Colette took the day off Thursday, our first full day in Sydney, and took us on a tour of the CBD (Central Business District, aka downtown) and parts beyond, including The Rocks, Darling Harbour, and Chinatown. We joked about this being her second time giving me a tour of a city, the first time was when she was less than Miles’s age!
First, we acted like locals by stopping for coffee in a trusted coffee place. Sydney is obsessed, in a very good way, with coffee. We experimented with some Sydney style coffee before settling on our favorites, a long black for John (akin to an Americano), tie between a skinny latte and a flat white (kinda like a cafe au lait but still a bit foamier) for me, hot chocolate for the boys. The baristas draw impressive pictures in the foam, which is quite delightful.
Refreshed, we walked through the Botanical Gardens, recently flying fox free thanks to some successful relocation efforts. They were eating everything! Bit of a local joke, but we had been talking about the unpopularity of Australia’s new carbon tax, and John suggested a tax on vowels might raise even more revenue.
Then we rounded a corner and whoa! the Sydney Opera House was right there! Amazing to see in person. We hadn’t known about the building’s surface texture — it’s made from tiles that you can see from closer up but disappear at a distance and seemingly in lots of photos.
This clock reminded us about how amazing the night (at 6:30pm or so!) sky was in Queensland. Once the sun set, the sky turned completely inky black covered with stars, and even the Milky Way was visible. We’re more used to waiting until really late to see such an impressive night sky, since we’ve only visited remote locations in summer before, and it takes much longer for the sky to get dark. Amazing!
I’ll return to the middle of our day, a visit to Parliament, in another post. Fast forwarding to the end of our first day in Sydney…
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Great pictures!
Thanks! Sydney is very photogenic 🙂