One of the best ways to discover a downtown is via tour, and Sydney offers free guided tours of the downtown, so I happily joined one on a grey late October day (yes, I’m quite behind!).

I had quite a lot of time to kill in the CBD (downtown) before the afternoon tour, so I wandered a bit. First I visited some nice cathedrals and parks.

Then I went across to the Pyrmont Fish Market. This was the first place I saw that you could order fresh sashimi by the weight, cut to order! Not to mention it was fairly inexpensive for awesome salmon sashimi (all of this cost me about $13!). YUM!

Then it was off to the downtown tour. We started with the Queen Victoria Building, or QVB. It was a large and ornate shopping arcade.

In the central area of the QVB they also had a large display. The next time I was here, it was replaced by a giant Christmas tree.

Continuing on we went up and down the many streets of the downtown, including this one, which had numerous bird cages. They were put up as an arts display a few years back, but the display was so well loved it stayed up. There were numerous small speakers in the cages to give off bird noises as well.

Finally, we ended up at the iconic view of the Harbour Bridge. Always a nice spot to stop for the day.

It also set me with a new goal – walk across the gorgeous Harbour Bridge. I’d do that the next day.