Surfers sharks and meat pies
The weather report on Friday had told us that the weekend weather for Sydney was going to be grim, in fact they had already declared the weekend a washout. Saturday in the Blue Mountains managed to far exceed our expectations with blue skies all around but Sunday morning was a far more dour affair with grey skies. On the plus side it was due to stop raining between 10am and 4pm so armed with this fact we made our way to circular Quay and the fast ferry over to Manly beach.
The ferry crossing was choppy but it was good to see the size and scope of Sydney harbour, including Watson Bay named after my clan (mum was a Watson). After about 20 mins we pulled into Manly quay and made our way along the main pedestrian beach towards the beach and promenade. It remained very overcast but that didn’t seem to bother either the surfer’s or the volleyball players, in fact the coastline was a hive of activity.
We found a lovely cafe on the front called WOLFies for some seriously strong coffee and a very good eggs Benedict. Deb’s fell in love with the owners dog and you could tell this was a place frequented by locals.
We stopped to watch the surfers for a while critiquing their style before heading back to catch the return ferry. We caught the slow ferry back though in truth we couldn’t tell the difference time wise. We hopped onto another ferry in circular Quay and headed back to Darling Harbour and the Sydney Aquarium (now renamed sea life centre much to the annoyance of the locals).
We had a great time here tempered only by the impatience and rudeness of other guests. I really don’t understand why people feel the need to rush around, you paid good money, slow down taking it in.
The Manics recently released a single called people ruin paintings, I may suggest a follow up people ruin exhibitions too.
I won’t say too much about the aquarium the pictures speak for themselves but it was almost 5pm by the time we left and the rain had started to set in.
The national dish of Australia seems to be the meat pie. It’s funny whenever Neil Elliott came over from Oz one of his favourite haunts was Pieminster in Trentham gardens, he was on first name terms with the staff there and I am sure they must have experienced a dip in profits when he left. I now realise that rather than being a guy that just liked pies this was a taste of home for Neil. Also and I am reluctant to admit this but Aussie pies are far superior to the British ones, it seems they are the true guardians of the meat pie.
The reason I tell you this is that we sampled a couple of really nice ones from a bakery on Darling harbour. (Scoffed down on the ferry back to circular quay, class act me and Deb).
