Day 3 Continued: Sydney - The Rocks and Circular Quay, City Center

Once we got into Sydney, we took a taxi to our hotel. checked in and showered. We then left to explore the city some and started by getting a little snack at this coffee shop next to our hotel. They had a lot of yummy pastries and little sandwiches, along with some gelatto which I am sure we will be sampling later this week. :0)

Jacob didn't know he was in the picture hehe...

Outside of our hotel.

We then started walking around the area near our hotel and eventually made it to a railway station to get a pass for the week. We decided to purchase a pass that covers the bus, monorail/lightrail, underground and ferry. On the way to the metro we walked through Hyde Park (and no we aren't in London! I've been to that Hyde Park too haha) and I loved this park because of the beautiful trees that lined the walkway. Next to the park is St. Mary's cathedral, which we are planning on visiting Saturday and hopefully we will be able to go inside.

Pretty Trees :0)

St. Mary's Cathedral

Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park

Subway

We took the subway to Circular Quay, which is where you can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. There are a lot of eating places in this area, as well as shopping and museums. 

Circular Quay - Ferry Station

This looked important so I took a picture of it. ;0) hehe...

Sydney Opera House

This next picture is of the Campbell Storehouses. Scottish Merchant, Robert Campbell, sailed into Sydney Cove in 1798 and basically established himself as the father of commerce for the new colony. He built private storehouses and wharfs to house the tea, spirits, sugar and cloth he imported from India. Now there are restaurants and stores in the storehouses. 

Just some background about Sydney: The Dutch apparently found Australia first in the early 1600s but decided not to settle here. Captain Cook from Britain and settled in Sydney in 1770 to being a new territory for Britain. The British then had the bright idea of sending hundreds of convicts to Sydney over a period of years. These convicts were responsible for building many of Sydney's roads and structures.

Mr. Campbell posing with Mr. Robert Campbell :0)

The following picture is of Cadman's Cottage. This cottage was named after John Cadman, who was a consist transports in 1798 for horse stealing but was eventually pardoned for his crimes. He woke his way up from owning a timber boat to becoming a superintendent of a government craft. John eventually married Elizabeth Mortimer, who also arrived in Sydney as a convict, sentenced to seven years for stealing a couple of hairbrushes. They had to daughters and lived here. This is oldest building in Sydney.

Walking under the Harbour Bridge.

Garrison Church - First church that military people worshipped at (Originally called the Holy Trinity church)

We continued walking around and exploring and saw this sign on our way to the observatory. We thought our moms would appreciate this! Of course, the title is referring to the ideas/theories that the elements that we are composed from (Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon, Iron) come from stars. Anyone interested in a star lesson?? :0) Stars are born in nebulas, clouds of gas and dust. The gas and dust contracts and pressure and temperature rise. The hotter it gets, the more particles of gas start fusing together. Atoms of Hydrogen basically have their outer electrons blown off by the intense temperatures and their nuclei bond to create heavier elements. Throughout the star's life cycle, they continue to bond creating heavier and heavier elements. Once the star reaches the planetary nebula or supernova explosion (this depends on the original mass of the star) these elements are spread out over the solar system and scientists believe that this is where we got the elements needed to be created ourselves. Obviously that is the theoretical side of it. So, can you believe that my eighth graders need to be familiar with this according to the great state of Texas' educational people in Austin? Yep, one of the many things I enlighten the lives of teenagers with. At any rate, I at least was able to understand the meaning of the following banner.

Apparently Australia didn't know the time until this little guy came around...

Sydney Observatory

No Belt of Orion here!

This one made me think of the huge red telescope my Dad has that we used to look at stars with when we were younger. Just in case anyone is wondering where some of my interests have come from... stars and caves go to Dad!

Scenic overlook from the Observatory - that silly bridge is there again!

Some people doing the Bridge climb.

Remember those workout parks they have in Singapore? They have them here too and people actually use them!!!

Just chillin', watching the people work out.

We then grabbed some lunch at Caminetto Italian Restaurant. These Italian restaurants are all over the place here. We just split a pizza again to save a few bucks for dinner. Jacob I think was also in shock of the prices here, somewhat similar to the restaurant prices in Singapore.

And apparently it is DIABETES AWARENESS WEEK in Sydney! I took this in honor of Jeff!

We then walked over to the Museum of Sydney to learn a little more about Sydney's history.

Exports from around the world.

Fleet of ships that carried over the convicts!! One of the ships caught their convicts counterfeiting money on the way over! You would think they had learned their lesson by then!

Governor's house - This was previously located where the museum is at.

History about the convicts and aboriginals!!

Engineer and Designer of the Harbour Bridge

Designer of the Opera House

Home Front Exhibit about Sydney in the war. They even referenced how Singapore was taken over by the Japanese in 1942 (I think...) and of course I knew how! Bicycles over the bridge!!!

Tree exhibit - under construction

We continued our tour around the city and stopped in the ride up the Sydney Tower. It had a 5 minute 4-D video to start us off and then we rode an elevator to the top to see some amazing views of the city.

Yep, we're cool.

Highest working post box in the Southern Hemisphere!

Remember these Dad? Good times with the penny smasher!

Queen Victoria Building - Houses her coronation jewels/crown

Well what's this peaking around the corner?!?! ;0)

We then went inside the Sydney Town Hall and ended up staying much longer than we planned. They were working on the inside a bit, and so we started talking with Joe, the tourist information guide/guard for a little while. I flashed my sweet smile and asked if we could go past the "Do not go past this point" sign and he took us back into the larger meeting room to see the largest organ in the southern hemisphere. It's kind of hard to see because they had a screen pulled down in preparation for one of their government party meetings, but the organ went across the whole back wall. Joe was awesome though, he talked to us for about twenty minutes about the Town hall and what to do in Sydney, and also about his travels in the states.

Sydney Town Hall

Organ is along the back wall.

St. Andrews cathedral - it had closed by the time we got here.

Australian Museum - Museum of Natural Science

So we weren't really sure what to expect for food, but Sydney is very Westernized and has lot of cafes and all kinds of different foods including lots of Thai and Italian foods. We have been using the Trip Advisory city search app, which is awesome because you can download the city maps before you leave and use them without needing internet. Using this app we found this restaurant called Pacifico, and we thought it would be entertaining to try some Australian Mexican food. Surprisingly enough it was pretty good!

mmm water :0)

Thanks for stopping by! Even though our trip got a late start, it has been awesome. I really love this city and navigating has been a breeze. Singapore really prepared me for this because there are a lot of similarities in the way the city is set up and organized. Hope you enjoyed my first of Sydney marathon posts!