February 9, 2018 - Barangaroo and Darling Harbor

This is Friday, February 9, 2018. I got the date right on the first try this time. I failed to mention in yesterday’s post that it is really hot here. Summer is a joy. Also, yesterday’s adventures added up to walking 7.7 miles. Thus in bed by 9, and up at 7:30. Now we are raring to go. 

We planned to visit Barangaroo, Darling Harbor and Paddy’s Market today. When we dropped our key at reception, Gary asked our plans. He explained a shortcut to Barangaroo, and told us how to view the wooden stairs from the oldest wooden escalator. This was in the train station just before entering the tunnel to Barangaroo. 

We had a bit of difficulty finding the escalator because the stairs are actually installed hanging from the ceiling above the new escalator. Neat!

Then we followed the tunnel, and exited in the heart of Barangaroo. This is an area of new high rise office buildings that were under construction when we visited in 2016. It is quite a complex. We walked on to Darling Harbor. This is home to many entertainment venues and museums as well as the ferry terminals. We walked across the bridge over the end of the harbor and back. When we first visited Sydney in 1997, the monorail serving the central business district crossed here. It only lasted 25 years. After it’s dismantling in 2013, all that remains is a plaque in the pavement. 

Now we walked to Paddy’s Market. This is a large building housing many, many vendors’ stalls. Sadly, although there is a broad selection of “stuff”, it is mostly low quality. After a short tour of the aisles, we walked through Chinatown and back to the ferry pier for the short ride back to circular quay. 

Back “home” we walked the Foodie Fest. This was a disappointment compared to our experience in 2015. There were far fewer vendors, and we had worked up quite an appetite. So, we looked for the Lowenbrau Keller where we had eaten on past visits. In its place was Munich. It looked the same. We later learned that Lowenbrau had forced the name change. Everything else was the same. Excellent beer, excellent food, excellent service and excellent atmosphere. We had a great time, and even had sausages left over to put in our fridge to add to breakfast tomorrow. 

Now we were off to use up our second day’s ferry pass. We would go to Rose Bay via Manly. After carefully studying the schedule, we found we could spend an hour at the shore in Manly before boarding the ferry to Rose Bay. As we sat watching swimmers at the beach next to the Manly terminal, it showered lightly and briefly. We went inside to wait in shelter only to learn that the Rose Bay fast ferry only operates on weekends.  So that is why the schedule line was shaded. Ugh! We took the fast ferry to Circular Quay after just a five minute wait. 

A liesurely walk to The Russell had us in our room just before the skies opened and a serious thunderstorm began. What good fortune. Another marvelous day.