day 3 in sydney (blue mountains)

If you think Sydney is just a city of skyscrapers, then you are missing out the goodies in the wilderness. On day 3 we went to the Blue Mountains, a region some 1 hour's coach journey away. Initially I was considering riding the CityRail to Katoomba and explore Blue Mountains on our own, but that could be a bit tricky if I wanted to check out the nearby Jenolan Caves too. So in the end we signed up for a local tour. By the way not all Blue Mountains tour operators do Jenolan Caves.
The "trade mark" of Blue Mountains probably is to look at the Three Sisters Rocks from Echo Point. An interesting but sad story behind, but also don't forget to look at the sceneries beyond the Three Sisters. They say the "blue" comes from the eucalyptus oil of the forest.

We went to Scenic World next. From there we rode the Scenic Railway, supposedly the steepest railway in the world. It was great fun, riding this old mining rail which was functional as well as thrilling to bring you to the bottom of the valley.

At the bottom is Scenic Walkway, where you can choose which path to take depending on how much time you have and how much energy you have left. Then we made our way to Scenic Cableway which brought us back up to Scenic World's main entrance.

The coach took us to Jenolan Caves next. There is only one eating place there and there was a long queue, limited choice of food. It probably would make sense to BYO (bring your own) lunch which many visitors did. At the entrance there was this huge cave in the hill which the coach could barely pass through (and it did).

We had a guided inspection of Lucas Cave. The natural formations inside were awesome. The guide explained to us the history and background of the cave, how it used to be a chapel, etc etc.

To that's our day 3 in Sydney.

day 2 in sydney (but went to canberra)

To spend almost 8 hours flying over (and not forgetting the airfare), it does make sense to visit another nearby city. And so I slotted in a day trip to Canberra on the second day, the capital of Australia.

We did it the traditional way, took the CountryLink Xplorer train from Sydney Central to Canberra Kingston which took about 4 hours. Now thinking back, the train journey was equally, if not more, enjoyable than in Canberra itself. We passed by old towns, old train stations, farms, windfarms (which are still farms), very nice scenery from the Southern Highlands. Breakfast was from the train's buffet bar (and man I thought it was a buffet line!) and let's call it the Oz version of train bento.

Our first stop in Canberra was Parliament House, a must-go in Canberra. Maybe I should highlight that it was Christmas Day, so everywhere we went was pretty quiet. Of course, we didn't have the chance to check out the inside of the Parliament House.
Then we crossed the Lake Burley Griffin over to Civic. Seriously most of the shops were closed and we had to have Chinese fast food for lunch, unless we were willing to pay big bucks for Christmas lunch at an Indian restaurant.

We subsequently toured around the Canberra area on a public bus and that's about it for our day trip in Canberra.

I probably should mention that back in Sydney, the street was kind of crowded and we checked out the Christmas projections at the Town Hall. It was pretty cool to see the animated projection on the 100+ years old building. Glad that I caught it.

On day 3 Boxing Day we would be going to the Blue Mountains.

day 1 in sydney

We took an overnight flight to Sydney. So when we reached Kingsford Smith Airport, coupled with the timezone difference, it was just past 7am. Good timing to start the day.

It was a Saturday, so probably the only chance to catch the weekend markets. Our first stop was Sydney Sustainable Markets at Taylor Square. There are a few farmer's markets in Sydney and I was deciding between Taylor Square and Eveleigh Markets but decided on Taylor Square because I thought we could check out Oxford Street along the way as well. There were 20 odd stalls selling fruits, vegetables, bread, honey, etc. On afterhought probably farmer's market may not be that great a stop for tourist, unless you have ample of time in Sydney.
The next stop was The Rocks. Before that we would pass by Customs House and Circular Quay. Any tourist guidebook would say The Rocks is a must go, and so is The Rocks Market.
My sense of the Rocks Market is that it is one of those doing tourist business. But anyway if you are looking for Australian honey, there is an outlet of Superbee at The Rocks.

From The Rocks you can see the Sydney Opera House from afar, and also you are just next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. So we crossed the bridge to the opposite side at Milson Point, where the Luna Park is. Milson Point offers quite a nice vantage point where you can see both the Bridge and the Opera House in one frame.
We then went to Sydney Fish Market. Monster crabs, giant lobsters, cheap oysters, they've got them. My advice is, don't get the platter, you'll probably be drown by the fries and fried calamari.

The next stop was relatively nearby Market City (aka Haymarket) and Chinatown. "Skip-able" in my honest opinion but you have to see it to believe it. Nevertheless, Chinatown offers Chinese food (duh!) if you need rice and noodles.
Then we went to QVB (Queen Victoria Building). Must-go, no question asked. It is a shopping mall, very old one. I'm not a shopaholic but I really like the old tiles, the 2 old clocks and the old elevator.

We checked out Westfield and Myer, bought some stuff at Jurlique (good gift idea to bring back). Wanted to go up the Sydney Tower Eye but there was a long queue.

It was Christmas Eve and there was a Christmas Eve Carols and Fireworks at Darling Harbour. We had dinner at Harbourside, one of the few places in Sydney where you can have night shopping (not even talking about late night!) We also strolled along Cockle Bay on the way back to the hotel.

Right, that's about our first day in Sydney. Tiring especially considering the lack of quality sleep on the flight and the number of places we checked out. I was a bit of overly ambitious to pack in so much in the itinerary, and in fact I wanted to check out Bondi Beach on day 1 as well.

Day 2 would be day trip to Canberra on Christmas Day!