Sydney Harbour Bridge

Well jetlag got the best of me and I couldn't sleep on Monday night. Add to that tremendous heartburn caused by what was an incredible kebab at the time of eating... and I decided that it would be best to sleep in on Tuesday and take the afternoon to get some much needed fresh air.

In my two prior trips to Sydney I had wanted to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge but never made the time for it. I decided today that I would at least walk to the south side and get a close look. Inside the southeast pylon, there is a small museum and visitors are able to climb the stairs all the way to the top to enjoy a lookout over the harbour and city! I took photos of all the media and later found that it is thoroughly documented on their website at http://www.pylonlookout.com.au/ so there was not much need to take photos of all the plaques describing everything.



From the top of the pylon, the view is AMAZING. It was a fairly warm day and I was still adjusting from the late-autumn weather of Chicago, so by the time I reached the top my forehead was dripping with sweat. I imagined how the harbour must have looked when Arthur Phillip first arrived in 1788 and thought about how much has happened since then to build this city and the modern country of Australia. Construction of the bridge helped Australia through the Great Depression of the 1930s as it employed steel workers, engineers, and others to help see the dream realized.



After climbing back down from the top of the pylon, I still had a lot of energy so I walked all the way across the bridge to North Sydney. At Milson's Point on the other side of the bridge, I found a small restaurant that specialized in grilled fish. I ordered the grilled flathead with chips and a salad. The flathead was a lot like our catfish, and I could taste the river it came from. I ate what the flies couldn't (this was the beginning of the Great Australian Fly Torture) and then refilled my water bottle before resuming my walk.



I walked to the edge of the water on the north side of the harbour and got a close-up view of Luna Park. Then I found the Milson's Point train stop and bought a one-way ticket back to Town Hall. After getting back to my room I went up to the roof for a fantastic daytime view of Sydney and the harbour.