Bondi Beach is up there with the Copacabana as one of the world’s most famous beaches.  I’m not a  great fan of lying on a beach, soaking up the sun, but it was inevitable that I would visit Bondi during my time in Sydney.  It’s one of the things that has to be done.  To get there, I took the train from the city centre to Bondi Junction and then a bus to Bondi Beach.  A quick look at the queue for the bus revealed what Bondi is most famous for:

Bondi Junction was a bit of a concrete sprall, with the train and bus staions sitting next to a couple of substantial shopping centres.  The area around the beach itself had some more character but certainly didn’t, for me at least, have the charm of Darlinghurst.  I needed to find breakfast, and TIme Out suggested a place called Il Piadino.  This served (very good) coffee and flatbreads (or folded pizzas) with interesting toppings/fillings.  The one I chose was topped with smashed avocado (it really is ubiquitous here), dried oregano, crumbled feta and roasted cherry tomatoes:

It was wonderfully savoury, though the intensity of the oregano and the saltiness of the feta was just a little too marked for my tastes.

I strolled down the the beach and up to the North end of it, took my shoes and socks off and walked the length of the beach, paddling in the surf.  I’m not a surfer but even I could see that Bondi has quite astonishing surf.  Busy though it was, it is a beautiful beach, steeply shelved in places but tucked in a lovely bay with rocky outcrops projecting on either side.

Peter and Jenny, the Melbourne couple I had met at Manly, had recommended the Sculpture by the Sea walk from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach, the next beach south of Bondi, so, at the south end of the beach I headed for this.  Sculpture by the Sea is and annual event in Sydney and 2016 is the 20th iteration.  Sculptures are installed along the footpath between the two beaches, the catalogue listing 104 pieces.  Signs on the bus had suggested that there would be congestion as a result of this exhibition and I was astonished by how many people were walking the path, enjoying the art.  I’m no connoisseur of art but some of the works were intriguing, some puzzling, some entertaining and some challenging.  Some, of course, simply made me wonder how they could be called art.

“Travelling Bag” by Yumin Jing, with Bondi Beach in the background

The coastal path not only featured these sculptures but also provided simply stunning views of the Sydney coastline.  It was so beautiful that, when I got to Tamarama Beach I decided to carry on along the path.

A typical view from the coastal path, with North Bondi on the far right

One notable sight you pass is the Waverley cemetery, a very large cemetery, located right on the cliffs’ edge.  Looking at a few of the headstones and monuments revealed this as the resting place of governors and archbishops, amongst other but most notably, for me, the Australian cricketer Victor Trumper also rests here.

A view across Waverley Cemetery

I thought quite seriously about continuing as far as La Perouse, the headland at the south tip of this length of coast where New South Wales Golf Club (where I’m playing tomorrow) is located.  NSW is famous for being located on a spectacular piece of land and this walk was certainly whetting my appetite for the game there tomorrow. I walked on for a couple of hours but decided that La Perouse, at least two more hours further on, was too far.  I reached Coogee Beach and had a late lunch at the Coogee Pavilion.  This three story building was striking and it’s light and airy interior made for a really cool place for lunch.  It was very busy and, I suspect would be a great place to have an evening drink in the summer.

Prawn and Scallop Ceviche

 

As Scott drove me back to the house yesterday evening, the question of Australians’ pride in Sydney came up.  His theory was that Australians aren’t confident of Sydney’s place amongst the world’s great cities.  Australians’ will, he noted, ask visitors what they make of Sydney.  They’ll invite us to compare it to other great world cities.  I have already noted how often they try to compare it to New York, a comparison I just don’t think works.  New Yorkers don’t need affirmation of New York’s place in the list of great cities.  Londoners may knock their home in a very English self deprecatory way but they inherently understand that London is a great city, as do Parisians and Romans of their homes.  In the US, many believe their home cities to be great, even when, however fine they are, they don’t make the list.  I’m sorry, citizens of Cincinnatti, nice town, not great.

But the people of Sydney don’t have that confidence in their home.  As I walked into the city this morning I passed the ANZAC Memorial, which is being worked on, with banners proclaiming that the NSW government was “Building  a City you can be Proud of”.  That sign struck a chord, after the conversation the evening before.  The work being done may improve Sydney, just a little.  But the city’s inhabitants should know that they already have a city they should be proud of.  It may not be London, New York or Paris but that does not mean that it does not belong in that list of great cities.  On the basis of what I have seen so far, it very much does.

My walk to the city centre bar where I was to watch the Spurs game took me through Sydney’s Hyde Park, at the bottom end of which is the ANZAC Memorial, currently being restored.  Beyond the Memorial, I came upon this sculpture.  I rarely get civic art but this one struck me immediately.  Moreover, the message the sculptor was giving was immediately apparent to me, the spent, prone shell casings representing fallen soldiers.  This work was installed to honour aboriginal soldiers who fell in the world wars, and very good it is too.

Although I’m obviously a keen golfer, the fact is that I’m a bit of a sports nut.  I still play (with my boys) cricket and hockey and follow professional cricket, football and rugby union.  When it comes to football, my team is, and has been since I was a boy, Tottenham Hotspur.  My eldest son was born in Watford and is a huge Watford fan and we have spent many happy days going to watch the Hornets (normally with a significant journey thrown in) but Spurs remain my first footballing love.  I was, therefore, pleased to find a bar in Sydney which remains open 24 hours and shows multiple sporting events, including, crucially, Premier League and Champions League football.  In particular, they would, this morning, be showing the Spurs vs Bayer Leverkusen tie, albeit at 6.45am Sydney time.

I set my alarm for 6.15 and, when I woke, showered quickly and set off for what would be a 15 minute walk.  I hoped to get a coffee and maybe breakfast at the bar.  As it happened, and rather oddly, whilst they were open and people were watching the game, no drinks or food were being served.  As it happened that didn’t matter because, as I left the house and headed down Stanley Street, I realised that virtually all the local coffee shops and restaurants were open and serving coffee.  At 6.30am.  Not only that, but they were all doing decent business, too.  Sadly, the coffee shop I chose to get a latte from served me the first less than excellent coffee I have had in Sydney but at least I had a warm drink.

There were only three of us in the bar.  A Pole, with little English who paced the floor and acted out every minute of the Legia Warsaw vs Real Madrid game (given the drama of that game, with Madrid taking an early 2 goal lead, Warsaw coming back to lead 3-2 late in the game before an even later Madrid equaliser, I was, frankly, worried for his health), me, and a Leicester City fan who had also set his alarm early, only to discover that the Leicester game was not available.  Spurs haven’t been good at Wembley in the ECL and despite dominating possession were very much second best in this game.  Leverkusen took the lead after 72 minutes and an Eric Dier free kick which shook the crossbar was as close as Spurs got to an equaliser.  2 played at Wembley, 2 1-0 reverses suffered.  Not a great start to the day.

Now, do I go back at 11pm on Sunday for the North London derby?