We are staying in the Circular Quay area and read that taking the train is cheaper than taking a taxi. Being in a big city, we figured it would probably be easiest to take public transit to get around. This is proving to be the right call. The public transit system is quite extensive and gets you pretty much anywhere you want to go. Their system runs very efficiently with the tap in, tap out system; not sure why this same system has so many problems being implemented back home. It works over the world. We determined that a weekly MyMulti3 pass would suit us best. It includes ferries, buses, and trains. There is an extra fee of $12.80 to leave the airport on a train however Z figured out that it was actually cheaper to buy a weekly airport pass so we went that route. So at a final cost of $168 for two tickets for a week, which included the airport link, we were set to explore Sydney.
The train from the airport to Circular Quay took all of 15 minutes. The walk from the train station to our hotel, the Sydney Harbour Marriott also booked on points, was a short 5 minutes. We had a nice view of the bridge from our room.
Right at Circular Quay you can walk over to the Opera House or the Sydney Harbour bridge; both spectacular sights to see. There is a wide boardwalk around the harbour lined by numerous restaurants and a variety of shops. This is also the place where you can catch a number of harbour ferries.
We found a free walking tour called "I'm Free Tours" which we thought would provide a good introduction and orientation of Sydney. The tour lasted about 2.5 hours and took us to various sights from Sydney Town Hall, Queen Victoria building, Hyde Park, Australia Square, down to Circular Quay and the Rocks. Our guide was Lisa and she provided a very informative commentary on the history of not only the sights but also of Sydney. One of the interesting tidbits I learned was the Sydney has a bunch of tunnels that were originally dug for the underground rail system to mirror London's tube system, but they were a little over zealous and dug too many tunnels. As a result many of these tunnels were left unused and some have now been converted into shopping areas. We toured one such tunnel as part of this tour and aside from having to walk down a flight of stairs you wouldn't even know you were underground. We also got to see the one and only canon that defended the harbour of Sydney for many years but never ended up being used. We learned there is a big rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne with each city thinking they are better than the other and as a result when it came to choosing a capital for the country the compromise was to name Canberra the capital. The walking tour ended up on the boardwalk with the opera house and bridge on either side of us. The tour itself was free and the guide relied on tips to be paid.
After the tour we hopped on a ferry to Darling Harbour where we walked along the boardwalk and found a restaurant for lunch. Most restaurants offer a set lunch menu at a slightly reduced price or you can order regular lunch items. Happy hour is a big thing here and seems to start at 3pm. The boardwalk here too is lined with restaurants and you can also find the aquarium, Sydney wildlife zoo, and IMAX theatre here. They are building a new convention centre here which is slated to open in 2016. The number 1 restaurant in Sydney according to Tripadvisor is located in this area and was only a short walk from the boardwalk. It so happens this restaurant is actually a gelato place called Messina. And I'd have to say it was quite fantastic!!! Z renamed the ferry to this area the F4 ice cream ferry.
As we were searching for Messina we happened across the 2014 ARIA awards and just missed seeing Katy Perry and One Direction walk the red carpet by a mere minutes. The ARIA's recognize Australia's musicians and apparently the biggest names in Australia were present. Shame we didn't know any of them; we may have been rubbing shoulders with celebrities and didn't even know it. Seems to be the story of this trip....we're just missing a bunch of big name things. APEC in Beijing, G20 in Brisbane, and now the ARIA red carpet walk.
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