an exhibition of recovered treasure. Looking over naval vessels is worthwhile if you have not had the chance to do it. . . and sunken treasure? We all dream of wealth don't we!

The CD telling the story of the Titanic was interesting, as were some of the relics from the past. I found it interesting that they had Kay Cottee's boat (first woman to sail around the world), but not Vinnie Lauwers (the first disabled paraplegic sailor to do a round the world voyage.) I thought that voyage was a real achievement. Interesting how we tend to ignore the disabled isn't it?

Argyle stores was built 40 years after the first settlement and the building oozes character from its solid wooden beams and pillars to the polished wooden floors. Part of the building was constructed in 1825 and added to in 1860 with further addition in 1910. It’s a truly historical and significant building in terms of Australian history.

Items for sale here are generally fashion items sold by a number of individual shops co-located within the building. Retailers are generally sharing the floor space and it was sometimes difficult to see where one retailer changed to the next. The building, though, was magnificent and worth a visit, even if some of the prices were out of our range.

Weekends in the Rocks are busy, with many people attending the outdoor market. In recognition of Sydney's tendency to periodic downpours, most stalls are covered with a removable canvas roofing system. It seems to work well enough at keeping the sun off, but fortunately we didn't test its waterproofing ability.

Some of the items for sale here were unique crafts that we have not seen in other markets. (My wife is a market stall addict.) One stall holder was selling very cleverly designed wooden puzzles and had the patience of a saint when a young child tried to force the equivalent in puzzles to the round peg in a square hole. (The saga ended happily. Dad bought the puzzle!)

My wife found some upside down hanging pots, which are kind of weird, but they certainly seemed to work judging from those on display. You have to wonder, though, why would you want to grow plants upside down?

Another stall sold homemade cakes and pies that were truly delicious. Hope their kitchen was up to the standard required for healthy eating! (We suffered no ill affects other than a little tightening of the waistline!)

The market was a great place to spend two or three hours and pick up some unusual craft items. For those wanting aboriginal souvenirs, there were a number of stalls with an aboriginal theme.

We did the dinner cruise on the first night in Sydney (well, we had to eat and we wanted to see the harbour at night!) and thoroughly enjoyed it. They were offering a $20 reduction in price for the cruise that night (must have been short on bookings), and I can't resist a bargain. The food was excellent, particularly if you decided to break from the tradition of eating fish on Good Friday. The fish was nice (my wife had that) but the steak was just perfect. Cooked just as I like it and very tender!

The cruise lasted two hours and 30 minutes and took us around to Darling Harbour (beautiful at night) and out towards the heads. It turned at Watsons Bay, I guess because night tours only work where there are some city lights!

we enjoyed the cruise (and the food) so much that we went back for a second trip. This time it was the coffee cruise, which went all the way up the upper reaches of middle harbour to show us the $1 million+ mansions. Actually, some were over $30 to $40 million dollars. We were staggered not just by the prices, but by the fact that so many people had so many millions to spend on housing! We thought we had found our dream house until we heard the price and found out how they had to get down the hill to their houses!

If you are taking a cruise on Sydney Harbour, we found Captain Cook cruises to be a good value. The pace is slower than the catamaran cruisers, but we thought that was better. Time was not critical. The night cruise was romantic (hehehe).

I was given a gift certificate for a Harbour Bridge Climb. Seems to be a popular gift. In a climbing group of 12 people 5 were doing the climb with gift certificates. My wife and I decided to combine the climb with a long weekend stay in Sydney, and we were both free over the Easter break. We had been told to do the climb as a twilight climb, as this enabled us to see the view during daylight, watch the sunset, and then see the city lights. Sounded good, and it certainly was. To climb the harbour bridge, visit their online booking service at http://www.bridgeclimb.com.au I would thoroughly recommend the climb to anyone. It is not too strenuous, but by the same token is not for those nervous about heights! It is a long way up (and down!). Once we had booked the bridge climb (done via e-mail) for the easter Saturday, we booked return flights to Sydney, hotel accommodation and tickets for the Lion King at the Capitol Theatre. All the bookings were done online through Qantas. This maximises the frequent flyer points, and e-tickets allow you to bypass the very long queues and go directly to self check-in. We chose the All Seasons Premier Menzies opposite Wynyard Station, and paid a little extra for a park view room. We didn't spend much time looking at the park, but the room was comfortable and well sound proofed. The Qantas rate did not include breakfast, and we were able to negotiate a different rate that provided breakfast at a reasonable price. (Breakfasts paid for individually cost $23.50 per person. The package rate gave us breakfast for $19.00 for both of us. For those wishing to save money, there were a number of places offering various breakfast options. One guest was seen heading to the room with 2 McDonalds Cheeseburgers! We were not that desparate to save money! The advantage of the hotel we chose was its central location. From the hotel we could easily walk to Circular Quay, the Opera House, The Rocks, Darling Harbour and the Theatre. (The theatre was the longest walk, but a bus service goes up George Street so that was always an option.) Public transport was also readily available with the station opposite and a bus service in George Street. We found, though, that things were close enough not to need to use Public Transport and we saw more of the city while we were walking. (I always hold my wife's hand when we are walking through strange cities.... when I let go she shops!) Circular Quay was bustling. A spruiker dressed as Captain Cook got our business and we booked a dinner cruise on the basis that dinner on its own would probably cost around $40.00 each and for an extra $30 dollars we had a long, romantic harbour cruise. No kidding, there really is something romantic about being on a ship looking out at the lights of the harbour bridge and city. We did a second cruise with the same company. This time the much longer Coffee cruise in the afternoon. Coffee and cakes. Nice! The cruise ships were comfortable and sailed close enough to the shore for some good photography. Take note of the direction the vessel is sailing (look at the route map) so that you can be on the best side of the vessel for seeing the sights. On the coffee cruise its Starboard... um you know..... I think thats the right hand side looking towards the front! Other points of interest we visited were Darling Harbour, the Opera House, the Rocks, and the harbour bridge pylon lookout (included in the bridge climb price.). As the bridge climb expressly prohibits the bringing of your own cameras on the climb, the pylon lookout provided an opportunity to take photos of Sydney Harbour from the bridge. The height of the pylon is close enough to the height of the bridge arch to make it a worthwhile vantage point! The historic rocks area runs a very good market on weekends, with a variety of craft items for sale. Worth a visit, as is some of the older buildings that are now stores. Argyle stores was particularly impressive. On the return from the climb we found a nice Italian Restaurant with tables outdoors. We could eat our meal and listen to the German band across the road. I admit, we spent some time just sitting by the water at Circular Quay, watching the buskers and the people, but isn't that part of a weekend away? Just relaxing and taking it easy? This meant that we didn't get to see everything that was on our wishlist. Places we wanted to visit but couldn’t in the course of a single weekend were Fort Denison (breakfast and lunch tours available.) and the (now disused) middle head military fortifications. Next time! These can be booked through the Parks service which has an office in an old building by the water in the rocks. They also take bookings for Goat Island. When planning the trip we collected a travel brochure from the local travel shop so that we had some idea about what to do and where to stay. The Sydney Public transport service provided public transport maps and prices. Good service, but unfortunately their prices were higher than the mini-buses for airport transfers. Still, at least we had information on pricing to help us decide how best to get to the hotel. So, do your research and then book online to save time and money. However you do it, you really must do the bridge climb one day. It was well worth it. A sensational view and a great excuse for a weekend away!