Sydney, Australia Trip (Day 3)

18th Feb 2019, Monday

Charcoal Burger with Fries

Egg Benedict

Yeah..today is my birthday!! But i not planning to let my dad drive the car out today after yesterday's drama. So we planned to go for Sydney Bus Tour instead of the Jenolan Caves as it was near to Blue Mountains which was quite a long drive. Anyway the bus tour cost about AUD$18 per pax and we can see Sydney with some guide. Mi and my sister decided to go to a cafe named The Factory some distance away from the hotel to get our breakfast while my dad and step-mum got ready. As it was early, there were few customers around. After we finished our breakfast and done, we headed out to the gathering place, which was Hyde Park.

ANZAC War Memorial Building

Memorial Statue

As there were some time before the tour started, we went to visit the ANZAC War Memorial Building first. The building was very huge and there was memorial stones inside. There was a museum in the basement for exhibition too. After taking some photos there, we walked towards the gathering point (Archibald Fountain at Hyde Park). There were already people gathering for the bus tour and the walking tour. The tours were conducted by Free Tours Sydney and the guides were wearing orange tees. Their walking tour are free and it takes 2.5hrs for the whole tour. Whereas the bus tour will take about 3 hours to complete. So we paid for the tours and waited for the time to leave. We set off  at 10.30 am and walked to the tour bus where we boarded. Then we were off.....

Docked Naval Ships

Mrs Macquarie's Chair

El Alamein Fountain

We headed around Sydney roads and the guide introduced some of the popular buildings such as the art museum. First stop, we alighted at The Domain where we had a view of the naval base with some naval ships and Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. There, we were told to check out Mrs Macquarie's Chair. After a quick stop there, we boarded the bus and headed to our next stop. We passed a floating platform with a big swimming pool and the guide told us that it was a residential place. Then we passed by El Alamein Fountain, Potts Point & Woolloomooloo (Finger Wharf) where the guide told us this was the place for night parties and normally the gals would come out to fish for rich guys. There were also plenty of pubs and seafood restaurants here. After that, we stopped at a coffee place and had some time for toilet break. The guide told us the coffee was fantastic there and many of us bought the coffee and snacks to try.

Stop point

Top point

Shark Island

After that, we headed out on the road again. We passed through King Cross area where the guide told us that this was the rich people's area. Also, this was the place where the guys looks out for pretty gals and there was a rich people's school where the parents drove posh cars to pick up their kids. Next, we passed by more atas areas, Double Bay, Point Piper and Rose Bay (areas where youngsters just drink near the harbour and jump into the water for a swim) before we stopped for our next stop. We stopped at a high point where there was a western house stood and we could the view of the city. It was just a few min stop for us to take photos, after that, we were taken to Don Riche Grove. There, we could see the ocean out and mi and my sister went out to take photos and enjoyed the strong winds.

Macquarie Lighthouse

Bondi Beach

After that, the guide brought us to see Macquarie Lighthouse which was the first and long serving lighthouse in Australia. However, we were just allowed to take photos outside and were not able to go in the lighthouse. The last stop we were brought to Bondi Beach, which was a famous beach in Sydney. The tour allowed people to stay at the beach but you will have to make your own way back to Sydney. However, the tour did allow people to stay for half an hour and you could go back to Sydney with the bus. So we decided to just stay around and go back with the bus. There were really alot of people on the beach. People were surfing, suntanning on the beach and and having food. The sun was just right for the weather. My dad bought an ice-cream for snack there and i bought a tee-shirt.

Exterior of St Mary's Cathedral Church

St Mary's Cathedral Church Entrance

Stained Coloured Glass Window

The bus drove us back and we alighted in front of St Mary's Cathedral. We gave some cash for the guide as tips and the guide really provided us very interesting tour about Sydney. After we bid goodbye to the tour guide and went to visit St Mary's Cathedral Church. The church was huge and had colourful stained windows. After the short visit, my dad wanted to walk back to Finger Wharf for another visit. But it was too far away from our location, so mi and my sister decided to go The Naked Duck for lunch which was a short distance away. So we tried to get my dad to follow our route but by the time we reached the restaurant, we were told it was closed for lunch...haiz...And it was almost 3 pm in the afternoon. So we just walked in the direction back to the hotel and we ended up in a Thai restaurant (The OhBar). Then my dad decided to have lunch there. We ordered the lunch sets and my dad was asking for chilli for his rice again...hohoho....I tabao my remaining fried rice as i can't finish it at that time.

