Vikingess Voyages: Australia

Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Sightseeing in Australia: Sydney Opera House

Anette 4:26:00 PM

The Opera House seen from Sydney Harbour Bridge

While visiting Sydney the one spot you'd definitely don't want to miss is the world famous Sydney Opera House. Of course you can see the magnificent building for free for instance by walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but the Opera House is definitely worth seeing from the inside as well. At the Opera House they have performances running every day throughout the year, as well as guided tours of the building. We decided to go for the last alternative.

First, some historical facts: The man behind the design was the Danish architect Jørn Utzon. The unprecedented design did not qualify for the final round at first, but thanks to one of the judges who arrived late and demanded to look through all the scrapped alternatives Utzon's design got another chance, and was eventually chosen. The building process did however take a lot longer than expected, and the opera house was finally opened in 1973 after 16 years of construction.

The project had taken many years longer than expected and far exceeded the budget. As a result Utzon received a lot of complaints and eventually had to pull out of the project. He never returned to see his masterpiece finalized.

There is however a happy ending to the story. The Sydney Opera House Trust later contacted Utzon and appointed him a design consultant for future works on the building. Further, the Opera House was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. The Australian opera house is the only building that has been recognized as a World Heritage Site while its architect still was alive.

The city seen from the Opera House

After having seen the building up close from the outside we booked a guided tour of the Opera house which took us backstage and into the various rooms of the building. Here is what it looks like:

With the bride reflected in the glass window

Great view of the bridge

Another photo of the bridge reflected in the Opera House

The roof of the Opera House is covered with more than one million tiles

The Opera House originally had a $AUS 7 million budget, but the project ended up costing around $AUS 102 million. However, considering the the millions of visitors who come to Sydney to visit the Opera House every year there's no doubt that it turned out to be a great investment.. It sure was a fantastic experience to visit the Opera House!

For more information, check out:
The Sydney Opera House

All blog post from Australia

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Sydney

Day Trips from Sydney: The Featherdale Wildlife Park

Anette 4:24:00 PM

Entrance to the Featherdale Wildlife Park

As a part of our day trip to the Blue Mountains we also had a short visit to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is a place where they give shelter to injured and homeless animals, and they currently take care of more than 2,200 animals from approximately 280 different species. When we arrived we were met by one of the keepers who let us take a look at a baby kangaroo!

Due to the building of new luxury houses in the area a large number of animals have lost their natural habitat. Animals such as koalas are very territorial, and they seek to get back to the places they were moved from. As a result, many of the displaced animals get injured while trying to get back to their former territories.

Add caption

We had the chance to stand in line and take pictures with the koalas. There were three of them "on duty" while we were there, so although there were many people who wanted to get their pictures taken with the koalas we got many opportunities for some shots. The first koala we lined up for was busy eating. He was such a cute little fellow.

Cuuuute koala

But koalas are nocturnal animals, so don't be surprised if they're more busy sleeping..

..and tired koala

In other areas there were animals who could roam around freely, and we encountered both birds, wallabies and kangaroos. You can also choose to buy some snack to feed them if you want.

During the afternoon you can watch as one of the keepers feed the animals, and this is also a great opportunity to learn about the animals or ask questions if you have any.

We didn't have that much time, but got to watch as one of the keepers fed the penguins and a Tasmanian devil.! I've included the feeding times here for those who might be interested:

FEEDING TIMES & TALKS

All day

Koala Sanctuary

9am - 10am

Rapt in reptiles

10am & 2:30pm

Echidna

10:15am*

Crocodile

10:30am & 3:45pm

Penguins

11am

Pelican

2:45pm

Flying Foxes

3:15pm

Dingo

4pm

Tasmanian Devils

* Crocodile feeding occurs in summer months only

Talking about the penguins

Like their Facebook page

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of one or more of the animals you can choose between their sponsorship packages starting at 50$. Sponsoring an animal in the Featherdale Wildlife Park can also be a great gift idea, and you choose yourself which animal to sponsor.

For more information about Featherdale Wildlife Park, check out their homepage.

All blogposts from Australia

Monday, March 24, 2014

Sydney

Day Trips from Sydney: The Blue Mountains and Scenic World

Anette 6:44:00 PM

In order to get away from the city life in Sydney for while we booked a one-day trip to the magnificent Blue Mountains situated about one and a half hour drive from Sydney. The Blue Mountains are a part of the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Site. The most famous site in the area is the Three Sisters sandstone rock formation depicted below.

