Here we go, this time walking around Darling Harbour at the edge of the Sydney CBD. That is a giant walk-through Christmas bauble in the foreground.
The photograph below is looking in the other direction. This was a bit of a shock to me.
We used to own an apartment on the 30th floor of The Peak, the pinkish building in the centre of this shot (behind one still being constructed). It stood alone in that part of Sydney and had fabulous views over Darling Harbour. In our time the smoke stack for the cross city tunnel took away a little of that view but in 2016 the old low-set Entertainment Centre was demolished and very tall towers have replaced it. I suspect our old apartment no longer has lovely harbour views. I checked the real estate pages to see how they described apartments there today and it is now boasting an "enviable New York style backdrop". I guess that is the price of progress, there is certainly a lot more life down that end of Darling Harbour, lots of food outlets rather than windswept empty space.
Change is always happening, but not always beneficial to a neighbourhood.
ReplyDeleteThe bauble is eye catching!
A couple of decades ago the centre of Sydney was such a dead place after hours. Now it has the vibe of a big city.
DeleteI recently took the light rail and hardly recognised anything in that area at all. Must explore a bit more.
ReplyDeleteI usually catch the train to Sydney and have missed all of the action too. The amount of high rise over recent years is extraordinary. I was equally surprised on a visit out on the North Shore. We didn’t have time to linger on our walk through Darling Harbour but I reckon it will be worth a revisit.
DeleteI haven't been to Sydney for many years. It never was my favourite place I must admit. A visit to Brisbane is enough for me :-) That Christmas bauble is huge.
ReplyDeleteI think it is hard to beat Sydney Harbour as a setting for a city. On a bright day it is pure magic. That said I have always had a love-hate thing with Sydney, the size of it overwhelms me and these days the traffic bugs me too. Even in the mountains there is traffic. I love getting to Kandos where the only sounds are birds, lawn mowers and a occasional dog bark and at the moment cicadas.
DeleteThat is the biggest Christmas ornament I think I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteSan Francisco grew up like Sydney over the years I lived near and in it. Several of the prominent buildings I knew as a child had disappeared behind others through my adulthood. And there are more there now that I've never seen.
It is a long time since I visited San Francisco but I guess the tourist spots remain, as they do in Sydney. With population growth I assume every city experiences growing pains of one sort or another. I think I would be complaining if they were emptying out like country towns.
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