A great way to start a visit to Sydney...
We've been incredibly fortunate with visitors this year, in November only four days after Sarah and John left, our friends Amy and John arrived from Texas! They landed in Sydney about eight in the morning, so we assumed they might want to take a nap etc, but when they turned up to our apartment they were eager to get going! (Evidently better fliers than us!)
First stop we went to the botanic gardens, a wonderful way to get introduced to the city. From the gardens you can see the memorable icons of Sydney like the harbour bridge and opera house whilst wondering through a leafy green setting, rather than experiencing the city bustle.
Amy and John brought some beautiful sunshine with them, which along with a cool breeze made it a very pleasant temperature for strolling around. Being springtime in these parts of the world the gardens provided some great photographic opportunities of many different flowers bursting with colour.
We also saw flying-foxes (large fruit bats) roosting in some of the trees. To me they seem intimidatingly large (they have the largest body size of all bats, weighing up to 1 kg) and they make an eerie squawking!
http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/welcome_to_bgt/royal_botanic_garden/gardens_and_domain/wildlife/flying-foxes
On route to the botanic gardens we passed Harry's cafe de wheels … famous for it's pies which often include toppings of mashed potatoe, mushy peas and gravy!
http://www.harryscafedewheels.com.au/
On the way back to their hotel/our apartment we stopped in at the art gallery to show them the aboriginal section. The exhibition includes both traditional and modern aboriginal art. One of the modern pieces we found particularly captivating was were an artist had recorded five different moving pictures that are all played at the same time. We lingered there a while. As your eyes flit between the screens the display becomes rather mesmerizing, trying to figure out what's going on in each scene.
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/245.2009/
(No photography is allowed in that exhibit.)
On our way out of the museum this intriguing and somewhat gross looking display caught our attention!
We then parted ways for a brief rest and re-fresh before meeting again in the evening. I secured us some dinner vouchers at a trendy bar in Kings Cross during a period of obsession I had with discount websites (like ouffer, spreets, etc similar to groupon). After eating, then consuming a couple of pints at the pub across the road we bid good-night to each other and arranged to meet the following day at circular quay in order to get the ferry to Manly. We agreed on a leisurely time of shortly after 11am … little did we know what the next few days had in store!
First stop we went to the botanic gardens, a wonderful way to get introduced to the city. From the gardens you can see the memorable icons of Sydney like the harbour bridge and opera house whilst wondering through a leafy green setting, rather than experiencing the city bustle.
Amy and John brought some beautiful sunshine with them, which along with a cool breeze made it a very pleasant temperature for strolling around. Being springtime in these parts of the world the gardens provided some great photographic opportunities of many different flowers bursting with colour.
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| As you might guess from Amy's impressive camera she got some great photos. You can see those on facebook (afraid I didn't get to add them here due to some technical difficulties!) |
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| I liked photographing the purple blossoms as they're my sister's favourite colour |
We also saw flying-foxes (large fruit bats) roosting in some of the trees. To me they seem intimidatingly large (they have the largest body size of all bats, weighing up to 1 kg) and they make an eerie squawking!
http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/welcome_to_bgt/royal_botanic_garden/gardens_and_domain/wildlife/flying-foxes
On route to the botanic gardens we passed Harry's cafe de wheels … famous for it's pies which often include toppings of mashed potatoe, mushy peas and gravy!
http://www.harryscafedewheels.com.au/
On the way back to their hotel/our apartment we stopped in at the art gallery to show them the aboriginal section. The exhibition includes both traditional and modern aboriginal art. One of the modern pieces we found particularly captivating was were an artist had recorded five different moving pictures that are all played at the same time. We lingered there a while. As your eyes flit between the screens the display becomes rather mesmerizing, trying to figure out what's going on in each scene.
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/work/245.2009/
(No photography is allowed in that exhibit.)
On our way out of the museum this intriguing and somewhat gross looking display caught our attention!
 |
| Sometimes modern art is creepy! |
We then parted ways for a brief rest and re-fresh before meeting again in the evening. I secured us some dinner vouchers at a trendy bar in Kings Cross during a period of obsession I had with discount websites (like ouffer, spreets, etc similar to groupon). After eating, then consuming a couple of pints at the pub across the road we bid good-night to each other and arranged to meet the following day at circular quay in order to get the ferry to Manly. We agreed on a leisurely time of shortly after 11am … little did we know what the next few days had in store!
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