Sydney Explorers

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Hyde Park

Library

Selfie

The Bridge

Visiting the Opera House

At the Opera House

YWCA building stones

Conservatorium of Music

Parliament House

Hyde Park Barracks

A building with vegetation

At Darling Harbour

All gone!

Yum!!!

Masterchef kitchen on a submarine

The engines

Hospital on a destroyer

Cat on a destroyer

On board the Endeavour

It's moving!

Midshipmen's Mess

The Krait

A big day today, we definitely needed our walking shoes!  We started with a 15 minutes walk to the station, purchased our $2.50 all day transport pass (being mature has its advantages), boarded a train and headed for the city.  After finding our way out of Wynyard Station, we joined the Explorer Bus for a tour of the city’s sights.

We continued along George Street, past the Queen Victoria Building and Town Hall towards Hyde Park, then continued to Kings Cross – we did have to cover Cat’s eyes as we drove through this area, as some of the business signs were very explicit!  We stayed on board the bus as we continued through Woolloomooloo to the Opera House, our first stop.  Our first stop was the rest room – unfortunately a primary school group arrived immediately before us!  Back outside for some photo opportunities, then a walk through the Botanic Gardens followed.  We came across a number of building stone relics, which we believe were the remains of the YWCA, built in 1924.  We had a quick look at Government House through the gates before another photo opportunity at the Sydney Conservatorium.  Back on the bus again for the next part of the trip, past the NSW Parliament House and the Hyde Park Barracks before ending up at Darling Harbour.

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk around this area, especially the beautiful, warm sunshine.  Then, joy of joys, we discovered Movenpick!  Cat wasn’t the only one with a big smile!!!

Instead of walking around the very commercialised Rocks area, we decided on a visit to the Australian Maritime Museum and we so glad we did.  With lots of boats to look at and board, we spent a couple of hours here.  We first boarded the submarine, HMAS Onslow, climbed down the very steep ladder through the very narrow hatch into the torpedo area and after learning about the torpedoes, continued back through the vessel.  I quickly discovered that submariners need to be slim and have long legs – getting through the watertight hatches was rather a challenge for someone with shorter legs.  One really has to admire submariners for living and working in such confined conditions.  The destroyer, HMAS Vampire, was much roomier and easier to move about on.  The highlight was probably being on board HMB Endeavour; even tied up at the wharf this little barque bobbed around like a cork.  After looking at all the ropes, etc on the deck, we ventured down the ladder (a knotted rope helped get down and up) into the crew quarters.  The poor midshipmen really should have been minishipmen as they only had less than 4 feet of headroom in their mess.  Captain Cook and Joseph Banks fared much better!

Then it was back onto the bus, which continued through the Rocks district and past Circular Quay on the way back to our departure at Wynyard Station.  We managed to find the correct platform and arrived home a bit footsore and looking forward to a sit down.