There were a few things on our to-do list today as we woke up a bit later than normal in Sydney. The first, of course, was coffee. We’d seen a Starbucks across the street and figured it was time to find out if it was the same in Australia as it is in the United States. We hardly ever visit chain restaurants if we can help it, especially overseas, but we’d already been told that Sydney pretty much closes shop on the weekends and tomorrow, Sunday, would be even worse. With that in mind, we tried one other coffee shop only to find it closed, and admitted defeat as we headed to Starbucks.
I’ve had Starbucks all over the world… this was one of the sweetest!
My Peppermint Mocha was way too sweet, but as always you can’t expect things to be the same when you’re traveling so I have no complaints! The coffee was, on the whole, roasted much more consistently than in the US, and Jon said the food selection was much better and the thought put behind it much deeper from a flavor perspective. Having had our caffeine, we were off and walking.
I mentioned earlier I work for VMware, and Jon works for another firm with an office here in Sydney. we elected to visit both and began walking for the VMware office. Oddly, I have my work-badge with me since the first leg of this trip was a work trip, and once we arrived I was pretty sure I’d just be able to badge into the building. This didn’t end up being entirely true, however like all good security systems the weakest link is the fallibility of people, and we just waited long enough by the front doors for someone to exit and let us in by proxy using the sliding doors. I grabbed a quick picture in front of the office, and Jon did the same at his company, before we looked at what to do next.
The architecture of Sydney
We got a bit lost… but got to see Hyde Park!
This seems like as good a time as any to show you where we were staying. If you’d like a map, click here for a map of the Wynyard neighborhood of Sydney. The VMware office is just South at King and George streets, and we’d then move west to nearly the wharf. By the time we got to Jon’s company, the wharf seemed like a next logical stop. We walked down to see what was going on for the day. Another item on the itinerary was visiting Chinatown, and being near this as well we made the loop around and walked through a festival in Tumbalong Park celebrating Asian influences in Sydney. As we arrived for lunch at the noodle house that had been suggested to us, we all decided we weren’t quite hungry yet and instead elected to walk around the “City Markets”, a large building in which many small shops have been erected over time. We easily walked around for about forty minutes before we’d bought a good number of souvenirs and decided we were hungry again. We walked back to the Chinese Noodle House, and sat down for lunch.
We think this was to celebrate that there have been 20 years since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, but we’re not sure.
The Chinese Noodle House sits on a slanted hill along Quay street, and so do the tables outside. More than once, things nearly ended up in my lap as they slid down the table. This included things like hot tea, dumplings, plates and chili sauce. The food wasn’t great but it also was not terrible, and as far as dim sum goes I enjoyed it overall! They also had soup dumplings, something that is extremely hard to find in Colorado!
The Chinese Noodle house, not to be confused with my Main Noodle House, in New York.
After lunch, we decided to go on a boba hunt, but struck out as we walked and explored the city. We considered drinks a few times, but we weren’t able to do so because the Bridge Climb that was coming up required sobriety (for the most part) to be able to take part. We walked more, far and wide, exploring a few different areas of King’s Street Wharf and grabbed a quick coffee before heading back to the hotel. Jon and I both wanted about an hour to rest up before the bridge climb, and to get ready.
The Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb has been on my list of things to do for a very long time. After returning from Europe in 1999 with People to People, the next trip they were planning was to Sydney, Australia… and the highlight was going to be the bridge climb. I wanted to participate immediately upon hearing about it, but it wasn’t in the cards at that time in my life. Something like eighteen or nineteen years later, it’s now in the cards and I’ve put everything together to make it happen. I’ve been looking forward to it for the whole trip! I can safely say that I was not disappointed!
The outside of the Bridge Climb building. Cameras are not allowed on the climb.
First, for those afraid of heights, please know that the climb is as safe as you could possibly be (always tethered to a cable wire), and for the most part you are on sturdy, full-metal floors that you cannot see through or look down from. This isn’t really a concern for me, but it was mentioned by a few on the trip. I was more concerned about climbing all the stairs (the entire trip up and down is somewhere over 1,300 steps, or so we were told) and ascending quickly to ensure the group didn’t get stuck behind me! In reality, the three of us were some of the most in-shape to do this type of thing (quit laughing, Brian!), and we were full stories ahead as we waited for the rest of the climbing group.
Just in front of the window here is an example of the walkway you take when climbing the bridge (at least for parts).
To their credit, the company takes a good deal of care to ensure they don’t wear anyone out. There are plenty of stops along the way, information about the bridge and its history, and overall an easy climb with one exception in “The Ladders” where you essentially climb almost vertically for about forty feet. This is all “at your own pace” though, and never felt rushed in any way. Once on the top girder area, the walk is an easy slope as you head toward the middle of the bridge. They take pictures along the way, something we did end up buying even though we didn’t think we would originally, and I’ll share those once we get to greener WiFi pastures. We haven’t even talked about the views yet… and that was some of the best parts of the climb. Due to the potential to drop things, though, you can’t take anything like a camera with you on the climb (You actually wear a fully body-suit and they wand you for metal before you can go), but the views were spectacular and we were able to see the Sydney Opera House from up high, as well as at least half the town overall. At night, all of the lights were coming on as the sun set (we took the “night climb” option), and it was even more beautiful as things got darker.
I also want to mention that at least half of the climb time is preparation and this is important to realize. We spent nearly an hour getting in gear, having lights, radios, and headsets clipped to us, and ensuring that nothing was dangling or having the potential to fly loose out on top of the cars and tramways. We were then talked to about safety, given a sample “ladders” test to ensure we were fit to climb, and then hooked to the line that would keep us safe from falling ourselves. This seems like a lot of work, and it is, but it was all worthwhile for the experience, the climb, and the views.
We finished the night by taking an Uber across town to a bar where we met one of Jon’s work friends. Jen and I grabbed some ciders while friends caught up, and then we built our itinerary for the next day with help from the locals. His selection of bar was pretty good, so we trusted him again on things like suggesting we don’t take the Opera House tour since we can see most of it from the outside, and to try to catch a Rugby game or football game. As the bar closed down, we headed back out and grabbed another Uber back to the hotel for the night.
