First Stop: Circular Quay
On my first full day in Sydney, I planned on going on one of those harbor tours. They have these boats that do nothing but circle around the huge Sydney Harbour, from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay, from Circular Quay to Watson’s Bay, from Watson’s Bay to Taronga Zoo, and all the way back to Darling Harbour. I had a ticket for the Rocket Harbour Cruise, so I could ride it all day from stop to stop, and the departures at each stop were an hour apart, so I’d have plenty of time to sightsee at each stop before having to leave again.
Now, had I nothing else to do that day, I might have seriously gotten a full day of seeing a whole lot more than I did. But as it was, I spent that morning getting my photos burned to DVD and buying some things to clean my camera. After that I had a quick and early lunch. So I missed the 9:30 am and 10:30 am departures at Darling Harbour.
I caught the 11:30 instead and was whisked away to Circular Quay.
Circular Quay is where you’ll find the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is a must see if you ever find yourself in Sydney. More on that later, but for now here’s a photo of it from the boat:
The quay is where you’ll also find the famous Sydney Opera House and the Royal Botanic Gardens. I didn’t have time to explore the gardens, but I did climb up the stairs for a bit to get a better view of things. As for the opera house, here’s a shot from the boat:
And here’s a shot of the steps from outside:
And of one of the rooms from the inside:
I got a lot of nice shots from the inside, along hallways and on the numerous steps, but none of the theaters themselves. They’re copyrighted, so we’re not allowed to take photos from inside any of the theaters. The architecture is amazing, all designed by a guy named Utzon, and the interior shot above is from inside the Utzon room.
After seeing the opera house, I ran back to the dock to catch the next departure of the harbor tour, but I missed the one I wanted and had to wait for the next one, so I wandered around on the quay and took some photos.
This one is of the Museum of Contemporary Art (on the left), the Sydney Harbour Bridge (in the background), and one of the many different kinds of boats that cruise the harbor:
I noticed a bunch of multi-colored bears in front of the museum, so I wandered over there and discovered the Unicef bears. Bear sculptures were given to every participating country, and an artist from that country would paint the bear, and the bear is then put on display with other bears from other countries.
I searched and searched and searched some more, but I couldn’t find the U.S. bear. I found Australia, Canada, some African countries, France, the Philippines, and a bunch more, but I couldn’t find U.S.
Here’s the Australian bear, though:
And after that, I got on the boat to see the other stops on the tour.
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4 thoughts on “First Stop: Circular Quay”
You take amazing photos! The colors seem to pop out and the subject is framed in the photo nicely. The steps and inside the Opera House are interesting, esp. the lighting of the inside.
Thanks, JJ! The lighting on the interior shot is partly from the golden lighting and partly from the reflected light from outside — there’s a wall of windows to the left, and outside the windows is the Sydney Harbour, so that bit of bluish light is actually reflected from the sky and the sea outside.
April,
Hey. I know I’m a bit slow in commenting on this but thanks for sharing your experiences and photos in Sydney. I’ve really enjoyed your travelog on your trip to Australia. The photos from the Circular Quay were just great. At first I thought the Circular Quay was the name of the harbor cruise but then I re-read your post and realized my error.
The UNICEF bears are pretty cute. You couldn’t find the US bear in the line-up of 125? That’s too bad. I wouldn’t have been able to identify Australia’s if not for the flag. The beat itself didn’t exactly leap out at me as Australia!!
It sounds like these bears travel to a major city in the world each year. I wonder when they will hit the US?
I’m curious did it feel like there were a lot of non-English speaking people in Australia? Did it feel foreign or like being in the US only slightly off. I’m curious, I’ve never traveled outside North America and only slightly outside the US.
I probably could have searched longer for the U.S. bear, but I really didn’t want to miss the next departure.
As for foreigners in Oz, I honestly couldn’t tell. I have a really bad ear for accents, so I couldn’t tell if someone was Australian or European. So in a sense, it’s like U.S. that way except when it comes to the accents. The more obvious foreigners are from Hong Kong or Singapore. I have no idea why. I also met a bunch from Scotland, one tourist from Germany, a class of kids from Africa, and some Filipinos at the airport, too, one of whom I mistook for my godmother when I knew very well that she couldn’t meet me at the airport. D’oh!
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