Blackstar menu

Flowery Cake

Queen Victoria Building

Clock in Queen Victoria's Building

After lunch, we walked back to the hotel and my dad and step-mum went for a nap. But i did not want to nap so i got my sister to explore other places with mi instead. We walked further to Queen Victoria's building and Chinatown where the places we passed in Day 1 were very near to Chinatown. My sister went to a cake shop named Blackstar where they sell flowery cakes and she bought 1 cake to try. We found some free seats outside the building, so we sat down to try the cake. The cake had a strong flowery taste, which was not to my liking. But my sister liked it. After that, we went into Queen Victoria's building and there were all the branded shops such as Pandora, Mulberry, etc. Then we walked further down the streets and ended up in Chinatown where there were Chinese, Thai and Jap restaurants around.  I  also happily bought a cheese cake from Uncle Tstsu and some souvenirs in the area. Then we walked to Paddy Markets but unfortunately it was not opened for the day. We continued walking and saw dim sums, hotpots Chinese restaurants there, even East Ocean restaurant.
After a long walk, we headed back to the hotel and we took turns to shower and rest. When my dad saw us, he was saying he wanted to go out for dinner but i was too tired to walk again. So i let my dad and step-mum to go ahead instead. My sister had set the google route for my dad to Chinatown, so i confirmed with my dad if he can manage to find his way. He confidently said he can manage, so they went off.

Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake

So mi and my sister watched tv to pass time while waiting for them to come back. My dad even messaged me if we wanted some snacks back. I was glad they did managed to walk their way back to the hotel safety. So when my sis asked her mum if they managed to walk to Chinatown, she told us they did not and the thai restaurant staff told them they were at Thai Street...she said my dad got lost with the map....hahaa....^_^.....luckily they still can come back....After that, we all went to bed as we will be heading to Kangaroo Valley tomorrow.

Places visited:
Hyde Park
ANZAC War Memorial Building
The Domain
Mrs Macquarie's Chair
El Alamein Fountain
Potts Point
Woolloomooloo
Double Bay
Point Piper
Rose Bay
Don Riche Grove
Macquarie Lighthouse
Bondi Beach
St Mary's Cathedral Church
Queen Victoria's building
Chinatown

Hotel Stayed:
Adge Boutique Apartment Hotel

Europe 2nd Trip - Bern, Switzerland (Day 13)

6th Nov 2013, Wednesday, Rainy

Rainy Day

Ahhh...raining today, cold cold. Today, we are going to Bern, another town along the Bernina Express route. And there was no hot water for shower too...so i showered slightly longer today (cannot shower with cold water...hahhaa). We all got up and packed our stuffs and went to have our breakfast. Took the chocolate powder home too... :P...and we saw the colored eggs too, my friends were curious on why the eggs were colored, so she asked the staff on why the eggs are being colored. The staff said it was to differentiate them between the normal eggs, the colored eggs were cooked hard-boiled eggs. They were colored so that people will know which were cooked and which were not. After the breakfast, we went back to our room to collect our luggage and went down to do the check out. It was still raining when we left the hotel, but we still walked to the train station.

Rainbow outside the hotel

Not able to take photos during the train ride, cos not able to open the windows and raining too. So we just sat around in the train, there were a lot of people on the train too. Once we reached Bern station, we went up to get a cab to go down to the hotel. It was a short distance from the train station, the hotel name is called Innere Enge. We were given to Room No 1, the room was quite big and there were photos, music scores and music awards hang on the wall. The toilet was also big and it had a big bathtub on the other side of the toilet. Once settled down, we ate up the instant creme brulee and rested for a while. Then, we headed out and explore the city of Bern. Just outside the hotel, i saw a rainbow opposite as the rain had stopped and the sun had came out. So nice to see a rainbow.... :).... Then we took the bus back down to the train station to start our self-guided walk (from Rick Steve's book). From the starting point, there was the Church of Holy Ghosts. Then across the street, was the shopping streets and there were a lot of shops. Some shops were located underground, there was a staircase for people to walk down to the shops. And there were also display galleries showcasing the shop's stuffs to attract customers to go their shops. And in the middle of the road, there were cars and trams passing and there were fountains too.The first one we saw was the Bagpiper fountain, these fountains are Bern's trademark from the 16th century and these were built to brighten the city and to show off the town's wealth...kekee....

