Wednesday morning was our time to check out of our stateroom of the Queen Elizabeth and check in to our Holiday Inn hotel room for two days before checking in to our stateroom on the Diamond Princess. We have started to explore Sydney again.
We are beginning to figure out the subway system. Our hotel is four stops and one train change away. Our train change happens at the City Hall station which appears to be one of the busiest. Five of Sydney’s eight subway lines converge here, looping around the central business district. At City Hall it looks like there are six levels of platforms below ground. That said, upon arriving on one train you may be able to see the platform for your next train but need to go up to the top on one escalator then back down on another just to cross the tracks, so to say. The scenery on the subway is not so great.
Conversely, there are eight ferry lines radiating from Circular Quay that offer rather scenic commuting throughout the harbour and along the Parramatta River. We have not yet tried the bus lines although there appear to be too many to mention. Perhaps we will get to them on our return from Tasmania. All of these services are ticketed through their OPAL system. One very interesting element of this system is that is supports variable time of day rates, daily and weekly maximums. There are other transportation services in the area that allow charging through the OPAL system but are outside the Sydney system maxima.
During our intermezzo in Sydney we renewed acquaintance with The Rocks, Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, The Queen Victoria building and the mole city surrounding it. While looking for a place to have lunch we saw a sign for a food court. Upon entering we ascended a five level escalator where there was indeed a food court. In fact a whole shopping centre. Even more interesting, as we descended to level three we were again at street level, then again at level two, and one. Sydney is somewhat hilly and it seems that one might avoid climbing hills on the sidewalks by using the escalators inside buildings. I wonder how long it will take to figure this out?
Here are a couple of photos of The Rocks, Manly and the Queen Elizabeth building.
The stained glass and diorama clocks are among its unique features.
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