We started the morning with Peek Tours, one of the free walking tour companies in Sydney. Our guide Greg was funny and knowledgeable throughout the three hours, keeping the attention of a variety of international visitors. The tour itself included much of the history of Sydney and wound through the Quay (pronounced as key), the Rocks, CBD, alleys, Hyde Park in the morning. With their convict history past, many of the oldest buildings in Sydney were designed and built by convicts. Cadman's Cottage is the oldest surviving residential building in Sydney, dating back to 1816. The architect, a convict, is believed to have built several other buildings that dot the downtown Sydney area.
About halfway through the tour Greg stopped in Hyde Park for a 20 minute break, providing some time to explore on our own. It was a hot day, so many locals and tourists were sprawled in the shade of the many trees lining the paths.
St. Mary's Cathedral was adjacent to the park, providing a European feel to the city. It was nice to get away from the tall buildings of the CBD and see a different part of the city we likely wouldn't have visited on our own.
After Hyde Park, Greg took us through the Botanical Gardens on the way to the Opera House. We noticed several weddings and receptions as Greg talked about the park and popular spots for fireworks. We even spotted a kookaburra in the Botanical Gardens, prompting Ashley to hum or sing the song throughout the afternoon.
The tour ended at the Opera House with the Peek Tours jumping picture of the group (with Opera House in background). Overall, the tour was a great way to get introduced to Sydney (and cheap too). One of our favorite fun facts we learned was that roughly 1 million people come into Sydney to watch the New Years Eve fireworks.
Our day of exploring Sydney was aggressive, so shortly after the walking tour was our Opera House tour. We weren't going to have the time to see a performance this visit and we had been told this was the next best thing. It was a very well organized experience with fully trained guides and headsets that allow a specific group to hear their guide over the background noise.
The tour took us through the two larger performance halls and covered the architectural details and history of one of the most well known buildings in the world. According to our guide, the Sydney Opera House has a worldwide recognition factor where 2 in 3 could identify it.
We also saw a lot of setup being done in preparation of New Years including a stage behind the Opera House with the best view of the bridge and fireworks. One could purchase tickets to party there all for the low price of $1100 a person (includes food and drinks!).
One of the surprising things about Sydney is just how large of an International draw it has. On our tours, every continent but Africa was represented and everywhere we walked we heard a different language.
Based on the recommendations from Greg and others, we decided to take the Manly ferry to the beach in the late afternoon. It proved to be a great way to see the Sydney harbor and surrounding sites from a different perspective. It was a 30 minute ride to the Manly ferry terminal, which is a five minute walk from the beach. It had a classic beach town vibe, with shops and ice cream stores lining the wide pedestrian street. Even though it was late afternoon, Manly beach was still busy and the shops and restaurants were buzzing with activity.
We didn't stay long, as we wanted to catch the ferry back to the Quay to see the sunset over Sydney from the water. Unfortunately, too many clouds had rolled in while we were at Manly and blocked any hopes of a nice sunset. However, the views from the front of the ferry provided new/great views of Sydney.
It was a long day, but we covered a lot of ground (literally) and were able to see many of the iconic Sydney sites. Tomorrow would be New Years Eve in Sydney.
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