SIDNEY

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Trish inspecting the Opera House[/caption]

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The Sydney Harbour bridge cheers ![/caption]

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If you look closely you will see another Joey in her pouch[/caption]

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Looking over Bondi beach[/caption]

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Bondi Beach[/caption]

Trish on top of the eye in Darling Harbour

Once again the accommodation we booked was not up to scratch , so with the same chain MERITON we moved from Bondi to close to the Darling Harbour in Kent Road , this was a great move as it was a lot more central to the CBD and the Sydney harbour area.

The city itself is what one would expect from the glorious sites seen through daily media wherever you are in the world , with the Sydney Harbour declared by someone back in1788 declared it THE FINEST HARBOUR IN THE WORLD, who am I to argue, and I dare anyone else to argue!!

This is where the main transport centre for the city is , Circular Quay is where ferries buses and trains all intersect, there are 10 train lines , and 6 ferry terminals , and well I didn’t count the buses but they went everywhere else that the ferries and trains didn’t go. A commuters dream , and also a travellers dream because it was all so easy to work out getting from A to B , and withe travel card it was also quite cheap.

I will start at Darling Harbour as that is where our fist trip took us ,( very close to the China town district of Sidney, another strange observation was Paddy’s Market was in the middle of China town ) enough ! this harbour is big enough to be the main harbour in most other coastal cities, full of attractions restaurants shops, buskers , even a mini eye, this harbour even has its own fireworks and lights show every Friday, we were lucky as we could see the display from our 27 floor apartment.

We found we could actually walk from our apartment to the Sydney Harbour in 50 minutes so it became part of our exercise routine, the one round going north led us straight to circular quay and an area called the Rocks, full of the old and the new with its heritage buildings and cobblestoned lanes, with stylish bars and restaurants all mixed with an indoor crafts market that did us well for cover during an electric horrendous down pour. This area is also where the first settlers to the city settled so a lot of the buildings are heritage.

Other major trips out were a ferry ride to Manly , half an hour ride through Sidney Harbour ($5 one way) , we found Manly town centre quite dated , it looked like it needed a coat of paint and a good scrub , but then when we saw beach area …….… Who cares about what the town looks like !! We spent about three hours walking from one side to the other including a cliff walk , every km there was a free filter water station for people to top up their water bottles.

Another day we spent at Bondi beach , quite the Aussie Daily routine , swim , surf, swim quite the life. It’s times like this when I wish my surfing kills were a bit more honed !!

Australia Day Was on the 26 January, what a festival of a day, we found a seat right on the water front by the Opera house , sat there for 3 hours and watched live floating shows, bands,aerobic displays ,parachutes landings, plane fly byes, and friendly Aussies A day to remember.

On the Sunday my friend Denis and his girlfriend Terri who lives in Sydney picked us up from the apartment and took us out for the day, this started by going to a Wild Life park called Symbio , here we saw all the Aussie beasts , dingos, koalas, wombats, emus,and of course the kangaroos.our journey for the day took us to the south where we drove round Botany Bay , and stopped for a look see at a place called Cronulla, all of it best explained as GODS COUNTRY , we could certainly live here!! We then went further south to another beach named Scarbourough beach , here their was a Surfing competition on , and you guessed it we got there too late so I couldn’t enter!😢 Really exiting to watch when you have an expert next to you Denis , explaining what’s good and scores more points the next guy .All of this was topped off with a late lunch at the Scarbourough Hotel . This was a great view of another side of Sydney , thanks Denis and Terri , hope we see you in August in Calgary.

Our 10 days is Sydney flew by, another 5 would have kept us busy, next stop Christchurch, New Zealand to see my cousin Pauline and Peter and see what N Z has to offer.

later

M& T