April 8, 2014. Sydney, Australia. A City Tour.

We had a great time, riding on the top of a double decker bus, touring the city of Sydney. Definitely, we were tourists. This city is interesting in that it is not old, yet it seems very old. The streets are narrow, which you often find in old cities but this city was only founded in the 19th Century. Whoever laid out the plans had no vision that once it would become a great city in need of wide boulevards. Heck. Even the founding fathers of Winnipeg, Manitoba had the good sense to keep the streets very wide. What happened to the Aussies? Most of the older buildings are from the 1920’s and are charming. The urban renewal folks in the 60’s were well on their way to tearing down all the old buildings, but wisdom prevailed and only half the early buildings were demolished. The rest of the downtown area is packed with very tall buildings full of glass. We enjoyed the tour, but did not stop at any of the attractions. What we did not enjoy was the bad air. Ken thought that because we were on a harbour, the breezes would keep the air clean but today there was no wind and we were riding on an open bus passing roads full of cars and trucks, surrounded by tall buildings. We were reminded to stay out of cities. Next time we will do better.