Sydney Harbour Bridge and a harbour ferry
After our cruises on Carnival Luminosa and Carnival Splendor we stayed about a week with our daughter’s family in Australia. One day we went into Sydney with Hannah, who skipped school that day, or as they call it in Australia she wagged it. Australia has convenient public transportation with a network of trains, busses, ferries, and light rail. They all have a tap on tap off system for which people can buy single use tickets from machines at the stops, use the system’s opal cards which can be topped up at those machines or online if they run low on funds, or if you have a phone or bank card with tap to pay you can just use that. The enforcers that occasionally show up to check whether or not people paid can scan any of those things to see if people onboard have paid for their ride. There’s a big fine if you don’t pay. We saw them on a train once and on the light rail once in less than a week so they are definitely out there checking.
flower in the secret garden
We took the train into Sydney and just over the harbor bridge to the Milson’s Point Station. From there we walked to Wendy’s Secret Garden.
stairway in the secret garden
This garden was built by Wendy Whitley after her artist husband died. Her house and several others are in a quiet little area sandwiched between Clark Park, the harbor, and the garden. The garden runs along a hillside above the harbor not far from Luna Park.
table and chairs in the secret garden
It has some pretty large trees among the plants and trails and lots of little picnic tables. At the bottom there’s a fenced train yard between the garden and a pathway running alongside of the harbor.
antique sewing machine in the secret garden
There are some random things in the garden too.
bush turkey in the secret garden
Wild turkeys make the garden their home. These are Australian brush turkeys, commonly called bush turkeys. They were once food for aboriginals and early settlers, but are now a protected species because they were nearly wiped out in the 1930’s due to overhunting.
bridge view from the garden
The jacarandas were in bloom so we saw purple flowering trees everywhere. There was a nice view from the secret garden with the bridge and a jacaranda.
Luna Park
It’s a short walk along the waterfront from the secret garden to Luna Park, an amusement park by the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
view of Sydney Harbour Bridge from the waterfront path
There are great views of Sydney’s famous bridge and opera house from that area. It’s a different view of it since it’s on the opposite side of the bridge from Circular Quay where cruise ships come in.
Crown Princess in Circular Quay
We took a little ferry from a stop by Luna Park that goes to Circular Quay where there was a Princess ship in port. The ferries also go other places. It only cost $2 to ride the ferry so that’s a really cheap way to take a tour of the harbor. One of the stops had an excellent view where the opera house was centered under the bridge.
view of the bridge and opera house from the ferry
From the ferry we also saw a Disney ship at Sydney’s other cruise port, White Bay, which is not close to anything. It’s much nicer when the ship docks at the Overseas Terminal at Circular Quay, which is close to all sorts of things including trains, ferries, a botanical park, the opera house, the bridge, a historical area called the rocks, and stops for the hop on hop off bus.
random building not too far from the Barangaroo ferry stop
We got off the ferry at Barangaroo. From there you can walk along the edge of the harbor to places that include a museum and an aquarium. There were a lot of restaurants near the ferry stop.
view from the Pyrmont Bridge
We walked past all that to the Pyrmont Bridge in Darling Harbor, over that bridge, and on to the Sydney Fish Market. We could have just walked along the waterfront. We could see the museum and aquarium from the ferry stop. We did not see the fish market though. Google maps sent us on a long detour route by road so we didn’t realize how close it was until passing by where we could see the aquarium and museum from the bridge. There was a light rail stop somewhere near where we got off the ferry for another option in getting to the fish market, but we didn’t look for it.
Sydney Fish Market
The fish market was housed in an old building, but there was a new one under construction nearby with the move planned for not long after our visit.
definitely not buying that
The fish market had fish and other seafood people could buy to take home, but it also had a lot of restaurants. Mainly fish or seafood restaurants, but there was also a bakery, deli, and fruit stand. The bakery sold sandwiches as well as baked goods and the fruit stand had all sorts of fruit-based desserts as well as fresh fruit, smoothies, juice, and acai bowls. We had lunch there, but nobody ate fish. John had a sandwich, I had a fruit smoothie, and Hannah had an acai bowl. The smoothies from the fruit stand are made with real fruit, not sugary syrup.
emperor puffs
From there we took the light rail to Paddy’s Market, which is across the street from China Town. We picked up some Emperor Puffs in China town, which Daniel had requested since he had a test that day and was unable to wag school and come with us. Those are made hot and fresh behind a little window and are sort of a small cream puff with a custardy filling. Best eaten hot, but still good later.
bar at Paddy’s Market
Paddy’s Market had a new big bar taking up a lot of space in the middle and not so may stalls as when we had been there in the past, but it still had a selection of produce and a bunch of little stands selling clothes, souvenirs, phone cases, jewelry, and other sorts of things you find at haymarkets. It also had some large decor in the form of old trucks.
truck in Paddy’s Market
From there we took the light rail to Central station and returned on the train. It’s quite easy to get around Sydney and the surrounding area without a car since they have such a good public transportation system. They were the first in the world to have a tap to pay system where you could use your own phone or bank card on public transportation.
