After the rainy and cold first week – I needed my umbrella and an extra blanket on bed: Australian houses are not insulated – the sun came out during the second week. On Saturday it was even warm: about 30° Celsius. A good day for further sightseeing in Sydney and going out onto the Pacific Ocean to see the whales…
More Historic Sydney
The first spot I visited this time was Sydney Town Hall. Apparently, the steps in front of the building are a famous meeting place… but when I was there, either everyone must have found each other already and got on with their day, or I managed to scare (nearly) all people away: the steps were almost empty…
It was opened in 1869. Apparently, the original architect, as well as several of his successors, died during the time that the Town Hall was built. Some people say that this is the reason why it turned out to be such a nice building: every next architect wanted to do an even better job than the previous.
As I didn’t have much time to loiter – after all, I wanted to go and see the whales in the afternoon – therefore, I behaved like a proper tourist: took my picture, didn’t look any further, and quickly moved on to the next building:
This is Sydney’s oldest cathedral. Its design was inspired by York Minster in England. According to my guide book, there are “memorials to Sydney pioneers, a 1539 Bible and beads made from olive seeds, collected in the Holy Land” inside… Sadly, the cathedral wasn’t open to visitors, as I would have been interested to take a look.
Next stop was Hyde Park. Indeed – many names in Australia in general, and in Sydney in particular are the same as in the UK. As is Hyde Park: named after its London equivalent by Governor Macquarie. Initially, the park served as exercise field for the garrison troops, but there is only a rather small park left of this. At the far south side of the park is the Anzac Memorial, which commemorates Australians who have died for their country:
At the far north side of the park, I found myself face to face with the following gentleman:
Well… face to face… he was towering over everyone. It was only the first statue that I saw of him – several others would follow… He clearly was a man who is remembered for having made a significant impact on modern-day Sydney.
From Hyde Park I continued my way along Macquarie Street. The street was originally a ceremonial thoroughfare from the harbour to Hyde Park. It has some of the oldest and finest buildings of Sydney. Firstly, the Barracks. Built during the time of governor Macquarie (yes, him again…) to house the convicts. Before that time, so between 1788 when the first fleet landed, and 1819 when the Barracks were finished, the convicts had to find their own lodgings – without much material, and whilst still having to work for their food, so these years must have been rather grim.
Another very nice building along Macquarie Street, is the Mint:
The Mint was established in the mid 19th century to turn the newly found gold in Australia into currency. It was the first branch of the Royal Mint to be opened outside of London.
The last part of the historical tour of Sydney for this day is just a flag. Planted at the “location at which the first ceremony of saluting the flag by captain Arthur Phillip R.N. and his company took place to mark the foundation of Australia on 26th January, 1788″, according to the plaque at the bottom of the flag mast:
So far my historical tour of Sydney – next time I’ll write more about a very different part of Australian history: the people who lived there before the Europeans arrived…
Botanic Garden
The plan was to then walk through the Botanic Garden to Sydney Opera House, and then back to Circular Quay. But as time was moving on and I needed to be at Circular Quay on time to catch the whale watching boat (not to mention the fact that I really was looking forward to some lunch and a bottle of water – had I mentioned yet that it was warm that day?), I only managed to get as far as the outskirts of the Botanic Garden. That was already promising, so will certainly need to go back:
Recognise some plants? Yes, back home, Mum has them in the window sill: clivias, cyclamens… Here they grow outside.
Whale Watching
Finally then, whale watching… On the way out to the ocean I got this promised picture of Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in nice weather.
Once out on the ocean, the whale watching was fabulous! We saw quite a few whales – sometimes even 2 at a time:
Every time the whales went back to swim under water for a bit, it was a game of “spot the whale” (the light green-ish spot in the top left photo), then the whale would get to the surface, open its blowhole and exhale air (top right). The whales would often be so close, that we could hear this explosive exhaling very clearly! Diving under again, the back (middle photos) and finally the tail (bottom left) would come out of the water:
A fantastic experience! Very majestic animals… creation is impressive!
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:21 (KJV)
Next time (or perhaps the one after next…) I’ll also have much more on the fantastic flora and fauna of Australia!