Sydney for a day

A few weeks ago when I was home sick from work (bad sun burn) I heard an ad on the radio for charity mystery flights for the Good Friday appeal. So after asking mum if she wanted to go I rang up and booked. 3 hours latter I checked my email and found out we were going to Sydney. Mystery solved.

View of Sydney across the harbour from Watsons Bay.

Last Sunday was the day and we had a good one. Before we left we decided to go to Watsons Bay for Doyles Fish and chips, but we also managed to squeeze in a train ride across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and a ferry ride to Darling harbour via Balmain and Birchgrove.

Cliffs at The Gap

At Watson's bay I showed mum "The Gap" and the view across the Sydney Heads. Mum said she had no idea there would be so many people here, thinking we would be the only one's on the ferry. As to the fish and chips, I think they are some of the best fish and chips I've ever had, and one of the reasons I was keen to go back.

Watsons Bay Ferry

I dunno how but all our public transport connections worked pretty well, the longest we had to wait all day was about 20 minutes for our Watsons bay Ferry from Circular Quay. It was quite expensive though, but still good value. I was prepared for $16 day tripper ticket, but a return gate pass for the airport station alone cost me $14. Mum being a pensioner got away with the $10 pensioner special (normally costs $2.50 without the airport included).

Luna Park in Sydney

One other observation was the verdant green grass everywhere, something not seen in Melbourne (except the Fitzroy Gardens which come close). It's amazing what a bit(lot) of rain does.

I don't need to tell you what's in this photo.

It was a big day for different modes of transport, in all we caught 4 trains, 3 ferries and 2 planes, and drove 1 car. Speaking of planes, I just can't express how much better Qantas is than Virgin Blue. In most cases it's marginally more expensive, but that is made up for in better aircraft, better comfort, better service (had a really nice Japanese flight attendant on the way up, she went out of her way to make small talk with the passengers) and better food. Fly QANTAS.

On the way home