The Beautiful Blue Mountains Tour

Australia has great geological diversity. Sydney is built on a plain, but 80 miles to the west, the land rises up to over 4000 in elevation, with deep gorges that resemble the Grand Canyon and Hawaii's Waimea Canyon on Kuiai. On may last day, Janice and Matt and I took a tour of the area, which is a popular sightseeing destination for city folk.

Nigel, our driver and tour guide, regaled us with historical anecdotes about the terrain and the people who carved out their living there by mining coal from some of the most inaccessible in the world, dug into the cliff face from the side of a steep gorge. How they got anyone to do that enourmously difficult job is a great mystery.

At the end of the day, we were treated to a ride on the high speed from Olympic Park back to Circular Quay. Then we took another ferry back to Darling Harbor under a rising moon at dusk. It was a most enjoyable day!

To see the pictures of our adventure, go to this link:  Blue Mountains

Fresh Fish!

For those of us who live in the US and are pretty much used to having all our food portioned, packaged and pre-chewed, its a bit of a shock to go to the grocery market like we did last week or to the fish market here in Sydney, where most of the fish is offered up fresh and whole. I wouldn't now how to clean a fish if you threatened me, but if I lived here, I'd have to figure it out or starve.

A short course in fish nomenclature would probably be a good idea as well, as there are varieties available that I know nothing about. Anyone for a nice barramundi fillet, for instance? Keep in mind that the prices in the photos are in kilos, so with the exchange rate and the conversion to US dollars, our price per pound would be about 40% or less of what you see in the pictures.

In addition to buying your seafood, you can also dine at the Fish Market pier at any number of restaurants that offer entrees that are fresher than anything you can find at home, if you can find it at all.

Before we got to the fish market, we took a detour to Glebe for the weekly flea market. Part art festival, part buskers convention and part yard sale, it covers a city block with tent stalls offering everything from jewelry to pre-owned jeans. Like most communities here, it has a very busy main street, but things are quite calm and quiet just a few doors in from the main thoroughfare.

You can see pictures of today's adventure at this link:  Fish Market

Bon appetit!

Do You Know The Way To Double Bay?

Here's a collection of photos from various points around Sydney over the past two days. I have made it my mission to ride every ferry route on Sydney Harbor, and part of that included the ferry to the eastern suburbs called Double Bay and Rose Bay on Thursday. But that trip was preceeded by an excursion through Hyde Park and another part of The Botanical Gardens on the way to the ferry terminal.

The next day, Friday, we all went for lunch in North Sydney at a Chinese restaurant where they wheel the food by your table on carts and you simply select what interests you. It was a great meal and a most entertaining way to while away an hour or two. On the way home, we opted to take the one remaining ferry adventure and saw some of the upper harbor, which extends as much as 15 miles inland.

I'm getting so I rather like this city life. So much to do and to see. And of course I have to make sure to capture all of it to share with you. Hope you have enjoyed the trip. Its rapidly drawing to a close, sadly. Tomorrow, Sunday, we are off on an all day junket to The Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Don't know what we will find there but you can be sure I will record it all for your amusement and edification.

See you then.

Check out the Thursday and Friday pictures at this link:  Double Bay and Rose Bay

Eureka!

Carolyn e-mailed me last week to ask if I had found the place I wanted to live in Sydney yet. Today, I found it! Its called Mosman and the adjacent Mosman Bay. Cute, clean, quaint, close to the city, lots of quiet, tree lined streets, an extensive main street with oodles of shoppes and the prices seem about 20% less than in Sydney proper. Some of the photos are of waterfront homes along the Bay, and I rather think they might be a bit dear for our projected budget. But just up the street and around the bend, there is an assortment of single family and duplex dwellings that are quite appealing. The fact that you can easily take a ferry or a bus into the city is also a drawing card, as parking in Sydney, as in most large cities, is a challenge.

The weather has changed since I talked to you last, which is why there was no update yesterday. It rained the day before and so, for the first time since I got here, no photos were taken. Yesterday was overcast and threatening more rain, which came in the night. So the exposure on today's pictures is not ideal, but the best I could manage given the conditions.

