Since we couldn’t face doing a great deal of walking today, we changed our plans to head straight off to the Opera House and then Government House since that would be our only opportunity to see it. Before that, though, breakfast was in order. We stopped at the little cafe (Voodoo) just outside the hotel for a reasonably priced brekky and then headed off on the tram to find some thongs for Ela’s poor blistered feet. We found some for $3 at Paddy’s Market and then ventured into town via Central Station and then a train to Circular Quay. Nice views from the station platform:
Next stop: Opera House – yesterday’s nice weather was over with, though:
We walked past – Ela didn’t want to walk up those stairs with her bad knees and worse feet, so we just continued past to the Botanic Gardens on our way to Government House. Government House is only open to guided tours (free) Friday to Sunday, so we had to view it today. I’d never been inside so was very keen myself. Government House is built in the neo-gothic style, so it looks just like a little castle:
Photos were not allowed inside, so I took a couple through the window. I think they turned out quite well.
Since it had started raining a little in the meantime, we decided to go to the Art Gallery. This was supposed to be about 800m away. Seemed like 8 miles, but there were some nice sights along the way. We exited the Botanic Gardens at The Conservatorium, another ‘little castle’:
We headed down the street and came by this palm with nesting Lorikeets:
And the State Library which was open, much to my delight:
Sydney Hospital, through which we cut to The Domain, had a beautiful sculptured fountain:
The Art Gallery is a beautiful building, with even more gorgeous paintings hanging inside. The Picasso exhibition had only just finished, so some of the walls were bare. We were just in time for a tour so took that through. It was quite interesting but killed our feet some more!
We had a change of plans for dinner, so just headed to Woolworths to buy some bandaids, Betadine and dinner and brekky for the next few days. This took us past St Mary’s Cathedral and Hyde Park and the Sydney Tower again:
We bought our few odds and ends and took the train back to the apartment and cooked our dinner and watched some TV before crashing.
