Bounding Round Sydney

We got up a little later on New Year’s Day and using the weeklong unlimited transportation (rail, bus, ferry) passes we bought, we decided to head back into town to have a proper look around. Our friends from the night of the fireworks (Cass & Nat) and my sister Gail, had suggested we check out Darling Harbor and arrange a Captain Cook Coffee Cruise. We also wanted to find our way to the bridge climb office before we had to find it at 3 AM the next morning. We could see from the rail map we that we could take the yellow line straight down to the Town Hall station and take a short walk over to the Harbor.

 It was a wonderful warm day (about 85 F), so we walked around the harbor enjoying the atmosphere,

fountains, gardens, playgrounds,

 and throngs of visitors. It also appears that this submarine was fighting off a Jules Verne scale octopuss! 

We stopped into the Sydney Hard Rock Cafe and after the obligatory trip to their store stopped and had some drinks (yummy frozen adult beverages for Jenn & me, and lemonade for Erin), whilst being serenaded by Erin on the drum kit that was setup in the corner,

We eventually found our way to the Cpt. Cook Cruise office and booked our “Coffee Cruise” leaving Circular Quay a few hours after our scheduled finish “Bridge Climb”. We what a beautiful and bustling place, stores, water taxes, street performers, the Opera House, and people were everywhere.  

 We stopped and listened to a didgeridoo player for a while and he was amazing. 

We found our way over to the bridge climb office, did our pre-check and strolled around the harbor before boarding the train and working though the 3 transfers to get back to our hotel for an early bedtime in preparation for our 2 AM wake-up. You see we need to be over at the “climb” center by 3:30 AM for our Sunrise walk to the top of Sidney Harbor Bridge. After checking Jenn’s  Sydney  Transportation App on her phone, we noticed the first morning train wasn’t until 5:10 AM, way too late. So we asked the hotel front desk to schedule us a very early cab so we could be there by our scheduled time. We got to our room and quickly climbed into bed to get ready for our big day tomorrow.