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

Day 18 Mornington Peninsula

While Gabby was working at her work's sponsored boat races at Sorrento, Hans and I explored the lower reaches of the Mornington Peninsula...

Looking over the Portsea back beach facing into Bass Straight

Exploring London Bridge rock formation

We walked about a kilometre or so down the beach. It was hot but the breeze made it comfortable. The thin line of bathers in the distance were only there because it was the only section of beach that was patrolled by surf life savers. The seas here can be pretty treacherous so people have learnt to 'swim between the flags' all over Australia...

Local users of the beach, a crab fisherman and a couple of young-uns going for a stroll

At the bottom of the Peninsula is Point Nepean National Park which was until recently a restricted defence area...this is in the grounds of the old Quarantine Station and Army Barracks. If any ships had people with disease they were sent here and the whole ship was offloaded until the sickness was identified and contained...

Luggage was sterilised by steam or chemical fumigation

The park has a small tractor driven train for ferrying visitors around if they wanted to...we probably should've taken this option!

Some of the displays in the old hospital were excellent I thought...minimal interpretation but simple, poignant use of typography and imagery

There was a feeling of despair and loneliness

Stairs looking almost like a graph of the station's decline

Some old portable school rooms that were common when I went to school

Swallows on wires...

Before exploring further we went back to Sorrento for lunch at a cafe famous for the Australian delicacy vanilla slice - another first for Hans!

Some of the yummy stuff available, some of it from Europe.

We were lucky to get a seat inside...the street was full of people - absolutely 'chockers' (chock-o-block/full/congested)!

Cars everywhere looking for a park.

Looking back down the main street towards Port Phillip Bay.

After lunch we continued back into the Pt Nepean National Park. We parked the car and walked towards the old Fort at the end of the park but we ran out of time...it was about 7km from the car park to the end and return so we were being a bit ambitious...luckily it was a bit overcast and not so hot from direct sun

Looking across the bay to the Belleraine Peninsula and Queenscliff across the Heads.

One of the old gun emplacements.

After this we picked up Gabby and drove the 100km home. Tomorrow was an early start for Sydney!!