#syd22

After our day out at the HARS Aviation Museum, we stopped by Sydney Airport on the way home for some planespotting! We stood at the end of the Mascot Rock Jetty, accessible from Cook Park in Kyeemagh.

And finally a view from the opposite direction, of sunset on the beach:

On the way to the airport we stopped at Sydney Park for lunch, a walk, and some planespotting.

This is yet another place I hadn't been before, so it was cool to check it out.

Where I stay in Sydney is only a short walk from the Sydney Bus Museum, but due to its unusual hours (only open the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month) I had never visited. This time I was there on one of the open days so had to make the effort to go!

You can enter most of the buses inside, including double deckers which give you a great view over the depot hall and the sheer number of buses here!

There is a range of Sydney, Australian and even some international buses like this Hong Kong one!

The museum also puts on double decker bus rides as part of your entry ticket. These run into the city centre - however on ours we ended up heading over the Harbour Bridge as the driver missed his exit. I don't think anyone on board would've complained though - it's pretty special getting to cross the Harbour Bridge on an ancient London double decker bus!

85km south of Sydney is Woollongong, an industrial port city. The drive down is very scenic through the Royal National Park.

Our main destination was the HARS Aviation Museum at Shellharbour Airport, but first we stopped by North Woollongong for lunch by the beach.

The HARS Aviation Museum has an extremely impressive collection of aircraft across a number of hangars. They are all packed in quite closely which makes it difficult to photograph but seeing them in person is very cool. You can go inside several of the planes too!

The airport is home to an old Qantas B747-400, still kitted out on the inside which you can tour. There are also wing-walks but I've done one of these previously at the Qantas Founders' Museum in Longreach.

After a lovely couple of hours being guided around by the volunteers, we started the drive home, stopping off at Stanwell Tops for this spectacular view looking back south.

It was fascinating to see Barangaroo have some actual life to it this time after visiting for years and it just being a dull mix of construction and half empty towers.

The passageway to Wynyard Station remains my favourite part of this area, but there is also some interesting architecture and public art appearing!

After walking through Barangaroo north to south, I headed east back towards Town Hall on George Street and a bus home.

After taking the light rail up from Haymarket, I went for a wander around The Rocks, a preserved historic part of Sydney's city centre.

From Campbells Cove you get a good view back towards Circular Quay and the skyscrapers behind.

A lot of people find The Rocks too touristy to be enjoyable, and while I agree there is a commercialised touristy core, there's also plenty of streets away from that with a historic charm + great views.

I continued up from the shoreline to Observatory Hill, an underrated viewpoint in Sydney, in my opinion.

The sheer size of the Crown Towers in Barangaroo is evident from here.

With looming rain clouds I made it down to Barangaroo for the next part of my walk.

Heading south from Darling Harbour itself is the freshly redeveloped Darling Quarter. Filled with interesting architecture, this district links the Harbour to Haymarket and Chinatown.

The Darling Square Library reminds me of a birds nest and somehow I've missed truly taking it in on previous visits so it was a must-do this time round. It also has a viewing deck on one of the upper floors which gives an interesting perspective on this dense part of the city.

Crossing into Haymarket, you come across the light rail, offering an efficient way to the north end of the city centre - my next stop.