The outward Journey Thursday/Friday/Saturday 2/3/4 February

Easy start with Linda & Holly picking us up at 12.30pm and dropping us at Heathrow Terminal 3 at 2.30. Roads inside the airport seemed very quiet and this pattern continued. Nobody at check-in so dropped our bags straightaway and went through security very quickly. After buying a couple of bits at Duty-Free we made our way to our usual restaurant. It had changed its name and had a minor makeover inside and reopened about 10 days ago. Food was much the same, ie very nice. We were almost the only customers, possibly because several more restaurants have opened, but possibly because there were simply very few people about.

Went to the Servisair lounge. Again we were almost the only people there. Sat and rested and read until gate opened. Got onto plane in plenty of time but it still managed to be slightly late taking off.

Flight to Singapore was uneventful. Plane was fairly full but service was good and we both managed to get little bits of sleep. Checked into Transit Hotel, had a quick cup of tea and managed to get a solid three hours sleep (at least Les did). Woke to the alarm and had a quick shower. Went to get a snack and found that the restaurants had changed and are now almost entirely Asian - the French restaurant and the Pizza restaurant had both disappeared. Went to Chinese where Anne had Kaya toast and boiled egg and Les had chicken and noodles.

Managed to get 10 minutes on the internet in the lounge then went to gate. Boarding was not particularly well organised but in the end we pushed off from the gate only five minutes late. Flight was very smooth and the A380 was very quiet, but service was very slow and the flight was full of noisy children, so we both found it difficult to get uninterrupted sleep.

Arrived at Sydney on time but had to circle for fifteen minutes because of congestion. This meant that when we got off there was a long queue for immigration. Maddeningly, two of the ten desks for non-Australian arrivals were empty. Quite a long wait for our second suitcase at baggage hall, but for some reason we were waived through the non-x-ray section and were straight out into the terminal. It was very crowded so we went outside where it was nicely warm. We sat and had a coffee whilst we emptied heavy things from the rucksacks into one of the suitcases. We then got a taxi to the Goldsbrough, arriving about 10am.

Saturday 4th - our first day

We checked our luggage in and then walked to Harbourside. We’d hoped to find a phone shop, as the Vodafone shop at the airport was very busy and we hadn’t wanted to queue. We couldn’t find one, so while we had a coffee we looked on the iPad. Google showed Optus and Telstra shops on George Street, so we walked across Pyrmont Bridge (pausing to watch the Dragon Boat racing) to George Street. We found a Telstra shop, but they couldn’t get their sim cards to work and suggested that our phone would only accept Vodafone sims. Luckily they pointed us to a Vodafone shop in the QVB (which we’d walked past). We went there and got the mobile sorted, then walked back across the bridge. Had an early lunch (calamari and Caesar salad), then came back and checked in at the Goldsbrough. 

Had a cup of tea and then slept for a couple of hours, getting back up at 5.30pm. Showered and wrote up the diary before going out. Walked through to Harbourside and shared a pizza and a Greek salad. Walked outside and sat on a bench and watched a street entertainer. Very amusing - he played the bagpipes, juggled knives and rode a 3m high unicycle - with the help of several members of the audience. As a finale he did all three at once. Unfortunately by this time it was too dark to get a decent photo.

There was some time left until the firework display so we walked down to the 7/11 store and bought a few bits. Unfortunately all the fresh fruit packs were out of date - he said the supplier would be round soon but he didn’t know when. Instead we picked up some bananas from another store underneath the end of Pyrmont Bridge.

We walked back onto the harbourside and managed to find a seat on the steps and waited for the fireworks. They were about 10 minutes late starting but were really good - they lasted a good 15 minutes. After they finished another group of street entertainers set up nearby. They had a comedy routine of breakdancing mixed with gymnastics. We watched the warm-up and they were certainly very talented and skilled but we couldn’t see the whole of the performance area. By now they’d drawn quite a large crowd and you couldn’t even find a standing space to see them, so at that point we decided to give up and come home.

Got back in about 9.45pm, watched a bit more of the news on TV which is mainly about the devastating floods in Queensland. Gave up and went to bed.

Sunday 5 February

Slept pretty well. Woke up with our body clocks seeming roughly right. Pottered around getting ready. Had the bananas and biscuits for breakfast, caught up with diary and are waited for Lee and Wendy to arrive at 10am.

Tried the internet, which isn’t log on/log off, so only bought 30 mins for A$5. Unfortunately the wireless signal disappeared so we lost half our time.

