Circular Quay is really the hub of Sydney Harbour. It's situated at a small inlet called Sydney Cove, (which was) the founding site for Sydney and Australia. It is a stepping-off point for most attractions based around the harbour and an exciting place to be on a warm summer's day. The quay (pronounced key) is a vibrant, bustling place with ferries leaving every few minutes to different parts of the harbour, including Manly, Watson .y, Mosman and Taronga Park Zoo. This is also where we caught the ferry to several other places. There are great views of the Harbour Bridge, in every direction and all are just a short distance away. You can see that most of my shots here are either from or of this particular area of the Harbour. We also walked over the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge on foot over to North Sydney from this area. This also gave us some great shots of the Opera House from above.
On the southern side of Circular Quay is a walkway that leads to the Sydney Opera House and then around to the Royal Botanical Gardens; (from my last post). While on the Northern side, a short walk along a lovely landscaped walkway takes you to the Harbour Bridge and "The Rocks", one of the oldest, most attractive and most interesting parts of Sydney. This is also where Mrs. LZ and I enjoyed not only walking and shopping, but also a couple of really nice meals were eaten by us here in "The Rocks" area.
Circular Quay is also at the foot of the central business district and the older, historic end of the city. Buses depart here for Bondi Beach and the eastern suburbs. This was also the place that we walked to each morning to have breakfast almost all of our mornings while in Sydney at a place called City Extra. It was kind of neat, because their menus were much like a newspaper, which I am sure, was intentional. You’ll see a shot of Mrs. LZ having breakfast here. You’ll also be able to notice the Harbour Bridge in the background of the picture. We enjoyed our morning walks down here to the City Extra and because this place stays open 24 hours, it's convenient if you get the munchies at a ridiculous hour. It's also nicely placed, right next to the Manly ferry terminal. The plastic chairs and outdoor tables make it a pleasant spot to while away an inexpensive meal. A range of pastas were available on the menu, as well as salads, pies, steaks, ribs, fish, and Asian-influenced dishes. There's also a very good selection of desserts. The food is much nicer and a better value than next door at Rossini.
Of interest to a large number of Sydney visitors — particularly those who grew up on Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson and other well-known writers — are the metal plaques embedded in the Circular Quay walkway from near the Overseas Passenger Terminal down to the jetties and up to the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House.
This is the Sydney Writers Walk and the plaques contain interesting and pertinent passages from the works of Australian and international writers honored there. Actually the writers — with their metal plaques embedded along the walkway around Sydney's Circular Quay — are being honored, and their lives and works celebrated, on the Sydney Writers Walk. You will find these plaques from around the International Passenger Terminal on West Circular Quay, down to the walkway between the ferry jetties and the train station, and all the way to the side of the Sydney Opera House forecourt on East Circular Quay.
The writers represented on Writers Walk include not only Australians but also those who lived in, or visited, Australia, such as D H Lawrence, Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain. The plaques, themselves actually, provided interesting, informative reading in capsule form, especially… if you are not familiar with the writer.
There is a major railway station at the quay, which is part of the underground City Circle, which skirts around the CBD. Alongside the ferry terminals are a number of small outdoor cafes (I'll throw in a picture of one with this post) and the area is a magnet for buskers and hustlers of every description. Notice the two Aboriginese guys getting ready for their show here in the Harbour at Circular Quay?
The top picture on this post shows our hotel (Marriott) which was our home for the week we were staying in Sydney. It is directly to the right of the larger skyscraper as you look at that top picture post. While we spent a complete week in this area of Sydney, it seemed as though we never really ran out of interesting things to see and do here. I would recommend it to anyone traveling down-under.
“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
