More excursions into Sydney’s downtown brought us to the Pitt Street Pedestrian Mall, Hyde Park, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. At the Art Gallery I was very pleased to discover the strange but beautiful work of Australian surrealist painter James Gleeson. We walked a fair bit until my long suffering wife requested a respite on a park bench, which was good for the always entertaining sport of people watching. We definitely like Sydney. It is Australia’s New York, but it doesn’t feel as big and hectic, is a bit cleaner, and the buskers play didgeridoos.
New Years Eve is a big deal here with something like a million and a half people converging on downtown. There are not one but two fireworks shows that evening on Sydney Harbour. One is at midnight of course, but there is also an earlier “family fireworks” at 9pm for the kids and old farts like ourselves who struggle to stay awake until midnight. We’ve seen enough fireworks over the years to not get too excited by them anymore. So rather than try to make it into and out of town from our distant suburb, we instead watched the show on television.
Downtown Sydney
An indoor mall
Love this highly detailed sculpture and all the little flowers and critters included on the base
Architecture old...
... and new.
Hyde Park with St. Mary's Cathedral in the background
Fountain in Hyde Park
The landmark Sydney Tower looms outside the atrium