Saturday 28th February 2015.
It was nice to wake up to blue skies this morning. We have another unhurried morning, which is nice. Sue got sorted and debated whether to take clothes to the laundrette. I got here a coffee then went for my breakfast to get last night’s diary done and I also managed to get several days uploaded to the blog.
Once all that was done, and we had decided have enough clean clothes, we headed out. A nice walk up to an along George Street. It is very busy with Saturday shoppers and lots of tourists and it was nice to spot places that were familiar from previous visits. We made it through the hostel area to Chinatown then over Paddy’s Market which is a huge multi storey market and shop complex with a large number of stalls on the ground floor which include a massive fruit and veg market.
It is a great place to browse around, so we split up. There are very, very cheap t-shirts and souvenirs. There are also a number of stall selling very cheap sports tops, but all of the tops are for US NBA, NFL and MLB teams – a lot of them were old,the Red Sox tops had Kevin Youkilis’ name on the back and he left the Sox in 2012. Sue got a t-shirt, but I didn’t bother. I was after a ‘Big Bash’ team shirt but it would appear that the Aussie authorities are only happy to allow dodgy shirts of non-Aussie sports teams.
Outside the market is the huge new Qantas Credit Union Arena, advertising tickets for Billy Idol, Ed Sheeran, Rod Stewart, Kylie Minogue and Spandau Ballet to name a few. This led us into the Darling Harbour area – we had a look round here last time we were in Sydney, but it appears to have expanded somewhat. It is also expanding further with a massive new Convention Centre springing up – there are lawns, and a huge child’s play park. The Imax claims to be the biggest in the world. They were setting up for a display of Law Enforcement with police bikes, cars and even a helicopter, but that wasn’t on today.
The main draw at the harbour today is Dragon Boat racing – clearly taken VERY seriously here with lots of teams, all with team shirts with proper logos and looking very professional – it attracts all ages and has mixed teams – we were amazed at the number of folk on the wrong side of sixty who were taking part – it is very well organised – as you would expect – there are six boats racing a short sprint course – each had 20 rowers a steerer and a drum beater to keep their strokes in time.
There are two lots of six boats all shared by the teams, so while one is racing the other set of boats are being loaded up and getting ready to go to the start line – this way the races come thick and fast. A starter gets them all lined up by barking tot he teams to move forward or back until they are all in line and then they are off! We watched a few races from the bank, then went up onto the Plymouth foot bridge to watch some more. Very enjoyable.
The harbour area was very busy and the considerable number of restaurants all seemed to be doing a roaring trade. We walked past Madame Tussaud’s and then to the end of the harbour intending to walk to The Rocks. There are a lot of new buildings springing up here too. As the floors build up they are numbered and to show how long one been going up, some wag had been gong up, some wag had painted November on floor 18, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year on floor 21 and a tribute to Phil Hughes ’63 not out’ on floor 22 – they are currently up to floor 29.
It was all fairly quiet in there area, so we climbed up some steps to Kent Street and round to the Harbour Bridge Climb building, where we treated ourselves to a nice ice cream from and Ice Cream Van. We had a look round the shop, but didn’t buy any bridge climb souvenirs – the exchange rate makes them much more attractive now, then when we actually did the climb.
Next stop was The Rocks weekend market, though we did pause for a photo op to three parrots up in a tree level with where they were – they were very close to us and clearly weren’t bothered by us. We both had a mooch round the market, but the prices were clearly aimed at the many, Chinese and other nationality of tour group that were thronging round it. We made our way round to the cruise terminal where the Royal Caribbean boat that we had seen in Cairns, The Rhapsody of the Seas was in the throes of departing – we had another photo op there, then headed back through Circular Quay to the hotel, arriving just after 5.30pm. We dumped our stuff in the room then headed up to the long for pizza and small ‘assorted’ meat pies, as well as some salad and cold meats, some sweet and, of course, our fill of G&T and beer. After the excesses of the past two evenings, we decided to chill in the lounge for the evening before retiring for baths and a reasonably early night.
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