Sydney Transport

First we have the much disliked monorail.



I was standing in Pitt street and just made a quick grab. I dislike riding this thing very much. Reminds me of the rides at Wobbies World... I remember one day I was eating in one of the fast food places in Pitt street near where I took the video and watching a curtain of water go down the street. It was raining, but the wall of water was of course the monorail going past overhead pushing all the water off the track. I wish I'd taken a video of that. From memory it was actually raining quite heavily and the street was more or less a river of water.

Now the polar opposite, the Manly Ferry. This is by far my favourite.



I'd rate this crossing as moderate, I've had calmer, and only hope for worse one day. Perhaps not quite as bad as the in the videos that Highriser found on Youtube. As fun as the ride is I am always glad to get off though. A land lubber by nature I guess.

Sydney 2009 - Day 4

After the big trip to the Blue Mountains the day before, it was time to take it easy. First port of call was the Sydney Tower where we enjoyed the spectacularly lame (to an Australian) OZ trek, which is more or less a half hour summary of Australia for international tourists. It is included in the ticket price so we went for it. OZ Trek starts out with a sort of hologram show set in four different dioramas of the Australian environment. When you enter you sit in one of four seating areas and as the show goes on you rotate around to the next scene. We started in the outback, then went to the city, then the rainforest before going to the beach. The second part of OZ Trek is a motion simulator where you get to fly around all different parts of Australia, it's actually quite good. I remember going on theis years ago and I was disappointed that they no longer spray water on your face when you dive under water or get sneezed on, that was the best bit.

Finally we were able to go up the tower, but not before we had our photo taken. We also had to go through a metal detector like at the airport which was a bit wierd. I've got to say I was a bit under whelmed with the view from the top, you couldn't really see the opera house or Circular Quay at all. It was still good though, but I actually think I like the experience at the Eureka tower better. When we arrived back down in the lobby they tried to sell us the photo that they took of us before we went up for $30, what a rip off.

The plan was to go go via government house to Circular Quay and get a ferry to Watsons Bay, although on the way we stopped for about 20 minutes in Hyde Park to watch a giant chess game. Daniel had to commentate for me, but I think I got the gist of what was going on. In the end black conceded to white I think.

Ater walking to Government House and looking at it from the outside we dodged the odd lunch time touch football game in the park and went down to Circular Quay. I needed a toilet, but the ones under the train station were closed for cleaning, so we went into the old customs house, which actually turns out to now be a public library. The floor of the building is see through and under it they have a model of the city of Sydney. It's amazing what you find by accident. Even more amazing was that I didn't even notice it when entering the building, but only after looking down at it from the second floor where the toilets were. Seems I had one thing on my mind at the time.

After a short wait we boarded the ferry to Watsons Bay. Not sure why but the Watsons Bay service always seems to be one of the newer Super Cats, rather than the older First Fleet class of ferries which do the the inner harbour runs. I guess they are quicker and more suited to the longer distance to Watsons Bay. As usual the ferry made stops at Garden Island, Double Bay and Rose Bay (home of Sydney Sea Planes) before arriving at Watsons Bay.

While getting off the ferry and walking past the great big long line of people waiting to get on someone shouted my name. Turning around I realised it was my cousin. We had a quick chat before the line started moving on to the ferry. Only a few weeks before at a family get together my cousin mentioned that he and his girlfriend were going to Sydney at the same time that I was. I jokingly said something like "see you there", I never actually thought it would happen.

By now it was at least 1:30 and Daniel and I were both starving, so we made our way straight to the line for Doyles take away fish and chips. My eyes were bigger than my stomache and I ordered a pack that had fish, chips, about 6 calimari rings and and several scollops. All washed down with an icy cold can of coke. As usual for Doyles it was very delicous and very fresh.

After taking some time out for digestion we walked up the hill through the park and over the road to "The Gap". Took it easy on the way up and made it around near the naval station overlooking the Sydney Heads. Somehow we managed to miss the next ferry and had to wait an hour for the last ferry of the day. I don't understand why the Watsons Bay ferry finishes at 4 in the afternoon, but that's the way it goes. I had a snooze on the ride back and managed to sleep most of the way I think.

We then got the train back to the apartment and then went to an italian restaurant at Harbourside in Darling Harbour for dinner.

Sydney 2009 - Day2

The day started off with me having to ring reception to get some bowls brought up. It's a bit hard to eat breakfast cereal when you don't have bowls. I'm not sure where they went, but the new ones were soon brought up to our room by a member of staff.

Yesterdays rain from Melbourne had caught up to us in Sydney and after setting off through Hyde Park it seemed to get heavier and so headed back under cover to a food court in Pitt St for some more breakfast. Continuing on our mission after the rain stopped we walked past the parliament building and the N.S.W state library stopping to admire a statue of Trim, Matthew Flinders' cat that accompanied him all the way from England and on his voyage around Australia.

We then walked down through the botanic gardens to the opera house. our aim was to walk across the bridge, and so we ascended many stairs through the rocks before making it to the bridge walkway. Along the way we stopped at the south-eastern pylon and climbed to the lookout. After seeing the views from there we continued on across the bridge to Kirribilli where the Sunday market was still going (yes it was still Sunday). Here we stopped for some lunch, some sort of middle eastern flat bread that was folded over with meat spinach and chilli inside. It was really tasty actually.

After lunch we headed down to the Millsons Point ferry wharf at Luna Park. While waiting for the ferry I am adamant that a man I saw waiting there was Ricky Gervais. Daniel didn't seem to know whe he is, so couldn't confirm it. Anyway we got the ferry to circular quay and then got the ferry to Manly.

At manly we walked through the Corso and along the beach for a bit before returning for an ice cream. while we were sitting and eating our ice cream some cockatoos were getting stuck into the seeds high up the trees causing a shower of seeds on the unluck people bellow. While making our way back to the ferry we had a look through some of the junky tourist shops in The Corso.

Arriving back a Circular Quay, we got a train back to Town Hall. On the way we checked the times at the cinema around the corner and decided to see the movie, Knowing latter that night. We had a very spicy dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant in Chinatown. I ate so much i was nearly bursting. We had some sort of pancake, a leek cake, and some fried tofu for starters, and had spicy beef noodle soup for the mains. It was probably one of the best meals I've had for ages.

Still having some time to kill before the movie we did a lap on the monorail and then went to a pub for a beer. Knowing was the Nick Cage movie that was recently filmed in Melbourne, which was standing in for Boston. I saw many things I recognised, it was quite strange actually. The movie it self was also quite strange, but quite good at the same time.

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

Sydney ferries again

Lady Herron at Circular Quay. It's weird because only yesterday while driving over the Westgate bridge did I notice the same type of ferry moored in the Yarra River at Spotswood. It was Lady something, but the writing was too small to read. I believe Sydney Ferries only operate two of this class of ferry these days.

I love Sydney Ferries

If you've read my rather lengthy posts on my trip to Sydney, you may realise that I spent a lot of time riding on the ferries. Over my various visits to Sydney I've come to love them. To me they have a personality, and think that they say Sydney as much as a green and cream (or red and cream) W class tram says Melbourne.

Much to my delight I discovered a book at the ARHS NSW book shop at Central Station, The Sydney Ferry Book, by Dale Budd and Randall Willson. These are the same authors who wrote the fantastic Melbourne Tram Book. I did intend to go back and buy the book but totally forgot on my last morning in Sydney. I must visit the Railfan Shop in Melbourne to see if they stock it or can order it in for me. Or I could just order it through the Railway Digest book listing, or the ARHS NSW online bookshop, which I just discovered while gathering links for this post.