Off to the Big Smoke

It is now day 7 of our holiday and we have an easy day planned. The Ramses exhibition is in Sydney and we are heading into the city to see it. Our lodgings are close to the Emu Plains Railway Station so rather than fight traffic and then search for a park we are taking the train. From Emu plains the whole trip to Central Station takes around 1 hour and costs around $10 each way per person. It would cost more than that just for car parking if you could find one.

We left early so we could look at some other displays in the museum such as Dinosaurs and had our tickets booked for 1130  for the Ramses exhibition. The ride in was good and seemed to go very quickly. Ticketing is simple here and all you need to do is tap a credit card when you enter and exit and the fares are calculated according to time and distance. We had similar when we were in Europe and Adelaide is bringing this system in soon. 

The Sydney Museum is about a 1km walk from Central Station, and being the seasoned walker we are now we soon found our way to the museum despite Google's attempts to get us lost.... again. (Memories of Vienna spring to mind). There was quite a crowd already at the Museum and a few school excursions there waiting as well. The dinosaur exhibits were a bit difficult to find and the signs in the museum leave a lot to be desired. Even so, we found them and they was an impressive display of fossils, casts and displays. With 30 minutes til our scheduled tickets for Ramses we stopped at one of the coffee shops in  the museum for a rest and coffee break. 

The time had come and we can now enter the exhibition. On entry you are guided into a video introduction about Ramses. You then move into the static displays and they are nothing short of amazing. Ancient Egypt has always been a fascination of mine and this display refuelled that fascination. So much so we may consider a trip to Egypt  to see Luxor, Aswan and the valley of the kings. There was so much to see, explaining it here would not do it justice, so I will post a pic or two and move on.

Leaving the museum we head down Pitt St towards Centrepoint tower. We were thinking of going to the viewing platforms but we decided that paying $38 to ride in an elevator to see the same view you get from a plane  was not worth it.  Moving on, Ann wanted to go to an Opal shop and Museum further down Pitt St. The display at the Museum was pretty interesting and some of the cut and polished stones and jewellery were stunning. One of the shop assistants gravitated toward us and proceeded to show us some pendants and then mentioned the price tag of only $10,000. I am pretty sure similar opal jewellery at a shop we know in Adelaide would be a hell of a lot cheaper so we declined to purchase today. 

Somehow we stumbled on a food court and a Sushi bar.  After a light lunch we started making our way back to Central Station for the trip back to Emu Plains. Aside from a few noisy commuters the trip back was rather uneventful. We got back to our suite around 3 pm and rested up before heading out again to catch up with some friends. We finished the night at a reunion of sorts with all our friends from the Greater Sydney region. They all helped to organise and celebrate our weddding 10 years ago. It was great see them all again after so many years. The bond is still strong with every single one of them and we hope to catch up again sooner rather than later.