Les went down to the foyer at 9.50 and found Lee and Wendy waiting. They came up for a brief look at the apartment and then we went out. We walked across to Harbourside. Lee and Wendy said that the waterfront cafes were all absolutely full so we went in a small cafe by one of the Harbourside entrances. Lee & Wendy had eaten so they just wanted coffee and cake whereas we wanted breakfast. This was fine. Anne’s poached eggs on toast were lovely (except she got two rather than the one asked for) but they simply couldn’t understand that Les wanted a bacon roll, rather than a bacon and egg roll. We sent back the first one and waited and the second one came up also with an egg, this time soft rather than hard. We found several more ways of saying ‘no egg’ and eventually at the third try they got it right.

Lee said that Australia needs a law to insist that food servers can speak English - apparently yesterday Wendy had asked at a juice bar for a pineapple juice and was given beetroot!

After we’d eaten we walked out to the waterfront and said our goodbyes. We found a passing lady to take group photos.

We walked to the ferry terminal and got a ferry round to Circular Quay where we bought day passes (Sundays only). We then caught a ferry to Watsons Bay. It was pretty crowded but we managed to get an inside seat. It’s a fastcat service but makes three stops on the way out - Garden Island, Double Bay and Rose Bay. At Watsons Bay Doyles Take-away (which actually does have tables) is on the ferry wharf. The main Doyles is on the sea front at the end of the wharf. Both were crowded with enormous queues at the take-away.

We walked along the sea front for a while and then back on a road, through the park and up to the viewpoint over the Southern Ocean/Tasman Sea. Cliffs here are very much like Purbeck - tall limestone cliffs with wave cut platforms. Plenty of nice waves and foam to watch.

We went into Glimpse for lunch. Very nice with a very interesting and chatty owner. We shared a riccotta, tomato and avocado bruschetta with a cold beer each - Little Creatures from Freo.

After lunch we walked back to the viewpoint and then along the Old Tramway path up to Jacob’s Ladder viewpoint and then back on the clifftop path to the main viewpoint. Interesting as the Old Tramway path takes you through shaded woodland, and we were the only people using it. Everyone else was using the paved clifftop path in the full sun. We walked back to the wharf and joined the queue for the return ferry. We were disappointed when we didn’t get on the first one but what we hadn’t seen was that there was a second ferry lurking at the end of the wharf and we got on that. The reason for the crowds was not only that it was a Sunday but that everyone else, like us, had bought the Sunday Funday tickets at AU$2.50 which take you anywhere on ferries, trains and buses.

At Circular Quay we walked round towards the Opera House. All the new buildings along the approach are now thriving with cafes, restaurants and bars everywhere. We went down to the lower level, partly to get out of the sun and partly to find the loos. We stopped and had a nice cold beer at one of the cafes. We then walked on and found that we were in the underground entrance to the Opera House. We went in so that Les could use the loos. We found that there were huge empty very smart loos here - also there is a cafe/bar where you can sit inside or outside under a colonnade. It wasn’t very crowded and the beers were $1 or $2 cheaper than we’d just paid - a good tourist tip for anyone coming here.

We then walked back to the ferries. Interesting to see that the whole area at the base of the Opera House steps is surrounded by hoardings. Apparently they’re doing work to restrict vehicle access and make the place much more pedestrian friendly - this will include the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.

We got a ferry back to Pyrmont Bay. Fastcats for Parrammatta were leaving from the same wharf - they were so crowded that boarding passes were being issued to restrict the numbers to 200. They were however running additional boats one behind the other - presumably another result of the Sunday Funday tickets.

Bought more bananas and bought a large container of fresh fruit from the food court before getting back in about 6pm. Generally slumped and Les had a shower before we went back to eat at the food court - didn’t feel we could be bothered with a posh restaurant. Les had chicken and rice and Anne had fish and chips - both meals far too big to finish. Went back to The Goldsbrough. Anne went straight to bed to read while Les watched a little of the live one-day international Australia/India from Melbourne (shortened by rain!)

Monday 6 February

Quick fruit and coffee in room. Loaded washing machine and then walked down to cafe just outside entrance. This offered internet access with breakfast but we found it was access on their own machines, so we carried on and walked into Harbourside. Had very nice breakfast upstairs at Chico - no access here so went down and sat outside McDonalds. Strong signal but still very slow. Les sat with iPad while Anne investigated Ugg boots for Holly. Had to give up again on downloading Telegraph. Got the Ugg boots as we walked back to room. Put washing in dryer while we typed up this. Les tried to use the paid access on the iPad to download the Telegraph but the payment page uses Flash so we can’t do it.

