Today’s morning outing was to Luna Park, an old-fashioned amusement park at Milsons Point, right at the base of the Harbor Bridge. Fashioned after the original Luna Park on New York’s Coney Island, Sydney’s Luna Park opened its doors in 1935 and has been a beloved attraction for locals ever since. It offers a wide variety of rides, from a roller coaster (looks tame, but according to Heather is anything but) to a Ferris wheel to bumper cars and a carousel. Since my stomach doesn’t take kindly to the kind of violent agitation inflicted by roller coasters and the like, I opted not to buy a pass and instead watched the others being subjected to various kinds of abuses by mechanical contraptions. Apparently nobody was worse for the wear, just the opposite. Judging from the grins and happy faces, I’d say a very good time was had by all.
Here is the entrance to Luna Park. I don’t know about you, but I find the giant mouth swallowing people a bit diabolical.
Heather and Elena riding a bumper car.
Sophie, Lucy and Elena on the carousel.
Elena, Laura and two Luna Park employees who seem to have escapes from the set of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
In the afternoon, Bill dropped the four Bocks plus Sophie off at Darling Harbor, a large pedestrian precinct just west of the Central Business District. Darling Harbor was originally part of the commercial port of Sydney and had become derelict by the 1980s. Sydney poured millions of dollars and huge amounts of design genius into the redevelopment of Darling Harbor, and as far as I’m concerned, their efforts were hugely successful. Darling Harbor is now home to a variety of shopping and entertainment centers, including the world’s largest IMAX screen (where, of course, Avatar was playing), the Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, the Powerhouse Museum, the National Maritime Museum as well as large outdoor spaces for playing and just hanging out. The waterfront setting is spectacular, with the high rises of the Central Business District providing a stunning backdrop. We only spent about four hours there, but I could have hung out all day, just walking around, watching people.
Granted, Sydney is a unique city with geographical features that virtually no other city in the world can offer, but even our lowly Sacramento could have something along the lines of Darling Harbor if they ever put their minds to it (for example in the old railroad yard adjacent to Old Sacramento).
Here are just a few photographic impressions of Darling Harbor, in no particular order.
When everybody was hot and tired, we decided to hop on the ferry across the harbor to Milsons Point (where Luna Park is located). The ferry didn’t just zoom across the harbor just instead bounced around to four other stops, which was a lot of fun. As I’ve said before, riding the ferries has been one of the highlights of our time in Sydney, and I was so glad that I had this final opportunity.
Here are some views of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House from the ferry (top) and from Milsons Point (bottom).
After dinner, we went over to friends of Bill’s and Katrina’s for dessert (merci mille fois for your warm welcome, Eleanor and Alain) and then Katrina took me around to Blues Point and Milsons Point for one final shot at photographing the skyline at night. Writing this, I feel bittersweet, knowing that we have only one full day left in Sydney. Over the last three weeks, Sydney has become home away from home, and I fallen head over heels in love with this city.
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