Sydney Harbour Cruise, 2 Shopping “Malls”

After I finished lunch at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I killed some time until an event I’d booked for this afternoon: An hour-and-a-half Sydney Harbour Cruise. The cruise left from a wharf in Circular Quay, very close to the museum. So I relaxed for a while, or as close to relaxing as someone such as I can get.

After the cruise, I visited two shopping “malls.” “Malls” is in quotes because neither is like what the word “mall” conjures up. The first is, in name and form, more like the arcades I’ve visited elsewhere in Australia, The Strand Arcade. The second isn’t called an arcade at all, it’s called the Queen Victoria building, but its interior is like a larger, grander version of those arcades.

But first, the cruise.

Sydney Harbour Cruise

I booked the Sydney Harbour Cruise through an online booking platform, Viator. The cruise offered two options, the standard cruise or a premium version. The premium version was on the same boat and was the same cruise, but it guaranteed a window seat and included a free glass of wine or beer and a small charcuterie tray.

I chose the standard option. Three times. Twice when I used Apple Pay, and once when I directly used the credit card attached to Apple Pay. The platform told me my transaction failed all three times. Between each attempt, I checked my credit card online to ensure that there were no pending payments for the cruise.

I’ve used that credit card throughout this trip without a problem.

I opened an online chat with the Viator support desk. They told me that the transaction failure was probably a result of my card being refused. He asked if I had another card they could use to book it through the chat. I said that I did, but there was no way I was going to provide my credit card over a chat.

I went back to the booking platform again, intending to try my other credit card. This time, the standard option for the cruise didn’t show up at all, only the premium option. I tried booking that with the same card I used in the first three attempts. It went through this time. Hence, I got a cruise with a glass of wine and a charcuterie tray. So, if you read this morning’s post and were wondering, now you know why I only had a salad and didn’t have wine at lunch today. Even if you weren’t wondering, now you know.

I entered the ship and was escorted to a table I had to myself by a big window in the air-conditioned interior of the vessel. I chose a glass of sparkling wine for my free beverage, which they brought with my nice charcuterie tray—cured meats, dried fruits, nuts, and olives. Very enjoyable.

The cruise didn’t have a commentary. Instead, they started by playing canned, placid, explicitly Christmas music. (In case you’re not reading this contemporaneously with me writing it, I should let you know that it’s a little more than a week before Christmas as I write this.)

I’m sorry. There’s a rule. Even if it’s only a week before Christmas, you can’t play Christmas music if it’s sunny, sweltering, and there’s not a scintilla of snow to be found, or even possible. I don’t care if it’s the southern hemisphere. Those are the rules and I expect them to be followed.

To be honest, it might just be because I’m not of the Christmas persuasion, but I’d be perfectly happy if nobody played any Christmas music anywhere, anytime. Bah. Humbug.

(Aside: After the cruise, as I walked to my other destinations, I heard some “Christmas-time” music assaulting my ears in accompaniment to the displays in some of the bigger shops. Among the songs I heard were “Jingle Bells” and “Winter Wonderland.”

What the hell is that about? Songs with lyrics like “dashing through the snow” and “we can build a snowman” on a day when my biggest worry is sweating to death? There shouldn’t just be a rule against playing that sort of music under those conditions. It should be a capital crime.

And the songs are not even specifically about Christmas. They’re just about the season when Christmas occurs in the northern hemisphere. Seriously, people. Look at a weather report before you start playing that music.)

After a brief period of canned music, two musicians started playing and singing. At first, one played a violin and the other a guitar. But the violinist then switched to a guitar too. They played only a couple of Christmas songs. The rest of their repertoire included a Beatles tune (I forget which one), Blue Moon, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, a couple more that are just on the tips of my typing fingers, but I can’t quite remember, and a few others that I have no real hope of remembering. The musicians were quite enjoyable.

So, there I was, sipping my bubbly, noshing on my charcuterie, and looking out at absolutely amazing views of Sydney from its harbour.

Throughout the cruise, a question plagued me. Is there any way someone as neurotic and naturally grumpy as I am can live a better moment than this one?

I’ve said it before in my posts from Sydney, and I’ll likely say it again tomorrow, but this is an amazing metropolis. The views of the city from the Sydney Harbour are incredible.

The Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge are both iconic and there are incredible views of them from the Sydney Harbour. The skyscrapers of downtown and elsewhere in the city burst boldly from the ground. Some parks inject tranquillity into the otherwise hectic scene.

About the Sydney Opera House, I’ve seen an uncountable number of pictures of, and now seen live, the view of one of its sides. But I can’t recall ever seeing a picture of its tooshie. The cruise gave me views from both sides, but it also gave me the tooshie view. It’s nowhere near as exciting as the profiles, but it’s still a beautiful building. If I could fit it into my suitcase I’d definitely move it to Toronto.

One thing I learned from my sipping perch on the boat is that Sydney is much bigger than I thought.

