For my armchair travel lovers

We have just got back from 3 weeks in Australia and over a series of posts I am going to share some of our adventures.  I'm going to post 3 times a week for the next 2 weeks so that all my posts are finished by the end of the month.  Otherwise telling you about my travels takes longer than the trip itself!

We flew into Sydney at 5.10am on a Monday morning, September 25th.  Ours was the only plane to have landed at that time, and we were through security, collected our luggage and transported by our son to his home by 6.15am  Most of that time had been waiting to get off the plane!

We had a leisurely day.  We walked along the promenade to meet Andy & Naomi at the sailing club for lunch.  In the afternoon we checked into our Airbnb - the one we used last year - and later had dinner with the family.

Day 2 involved taking the ferry to Manly - a trip we do every time we visit Sydney.   We wanted to do something different this time and the very nice lady in the Visitor Information Centre suggested we went to the Luggage Museum.  We walked via Shelley Beach

The luggage museum turned out to be much more than that.  It was the quarantine station for people who were ill when the ships arrived in the 19th century.  There was lots of information about how the people were treated.  

On Wednesday Roger went for a walk by himself, Andy went on a retreat with work colleagues and Naomi and I took the children to a LARGE Christian Bookshop where I gave the children an amount of money to spend and they could choose their own books.  It was a very interesting selection.  I felt it was better for them to choose something they wanted than us turning up with presents that they already had or weren't interested in. 

Next day, Roger and I took the train a few stops towards Sydney and then walked along the Cooks River from Tempe to Canterbury.

Friday was the last day that Roger and I spent doing our own thing.  Firstly we went to Pyrmont, an area southwest of the Sydney CBD.  It was quite a hot day.  

I had picked up a leaflet about Pyrmont's historic walking trail and as we hadn't visited the area before thought it would be a good idea.  Not really!  I wish I had read the leaflet before we got there.  It turned out that most of the historic buildings had been demolished.

We took the light rail to Rozelle which was the nearest station to Balmain - another area we had not been to.  It was much further away than we thought.  At one point a kind lady took pity on us and gave us a lift up a steep hill for about a mile in her car.  She took us to the main street in Rozelle and then we walked another mile - which seemed like about 5 to a pub where we had lunch.

We walked down to the ferry and went back to central Sydney and back to Andy's house on the train and bus.  Naomi and I went out to a Greek restaurant for dinner and Andy & Roger had a Thai takeaway.  I loved having time with Naomi on our own.

We had moved out of our Airbnb to Andy and Naomi's and Andy had an exciting weekend planned for all of us.

Come back on Thursday to find out what we got up to.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Flying at last

The last time we were on a plane was March 23rd 2020 when we arrived into London Heathrow from Sydney, via Singapore.  We arrived into lockdown without knowing it had been announced.

Sydney in the distance from Ramsgate Beach where we were staying.

When we booked our flights to Sydney for last month, Singapore Airlines were insisting on face coverings on every plane.  Two of our flights were 13 hours and two were 8 hours plus the airport in Singapore.  However at the beginning of September this requirement was removed apart from the flight from Singapore to Sydney.  A week before we were due to fly, Australia removed the requirement and a couple of days before we arrived , NSW removed the requirement on public transport.  I was so relieved.  This sounded more like 'living with Covid'!

On our first day we took a leisurely stroll along the promenade to meet Andy & Naomi at a local sailing club for lunch.

Our second day involved taking public transport including the ferry to Manly.  Roger & I love going on the ferries.  You get to see so much of Sydney without paying the price of a tour boat.

We have visited Manly so many times that I didn't take many photos.  We walked along another promenade to Shelley Beach.  There were some interesting sculptures along the way.

The sky was rather grey over Sydney as we came back on the ferry.

The next day was much brighter with blue skies.  We went into Sydney again and wandered through the Botanic Gardens down to the harbour.  I spotted this Kookaburra on the way.

We have visited so many times that I have numerous photos of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.  But another one never hurts!

We weren't the only people.  It was the school holidays for the two weeks we were there!

Our treat for this day was to go with our eldest grandchild to his swimming lesson.  He's really rather good - although I am probably biased.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Two days in Sydney

Our first full day with the Hopper Juniors and Minors.  The minors went off to 'school' - that's daycare to the rest of us and Andy & Naomi took us to Girigal Park.  This was one of Andy's  gentle, undualting walks!  In reality, a really steep downhill walk with some of the path having been washed away.

