Day 50 / 2016 - Sydney, The Harbour Bridge and Manly

Cities are big places with congested roads difficuilt to find parking, everything costs (usually a lot) with many people invading into our personal spaces. Doesn't sound like the ideal place to have a holiday yet within the city limits there are still gems and value for money to be found. The trick I think is a little careful planning and being flexible with your time.

Long term caravaners we have spoken with at happy hour tend to look on big cities like Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne as something to be avoided like the plague, go around if you can, stay out west in the smaller towns much more friendly and easy to get around. But we think the cities, as any other part of Australia, are worth the time to explore learning how they work are part of their charm so Sydney was a place worthy of a second visit.

Now we have been to Sydney a number of times by plane but always with a purpose so not really having the time to just wander. Last time we were here with the caravan the weather was less than sterling so getting around wasn't much fun and we missed a lot of sights. This year we hadn't planned to stop in Sydney but as we were passing through from the south to the north we though we would give it another try.

Now the roads in Sydney are horrendous especially during peak hour but there are a number of motorways that go through Sydney which flow reasonably well at least outside of peak hour. Unfortunately these motorways attract a toll but the alternative of navigating 40 odd sets of lights in heavy traffic while towing a caravan seemed less appealing. The motorway(M2) off-ramp comes out right next to our caravan park (Lane Cove River Tourist Park) making driving there very convienent. Once there we were able to leave the car parked up and use public transport to get around convienently there is a train station only 700 metres away from the caravan park.

The Sydney train service is quite good although if you ask a local they would disagree. I guess if your on a time schedule and the train breaks down this is really inconvienent. The other public transport options are ferries and busses but we found the train got us to most places we wanted to go to and on occasions we used ferry's for something different.  To use public transport the best option is an Opal Card. Most of the paper based ticket options have been removed only single and Return adult fares are still available.

The Opal Card is free at any of the retailers or available online but once you take posession of it you will need to add credit. This can be done at either the advertised retailers or one of the machines located on train platforms. If you travel in off-peak times the fares are 30% cheaper and there is a cap of $15.00 per day and $60.00 per week on all fares. Other incentives are if you take more than 8 journeys in a week after the 8th journey you can travel the rest of the week free. If you are a pensioner or senior you can get the Opal Gold Card which caps the daily fare to $2.50. There is lots of information available on the web and we used a neat iPhone app called "Next There" which gave you train departures from each of the stations in real time.

Some tourist attraction also offer incentives. Purchasing online can also be cheaper than the walk up price and if you pre-pay multiple attractions you get even more saving. We purchased a 5 attraction pass with Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The other 4 attractions were The Sydney Aquarium's SeaLife and Taronga Zoos Wildlife in Darling Harbour. It also includes Sydney Tower Eye and the Sealife Sanctuary at Manly. The cost was $69.00 with the normal walkup prices about $140.00 that was a saving of about $80.00 each. All of the attractions were worth a look although if we were paying separately we most likely wouldn't have chosen some of them.

Madame Tussuards is a unique museum which contains many wax figures of personalities and public figures from all over the world. The exhibits included wax figures of Actors, historical figures, Prime Ministers and Presidents as well as hero action figures. You can interact with many of the exibits by posing next to them or participating in costume. It was a lot of fun Anne really enjoyed the role playing. Next door is SeaLife which is the Sydney Aquarium renamed. Here you find tanks full of tropical and cold water fish. There are underwater tunnels you walk through looking at many different fish species including Sharks and Rays. You can watch 2 Dugongs feeding which you can view from below as well as above.

Next day we took the train from Lane Cove and hopped off at Milsons Point which is a station at one end of the Harbour bridge. We met up with Annes uncle Wim as he had suggested we walk across the bridge. This is something you can do under your own steam and while not as spectacular as climbing to the top it is still a unique experience with the bonus of being cost free. I was quite surprised how many people walk or run the pedestrian path there is a good view of the Opera house and harbour from half way across the bridge.

Continuing on across to the other side you walk down into The Rocks district which use to be a rough part of town but has now become very cosmopolitan with shops, hotels and eateries. The Rocks is where the international sea terminal is located with a cruise ship docking here just about every other day.

From The Rocks we walked around to Circular Quay and boarded the ferry for Manly which is out near the Sydney Harbour Heads. The ferry takes about 20 minutes and leaves every half an hour the trip was smooth except the last five minutes where we crossed the swell coming in from the ocean. After disembarking at Manly wharf we walked up to Manly beach where Wim took us to his favorite fish and chip shop to order a serve. Once cooked we then walked over to the beach to sit under one of the many gazebo's and watched the surfer's catch waves while eating our seafood lunch. After finishing our lunch we walked back through the main tourist mall back to the wharf catching the return ferry to Circular Quay.

Next day we caught the train back to Circular Quay this time catching the Ferry to Parramatta. Anne lived there with her family while still in primary school and wanted to see how much has changed where she use to live, play and go to school. From Circular Quay you travel up river taking the Ferry about an hour and a half to reach Parramatta. There are a number of stops along the way where passengers got on and off before we reached our stop. At Parramatta we disembarked and walked up through the town centre. Anne worked out what street her school was in which was just a short walk from where we had been standing. Arriving there was a security gate we had to buzz through. The gate was a sign of the times for recent activity as it had only be in place for a few weeks.

Getting inside we wern't alowed to walk past the reception unacompnied so a teacher kindly escorted us around allowing Anne to see where she use to play and the classroom she was taught in. From here her home was only 2 streets away so we walk there only to find it had now been demolished to make way for a new shiney new tower building. The PCYC she remembered as a kid across the road was still there but we found out that was also due for demolition sometime in the near future.

Returning to Sydney via the railway we got off at Town Hall station and walk to Sydney Tower. Passing through the entrance on the 5th floor we first stood through a 3D video about Sydney and surrounds. There were some additional effects such as water splashing, vibrations under the floor and a big flash of light but it wasn't good as one we did here 10 years ago. Once the video finished we were then guided through a security checkpoint to the lifts where we asscended into the heavens to the observation deck of the tower.

The sky was clear so we had an excellent view of the country side surrounding Sydney. You could see all the way to the blue mountains and all the way out into the pacific ocean. We also watched the planes taking off from the airport we could clearly see the runway stretching out into Botany Bay. After a coffee we headed down the lifts then back to Town Hall Station it was 5:30 and we just walked into peak hour with the station packed with commuters. When the train arrived we managed to score 2 seats but as we travelled along wondered if we would be able to get off at our stop as the ailse were also full of people standing up.