Day 23 – Sydney Day 2
Having visited all of the highlights of Sydney, we decided to use the second day of our Hop-on ticket, looking at the fascinating architecture of the city – both buildings and landmarks. At some point, as Sydney grew and developed, the city decided to preserve many of its historic buildings as “trust” buildings. When a building is declared a trust building, the outside must be maintained in its original state, but the inside may be repurposed. An example of this is the wharves which were used in WWI and WWII as troop departure points. They now house high dollar condos, with private docks, retail stores, and restaurants.
Another example, from George Street, is this McDonalds.
This is the pedestrian bridge across Darling Harbor. Originally a vehicle bridge, when it was modernized and converted to a pedestrian bridge, rather than tearing it down, the original bridge structure was blended in with the modern conversion.
Not all the interesting structures are a blend of styles – this condo has incorporated greenery into its structure in a major way.
Any pictorial of Sydney architecture would be incomplete without the Sydney Opera House,
or the Sydney Bridge, also known as the “coat hanger”.
One group of interesting things I have noticed here in Sydney is “old hotels”. It is hard to tell the exact age – 1930, 1940, 1950? I am not sure. There must be hundreds of these hotels in Sydney – most still operating, with low-cost backpacker accommodations on the upper floors and a pub on the first floor. I offer a few of them for your viewing pleasure.
Not a great photo – but Scruffy Murphy’s is a great pub at the corner of Goulburn and George Street, which we visited on our first visit to Sydney several years ago for a really good pub meal and some Guinness.
A fascinating element of modern Sydney and since I am sure we will return here on some future trip, I am intending to pick one of these and do a detailed study – at least of the pub.
This is an example of Sydney’s attempt to blend art with traffic safety – I am not sure of the intended message. Watch for falling rocks, stay left on the roundabout, don’t drink and try to drive???
We sailed at 9:30 pm – passing the Opera House on the way out of the harbor – affording me one of my favorite photo opportunities.
Off to Cairns.
LOVE the night photo of the opera house!
John & Sally,
I just sped across the Pacific in 15 minutes!! – just now catching up with you on this super blog! No one does this better than you, John! Always fun to travel vicariously with you.
Smooth seas to you!
Bill