Sydney Self-Guided Indoor Route Day Tour: Art Gallery, State Library of NSW, Sydney Opera House

Sydney was awashed with rain that very wet weekend. We decided to do a relatively 'indoor route', but if it were a clear day, I'd think it's more ideal to prep your feet for another intensive day of walking to maximize the number of attractions cleared in a day. (Check back on the next self-guided day tour article) This indoor route is suitable for wet weather plans for an afternoon in Sydney. Please note that walking from point to point still requires ponchos and umbrellas as there are no covered walkways.

The previous self-guided tour ended at the Royal Botanic Gardens, and if you have any spare time and energy from that day, you can continue on to the Art Gallery which isn't too faraway from it. The Art Gallery houses a large collection of Australian, European and Asian paintings and exhibitions. If you are not particularly fond of museums, it is likely that you will be bored to tears because this is a typical 'do-not-touch' museum without any new-age interactive displays. I did manage to pick out a few paintings that I really liked though! Photography is allowed in here, no flashes, but I tried not to take too many photos based on my principle on museums and photo-taking... just the few that I liked as shown above.

The State Library of New South Wales is interesting in its own way, with a more vintage wing and a very modern wing of the library. I prefer the vintage side - it feels like tumbling back along an imaginary timeline! It is extremely simple, just a gigantic rectangular room where everyone can see everything all at once. You'd see another side of Sydney that's different from its glitzy opera houses and bridges, slightly closer to what some of the city locals do on a regular day.

Please note that the Government House closes at 3pm on Fri - Sun, and 4pm on Mon - Thu. Plan your route accordingly so that you won't miss the Government House like we did. It looks pretty spectacular from the outside.