Indoor Sydney on a baking hot day

Today the weather forecast was for a cloudy day of sweltering heat, with afternoon temperatures of 38°C – a full thirty degrees higher than back home. There was only option for such a day – Sydney’s air-conditioned museums! I left my club early and strolled through the Botanical Gardens, stopping briefly to take a shot of Sydney Opera House in the morning light…..

…..and to continue to my first destination, the UNESCO-listed Hyde Park Barracks. This was built in 1817-1819 on the orders of Governor McQuarrie, the fifth governor of the fledgling settlement of Sydney.

Its original purpose was to house convicts, but shortly after convict shipments stopped in 1840, the barracks were repurposed to accommodate female immigrants, particularly Irish women escaping the great famine. Today the site is a museum with interesting displays that recount the harsh lives of the convicts, and also the devastating impact the expanding colony of Sydney had on the indigenous aboriginal population.

Where the convicts had to sleep in Hyde Park Barracks

The museum was very well presented……..and despite being an old building it also had powerful aircon to keep visitors cool. I left the barracks and stopped briefly at Hyde Park, one of Sydney’s many green spaces….

….. before continuing on to my next destination, the Art Galley of New South Wales, which has a collection of Australian art. Rather than display their collection chronologically, the curators mixed art from different periods in the same rooms, a successful idea that produced many interesting contrasts.

The gallery has a new annex, where they displayed their extensive collection of aboriginal art.

Aboriginal Art in the Art Gallery of NSW

I spent a pleasant hour wandering around the gallery, enjoying its aircon. As noon approached however, it was time to brave the outside air to walk back through the Botanical Gardens to my next destination, a tour of Sydney Opera House. On the way I managed to see a couple things I has missed on my earlier visit to the Gardens, like Government House, the official residence of the Governor of New South Wales.

The opera house tour lasted an hour and was full of interesting facts about the construction and operation of what is now an iconic landmark and the most recently built UNESCO world heritage site. I learnt that the competition for designing the Opera House was won by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, but that he did not then have a plan for constructing his inspired but technically challenging design. A solution was only found once work had started, and this and other difficulties led to delays and cost overruns. Eventually Utzon was forced to quit the project and left Australia, never to return or see his finished masterpiece. The Australian Peter Hall took over the project, and was primarily responsible for designing the building’s interiors, which our tour focused on.
It was good to see inside such a famous building, but in my humble view, the interior is far less impressive than the magnificent exterior. The most interesting room by far was the huge concert hall, which can house 2,500 visitors – but sadly photos were not allowed there. Opera and ballet are presented in a different venue, the much less impressive Joan Sutherland Hall.

The Joan Sutherland Hall, Sydney Opera House

Highlight of the trip was going out onto the roof and seeing the famous white “sails” up close. They are made from a mosaic of 1,056,006 white or off-white tiles, of which only 10,000 have needed to be replaced since construction finished in 1973 (fifteen years after it started in 1958).

When our tour finished, we were released back into the baking afternoon sun, and I did the only thing possible on such a hot day – head back to my room for a bear nap and to start writing the first posts for my blog.
In the slightly cooler evening air, I ventured out again to the western part of the Rocks area, which gave me yet another perspective of Sydney’s skyscrapers.

Sydney as seen from the Rocks, Barangaroo

I visited a historic pub – the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel, Australia’s oldest pub brewery – for a cold beer before heading off for dinner in a local restaurant.

Cold beer should be available on prescription on days like this!

It has been one of those days where the crushing heat had made it hard to do much. Temperatures were forecast to drop on the next day, but I would be leaving Sydney for next destination, Melbourne, which would turn out to be a completely different type of travel experience.

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19th March 2025 4

From Bondi Beach to Coogee

After the fast pace of my first day in Australia, today I wanted to take it easier. Even though I am not usually a beach-going bear, I could not miss one of Australia’s most iconic places, so I caught a cab to Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach.

I have to confess to being a little underwhelmed. The beach is nice enough, but I have seen more exotic and/or longer ones in many other parts of the world. There was hardly any breeze, so the famous Bondi surfers were struggling to put on a show for me. Probably the most interesting part of Bondi was the Icebergs artificial sea water pool complex at the very end of the beach.

Iceberg Complex, Bondi Beach (picture courtesy Pexels)

I was tempted to have a dip but had other plans for the day – to walk the coastal path from Bondi to Coogee. Sooner after leaving Bondi, I was admiring some wonderful scenery, with the reddish brown rocks of the coast contrasting with the deep blue sea and bright blue sky.

