Another Sydney Visit

We have just returned from another visit to Sydney.  This was our first winter visit and, even though the temperatures were in the high teens, we really did find it quite chilly!  It was kind of odd to see, the shops are often quite open and all of the shop keepers would have on their winter woolies to stave off the wind chill.  In the summer the breeze is refreshing, but in the winter it is quite nasty!  We spend plenty of time indoors and out of the wind.

Harbour Bridge

This was our fourth trip to Sydney are there are still so many things that we haven't done.  This trip we went to a show in the Opera House, the Aquarium and the Sydney Museum.  The highlight, however, was taking in the sights from the Sydney Tower.  We had really lucked out and booked half price tickets on-line (clever JT!) and practically had the place to ourselves.  The tour begins with a four minute "4D" movie covering the highlights of the central Sydney area.  It takes place by following a bird as it flies around buildings and tracks people on the water  (the fourth dimension, as far as we can tell, is the water spray that hits the viewers in the face).  It was an amazing show and well worth the trip all on its own!

The tower is just over 300m high and provides a fantastic 360 degree view over the entire CBD, the Sydney Harbour, the Darling Harbour, the Blue Mountains and everything in between.  We spent about an hour walking around and going through all of the places that we had only glimpsed before and planned out things to do for the rest of that trip and for subsequent ones.

Wharf area in greater Sydney Harbour

It was a very nice and secure feeling to be able to get those kind of views from the safety of a nice, glassed in enclosure...we can't imagine what it would be like to be one of the crazy people who actually pay to walk around the OUTSIDE of the tower!  We definitely aren't planning on doing that!

St Mary's Cathedral

(And we would be remiss if we didn't point out that Australia's famous mare Black Caviar has now won her 22nd race in a row, and in front of the Queen at the Royal Ascot, no less!) 

Bridge Walk

The Story Bridge runs north-south across the Brisbane River, connecting Kangaroo Point to New Farm.  It was built in the 1930s and is just under a kilometre in length.  It is a wonderful symbol of Brisbane and is lovely to see in the day time or lit up at night, and it is the focus of the Riverfire festival.  Since 2005 people have been able to experience unique views of Brisbane via the Story Bridge climb and last week JT's group at work climbed the bridge as a team building experience.

Story Bridge, Kangaroo Point on the RHS of the photo

Story Bridge, Riverfire 2011



As with any bridge climb the participants are not allowed to carry anything, including cameras.  Although it seems a shame to not let people take photos of the amazing views at the top of the bridge, it is understandable that anything dropped from that kind of height would do a massive amount of damage to anything that it hit on the bridge (pedestrians, cars, cyclists...not to mention the passengers on the City Cats that pass under the bridge).  JB was under no such restrictions and walked down to the river to get a couple of shots of the bridge climb.

Story Bridge on the day of the climb

Climbing the bridge, JT is second from the front

There are great views from the bridge...you can see the coastline, the inland mountains, and the river course as it winds its way through the city.  Although you are not nearly as high up as some of the surrounding skyscrapers, your views are better because you have a 360º vantage which gives the full spectrum.  It was a very enjoyable experience.

Milton

We have just renewed our lease for the second time, meaning that we have committed to staying in our townhouse for another year and will be in this location until at least July 2013.  We had thought that it would make sense to try another neighbourhood, as we have lived here since September 2010 and it is really the only part of Brisbane that we really know, but there weren't any places that we liked in any other neighbourhoods, plus we really like where we live.

Home sweet home

Our suburb is Milton and, unlike in Canada, our address is for our suburb, not the city.  We don't live in Brisbane, we live in Milton.  If someone were to send a letter to our street address with "Brisbane" as the suburb, we probably wouldn't get it.  We have noticed that different suburbs will have same street names, so it is really important to get the suburb right.  It is second nature for us now to get in a cab and say our suburb name, not just the street.

Milton is a great place for us to live.  We can walk to work in about 35 minutes, and walk both ways when the weather is amenable.  In the summer we have a 7 minute train ride and 3 minute walk to get to work, but we still walk home.  It is important to us to have a train station close by and the Milton Station is about a 2 minute walk.

Electrical Station painted in honour of the suburb's namesake, John Milton

Milton was named after the English poet John Milton, writer of Paradise Lost, which means we have a pretty classy suburb!  As you can imagine, people are always walking around and busting out random verses of poetry.  It's quite inspiring.

Park Road Restaruant District...our own little piece of Paris!

The XXXX Brewery, suburb landmark

Milton has two areas that are full of restaurants, Park Road and Rosalie.  We can find almost any type of cuisine we like within about a five minute walk.  We are also quite close to suburb called Paddington that is full of shops, restaurants and pubs that are good for a weekend stop-in.  We have movie theatres, grocery stores, 2 butchers, a baker, a fish monger, 3 dry cleaners and at least 3 wine stores within a 15 minute walk.  With all that to offer, how could we leave?