Visiting Australia: Sydney
On our last trip to Australia, after staying in Melbourne we took a short flight to Sydney and stayed there for a week, catching up with family members. We had already visited Sydney a couple of times when we were living in Australia a few years ago so we had done a lot of the touristy things already.
Just like the post about Melbourne, all the photos are taken with my iPhone and I will share things from previews times I visited and from my most recent trip.
Walks & Visits
- Sydney Opera House: you cannot go to Sydney and miss this famous landmark. I really recommend doing the guided visit inside, it is so incredible. During the visit, you get a history of how it was built of course but you also get to go close up to some impressive details. Plus, did you know the building is not white? The outside tiles are light grey and cream.
- Royal Botanic Gardens: this is right beside the Sydney Opera House so it is ideal for a walk before or after a visit there, and maybe a picnic as well. My favourite parts are the Oriental Garden and the Australian Native Rockery. You can also spot a lot of wildlife (and many grey-headed flying foxes, a very big type of fruit bat).
- Sydney Harbour Bridge: you can walk across it and get a great view of the harbour from the middle of the bridge. You could also book a bridge climb if you are brave enough (I wasn't...).
- Australian Centre for Photography: the centre hosts some very interesting photography exhibitions. We were lucky to catch the Salt collection by Murray Fredericks a few years ago, his photos are really stunning!
- Art Gallery of New South Wales: a great museum if you are interested in art, there is a great collection ranging from Aboriginal to Pacific art. And you might also be there during a temporary exhibition if you are lucky (a few years ago, we got to catch the Terracotta Warriors one there and it was really impressive).
- Museum of Contemporary Art: compared to the Art Gallery of NSW, this is more for those interested in modern art. While there last February, we got to visit the Tatsuo Miyajima "Connect with Everything" exhibition which was very interesting.
- The Rocks: located near Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay, this is a really nice area to walk through with plenty of nice cafes, restaurants and pubs.
- Coogee to Bondi walk: for seaside lovers, this is perfect (just don't forget the sunscreen!). We happened to do this walk a few years ago during Sculpture by the Sea which I highly recommend visiting if you can (the 2017 one will be from 19th October to 5th November).
Food & Drinks
- La Renaissance Patisserie: yes, I am French and I visit French places abroad... We visited it a few years ago and at the time, I had not been able to visit France in more than two years so it was very welcome. It was also really lovely and delicious. You can order lunch and pastries and eat them in the courtyard located at the back of the bakery. The location in The Rocks is very pretty.
- Shiki: this Japanese restaurant, also located in The Rocks, serves really good quality food. Our favourite was the wagyu beef cooked on a slab of pink Himalayan salt. So intriguing and also very flavoursome.
- The Glenmore Hotel: also located in The Rocks, the roof top is a great place for a drink, food and an amazing 180° view of Sydney Harbour. In our case, the view was blocked was quite an enormous cruise ship but we were mostly there to catch up with a friend we had not seen in years so it did not matter much.
- The Penny Royal: we found this small coffee shop absolutely by chance as we were visiting the Mud Australia shop in the Mosman suburb of Sydney. This is officially where I started to drink coffee (I was only a green tea/infusions drinker until then) because I could honestly not resist how wonderful it smelled and tasted. We also shared toasts and the most incredible slice of banana bread (I am making myself hungry thinking about it).
- Longrain: if you feel like sitting down with friends and share a feast of delicious South East Asian modern dishes, this is the place. The ingredients are really fresh and flavoursome. Do not miss the filled eggnet with pork, prawn, peanuts and cucumber relish. It is both absolutely delicious and visually pleasing (like a lot of the dishes actually).
- Din Tai Fung: we stopped at Westfield Sydney food court to try the famous Din Tai Fung dumplings and it did not disappoint. You get a piece of paper where you tick a selection of dumplings and wait at your table for them to be ready. We shared a few between us as well as a weird dessert (well, to me it was...) of pieces of fresh coconut in coconut water jelly. It was actually quite nice and refreshing before stepping back out in the Summer heat.
- The Elbow Room Espresso: I took E. there for his birthday brunch. It is located in the Chatswood suburb of Sydney. We were staying with family in the area so we walked there in the sunshine. I had the pink avocado toast which had roasted beet hummus, mashed avocado, feta and za'atar on dark rye toasted bread and E. went for the wild mushrooms, herbed ricotta and poached egg on sourdough toast. It was really fresh, delicious and accompanied by very welcome iced lattes.