Beautiful scenery on the Bondi-Coogee Path

The path links many smaller beaches, less famous than Bondi but sometimes prettier.

I particularly liked Bronte beach, which had a natural protected pool in the sea (the “Bogey Hole”) as well as its own artificial saltwater pool.

I stopped for a dip – the sea was cool, but the late morning sun was hot, and by dipping in and out of the water I could maintain a comfortable body temperature.

After an hour or so I showered and got dressed again to continue the coastal path. It passed by more beaches and then skirted the Waverley cemetery, where many famous Australians are buried.

The Bondi-Coogee Path skirts Waverley Cemetery

I finally arrived in Coogee in time for a late lunch of Australian mussels. The food, sun and sea air made me a bit sleepy, so I found a shady corner of beach and dozed off. When I woke up it was time to head home again. I spent the evening chilling in the refined ambience of the club I was staying in, the UUSC club – Australian cities have many such clubs, reflecting the cultural influence of Britain.

In addition to the usual elegant sitting rooms, dining rooms and bar, the UUSC had a small art collection that I admired with a glass of club wine in my paw.

It had not been the busiest day’s travelling of my life, but I had enjoyed the slower pace and fresh sea air. I felt that I had recharged my batteries, ready for another day visiting Sydney tomorrow.

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17th March 2025 5

Sydney – the other side of the world

Travel is a wonderful thing. From a cold (8°C) London evening I emerged very early in the morning, after 20 hours in a plane, to a sunny, 28°C Sydney in Australia. Immigration turned out to be surprisingly chaotic – I filled in a form on the plane, then queued up to be rejected by the automatic passport control (like 90% of my fellow passengers) and queued again for a passport check by a human. At each stage I was asked if I had a criminal record, which I thought a bit strange – surely you no longer need one to enter Australia? However, baggage collection, customs inspections (strict in Australia) and transport into town went more smoothly and I found my accommodation, the Union University and Schools Club (UUSC), quite easily. The club is located in a old building surrounded by the skyscrapers of Sydney’s CBD (central business district).
After a brief nap, I set off to explore. I devoted today to Sydney’s highlights, heading to the harbour at Circular Quay to take the boat across to Milsons Point. The short trip offered some great views of Sydney’s Iconic Opera House.

On arrival, the jetty offered one of the classic views of Sydney:

I took the lift up onto the bridge and started walking down the pedestrian path on the far left hand side back towards central Sydney. Nearing the other end, I reached one of the supporting towers or pylons where there was an interesting museum covering the history of the bridge’s construction over 1923 to 1931. On the top was a viewing platform with the best views yet.

Sydney Opera House taken from the Harbour Bridge

On top of the bridge’s steel arch I could see groups of tourists climbing up – the views must be even better right on the top, but the climb is apparently very expensive and not for the faint-hearted. As a small, light teddy bear I would be worried about being blown off.

After enjoying a cool breeze on top of the pylon, I finished crossing the bridge and took a lift down to the historical Rocks area of Sydney. This is where the first Australian settlers made their homes, and some of the old buildings survive to this day (including Sydney’s oldest pubs). Today the Rocks is a tourist and arts centre, with a market, small shops, cafes and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Harbour Bridge from the MCA Roof Terrace

It was now early afternoon and the unaccustomed heat and 11-hour time difference with London was beginning to affect me – back home, it was 3am, which I simply could not get my head around. I headed back to my club for another snooze and to avoid the afternoon sun. As evening approached I set off again to visit the Botanical Gardens, which were a short walk away. They were packed with exotic plants which in Kew Gardens, near my home in London, would be in glasshouses, but which here thrived in the open.

I left the gardens briefly to stroll down to Mrs McQuarrie’s Point, a peninsula which gives a magnificent view of the harbour, its busy boat traffic, the bridge and the Opera House.

Taken from the Botanic Gardens – a huge cruise liner sails away

Another short stroll through the gardens took me to the Opera House itself, which on a sunny Friday evening had become a magnet for Sydney’s young population to come to enjoy a beer whilst enjoying one of the world’s most famous views.

Friday evening – Party Time at the Opera Bar

The Opera House has a highly-rated restaurant, which was fully booked for that evening, so instead I headed back into the CBD and had an excellent dinner at a place called Morena. It was good to unwind after a first day packed with iconic sights. After dinner, the heat and the jet lag finally caught up with me and once back in the UUCS club I collapsed onto my bed and fell fast asleep.

Next Post: From Bondi Beach to Coogee

16th March 2025 7