Thursday 19 September 2024 – Stop Press! Virgin Australia managed to get us from Canberra to Sydney without buggering us about! Another Saab 340B flight, uneventful except for a very lumpy descent into Sydney (possibly the most turbulence I’ve ever experienced in an aircraft), saw us on the ground, met by our driver and transferred in very short order to our hotel past a bit a street art that I don’t yet understand.
Our room wasn’t ready, of course. It was only midday by this stage, so this wasn’t a surprise. Official check-in time was 3pm, and so, having handed in our bags for safekeeping, we had three hours on our hands, the sun was shining and the temperature was warm. So we went for a walk. Obviously.
Actually, this was very convenient, as it gave us a chance to find out about a couple of transport options – train and ferry – that we would need to use over the coming days. The train bit was easy to understand, but the ferry timetables and destinations much less so; the map said that ferries that we were interested in taking went to one destination, the timetables insisted they went elsewhere. Our puzzlement was evident from our body language, which attracted one of the local Redcoats – volunteers patrolling the area to help bewildered tourists. It was nice to chat to him, but less comforting to know that he, too, found the ferry information confusing.
It was good to re-acquaint ourselves, after nearly a quarter of a century away, with Circular Quay, probably the principal tourist area of the city.
An aboriginal chap regaled us with chanting
as we walked along, heading for The Rocks, with its jumble of older buildings
and its views back towards the city,
Circular Quay,
and over to the iconic views of the city: harbour bridge
and Opera House.
It’s a very photogenic area, looking towards Luna Park fairground and North Sydney.
We could also see Sydney Tower, which was called Centrepoint when we visited it on our last trip here.
The date of that visit is memorable: twenty-three years ago, we’d just emerged from three days on a luxurious train journey from Brisbane, entirely insulated from the affairs of the world. It was a shock then to find out that the unexpected extra security measures in place for our visit to the tower were a consequence of the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York’s Twin Towers, which had happened just the day before.
We stopped for a bite of lunch and then headed back to our hotel, the Intercontinental, where our room was ready. The view from our 21st floor room was excellent,
but we had little time to enjoy the view as we had to get ready to go out for a late afternoon/early evening rendezvous with an ex-colleague friend whom I hadn’t seen for many years. We had agreed to meet in Newtown, a short train ride away.
Although it’s close to the city centre, Newtown is not a place where you’ll find lots of tourists.
It’s, erm, “vibrant”; lively, and a bit scruffy, and – at least for the bit we walked along – practically wall-to-wall eateries and drinkeries.
Our rendezvous was at the Newtown Hotel
which is a splendid building with quite a noisy interior (with a few artistic touches)
and a balcony, where we could sit and have a drink.
It was a good venue for meeting someone I hadn’t seen for many years and her husband, who we met for the first time. We had a grand chat for a couple of hours before they had to go for a family event and it augurs well for the next few days, where – here and in Brisbane – we’ll be meeting friends we haven’t seen for some while; it’s rather nice to be able to indulge ourselves with travel and simultaneously keep in touch with friends in far-away places.
After our drinks, we pottered back to the station
past reminders that not everyone is as fortunate as us
and, having taken one last look at Luna Park, now illuminated in the dark,
turned in for the night. We have nothing formal organised for the morrow, but our chat this evening has given us one good idea for somewhere to go that looks like it could be an interesting excursion. Come back and find out where that was, won’t you?