Sydney Harbor Bridge

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Hi all.  Before I can talk about our last full day in Sydney, I need to catch you up on what we did yesterday, after we got back to Sydney (on Wednesday, December 20).  We left the DoubleTree hotel in Alice Springs at 10 a.m. and headed back to the Alice Springs airport for our 2.5 hour flight back to Sydney.  It was a FULL flight which meant I ended up in a middle seat between Carl (at the window) and a young 20-something woman who fidgeted the whole flight (but was otherwise pleasant enough).  

We left Alice Springs with brilliant sunshine and temperatures around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  We arrived at the Sydney airport around 4:10 p.m. local time to gray skies, rain, and about a 20 degree temperature drop - brrr!

Took awhile to get our luggage, but finally everything was loaded on the bus and our driver Steve drove us back into downtown Sydney.  Unfortunately, that meant arriving in the heart of rush hour and traffic in downtown Sydney was moving (or should I say NOT moving) at a crawl.  We finally got onto Jamison street where our hotel is (staying back at the Amora Jamison) and the bus driver was trying mightily to back up the bus to get us in a correct position to offload the bus (FYI - Australians drive on the LEFT side of the road - steering wheels in cars are on the right side - very confusing for this American) and as he was backing up on Jamison (which is a pretty narrow street), a cab tried to scoot past while the bus was backing up and collided with the back left corner of the bus!  Poor Steve - he's been a bus driver for 30+ years and this is his first accident with a bus!  No one was hurt but Steve is going to have alot of paperwork to fill out!

After dropping us off, Melissa (our tour guide) offered to take anyone who wanted on a walking tour down onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  I was thinking about it but was waffling because of the rain and cold er temperature and then our luggage was delayed getting to our room.  However, both Carl and Melissa sort of talked me into it.  So, when luggage finally arrived, I changed out of shorts into long pants, a sweater and my rain jacket and headed back to the lobby to join our small band (three couples, including us) and a mom and daughter, and Melissa for a walk to the Harbor Bridge via The Rocks - a very tony area of downtown Sydney.

I am SO glad I went.  The walk was lovely (even with cooler temps and a little mist) and the views from the bridge, looking out across the harbor were spectacular.

The Argyle Stairs - we had to climb two flights to get up to the Harbor Bridge

The path to the Harbor Bridge leads through The Rocks and then we had to climb two flights of stairs carved into the rock to access the bridge.  A little huffing and puffing, but we all made it to the top.

Old Dutch East Indies building in the harbor area viewed from the Harbor Bridge

The older/original buildings in Sydney are all built from sandstone.  Sydney is doing a lot to preserve these older sandstone buildings in the CBD (Central Business District). Sometimes that means keeping the sandstone bottom floors of a building and then adding lots of floors above it in more modern building materials.  Makes for some interesting architecture.

Our group walking across the Harbor Bridge to the first observation site

The Bridge was built in 1932 to link the south side of Sydney (where the CBD is) with the north side (where all the money firms are - like Credit Suisse).

Of course, the iconic view from the bridge is of the Harbor and the Sydney Opera House!

Carl & Anne on Harbor Bridge
(with Opera House, behind)

After we walked to the first observation station on the bridge, we walked back and folks split up in various groups to go to dinner.  We went with Melissa and Ken & Sherry and had dinner at Melissa's favorite Thai restaurant in Sydney - Chat Thai.  We shared a sweet curry beef dish and an order of pineapple fried rice that had shrimp and cashews.  Both were very tasty.  We walked back to the hotel from the restaurant and that was essentially the end of our day.