The Three Sisters

After a short aboriginal show we proceeded to the Scenic World. The Scenic World was established in 1945, but the area had previously been used by mining companies digging for coal. The Scenic World is Australia's most visited private-owned tourist attraction. In the Scenic World you can experience the wild nature of the Blue Mountains by a cable car called the Scenic Skyway, a Scenic Railway (which by the way is the steepest in the world) and the Scenic Cableway.

View from the Scienic Skyway

On the glass floor

In the Scenic Skyway you'll find the world's only electrostatic glass floor. The color of the floor changes from opaque to transparent as the cable car crosses the valley.

Going down with the Scenic Railway

The Scenic Railway was originally built to transport coal from some mines down in the forest. Now all that is left from the activities here are some statues, mining tools and the closed mines.

The Scenic Walkway

The Scienic World provides you with great opportunities to take a stroll in, and learn about, the rainforest. As you walk along the elevated boardwalk of the Scenic Walkway you can read about the local flora, or just enjoy the fresh air and the sound of birds in the trees.

And if you finish the tour early you can visit the souvenir shop where you find local products to take with you home.

We spent about two hours in the Scenic World, but if you enjoy walking in nature and seeing the beautiful landscape you might as well spend even longer time in the area. My dad is a real nature-lover, and he could definitely have spent the whole day just walking around the forest.

Enjoy! :)

Other pages:

Scienic World

All blogposts from Australia

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Sydney

Sightseeing in Sydney: The Bondi Beach

Anette 5:55:00 PM

One of Sydney's most famous places is the Bondi Beach. Located a short bus ride outside the city centre it makes a great day trip (or if you are a surfer you might just want to stay there for the most of your stay).

Bondi Beach

The place is especially great for surfers, and this is also the place to go for those out there who never have tried surfing before. Here you can find surfboard rentals, or take a course in surfing with some local experts.

Surfers code

During the summer this beach is almost totally packed with people, so we were quite lucky stopping by during the autumn (as you probably know, March is considered autumn down under in Australia).

There are of course loads of people who come here for other reasons too, such bathing and exercising, or just to chill out at the beach. If you like to go skateboarding they also have some areas for that, as you can see in the picture below:

We went to the beach as a part of the second day of our ticket with the Sydney City sightseeing busses, which we had used to explore Sydney during our first day in the city. As we had only bought a 24-hour ticket we had to take the bus home from the beach though, but there were several busses going towards the city centre so it wasn't hard to get back. Either way, we had a lovely day at the beach and would recommend it to anyone wanting to spend some lazy days at the beach while visiting Sydney.

-All blogposts from Australia

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Sydney

Sightseeing in Australia: Top Sights in Sydney

Anette 5:52:00 PM

After having spent a week traveling to Melbourne and Cairns our next stop was Sydney. Like we had done in Melbourne we decided to book a trip with the local sightseeing-busses to get a quick overview of the city.

And of course, while traveling in Sydney what you would like to visit the most is the city's pride and world famous building, the Opera House. The masterpiece was designed by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon. It finally opened in 1973 after 16 years. The Australian opera house is the only building that has been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site while its architect still was alive.

Such a fantastic monument obviously deserves a little bit more attention than just some photos from the outside, and a later day we also did a guided tour of the opera house which I'll post about in a couple of days.

Sydney bridge

Anyway, the harbor area was one of the places where we got of the bus for a longer stroll, and we really enjoyed the nice atmosphere as we walked from Sydney bridge to the Circular Quay.

Passing by some nice buildings, including an old hotel

From the Circular Quay we decided to hop on a bus again, and continued our travel from the top of the bus.

View from the rooftop of the bus

Sydney is a really beautiful city where you find a peculiar mixture between old buildings from the late 1800s and modern skyscrapers. The city seems to be expanding quite a lot, because we did see quite a lot of building projects in the city center.

We also drove past the Google Maps car on our way as it was out recording its surroundings in Sydney. It will be interesting to see if we can find our bus on Google Maps later..

Although it is nice to have a bus available to take you all around the city I personally felt that it is not as necessary in Sydney as in other places. Of course it depends on your interest and so on, but most of the interesting sites in the city are within walking distance. As an alternative to the bus tour there is a company that offers free guided tours around the city (it is up to you if and how much you want to tip the guides), and if you want a cheeper alternative then I would rather recommend that one.

The good thing about the bus though, is that the tickets are available for 24 hours, so you could always do a day of city sightseeing and take their other route on the second day to spend some time on Bondi Beach.

-All blogposts from Australia