Sketching St. Mary’s Cathedral in watercolors was a nice way to start the day. I can’t draw worth a hoot, but that’s why the smudgy, ethereal dreaminess of watercolor pencils is so appealing. Then it was off to the Royal Botanic Gardens for some exploring. The gardens abut the library, so let it be known I want gardens like this in the Keep. 
One end of the gardens exits onto the peninsula where Governor Macquarie had a sandstone bench carved into the rock so his wife could watch the boats enter the harbor. She would walk to the seat almost every day, and the peninsula is now known as Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, except now all the tourists aren’t watching the entrance of the bay…we were all facing the opposite direction, toward the Sydney skyline, opera house and Harbor Bridge.
If I were Rick Steves, I would list strolling through the Gardens (free, by the way) to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair on a list of top things to do if you only have one day in Sydney. Other activities would include walking across the Harbor Bridge (also free) and walking the cliff trails out around Bondi Beach (surprise…free!). Other interesting points would include the hop on hop off bus ($39 ASD and a good way to get a nice overview and figure out where things are, plus see some interesting neighborhoods) and the State Library’s upstairs museum, which featured Charles Darwin’s journal entries on Australia, and the Australian Maritime Museum (gasp! both free!!). Also really cool was the (free) Currency Museum, which is in a functioning bank! It showed all the money used in Australia. Did you know Australia switched from pounds to ‘decimal currency’ as recently as 1966?! They thought about calling each unit a ‘roo,’ ‘koala,’ ‘kang,’ ‘quid,’ etc., but ended up calling it a Royal. Then people protested, so the government renamed it Dollar, and everyone was happy. And I had never heard of Occupation Currency before, but apparently during WWII Japan printed up currency to use in the countries it conquered, and The States printed up currency to use in occupied Japan. Some of it’s even still floating around! Australia figured out how to make polymer currency, meaning it has plastic windows in it to prevent forgery, and then figured out how to turn that into a profitable industry. Now Australia prints currency and sells it to 15 different countries, including Singapore, Mexico, I think India and maybe Canada.
I walked over to the Maritime Museum on Darling Harbor my last afternoon in Sydney. Restaurants ring the harbor and the museum had a fascinating exhibit on the similarities between America and Australia. Yay! It featured news coverage of The Great White Fleet, Roosevelt’s idea to send the US Navy off around the world on a peaceful display of diplomacy and power in 1907. It had no plans to stop in Australia, but the Australian Government was all excited and specifically requested a port call. The Fleet pulled into three Australian ports and was met by 600,000 people in Sydney. The entire city was decorated and parades and celebrations went on for days. Australians were so taken with the American Fleet that it inspired them to create the Australian Navy. The UK had granted the Australian Colonies independence as a Commonwealth in 1901, and a treaty between the UK and Japan left protection of the wee continent exclusively to the Japanese. This made the Australians a wee bit nervous, so after the Great White Fleet sailed by, they went about building their own. I paid for my admission by buying a bunch of postcards of 1908 posters welcoming the Great White Fleet and a mug for Chris that says, “Hands Across the Sea” with Australian and American flags and two hands shaking over the continent of Australia. He loved it! Sydney is so delightful!
If I were Rick Steves, I would list strolling through the Gardens (free, by the way) to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair on a list of top things to do if you only have one day in Sydney. Other activities would include walking across the Harbor Bridge (also free) and walking the cliff trails out around Bondi Beach (surprise…free!). Other interesting points would include the hop on hop off bus ($39 ASD and a good way to get a nice overview and figure out where things are, plus see some interesting neighborhoods) and the State Library’s upstairs museum, which featured Charles Darwin’s journal entries on Australia, and the Australian Maritime Museum (gasp! both free!!). Also really cool was the (free) Currency Museum, which is in a functioning bank! It showed all the money used in Australia. Did you know Australia switched from pounds to ‘decimal currency’ as recently as 1966?! They thought about calling each unit a ‘roo,’ ‘koala,’ ‘kang,’ ‘quid,’ etc., but ended up calling it a Royal. Then people protested, so the government renamed it Dollar, and everyone was happy. And I had never heard of Occupation Currency before, but apparently during WWII Japan printed up currency to use in the countries it conquered, and The States printed up currency to use in occupied Japan. Some of it’s even still floating around! Australia figured out how to make polymer currency, meaning it has plastic windows in it to prevent forgery, and then figured out how to turn that into a profitable industry. Now Australia prints currency and sells it to 15 different countries, including Singapore, Mexico, I think India and maybe Canada.I walked over to the Maritime Museum on Darling Harbor my last afternoon in Sydney. Restaurants ring the harbor and the museum had a fascinating exhibit on the similarities between America and Australia. Yay! It featured news coverage of The Great White Fleet, Roosevelt’s idea to send the US Navy off around the world on a peaceful display of diplomacy and power in 1907. It had no plans to stop in Australia, but the Australian Government was all excited and specifically requested a port call. The Fleet pulled into three Australian ports and was met by 600,000 people in Sydney. The entire city was decorated and parades and celebrations went on for days. Australians were so taken with the American Fleet that it inspired them to create the Australian Navy. The UK had granted the Australian Colonies independence as a Commonwealth in 1901, and a treaty between the UK and Japan left protection of the wee continent exclusively to the Japanese. This made the Australians a wee bit nervous, so after the Great White Fleet sailed by, they went about building their own. I paid for my admission by buying a bunch of postcards of 1908 posters welcoming the Great White Fleet and a mug for Chris that says, “Hands Across the Sea” with Australian and American flags and two hands shaking over the continent of Australia. He loved it! Sydney is so delightful!