Sydney. What else to say? Sydney.

We see pictures and videos of places on TV all of our lives. Sorry, I date myself: We see images on Instagram, Facebook, and X—who still watches TV? We've all seen the ball descend on Times Square on New Year's Eve when we still have to wait for another hour because they are an hour ahead of those of us on CST. But, in Sydney, they are 17 hours ahead of us, and that boggles at least my mind.

And that's where I am: 17 hours ahead of Lubbock, well into tomorrow. Wrap your head around that one.

When I arrived a day after leaving Lubbock on a Monday it was already Wednesday in Sydney. Talk about a mind-bend. So what's the best way to combat this? Go to your arrival hotel (three free point-nights at the Marriott-owned Airport Moxy), assemble your bike, and go for a shake-down cruise. Yes, a few hours after arrival.

With a $10 shuttle from the airport and the freebie nights, the Moxy was the perfect choice. When I arrived in this OMG-I-want-to-be-so-hip hotel (and it manages to be, mostly) I nicely asked whether it'd be possible to store for three weeks my bike case and the rolling duffle that I use to pack all my crap into. No problem, Mr. Heise, we got your back. I breathed much more easily.

For the next three days, with the Moxy as my homebase in the Mascot neighborhood of greater Sydney, I explored a few parts of this sprawling city, the way you can only do when you have your own bike. 

I need to interject here that my long-time former partner Sabine used to live in Sydney for a couple of years and learned to completely love the city. Thankfully, we had been in touch before this trip and she gave me some hints based on her experiences 35 or almost 40 years ago. I rode almost 100 miles in Sydney during my stay, and if it hadn't been for some of Sabine's suggestions I would have missed out on so much more than I undoubtedly did. 

Sydney is the most water-centric city I have ever been to. Even Seattle (another place where Sabine lived for about a year as a Fulbright student) doesn't appear to come close to the number of private navigable vessels that are just steps away from the solid ground of Sydney. There are so many marinas, so much coastline, so many ways to get yourself onto something that floats!

Sydney is a city made for boats and ships. Look at a map, and you won't believe how the city commingles with the ocean. Estuaries, bays, inlets, channels—water and land are intermeshing in a symbiosis that I have never witnessed before. Now I can start beginning to understand why Sabine (and several other friends) love this city so much.

My rides, mostly pre-determined by way of my Locus app, took me onto three different routes that showed me different neighborhoods and facets of the city. Sydney has a decent infrastructure for bikes, although it is far from perfect. Bike lanes can be smooth as butter and have functioning traffic signals, or they can be pot-holed, are trash-strewn, and will suddenly end. Well, you know the story, and Sydney is just as inadequate as so many other international cities as far as predictably well-thought-out and (especially) executed bike facilities are concerned.

Sydney has a lot of traffic. Sometimes it seemed to me that on the bike I was faster than the car traffic. Of course, dealing with the left-is-our-right-side of driving (and riding) didn't make things any easier. But I did get the hang fairly quickly, both as a pedestrian and a cyclist. Just don't let your guard down.

Sydney is interesting in that it consists of so many small neighborhoods, (or maybe boroughs?) that have their own postal code and identity. Think of Dallas: There are Richardson, Plano, or Irvine. Same thing here. Each one of these 'hoods has a small "downtown" area, with one or two main streets that are lined with restaurants, shops, and the ubiquitous corner hotel. It took me a while to figure out that the "hotel" really is the local drinking hole. In the early days, to get a liquor license it was necessary to also offer accommodations, and thus the hotel concept was born. The corner hotel, with its large awning spanning the entire part of the intersection that the hotel occupies, appears to still be a local focal point where people go to eat, gamble, and of course drink.

Building the Sydney opera was funded entirely through gambling proceeds, so the hotel system seems not all that onerous. Meals are affordably priced (what is it with the schnitzel offering in almost each one of them? Schnitzel night for AUD $21 [or about $14], including a beer [and please don't get me started on the difference between a schooner and a pint or something else, as they all refer to particular sizes]). If you want to get an idea of a hotel's interior, think back of Las Vegas about 40 years ago, when they still had cheap meals to draw you to the tables. The ambience is quite similar.

The Opera House is of course Sydney's iconic symbol, and it is truly a magnificent building. Thanks to the bike I saw it from numerous different vantage points. It occupies a spot that by the aboriginal people was used for ceremonies, and the setting allows it to be seen from essentially all directions, from water and from land. I paid for a guided tour of the interior; our guide told us the interesting story behind the initial planning and actual construction and final completion of the opera. The Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who won the design competition, got pretty much screwed by the powers that be and was then replaced by an Australian team of architects led by Peter Hall who finished this amazing performance center. (It really consists of three different halls.) Exactly 50 years ago, the Sydney Opera House was completed, and I have to say that I am really, really glad to have seen it.

Instead of taking a boat cruise of the harbor I simply planned a ride that involved using the extensive ferry system to extend my range. On that day I lucked out with plenty of sunshine, making for spectacular views. Sydney has so many posh homes along the shorelines. As is my habit, I looked at some real estate listings at the brokers, and the cost of homes is just as stunning as their location. Well, all the power to you if you can afford to make this your home.

I am sure it would be a lot of fun to live here for a few months as there seem to be cultural opportunities galore, and food options abound as well with all types of restaurants available. I wouldn't want to deal with the traffic; just as Sabine told me, when she lived here they got around by boat most of the time and avoided street traffic at all costs.

Three days of Sydney was all I had, and I am glad that I got to see a little bit of this fascinating city. Before I knew it, it was time to repack my stuff into my "camper" duffle, put the rolling duffle and the bike case in storage with the Moxy, ride my bike straight across town to pick up my campervan, drive back to the Moxy, and pick up my stuff to finally head out of the city and start my 19 days of driving through New South Wales and Victoria.

Stay tuned for the sequel!

Jürgen