Sydney, Australia – 7-14 June 2006
It was difficult to say goodbye to Helen and Wolf in Melbourne. It really felt like home being with them. We arrived in Sydney after a short flight and were greeted by our gracious host here, Margaret Mizia. Margaret and Ray are staying at alternate accommodation and are making their lovely home available for us, as they were forced to cancel their trip to California to stay in our house. Here again, through doing house exchanges we keep encountering wonderful people and humbling acts of kindness.
The Mizia home cozy and lovely and is located on a quiet street in Cremorne, just north of the Harbor Bridge and has wonderful access to buses and ferries. We can take the bus and be in the city within twenty-five minutes. From there we can take ferries trains and buses anywhere else we need.
Margaret gave us a tour of the house and a great orientation drive in the surrounding area which helped a lot to feel settled and comfortable. Over the following three days we took advantage of dry gloomy spells to go into the city and see some of the famous highlights of the Sydney. We saw the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, “The Rocks” area which is the birth place of the city with its quaint old buildings, art galleries and a nice Saturday market. We walked through the Museum of Contemporary Art (wish we could say we liked it..) and also attended a screening at the Sydney film festival the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” about global warming by Al Gore which we found most compelling.
On Monday, we woke up to a glorious sunny day and decided to check out the famous Sydney beaches. The beaches we have seen so far, Manley, Bondi and Cronulla are spectacular. Long, wide, white sandy beaches, bordered by beautiful walkways and parkland with all the conveniences you would love to see at beaches, including cafes, restaurants, picnic areas, and wonderful salt water, tidal pools which provide great swimming areas protected from sharks. The walkways extend for many miles and are well maintained. These are great place for jogging and walking with endless views of beaches and coastal cliffs with crashing giant waves.
After exploring Manley beach and taking a nice long coastal walk and having the most wonderful crepes, we took the ferry to the Circular Quay with beautiful views of the city. From there we took the ferry to Darling Harbor which is a really “happening place” with shops museums, a shell shaped performance stage on the water, which had a jazz concert going at the time. We came to see an IMAX movie about India and by the time it was over it was already dark so we took the opportunity to get night views of the city from the water and took the ferry back to the center. What a spectacular day!! Another glorious day was spent exploring Bondi Beach and taking a three mile walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach. It will be redundant to say the views were great.. It is hard to find places without great views around here! Today we went to Botany Bay to see the birth place of Australia, the landing place of Captain James Cook, and the Cronulla beaches with Margaret, who spent her childhood in the area. As a bonus we got to see many of the native birds: The yellow crested Cockatoo Magpies, Rosellas, colorful parakeets and many other birds all when standing under one tree for a few minutes.
Today we are heading to the Blue Mountains, about two hours west of Sydney, where we will stay for two nights before returning to Cremorne and Sydney.
The Mizia home cozy and lovely and is located on a quiet street in Cremorne, just north of the Harbor Bridge and has wonderful access to buses and ferries. We can take the bus and be in the city within twenty-five minutes. From there we can take ferries trains and buses anywhere else we need.
Margaret gave us a tour of the house and a great orientation drive in the surrounding area which helped a lot to feel settled and comfortable. Over the following three days we took advantage of dry gloomy spells to go into the city and see some of the famous highlights of the Sydney. We saw the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, “The Rocks” area which is the birth place of the city with its quaint old buildings, art galleries and a nice Saturday market. We walked through the Museum of Contemporary Art (wish we could say we liked it..) and also attended a screening at the Sydney film festival the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” about global warming by Al Gore which we found most compelling.
On Monday, we woke up to a glorious sunny day and decided to check out the famous Sydney beaches. The beaches we have seen so far, Manley, Bondi and Cronulla are spectacular. Long, wide, white sandy beaches, bordered by beautiful walkways and parkland with all the conveniences you would love to see at beaches, including cafes, restaurants, picnic areas, and wonderful salt water, tidal pools which provide great swimming areas protected from sharks. The walkways extend for many miles and are well maintained. These are great place for jogging and walking with endless views of beaches and coastal cliffs with crashing giant waves.
After exploring Manley beach and taking a nice long coastal walk and having the most wonderful crepes, we took the ferry to the Circular Quay with beautiful views of the city. From there we took the ferry to Darling Harbor which is a really “happening place” with shops museums, a shell shaped performance stage on the water, which had a jazz concert going at the time. We came to see an IMAX movie about India and by the time it was over it was already dark so we took the opportunity to get night views of the city from the water and took the ferry back to the center. What a spectacular day!! Another glorious day was spent exploring Bondi Beach and taking a three mile walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach. It will be redundant to say the views were great.. It is hard to find places without great views around here! Today we went to Botany Bay to see the birth place of Australia, the landing place of Captain James Cook, and the Cronulla beaches with Margaret, who spent her childhood in the area. As a bonus we got to see many of the native birds: The yellow crested Cockatoo Magpies, Rosellas, colorful parakeets and many other birds all when standing under one tree for a few minutes.
Today we are heading to the Blue Mountains, about two hours west of Sydney, where we will stay for two nights before returning to Cremorne and Sydney.
posted by Dahlia and Lance Riley @ 3:34 PM
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