Sydney is the largest city in Australia, with a population exceeding 4 million. Though
not the capital of the country (that would be Canberra, located between Sydney and Melbourne),
it is the capital city of the state of New South Wales. As mentioned in the
Gold Coast page, 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.
Port Jackson
Sydney's Central Business District occupies one of the peninsulas and forms a spectacular skyline.
Downtown Sydney
Central Business District
To get to Sydney from the Gold Coast, we departed from the Gold Coast Airport in Coolangatta
on a flight which took a little more than an hour to reach Sydney. 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.
Virgin Blue Jet, Coolangatta Airport
Coastline Near Coolangatta
Flying in to Sydney, we had a nice view out the left side of the aircraft of the entire
harbor area before landing to the south of the city at Sydney Airport.
Waterways North of Sydney
Sydney Harbour from Plane
The runways for the 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 we took it. Unfortunately it
stopped at several hotels, ours being one of the last, so in retrospect we might have opted
for the taxi if we'd known.
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
Queen Victoria Building and Town Hall from Market Street
Darling Harbour Sign
Wildlife World and Sydney Aquarium
Walkway, Cockle Bay Wharf
Darling Harbour and Harbourside Mall
Cockle Bay Wharf and Darling Harbour
Novotel and Harbourside Mall
Pyrmont Bridge
Buildings from Pyrmont Bridge
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.