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Sydney is the largest city in Australia, with a population exceeding 4 million.  Though not the capital of the country (this is Canberra, located between Sydney and Melbourne), it is the capital city of the state of New South Wales.  As mentioned in the Australia overview, it is the site of Australia’s first permanent settlement by Europeans, and is built around an immense natural harbor called Port Jackson (named by Captain Cook after Sir George Jackson, Judge Advocate of the Fleet).  Its best-known landmarks are probably its distinctive Opera House (opened in 1973), its Harbour Bridge (known as “the coathanger” for obvious reasons), and its beaches (Bondi and Manly are the ones most people think of).  Port Jackson has a very irregular shoreline, with great numbers of peninsulas, inlets and islets.

Map of Port Jackson
Map of Port Jackson

Sydney’s Central Business District occupies one of the peninsulas and forms a spectacular skyline.

Map of Downtown
Map of Downtown
Central Business District
Central Business District

To get to Sydney from the Gold Coast, we departed from the Gold Coast Airport in Coolangatta on a Virgin Blue flight which took a little more than an hour to reach Sydney.

Virgin Blue Jet, Coolangatta Airport
Virgin Blue Jet, Coolangatta Airport
Coastline Near Coolangatta
Coastline Near Coolangatta

Baggage weight limits on this flight were quite low, but we’d checked before leaving the U.S. and planned our baggage weight around this one flight, so we were able to avoid the overweight fees.  Flying in to Sydney, we had a nice view out the left side of the aircraft of the entire harbor area before landing at Sydney Airport to the south of the city.

Waterways North of Sydney
Waterways North of Sydney
Harbour from Plane
Harbour from Plane

The runways for Sydney Airport actually extend out into Botany Bay, which was the First Fleet’s initial destination in 1788 before moving north to Port Jackson.  There are a few options for getting from the airport to the Central Business District.  Of course there are taxis.  There is also a train with a number of stops, one of which was quite convenient to our hotel (the Sheraton on the Park).  But the train fare for three people worked out to about the same as a taxi fare, so neither option had much of a cost advantage for us.  But we did find a shuttle van which was significantly less, and which we took.  But it stopped at several hotels, ours being one of the last as it turned out, so in retrospect we might have opted for the taxi.

After checking in at the hotel, we walked westward on Market Street to Darling Harbour, which is on the west side of the CBD’s peninsula, where we watched the sun set to the northwest.

Sydney Tower
Sydney Tower
Darling Harbour Sign
Darling Harbour Sign
Wildlife World and Sydney Aquarium
Wildlife World and Sydney Aquarium
Walkway, Cockle Bay Wharf
Walkway, Cockle Bay Wharf
Novotel and Harbourside Mall
Novotel and Harbourside Mall
Cockle Bay Wharf and Darling Harbour
Cockle Bay Wharf and Darling Harbour (WMV Video, 5.3 MB)

From Darling Harbour we returned up Market Street and found a food court running under some buildings on the north side of the street.  The food court had a big assortment of food, from Asian to Italian to Mexican.  There was also a New Zealand ice cream stand, which even sold L&P.  The food court was also about to close (closing time was 6 PM), so we made some hasty decisions and were able to procure nourishment just in time.  Then we returned to our hotel and spent the rest of the evening watching the Beijing Olympics on TV.

Bowl-O-Tentacles, Food Court
Bowl-O-Tentacles, Food Court
Hotel Room
Hotel Room


More Photos:

Queen Victoria Building and Town Hall
Queen Victoria Building and Town Hall

Darling Harbour and Harbourside Mall
Darling Harbour and Harbourside Mall
Pyrmont Bridge
Pyrmont Bridge
Buildings from Pyrmont Bridge
Buildings from Pyrmont Bridge

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