Decided that we could do with a ‘cabin case’ to take Holly’s boots back so went into Harbourside. All much too expensive so decided to go to Paddy’s Markets. Went on the Monorail but as we got off at the station we saw that the markets only open Wed to Sun. Got on the next monorail, went past Chinatown to World Square. Found we were at a mall and walked round but again all the luggage shops were expensive. Thought we might find some cheap stuff in the basement area of the QVB, so we started to walk towards there. We went into some underground shops and though we didn’t find anything we realised that we could walk right through underground to City Station and then through to the QVB.

By this time it was approaching lunchtime. We were surprised, although we shouldn’t have been given that we’re in the CBD, at the fantastic amount of food outlets/food courts. We got to the QVB and went through the basement stores but again they were all Antler/Samsonite, etc, etc. - no cheapies. From QVB basement we went directly into Myers but again it was all the same. By this time we wanted lunch. We couldn’t remember the exact location of the food court that we’d eaten at on our last visit, so we tried to work our way back from the monorail station. We immediately found it - it was at the Piccadilly Centre on Pitt St. Once again had a really nice, really cheap fish lunch. Les had perch with rice and Anne had salt & pepper squid with salad.

Leaving the food court we walked directly into David Jones. We saw that it said Travel Goods on the LG, so we went to the LG to find the most amazing and seemingly endless food court with absolutely everything you could imagine. As well as selling it for eat-in you could also buy all the food at deli counters - makes Selfridges and Harrods Food Halls a bit underwhelming.

Had to go up and then down again to find the luggage area as the LG floor isn’t continuous. Shouldn’t have bothered - it was the same old stuff.

Back up at the ground floor we found ourselves opposite Hyde Park. We walked across and had a quick look inside the RC Cathedral - St Mary of the Cross. Faux medieval but obviously modern. Les had been struggling all day so we didn’t want to walk very far and as we left the park we realised we were at base of the Sky Tower. We decided to go up. The area below is a Westfield Shopping Centre and extremely glamorous - very different to our last visit many years ago. The only problem was the long queue to buy tickets as there was only one desk open. They opened a second desk just as we finally got to the front of the queue.

You then have to go through a 3-D cinema and watch a quick aerial flight around Sydney. Some really good views but they also spray water over you when they show you shots of surfing, sailing, diving, etc. - very amusing and, for a first time visitor, you get a really good idea of the layout of the city around the harbour. A shame it didn’t have any history at all.

Went straight up in the very slow lift. The weather was closing in a bit but we could still get reasonable views all round the city. Unfortunately a tower blocks the view of the Opera House which is the one picture that everyone would want!

We walked all round and took photos, then went down a floor to the cafe. Although you can’t go round 360 of this, you can actually take better photos because the difference in height is insignificant and the windows are spotlessly clean. On the viewing area the windows get dirty with everybody leaning on them.

Needless to say we didn’t do the SkyWalk which involves going outside on a platform, geared up and wired on Harbour Bridge style.

After a nice cool drink we went back to the monorail and got off at Darling Harbour and walked northward up the east side of the harbour to look at all the new development. Essentially this consists of apartments with ground floor given over to restaurants. The restaurants are really large and it’s amazing that they can all get enough custom to keep going. If you take the whole frontage on this side, around Cockle Bay Wharf and along Harbourside, it’s seems as if there are enough covers to seat half the population of Sydney.

Interesting to see that there are now lots of berths along this side with cruise ships, restaurant boats, etc. Walked back and got on the monorail back to Convention Centre. We must’ve been worn out because we came out of the monorail and went to the lift, despite the fact that we were actually on the right floor for the walkway to the hotel!

Had rest for an hour or or so. Anne laid down while Les managed to find the live coverage of the fouth day of 3rd England/Pakistan test in Dubai. Went out to eat around 7pm. Were surprised at how many people were out on a Monday night. Went back to the Waterfront Grill. Didn’t want much. Anne had a marvellous Tuna steak salad and Les had Caesar Salad with Cajun lamb.

On the way back we sat down by McDonalds and fired up the iPad. This time we were able to complete the downloads of all the copies of the Telegraph. Not sure why it worked this time but not previously.

Back to our unit and Les watched a bit more cricket (depressing) before bed.