Ah, a comfortable home in Mosman Bay, a boat to go out upon the harbor in and a Miata or MINI to tour the country side in.... THAT would be too sweet, now wouldn't it?

Enjoy the photos at this link: Mosman

Cheers!

Life's A Beach!

Sunday, we all took a road trip along the shore of Sydney Harbor to the east, circumnavigating the many coves and inlets along the way and ending up at South Head, the southern side of The Gap, where the harbor meets the ocean. From there, we wandered south to Bondi (with a long "i", as in "island") and its spectacular ocean beach.

Unfortunately, the day was wonderfully warm and sunny and Bondi beach was overrun with locals, to the point where the nearest parking was in New Zealand or someplace. There sure wasn't any to be had in town THAT day.

So we wandered further south to La Perouse on Botany Bay, where a colonial era fort guards the entrance to the bay. There is also a national park there. The whole area felt very much like Brenton Point, in Newport, RI, where Narragansett Bay meets the Atlantic. Same greenspace, same steady, prevailing breeze off the water, and same virtually unlimited scenic view seaward.

Then we headed back north again to the beach at Maroubra, which features a beach nearly as braod and inviting as the one at Bondi, except this time we were able to find a place to stash the car so we could take a refreshing swim in the Pacific. And man, did it feel good!

On Monday, Janice took the day off from work and we all took the ferry across the harbor to Taronga Zoo, where we focused on the native Australian species like wallabys, kangaroos and wombats. As you will see in the pictures, the zoo offers a rather wonderful view back over the harbor toward the City, which my Kodak was happy to record just before the batteries finally gave out after 10 days of almost constant use.

To see the pix from the beaches and the zoo, follow this link: Beaches and Zoo

A Night At The Opera

Two posts today. No extra charge! The following post describes a visit to the Sydney Markets for some groceries.

But this one is about the fulfillment of a long time dream of mine, to hear a performance at the Sydney Opera House, reported to offer some of the finest acoustics of any venue on Earth.

It was a sell-out performance and we had seats in the center of the hall, albeit near the back. The first selection was a Beethoven piano concerto. Some passages were so soft, it was as if the pianist was barely brushing the keys with his fingertips. But we heard every note as if we were up on the stage with him. Awesome! Magnificent! Incomparable! The trip was worth it just for this one moment.

The second selection was a Haydon piece that featured passages with just two violins softly playing off each other in contrapuntal fashion. Stunning! Every note so clear and precise. What a magnificent structure this Opera House is. Bravo!!!!

We befriended an Aussie couple sitting next to us and we all went out after the performance to Circular Quay for a drink on the harbor's edge under the stars and moonlight. Was this a special night? Oh, yes, indeed. One I will never forget. Words can't describe how magnificent this evening was.

Sometimes dreams really do come true.

Here are some photos of the Opera House and its environs.  Opera House

To Market, To Market.

Today, Saturday, we all drove out to Farmington, about 12 miles west of the city, where the farmer's market is held inside a large building that obviously used to be a "big box" store, like a WalMart or a Costco.

Acres of fresh food literally as far as the eye can see, and proprietors hawking their wares like auctioneers at a southern tobacco auction. Anything and everything you can think of is on offer and at pretty reasonable prices. Keep in mind that all the signs you see are for a kilo, which is 2.2 pounds. So translating into our terms, if something is $10 a kilo here, that is equivalent to $4 a pound back home.

The shoppers are offered samples of anything they may fancy. And they feel free to inspect every purchase for smell, texture, color, firmness and porosity before buying.

Merchants sometimes stand on their tables and shout out their wares. Dollar! Dollar! Dollar! Two dollar, box. Four dollar bunch! The noise is constant and oddly appealing. There is a blend of languages going on all around: Asain, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Italian. Even a smattering of English now and again!

On the way out, a couple in front of us had a box of oranges fall off their cart and spill all over the parking lot. Instantly, 7 people stopped what they were doing to help round them up and put them back in the box. Back home, people would gladly run over them with their SUV and think nothing of it.

Australia is a very pleasant place to be.

Check out the pictures from the farmer's market this link:  Market