Day 2: Rocks, Milson’s Point, Gardens, Pyrmont
Jan 4th, 2008 by Nick
I woke up on Friday at 0630 with a nasty throat full of post-nasal drip, so I spent the entire day sounding like I had TB: one of those periodic non-productive coughs. I think the issue is a mix of allergies and lack of humidity. I was very dejected, as this is exactly what I had fought off the week before Christmas, and it’s back again. After some work on the laptop and a few calls back to the States, I was ready to take off.
Summary of the day: (click the link after the bullets for the details):
- Self-guided walking tour of The Rocks and Milson’s Point;
- Ferry to/from Watson’s Bay to enjoy the views and take a break;
- Walked through the Opera House complex and National Gardens;
- After a break at the hotel, found out that lots of good restaurants are closed for their summer break.
My plan had been to take a walking tour at 10am, but they had called and cancelled due to an overbooking, and rescheduled for Saturday. So, I spent the morning following the Colony self-guided walking tour from the city. That required a walk to Circular Quay (a little over a mile), then about two miles of walking. The tour covers the northwest quadrant of Central Sydney, winding under the expressway and the Harbour Bridge a couple of times. The sights mostly fell into the “interesting but not earthshattering category,” mostly buildings, hotels, churches from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Much of it was sandstone, which was very attractive even when aged.
The best highlights of the tour were a couple of views. One is from the Observatory hill, just west of the expressway. From here, there were sweeping views in three directions, and I set up my tripod and self-timer and took several shots. The other was from the edge of “The Rocks” district, at the waterfront literally under the bridge. Along the way, I stopped at Lord Nelson’s Hotel (recommended by several sources, including my cousin) and had a traditional fish and chips lunch and a break from the sunlight.
The walking tour deposited me at Circular Quay again. My original plan had been to go to Bondi, but I decided that two beaches in two days was overkill, and since I’d lose some time with the rescheduled walking tour covering some things I covered in the morning, I pushed it back to the Monday of my return. At this point, it was about 86 degrees and I needed to plot out the rest of my day. I took advantage of my unlimited ferry usage and caught a ferry to Watson’s Bay. Watson’s Bay is another beach-type area, whose redeeming value seems to be a large hotel and bar. I stayed on the ferry when it got there, and rode it back to Circular Quay. With an hour of relaxation time, I was ready to go again, especially with some gelato.
The next stop was to the Opera House to check out the logistics and pick up my tour ticket for Sunday AM (pushed back from today because of the rescheduled Bounce tour). It is a very impressive complex from the outside, and I am looking forward to the tour. Then I left from the west side of the complex, and entered the National Botanic Gardens.
The National Botanic Gardens are interesting because unlike the traditional setup, it’s maybe 15% gardens, 85% parkland. I walked northwest through about half the complex (I’ll probably pick up the other half on Saturday afternoon), came out on Macquarie Street, and made my way back to the hotel. There, I cleaned up for the evening, wrote the Day 1 blog post, woke my parents up to say hi, and had a forty-minute Skype call with my cousin. Skype is amazing, but that’s a different post.
I also found out that the tapas place I wanted to try was closed for the summer holiday until January 15. I had seen some places in the CBD that were closed, but they looked like worker lunch places. I thought it was odd that a restaurant would close for three solid weeks. I did some research online at Eatability and came up with a few choices for the Pyrmont neighborhood west of the hotel. I also grabbed an umbrella, as there was a 70% chance of rain.
Pyrmont was the first residential neighborhood I’d visited, and I enjoyed it. It was a little hilly as I worked my way west to restaurant #1, an Italian place. Closed for the holiday. What is this, Italy in August? I had to decide which direction I wanted to walk for either choice #2 or #3, and I picked the direction near the Star City casino, to a Chinese place. Another steep hill, and another sign saying closed for the holiday. Now, the three other Asian places on that street were open, but they looked bad. So I guess the sign of a good restaurant is that I can’t eat there this week.
I made my way to Star City, where most of the games were too rich for my blood because of the lousy US$. I spent a few minutes watching the greyhounds at the off-track betting, and found out two interesting things. One, the minimum bet is only $0.50, which is nifty. The other things is that Australian racing only has win and place, not show betting. This is sad, because your money takes a lot longer to run out if you bet greyhounds to show.
By this point, my throat was acting up badly again, and I was no longer very hungry. I picked up a “beef pira” which looks like a little like a Danish pastry but savory from a kabob place, and a 20oz bottle of orange juice, and walked back to the hotel. Total cost was $10, so I’m doing well on my food budget. By this point, I was having trouble swallowing, so I fired up the CPAP and its humidifier and watched the movie Kinsey on the local TV channel. Two hours of that made me feel much better, so I eventually ate my dinner and went to bed.
