After a late night yesterday it was a little difficult to get moving this morning but as all we had to do was get across the river and get on the hop on hop off bus we managed it. Starting the day with a walk down to the river then getting on a boat is a very civilised way of doing things. The hop on hop off bus leaves from just outside where the ferry docks so we walked round and joined the queue. We decided to let the first bus go as we couldn’t get a seat on the top deck but as this is the holiday season pretty much as soon as the first bus pulled off the next one arrived. Some of the route was the same as the one we walked yesterday but it was nice finding out additional information, such as Hyde Park was named after its London equivalent in 1810 and was once an exercise field for the garrison troops, it is actually oval and was where the first horse race in Sydney took place, it has remained this shape in honour of those races and was also once home to a cricket pitch, now long since gone. The bus took us from the city centre to Kings Cross which it said was a trendy place by day and the red light district by night which again sounds remarkably similar to its London counterpart. We drove out to Pyrmont where the famous fish market is held every morning, it is now privately owned and is the largest working fish market in the Southern Hemisphere. It trades over 13,500 tonnes of seafood annually. It came about because in 1945 the New South Wales government effectively nationalised the fishing industry up until then licensed fish agents marketed and sold the fish. This new agency regulated the market system and controlled the centralised market until 1994. During the same period the cooperatives operating along the coastal areas of New South Wales also came under this system. In 1966 they built the current market then in 1994 they decided to privatise it again and it is now owned and operated by two equal shareholders, the Catchers Trust and the Sydney Fish Market Tenants and Merchants Pty who had a monopoly until 1999 when total deregulation took place allowing catchers to supply any buyer directly. From here it is just a short journey back along the front to the start point, the whole trip had taken about 2 hours as we had been blocked in by another bus at one stage but it was very enjoyable if a little hot. By the time we had walked back to the wharf area we decided we would have a spot of lunch before starting out afternoon walk and we found a nice little place called the four frogs, a crepe shop run by four french guys who obviously have a sense of humour and also are really good at making crepes they were lovely. Fully refreshed we were ready to start the next part of the day which is a walk around the City Centre. There are basically two main streets in Sydney one is Pitt Street and the other George Street so we walked up one and down the other. It is a real mix of old and new buildings with two really nice arcades on route. The first one we went into was The Strand, built by the victorians with tiled floors and elaborate walk ways the upper floor had everything a ‘gentleman’ could need. A tailors, a shirt maker and finally a cobbler who would make you a pair of hand made shoes, unfortunately all were closed for the Christmas break but we could look in the window and the cobbler had all the leather and tools out on the side, it would have been wonderful to have seen whoever was in there working but never mind. We continued walking up the road past the Christmas tree that I still think has beach balls rather than Christmas balls on and finally to the Town Hall. They are installing a new tram line – the previous electric tram was closed and removed in the 1970s but they have decided this would help congestion and be environmentally friendly so they are re-building an electric tram, this was run down George Street and past the town hall but I am not sure when it is due to open. The town hall as with all these buildings is very impressive, we didn’t go in but the outside certainly demonstrated grandeur then we went into the other famous shopping arcade. This one is bigger it is housed in the Queen Victoria Building and covers three floors, originally the site of a market that was moved to the basement when the shops opened so that the gentle folk of Sydney didn’t have to look at the comings and goings, they even installed a lift so that delivery’s could be made to both the lower floors and the upper. There are two fantastic clocks that both look like they should do something but they don’t and rather strangely a letter from Queen Elizabeth that says it is to be opened in 2086, we later worked out this was probably the 200th anniversary of the building but it did seem a rather strange date! By this time we were starting to flag so we decided to head back to the apartment. We took the train which is actually only three stops from the Town hall to pretty much right outside the apartment, we had a relax as we plan to go out again this evening to try and get some photos across the harbour once it is dark.
