Sydney-Part One

On Wednesday, May 13th we left our Ocean Grove home at 4:30 a.m. (in the pouring rain) to head to the Melbourne Airport for our flight to Sydney. It was a short one hour or so flight. As we approached Sydney we caught our first glimpse of some of its famous sights! 

Hello Sydney!

Once we landed we took a train to our hotel to drop our bags. We stayed at the Amora Hotel on Jamison Street in downtown Sydney. It was about 11 a.m. We seem to have the best luck with checking in at our hotels early here in Australia. Our room was ready, so we were able to drop our bags in our room and then head out to find lunch. 

Figuring out which train to take

Our hotel was located in a great place. We were close to trains and only a few blocks from several sights we planned to see. We walked to Darling Harbour to find some lunch. We had lunch at Casa right on the harbour. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining!

Lunch at Casa at Darling Harbour, May 13, 2015

Cool ships on the harbour

After lunch we walked along the harbour, had coffee at Lindt Chocolate Café while Lydia napped in her stroller, and found a huge playground. This playground was the BEST! The kids loved the zipline (called a flying fox here), the climbing rope tower (spider web), and the slide that requires skill to climb. Lydia watched Hannah go up the rope on the slide and then copied what she learned the next time we visited this park. She was a pro!

Hannah trying the flying fox

Kiernan bouncing on the flying fox

Even Barry gave the flying fox a go!

Here comes our daredevil girl

Look at that smile!

Even the ibis birds love this playground

Huge spiderweb to climb

Hannah trying not to get tangled up

The park also had a recumbent bike area where you could pedal to charge your devices. Awesome!

Keep pedaling Hannah!

Need your device charged?

Next we walked to the Sydney Tower. The Sydney Tower is the city's tallest structure and the second tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere. It stands 1,014 ft above Sydney. The observation deck, called the Sydney Tower Eye, is 820 ft above the ground and has a fully enclosed viewing platform that offers 360-degree views of the city and surrounding area. You reach the tower eye by elevators in an approximately 40 second ride. While we were in the tower it started to rain, so it was hard to see very far. It was kind of neat to be up in the tower during the rain though and the kids were still amazed to see so much from up so high. We decided that we should just wait out the rain up there.

Kiernan didn't believe me when I said
we were going up there!

Sydney Harbour Bridge view via Sydney Tower Eye

Lydia watching the rain fall over Sydney

We took the train back towards our hotel and grabbed some food at a grocery store to have dinner at our hotel. We all went to bed early due to the early morning catching our flight. On Thursday morning we had breakfast in our hotel room and then headed to the Australian Museum. The Australian Museum was apparently the first museum in Australia. It was established in 1827. The museum had exhibits spanning birds, dinosaurs, indigenous Australians, and insects. 

Sydney Tower view via Hyde Park, May 14, 2015

Australian Museum-Lydia loved the dino sticking his head out the window

The girls being dinos

Watch out Kiernan!

My favorite was the Wildlife Photography of the Year gallery. The gallery had 100 images that were selected from over 40,000 entries. The best part is that there were categories for children, including an under 10 category. Those under 10 images were still far better than any pictures I ever snap. So impressive!

Kiernan looking at different Australian spiders

I spent some time talking with a volunteer at the museum who was working on extracting bone from rock from the Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. He let the girls hold the bones. He was pretty interesting to talk to. He spent most of his life as a salesman, but always had an interest in dinosaur bones. Once he retired he volunteered at the museum and convinced staff to take him along to Canada. He’s been working at the museum for 12 years and will spend most of his time just working on this one set of bones. He explained how they extract the fossil from the rock, etc. 

Lydia learning about dinosaur bones

We had lunch on level four of the museum. It was beautiful weather and we had amazing views of the harbour, cathedral and other sights.

View of Sydney from Australian Museum

View of St. Mary's Cathedral from Australian Museum

After lunch we looked around the museum for a bit longer, then we walked towards the Royal Botanic Gardens. Lydia fell asleep in the stroller. Hannah and Kiernan encountered a kookaburra during our walk. We typically only see them in tree branches, so it was a neat experience to see one on the ground. This one didn't seem very frightened and was smaller than others we have seen, so we thought maybe it was a young one.

Kids checking out the kookaburra

Calm kookaburra - maybe a baby?!

We stopped for coffee at the gardens and walked along the footpaths to reach views of the opera house and bridge. 

Fountain at entrance to Royal Botanic Gardens

Beautiful!

Spider and web in Royal Botanic Gardens

Odd-looking sausage tree found in Eastern and Southern Africa

Even the bark is odd

There were eels in the pond near the harbour. Interestingly, they are not put in the pond. They regularly drain the pond and somehow the eels keep coming back. It is assumed they come in across the grass from the harbour. It's not very far, but still very ODD! They were about 2-3 feet long. We didn't see them when we initially approached the pond, but there were several that appeared right away. Someone must feed them as they seemed very interested in humans.

Eels in the pond, Royal Botanic Gardens

Kiernan in tree trunk/shadow of Barry on trunk

Beautiful view of bridge and opera house-nice shot Barry!

Next, we walked to the Sydney Opera House. We all enjoyed exploring the area for a few minutes. 

Kiddos marching to the Opera House

Sydney Opera House, May 14, 2015

Close-up of Sydney Opera House tiles

Sydney Opera House, May 14, 2015

Stunning view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

The kids were quite wild by then, and we decided to head back to the hotel and rest for a bit. Hannah and Kiernan went swimming at the hotel with Barry, and Lydia and I relaxed in the room. For dinner, we went back to Darling Harbour and ate an expensive okay meal. Tip-when traveling always read reviews (and believe them) about a restaurant! We usually read reviews before we decide where to eat, but we were too exhausted and hungry. We walked around the area and up on the Pyrmont Bridge to enjoy the views of Sydney at night. Then we walked back to our hotel and collapsed!

No worries though-we are "Surviving Australia!"

Sarah