Bridge Climb

My mom arrived yesterday and I picked her up from the train station after my tourism class ended at noon. We managed to get her luggage up to my townhouse without too much difficulty, but going grocery shopping was definity tiring. Her jet lag was really starting to show when we entered the windowless mall to shop. She was really surprised by the prices of things too, especially of multi-packs of soda. We found probably the only store in the mall though that sells Mountain Dew and bought a 2-liter, so hopefully that will last us until Perth.

We bought a bus ticket after putting the groceries away and having lunch then wandered around campus for a bit before returning for dinner. I finally let her go to sleep around 9. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too early or she’ll never break the cycle of jet lag.

This morning, we woke up around 8 to head into the city for the Bridge climb. It was a beautiful day, thankfully, and after walking around Circular Quay, we headed into the Rocks for our climb. There’s actually quite a bit of equipment that they make you take up onto the bridge with you. You have to wear a one-piece suit (clothing underneath optional) as well as clip-ons for any glasses, a hat, a headset, and the latch that hooks you to the tethers on the bridge.

Our group for the climb was rather small, with only two other people, so we were able to jump ahead of another group and spend a bit more time enjoying the scenery. It really is a pretty view. I was able to point out places I’ve been on the harbor to my mom and give her sort of a map of the city. Our guide was pretty informative too. I just can’t remember any of the cool things we learned off the top of my head.

Our Bridge Climb photo

We spent about two hours up on the actual bridge and got our picture taken. I actually really like the group shot, which is good because it’s the only free one that you get with your climb. After coming back down, we walked over to one of the pylons of the bridge because it has a museum and lookout point inside it. If you do the bridge climb, you get into the pylon for free, so we thought we would check it out. We were able to take some pictures of the harbor from the top since we couldn’t do that on the bridge.

Views from the pylon

Next we headed over to the opera house and wandered around the grounds. I hadn’t realized that each of the “fins” of the opera house is actually a separate building nor had I realized the “fins” are made of ceramic-like tiles. It was quite strange. We took some pictures of the layout before heading over to the botanical garden. My mom thought a lot of the trees over there were pretty strange, so we took pictures of those as well as some sunset shots of the harbor, the bridge, and the opera house.

The tiles of the opera house are pretty peculiar

They're actually separate buildings

We headed further inland to see St. Mary’s Cathedral and wandered inside. We couldn’t stay long because mass was about to start, but it’s huge. It’s really pretty too, but I’ve seen enough old churches over time to not really be awestruck anymore.

We tried to go to Jacksons on George for their happy hour, but it was pretty strange. We went into the bar to order but she told us the cocktail special was only upstairs. However, there was absolutely no one upstairs. It was confusing, so instead we left and went to Lowenbrau, which is a German biergarten in the Rocks. I had sparkling strawberry wine and my mom had a Lowenbrau original and we both had a pretzel. They gave them to us with butter, which I thought was actually a really good pairing.

Sparkling Strawberry Wine and Lowenbrau Original with our Pretzels

After our snack, we headed back to the bus stop and caught a ride home, completely exhausted. We didn’t walk nearly as far as I have before but the bridge climb was quite a bit of stairs, so I think that’s what made us so tired.