Sydney, Australia (Day 2)
We spent most of our second day in Sydney riding a hop on/hop off bus. This took us through many different neighborhoods, each with a distinct personality. We were struck by how beautiful, up-to-date and well-maintained all of these areas are. No visible run down streets anywhere on that entire route. Because of time limitations, we were not able to get off and explore most of these neighborhoods, or things in them that appealed to us, but we did get off at two stops: the botanic gardens and Chinatown. Riding on the open top level of the bus exposed us to an incredible skyline, so let me randomly post some photos illustrating that.
In addition to skyscraper-like buildings, there were so many other beautiful buildings, including museums, churches, government buildings, train station, police station and the like. Here are just a few.
Throughout the city there are parks and monuments that are also eye-catching.
The botanic garden in Sydney is expansive and especially beautiful. Notice the lady who appears in a few photos wearing black pedal pushers, a green shirt and a backpack. One of the pavilions in the garden (the white building in one of the photos) contains a so-called Green Wall measuring 6 meters high and stretching 50 meters across consisting of 18,090 plants. The wall waters itself using five drip irrigation systems.
The only other time we got off the bus was to have lunch in Chinatown where we wound up in a Chinese food court. When we emerged from there we noticed the crowds had gotten much bigger. A Chinese dragon was making the rounds of each business establishment accompanied by a group of musicians.
We returned to the ship for a late afternoon sailaway that was itself quite dramatic. Once the ship got into the open harbor it made a 360-degree turn, exposing all of us for one last time to the city's iconic skyline, opera house and bridge, while a helicopter circled overhead with professional photographers filming all of this. Some day we will undoubtedly see a few seconds of the Viking Sun together with these icons in one of Viking's ads on Masterpiece Theater. We loved every minute of our time in Sydney. Two days is far too little time to take it all in. Definitely one of those places to which we hope to return someday.
My next post will be a brief one about our 1-day visit to Brisbane.
In addition to skyscraper-like buildings, there were so many other beautiful buildings, including museums, churches, government buildings, train station, police station and the like. Here are just a few.
Throughout the city there are parks and monuments that are also eye-catching.
The botanic garden in Sydney is expansive and especially beautiful. Notice the lady who appears in a few photos wearing black pedal pushers, a green shirt and a backpack. One of the pavilions in the garden (the white building in one of the photos) contains a so-called Green Wall measuring 6 meters high and stretching 50 meters across consisting of 18,090 plants. The wall waters itself using five drip irrigation systems.
The only other time we got off the bus was to have lunch in Chinatown where we wound up in a Chinese food court. When we emerged from there we noticed the crowds had gotten much bigger. A Chinese dragon was making the rounds of each business establishment accompanied by a group of musicians.
We returned to the ship for a late afternoon sailaway that was itself quite dramatic. Once the ship got into the open harbor it made a 360-degree turn, exposing all of us for one last time to the city's iconic skyline, opera house and bridge, while a helicopter circled overhead with professional photographers filming all of this. Some day we will undoubtedly see a few seconds of the Viking Sun together with these icons in one of Viking's ads on Masterpiece Theater. We loved every minute of our time in Sydney. Two days is far too little time to take it all in. Definitely one of those places to which we hope to return someday.
My next post will be a brief one about our 1-day visit to Brisbane.
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