I think we’ve become used to all the short flights we’ve been taking over the past few months, because our 11 hours of flights from Hong Kong to Sydney (via Singapore) really seemed unusually long! So, after arriving in Sydney and getting into the timezone, we were ready to explore.
We started out with an excellent free walking tour with I’m Free Walking Tours. We learned that Australia is very similar to Canada in its history – we are both very young countries with very similar histories and architecture.
Let’s start out with a bit of interesting information about the Australian Coat of Arms!
1. Both the Kangaroo and Emu are indigenous species in Australia
2. Neither animal can walk backwards – symbolic for Australia to always move forward
3. Australians have no qualms about eating either animal!
As we walked through the city core, we saw many different styles of architecture, both old and new. For instance, if you saw this building, you might think you were in England (or in Canada!)…
This is Sydney’s city hall, and as you can see it’s very much in the same style as many buildings you would see in England (and in Canada!).
Statues of Queen Victoria can be found all around Sydney…
St. Mary’s Cathedral near Hyde Park is very reminiscent of European cathedrals we have seen in our travels.
Like many European cathedrals, this one took a long time to complete as well! The first one was built in 1851, but it burned down and was completely destroyed. The current day cathedral was started in 1868, but didn’t have the nave completed until 1928! It wasn’t until 2000 that the spires were added.
The Development of a Rum Hospital?
As Sydney began to grow and thrive in the early 1800’s, Governor Macquarie, saw the need for a hospital to be built. Unfortunately, the British Government did not agree with the plan and refused to fund the construction. The Governor was determined to make it happen, and so worked with a consortium of local businessmen to have the hospital built. In this agreement, the businessmen would have a 3-year monopoly on all rum imports from which they could recoup the cost of construction of the hospital. Construction began in late 1810 and went into operation in 1816.
The hospital consists of three buildings. Today, the North Wing is used for the Legislative Assembly of the state of New South Wales. The central wing is the home of the Sydney Eye Hospital; at one time the south wing was home to the Australian Mint, and subsequently the building was re-purposed to house the Mint Museum.
In front of the central wing is a statue of a boar, which is a copy of the statue “porcellino” which we saw in the Ufizzi in Florence. It is believed that if you rub the boar’s nose you will return to Florence, and if you place a coin in the boar’s mouth you will receive financial good luck!
We have seen street art in a number of places throughout our travels, and Sydney has some of its own.
The birdcages in particular reminded me of an art installation in Cambodia that we saw.
As we continued on our tour, we passed one of the war memorials in Sydney. Just a week earlier, on April 25th, was Anzac Day where the soldiers of Australia and New Zealand who died during the Gallipoli campaign in WWI are remembered across Australia. The war memorial was still decorated with flowers and wreaths when we walked by. This reminded me of our tours in Northern Europe in August of last year when we visited many of the Canadian battle sites from WWI and saw the various memorials erected at the actual battle sites.
Our tour wrapped up at the famous Sydney Harbour, where we were rewarded with some beautiful sunset views of the Sydney Opera House…
And the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the largest steel arch bridge in the world…
While in Sydney, we also had the pleasure of visiting our new friends Graham, Christine and Michelle, who we had met in Morocco way back in November! We took a short ferry ride from Sydney Harbour to Manly Beach and were quickly reacquainted! We took a lovely walk around the bay and enjoyed a fantastic steak dinner – the first REAL BEEF since…well, I can’t remember when!
This has been a fantastic start to our stay in Australia!
Comments
12 responses to “Sensational Sydney!”
If you get a chance visit the Chinese gardens in Darling Harbour. They are beautiful, They were a gift from China to Australia.
Enjoying your blog.
Hi Karen, Thanks for the pointer…we’ll see if we can get there!
And English everywhere!! Yay! How does that feel?
Hi Herta, there certainly is plenty of Aussie being spoken here…but many nationalities make Sydney their home. We saw all kinds of different restaurants, and in some cases you wouldn’t necessarily know you were in Australia at all. Quite cosmopolitan indeed.
Wow Oliver, another great story of your continuing adventures … I just love all the details you guys write about along with all the pictures … I know I’m a broken record – it is definitely inspiring!
Hi Harriet, I’m glad you’re enjoying our blog posts! We love doing the writing (ok, maybe not always!) and appreciate the comments!
I lived in Australia for 6 months about 23 years ago and your blog is bringing back wonderful memories. In those days, one couldn’t climb the bridge and Darling Harbour had just been developed, but I did take in a concert at the Opera House and that was wonderful. I hope you had the chance to experience it. I remember shopping at Paddington market, learning to sail in the bay (very scared of going over in shark-infested waters!) and of course, trekking through the Blue Mountains, driving along the Great Ocean Road and camping in Kakadu NP. And of course, I remember hitch-hiking from Cairns down to Bisbane with a friend as well! Crazy times. But good ones! Ironically, when we were in Norwich, England in April, we visited the castle and learned that at some point, sending prisoners to Australia was deemed a better option that keeping them in overcrowded prisons, so there was quite a lot of information as to the lives of some of the more famous prisoners from Norwich then living in Australia (being sent to Australia wasn’t necessarily a get out of jail card in a lot of cases – more like a change of scenery!).
Hi Beverley, we are glad that we’re able to bring back some good memories for you! As tempting as it was we didn’t hitchhike…though imagining us at the side of the road with all of our bags etc would pretty much guarantee not getting a ride!
Hi Oliver,
Thanks for the history tour! It was very interesting and the photos are wonderful! As always, I always appreciate your wonderful sense of humour! Love, Mom P.
Hi Baba, glad you enjoyed the post! 🙂
Hi, Oliver, I enjoyed your posting and the photos very much. When I saw the first photos I thought: How British everything looks. Love your shot of the Sidney Opera House and the dramatic play of the light, water and sky. Great to reconnect with your friends and to top it all off: Steak Dinner 🙂 Sounds just about close to “perfect”. Lots of Hugs
Hello Oma, the architecture was really interesting, you’re right very English. As for the Opera House, sometimes the light just happens to cooperate and you get an interesting picture!