After the Sydney Opera House and its surroundings and the city center of Sydney, this third day of discovery of Sydney will take us for a nice walk around the harbor, between culture and leisure.
You will find at the bottom of the page the list of all the articles about this trip in Australia.
The museum of contemporary art
The museum of contemporary art of Sydney is the starting point of our stroll. Located at the southern tip of the port, it will allow you to have a clear view of the Opera House when you reach it.
As always when it comes to contemporary art, you can find everything and not necessarily things to your taste, or at least not things with which you feel an affinity.
In short, I walked through the place like a ghost, having a hard time catching on to anything.
A temporary exhibition presented the work of a collective of artists on nightlife around the world. I leave it to you to judge.
I went from floor to floor and room to room hoping at some point to come across something that would capture my interest…but no.
In the elevator that was taking me back to the exit I chatted with a couple of German tourists who told me “it’s pretty empty, we thought we would see more things and interesting things”. Shared opinion, I barely stayed an hour and yet I checked several times not to have forgotten a room.
Sea Life Sydney Aquarium
Getting to the Sea Life Aquarium will require a bit of a walk for once, but the ride is well worth it. So before leaving, it might be a good time to stroll around and photograph the opera house and this part of the port.
It’s a half-hour walk to the Sea Life Aquarium. A walk that will make you see again a part of the center seen the day before.
In fact it is part of a larger complex that includes Madame Tussaud’s Sydney and Wildlife Sydney (a zoo).
If there are aquariums that are suitable for all audiences I generally found this one to be more for families, or to put it bluntly for children. Fun, a little didactic but nothing more.
The aquariums are small or in any case do not show the animals well. It is also difficult to take sharp pictures. Cleanliness problem? I even felt sad for them.
I’m not going to compare with open air aquariums like what I saw in Florida but if you compare with the Dubai Aquarium or even with the one in the Atlantis The Palm hotel, still in Dubai, it’s night and day.
In short, nice but not more than that.
Madame Tussaud’s Sydney
Since I was there, I might as well go to Madame Tusseaud’s. (In fact when I arrived I had bought a discounted ticket for both attractions on my mobile).
Those who know the Tussaud’s in London or the Grévin in Paris won’t discover anything, it’s very well done and staged, but I must be too old because in some rooms I didn’t know 30% of the trendy singers who were presented.
I won’t go so far as to visit the zoo. In my opinion, as much as Tussaud’s belongs here, the other two don’t belong in a downtown complex: there is not enough room, the animals are poorly exposed and I am not convinced that their living conditions are optimal.
In short, to be recommended for rainy days.
Darling Harbour
So what’s the point of coming here and talking about it, you might ask? Because coming here brings you to the southern tip of Darling Harbour. It is a port close to the city center which is in fact a large pedestrian leisure area.
It is pleasant to walk around at all hours of the day and evening and the place is full of activities : pedal boat, mini golf, maritime museum, bars, restaurants, night clubs, open-air cinema and fireworks in summer (I passed by at the beginning of spring and the climate was more than variable), Ferris wheel, boat rides, shopping center, hotels….
So there is something for all tastes and ages and I will gladly return at another time of the year, or even at another time of day. Maybe it is too crowded and unbearable in summer? I don’t know.
In passing I saw a W hotel and wondered why it had escaped my attention while preparing for my trip…the answer is that it would not open until a month later. All the more reason to come back.
I wondered for a long time if I was going to come back to Darling Harbour later to see the nightlife but as you know I was handicapped in one leg at that time and couldn’t do too much. Nice walks during the day meant giving up a lot of things in the evening.
Articles about this trip to Australia
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