View from behind of Parliament Building

After walking for some distance along the streets, we saw the Prison Tower, There was a clock on the tower too, with the hand on the clock is really a hand-shape. Then we walked to the left side, where we saw the Dutch Tower. It was a tower used by Swiss soldiers during war times, to hide inside and smoke secretly (as smoking was forbidden in Bern at that time). Then we walked further down the road, we saw the super mossy fountain standing. It doesn't look good-looking...hohoho...but it was made in 1983 and it symbolizes growth and life. And opposite the fountain, it is the Police Station building. As we were walking away from the mossy fountain, we saw some people playing chess. The board was on the ground and the chips were large size. 2 elderly people were playing on it. And suddenly there was a group of 3 young girls, who just ran towards us and tried to take photos with my 2 friends (so weird..hohohoho...). We then walked to the other side of the streets to see the Parliament and Swiss National Bank buildings. Both the buildings were very large and there was a empty square (which was having half the Swiss gold buried under it) in front of them....hohohoho....After taking photos here, we walked to the back of the Parliament building and we were greeted with a nice view over Aare River. The view was super cool, and from far, the peaks of Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau can been seen. Luckily for us, the sky was very clear and blue, clouds floating and the sun was out too. We managed to get some nice shots here. After the nice view, we continued our walk down, hahaa...we walked towards the wrong way. We had crossed over a bridge and actually, it was nice to cross over the bridge too. The wind was blowing strong and you got another different view to see the city...kekeke.....Anyway, we walked back again once we realized we had walked the wrong direction. Then there was Bern's Casino building (which wasn't a real Casino, it was the home of Bern's Symphony Orchestra), and then we reached Bern's famous clock tower - Zytgogge-Turm. It was so nice to look at, there were people just standing there, watching and taking photos of it. And we waited for some time, for the clock to ring. Then we continued our walk along the streets, more shops were there, on the lower and the ground level, until to a bus stop at Nydegg Bridge.

Brown Bear

We took a bus to Bern's bear park, which was 1 stop away...hohoho.....Once we alighted, we went to see the bears. There were 2 bears, 1 dark brown colored. and the other light brown colored. The dark brown colored bear was walking around, looking for food and the light brown colored bear just sat at the corner, under a tree. It doesn't really move much, don't know is it too hungry to move around. So we just spent some time around the place, see the bear walking to and fro, taking photos of the bears and the view. Then we went in to the souvenir shop but it was closed, there was a restaurant there too. After watching the bear, we sat down and see where we were going to have our dinner. So we decided to go a restaurant which was up on a hill, which was having a nice view over Bern. The restaurant name was Rosengarten. It was really up a hill, we had to walk up a super steep road to get the restaurant and there wasn't much street light around. By the time we reached the top, we were like panting...hahahaa....and we saw the night view over Bern city from there. The food list on the menu was really limited, my friends ordered spaghetti and i ordered a Thai Chicken Curry with rice. I like the thai chicken curry, it was nice (but it was expensive... >_<). After the dinner, we walked back down the steep road and went for some shopping in the shops along the way. There were some interesting shops, like one, there was cute cute white rats as display in the shop. And we also passed by a cinema, chocolate shop (Läderach). After all the walking, we took a bus back to our hotel to rest for the day.

Hotel Stayed:
Innere Enge

Places Saw:
Church of Holy Ghosts
Prison Tower
Dutch Tower
Mossy Fountain
Police Station
Parliament
Swiss National Bank
Casino
Zytgogge-Turm
Bear Park