 |
| Sydney Harbour Bridge |
 |
| QVB - Queen Victoria Building |
We went back to another 'pay what you think it's worth' walking tour this morning. This tour highlights the best of Sydney by going through the main attractions / historic buildings in downtown, the wharf and the Rocks in a 2.5 hours walk. Most of the buildings took many years to build and some were never used for their original intents, e.g. the Queen Victoria Building (QVB as the Aussies call it). QVB is gorgeous inside out - the stained glass windows, the dome, the clocks, the magnificent facade; and they even manage to keep the original tiles on the first and second floors! It was built to house a market, but it never materialized; nowadays it serves as a very busy and chic shopping mall.
 |
| Sydney Town Hall |
It turned out that our guide is the founder of this tour company. He started the company after seeing something similar in Europe during his travel as a student. I think it is now his full time job and he continues to employ students as his guides. He told us some interesting stories and added a few of his own thoughts. All in all, the walking tour was interesting, entertaining and quite informative ... I would highly recommend it if you can handle the long walk.
 |
| Waiting - a sculpture installed at Sydney Square |
 |
| view of Sydney Harbour from the bridge |
 |
| competing against oneself in F45 |
We did a partial walk on the Sydney Harbour Bridge so the 'photographers' in the group can take pictures of the Opera House. We then took a ferry over to Manly Beach because the guide told us it is a good way to tour the harbour and there is a Surfing Festival there that weekend. As it turned out, there were a few events happening and there were tons of teenagers there. We caught the F45 Training competition. F45 is a hardcore fitness program consisting of 10 different exercises. I think the idea is to do as many repetitions as you can within a set time, take a very short breather and start the next exercise. We caught the 'pros' competing against one another when we first got there and saw the amateurs testing themselves when we left. Physically I think I can only do the two jumping exercises, the rest are definitely out of my league! I think the surfing competition is just a skateboarding one. There was also a pop band playing and you could hear the teenage girls screaming miles away.
 |
| Slackline - he's just bouncing between the two lines |
We also saw people practising on a Slackline. They hung two ropes between trees, one high and one low, and parallel to each other. They would walk, jump and bounce on one or both of the lines. One of the guys was really good - he could jump on it, turned around 180 degrees, sat down and stood back up - absolutely amazing!
 |
| colourful costumes |
We made a quick stop in Chinatown to see what it was like and ended up having dinner there. We picked a small, but busy restaurant, and the steamed barramundi and Chinese style pan fried clams were quite good. Tonight was Mardi Gras - a gay parade, and we were hoping to join in the fun and catch the parade after dinner. As we walked towards the parade route, we noticed a lot of people were going in the opposite direction. We were a bit late for the first parade and the next one would not start until 10. We decided that it would be too late for us seniors and called it a day. The Aussies seem to really love their parties. The crowd is relatively young, and a lot of them take the time to put on a costume or special makeup. And most of the ladies would have their make up and smart party outfit.
 |
| Sydney Harbour Skyline |
 |
| Gorgeous QVB |
Comments
Post a Comment