There is a large cluster of high rises in central Sydney, but there are other smaller clusters elsewhere. Most, or maybe all, of the towers in the downtown cluster are offices and a few hotels, but I don’t know about the other clusters.

For much of the way that we travelled upstream in Sydney Harbour, there were a lot of mid-rise residential buildings built close to and back from the shore.

This evidence of mass humanity led me to Google the population of Sydney. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the 2021 census counted 5,231,147 people in Greater Sydney, i.e., including the adjacent municipalities. It’s not the largest city in the world by a long stretch, but it’s still a really big deal.

Again according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as of the 2021 census, the population of all of Australia was 25,422,788. So, as of that year, the Greater Sydney area made up a little more than 20 percent of the population of the whole country. I read or heard somewhere that Sydney is currently booming more than the rest of the country. If that’s true, that percentage might already be a little higher and may continue to go still higher.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Despite, or maybe because of, all of those people, I’m loving this city. Viewing its beauty from the Sydney Harbour enhanced that feeling.

(Note: I shot the pictures from the cruise through the boat’s slightly tinted windows. We didn’t get any water-sprayed up on the windows during this cruise, but they must have during previous outings because there were a lot of dried-up water spots on the windows. If I put my phone’s lens right up to the window, those spots aren’t readily visible. If I didn’t, they are. And sometimes they’re quite pronounced. I didn’t post any of the worst of them, but you might see some spots on the images here.)

Strand Arcade

When I embarked on this journey to Australia, I didn’t plan to have any themes other than Australia itself. Nevertheless, botanical gardens percolated as a primary theme. I’ve lost track of how many of them I’ve visited, or tried to visit, here.

But quaint old shopping arcades inadvertently became a secondary theme. I also lost track of how many of those I’ve visited here. If I knew I was going to check out as many of them as I have, I would have created a “shopping arcade” tag. (UPDATE: I came back later and created one.)

Like the other arcades I visited on this trip, the Strand Arcade in Sydney oozes charm. As with most of the others, there are shops on multiple levels with the above-ground levels having their shops off balconies beside the atrium that extends from the ground level to the roof. The Strand Arcade has three levels of shops at or above ground level.

The street level of the Strand Arcade is overweighted with jewelry stores. The first level above has more clothing. I didn’t go to the top level, but I looked up through the atrium and it appeared to offer primarily services.

An upside-down-V-shaped* skylight runs down the centre of the entire length of the arcade. All levels at the ground and above get light through the skylight.

(*As I typed that, I was absolutely, 100% convinced there’s a term for an upside-down-V-shaped roof, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of what it is. Arched and vaulted aren’t right because they’re curved. Maybe a reader can embarrass me by providing the word in the comments.)

An electronics store is in the basement and it runs the full length of the arcade. It sells video games, smartphones, computers, and other gadgets, but it also sells vinyl records and, on the video side, DVDs. I didn’t look very hard, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it also had CDs and VHS tapes.

Queen Victoria Building

I intentionally passed by the Queen Victoria Building the other day because a guidebook told me it’s a beautiful building. It is indeed very handsome.

I didn’t go in then because the guidebook also told me that the building had been converted into a shopping mall. I hate shopping and I don’t like most shopping malls.

But I inadvertently passed by the Queen Victory Building again today and it was still early to head back to the hotel, so I decided to pop my head in. I did a little more than pop my head in. I spent time wandering around inside. It’s gorgeous.

In some ways, it’s like the other arcades I’ve visited here, but bigger and grander. There are shops on the ground level and two more levels of shops above that. Like the other arcades, the shops in the upper levels are beside balconies beside the floor-to-ceiling atrium that runs the length of the building.

And this time I think I can indeed call the skylight that runs the length of the building “vaulted” or “arched.”

As is the case with the atriums in the other arcades, bridges cross the atrium so shoppers don’t have to walk to the end of the building to cross over to the shops on the other side of the upper levels. The bridge in the middle is wider and has some stuff happening on it, so you can’t stand anywhere on the upper levels and get a view of the whole length of the building.

There’s an intermediate bridge on either side of this centre one. These are narrower, but wide enough that they accommodate some restaurant tables.

On either side of that central bridge, huge, beautifully decorated clocks hang from the ceiling.

I don’t like shopping malls, but this one is spectacular.

Penultimate Day

This trip is rapidly drawing to a close. Tomorrow is my last full day here. I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do then. The weather is supposed to be relatively pleasant temperature-wise and there’s only a small chance of rain, so I might take a look at some of the parks I haven’t yet seen.

Sydney has a zoo that’s supposed to be quite good, with a wider variety of species than at most zoos. But here in the southern hemisphere, it’s summer now and I think schools are out. Tomorrow is Sunday. Going to a zoo on a Sunday during summer school break is probably not a wise choice, so I likely won’t. We’ll see what happens.