Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Day 19 Sydney Day 1

And so to Sydney!

We had a lovely apartment in mid city on the 55th floor! Two bedrooms and bathrooms so it was very comfy.

We were having dinner in the Centrepoint Tower seen here in the background. It has a revolving restaurant so you get a great view of the city. There's a shopping centre in the base then an uncomfortably small elevator up the centre column.

We spent the afternoon in the National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour, a short walk across the Pyrmont Bridge front he city. The internal displays were really excellent. In the background are some aboriginal paintings from the top end of the Northern Territory.

Outside were a series of ships on display...


..including a replica Dutch ship, the Duyfken or 'Little Dove' which was the first European ship to visit Australia 



Wasn't much room to move under the deck! The traditional wheel that we associate with steering boats hadn't been invented when this ship was built so the tiller was linked to a kind of paddle/lever thing that was below deck. The captain would shout steering orders down to the tiller man underneath him.


Hans had facts that even the guide didn't know!

These are original ballast bricks about 300 years old. They used to use these yellow bricks to construct houses and offices in the far east for the Dutch officials living there...

... and of course coming back the ships were full of spices. Hans said a bowl - such as these ones - of herbs could buy a whole house!


The V.O.C., the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) 

Apparently there weren't any hammocks for the crew to sleep in. They weren't invented yet! So the crew had to sleep above decks on anything they could find such as ropes or sails. The other thing is the cargo was extremely valuable so even a handful would've been a fortune and too much of a temptation for the sailors

Next to the Duyfken were HMAS Vampire, a destroyer and HMAS Onslow, a submarine.

The access hatch was the one through which they loaded the torpedoes

Hans realising that maybe the sofa bed at our place wasn't such a bad place to sleep after all! ;-)   Actually we couldn't believe how bloody small the bunks were!

This was really funny....Hans was used to working with Touch Screens, not "Do Not Touch Screens"!!

Yes, it is a 'Do Not Touch Screen' Hans!

Mmmmm, two V16 diesel engines....RRRrrrrrrrr



I didn't want to scare Hans but there was a gun just behind him!!

We walked back home though Darling Harbour...my finger is pointing to where we were staying, The Meriton.

The view from Centrepoint Tower at dinner

The view was great but the cuisine not so...oh well... :-)

The four of us, your author, Gabby, my good mater Anthony/Ginza/Boney/Ant and Hans after dinner

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