First up, we caught the Bus from South Coogee to Randwick for our early morning coffee, ahead of watching the New Years edition of Sherlock in the Randwick Ritz.

To our surprise (and Alice's absolute delight), we discovered the other day that the BBC Sherlock Victorian special was to be shown in our local cinema. So we had immediately bought tickets. The presentation was on the same screen as Star Wars yesterday (and better attended). And despite reading some UK reviews that were not so kind, we actually really liked it. Possibly making it for us was the inclusion of a 'making of' documentary (or 'docco' in Oz speak) at beginning and end of the show.

Keeping it real, we munched on our preprepared cheese sandwiches on the bus into the centre of town. It was Museum time. Months ago, we had bought a museum pass for 4 'living museums', now it was time to cash in whilst it's still valid.

We head for Sydney Museum, which was unsurprisingly all about... Sydney. It is built on the site of the first Government House - a very important location as this would have been one of the first permanent buildings erected by the British when then settled the First Fleet here. We watched a video that explained the history of the site, and that it was only very recently that the museum was built upon this site. In fact, as recently as the 70s, there was a disused car park on the site. Oh dear. Richard III anyone??

We discovered - by means of miniature model ships - about The First Fleet. Indeed we now know that all of the Sydney ferries have been named after a First Fleet ship... Like Alexander the Ferry! (I got quite excited). As such, we learnt that Alexander was actually the largest convict ship of the whole fleet, with the most disease, misery and corruption. Hooray!

Walking around the museum, we popped into a swish cinema room that showed vintage footage of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Fort Denison (the teeny tiny fort at the mouth of the harbour that was built to supposedly keep the French out!)

Outside, we observed the foundations of the first Government House that have been marked out by brickwork on the pavement. It's a very beautiful sight, which we totally missed as we first walked into the museum earlier that morning. Just shows how much you miss if you don't know what you're looking for.

At about 16.30, we feel it's time to move towards visiting Luna Park, on the other side of the river. Instead of taking a ferry, we decide to walk across the bridge. To do this, we walk straight through the market stalls in The Rocks. We didn't see these markets the first time we were here, so we feel content that we spotted it this time around.

Grabbing a cheeky 99 flake ice cream dipped in chocolate (they should definitely do this in the UK), we walk across the Harbour Bridge. Like last time, this takes a long time, and is generally rather unsatisfactory. Very aggressive railings, barbed wire, a fast dual carriage way a mere foot away, and of course the suicide watch people. The Bridge is certainly best viewed from afar!

We arrive at Luna Park at 18.00 in order to collect our pre-bought, 2-4-1 tickets. However, we were quickly informed by Mr Luna (a clown on stilts) that despite buying our tickets 'online', we must collect them 'inline'. It's a good comedic effort assuage our annoyance, but we're still not impressed.

Tickets fully collected and wrist bands on, we wander deeper into Luna Park. Built on the site where both the light and heavy workshops for the construction of the Harbour Bridge originally were sited, Luna park first opened its doors in 1934. As such, its certainly something of a Sydney institution, and although it has had somewhat of a chequered history (as we observed in the Sydney Museum), its still going strong in 2015. Although today it has some several 'new' thrill rides, it is predominately like a very large George Carter's steam fair. It has a strong family feel to it, and has as best it could, has retained all of the older attractions too. We particularly enjoyed Coney Island - a large wooden shed of a building - where inside we rode the ski luge, and enjoyed the mirror maze and various other 'wacky' floor moving things. It was really good, clean fun... 1930s style!

Outside Coney Island, we spotted a building called the 'Crystal Palace'!! But alas, it was only named so in 1980, and has seemingly no connection to the historic Crystal Palace in London.

As for rides, we went on the Hair Raiser - a drop-you-from-a-great-height-number... Alex was not so impressed, but Alice went on it twice. It did afford a great view of the bridge... but so did the Ferris Wheel in much calmer circumstances! We gave the Mouse Trap roller coaster a go, despite it being built in 1963 (certainly sounded like it). There was a twirly centrifugal force number that Alice was initially apprehensive about, but then during the ride displayed pure joy on her face. We bashed around on the dodgems, ate some fish and chips, and lost on 3 side show games.

Leaving the park at 23.00, tired and happy, we took replacement buses home as the trains were shut for some reason, and got home quite late. Sydney's public transport system really isn't up to much...

AF