Fortunately for me, he decided to go back to fetch the car on his own and meet us further on into the park.  There were some really interesting 'rusty' rocks.

We have never visited at this time of the year and so have never seen that the Eucalyptus tree sheds its bark.

Underneath it looks like clay with finger marks.

There was also a small waterfall.

On Wednesday, (another childfree day), Andy & Naomi took us to their favourite cafe at Clontarf.

We then drove to Manly.  We walked along to the centre of Manly where we found a great restaurant for lunch.  Sadly for them, but nice for us, we were the only customers.

Andy & Naomi left us in Manly and drove home.  We went for a walk.

Afterwards we took the Manly ferry back to Circular Quay in Sydney.

I have loads of photos of Sydney from all our visits so I didn't take many that day.  Just enjoyed being there.  We got the train to Rockdale and Andy picked us up at the station.

We had a Lebanese takeway with one of their friends, Sam.  He is a writer and I love following his blog.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Armchair Travelling 1

We have just returned from a visit to Australia to visit the Hopper Juniors.  We arrived in Sydney in time for breakfast and then took ourselves into the city on the train and on to Manly via the ferry.  I have lots of photos of Manly so didn't take any this time apart from this advertising hoarding.

Normal photography service was resumed the next day when we visited the Powerhouse Museum.  I have been pondering whilst away about how many photos I take and that I do nothing much with them afterwards so I tried not to be so trigger happy this time.  I only took 469 in the almost 2 weeks - that's a low number for me.

So there's a somewhat eclectic mix of photos for day 2.  This was our first visit to this Museum despite many visits to Sydney.

After the Powerhouse Museum we walked towards Darling Harbour where we popped into the Chinese Garden of Friendship which we had never visited before.

Darling Harbour is a frenetic place so it was amazing to find this oasis of calm in it's midst.

We walked up to Town Hall to get the train back to Rockdale.  I loved this anchor outside the church.

On day 3 I went to the ladies meeting at Hillsong with Naomi, Andy went to work and Roger went for a walk.  The weather wasn't much good in the afternoon so we stayed in and prepared for our road trip - planned for the next 3 days.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Sydney

We have been fortunate to visit Sydney several times.  When I looked for things for us to do on web pages like '30 things to do in Sydney' I found that we had done almost all of them.  If you discount anything that involves getting wet or hanging off a rope then we've probably done all of them.  Or so I thought.

We took the bus from Sydney north to Palm Beach.   We had done this journey with Andy once before but then got on a boat.  This time we went to the end of the bus route and got off at this beautiful beach.

If you are in to Australian soaps, this is where the outdoor shots for Home and Away are shot.

We walked alongside the beach and started the steep walk up to Barrenjoey Lighthouse.  In fact we didn't choose to go up this way but did come down it.

We chose instead to take the sloping zigzag track.

I found it quite hard and we had to stop quite a few times so I could catch my breath and let my aching calf muscles calm down.  However the views were spectacular so it was worth it.  (I had to keep telling myself that!)

We took the bus back to Sydney and met up with the Hopper Juniors at Circular Quay.

The next day we visited Parliament House Sydney.

This is the library.

Then we went to the Hyde Park Barracks museum.  We hadn't visited it before because I thought it was going to be about soldiers and horses.  I really should read the guidebook.  It was an amazing building full of the story of the convicts sent out from England.  If ever you are in Sydney it is a must-see.  I can't believe that we have been going out there since 2008 and never visited it.

We took the train out to where Andy & Naomi live and had dinner with them.  In the evening we went back into Sydney.

We went to a concert by Postmodern Jukebox at the Sydney Opera House.

A final photo was taken of the band by the stage manager.  Can you spot us?  We're in the middle of the Circle!

On our final day in central Sydney we took the ferry from Circular Quay to Taronga Zoo.

We walked from the quay for the zoo to Chowder Bay.  We had walked before with Andy from Chowder Bay to Bradleys Head.

We saw quite a few of these guys sunning themselves.

The view back to the Sydney skyline

A kookaburra.  I wonder whether he was the same one we saw last time we took this walk?

We took the train again to Brighton-Le-Sands where the Hopper Juniors live and took a walk along the promenade before dinner.

Later that evening the five of us set out in the car for Goulburn where we had booked an Airbnb place for three nights.  More on that next time.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice