Woke up this morning after a wonderful night's sleep feeling great and ready to take on Sydney. Decided on just tea and Belvita for breakfast. We'll get something more substantial later in the day. The temps are perfect - 65 in the morning and up to high 70s in the afternoon. We had a few sprinkles as we walked past Hyde Park. Loving this summer weather. We walked to Circular Quay #6 for the Harbour Story Cruise which lasted 2 hours. Our guide Judy pointed out all the different sites and history of the Harbour. Of course we saw the Opera House which was completed in 1973. It was supposed to cost $7 million but ended up costing $102 million. To pay for it they started an Opera House Lottery which made up the difference in a mere 18 months. Our guide said the Aussies really like to gamble. She also offered stories of Australia's stars such as Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Greg Norman and Mariah Carey's ex - James Packer. Judy gave us the names of many of the harbor bays but since there are 66 different bays, I won't even try to start naming them. We saw the area that had one of the 10 most expensive streets in the world. Sydney, a city of 5 million people, isn't cheap and the median house price is $1.6 million. It was raining during the cruise so some of my pictures might not be the best but the skies cleared after we finished and we had a beautiful afternoon for our walk. We grabbed a quick bite for lunch and then walked the Quay to take a closer look at the Opera House. From there we walked along the harbor to Mrs. MacQuaries' Point and her chair. We enjoyed seeing all the beautiful vegetation in the the Royal Botanical Gardens, The Domain and Hyde Park. We made a stop at St. Mary's Cathedral before heading back to the hotel. It's so hard to do justice to the beauty of this city and the lovely weather is just an added bonus.
Views on our walk to the Harbour
Views of Sydney Harbour
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| Can't believe how big the cruise ships are! |
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| Snake Island |
Views of the Royal Botanical Gardens
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| Mrs. MacQuories Chair |
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| The Succulent Garden |
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| St. Mary's Cathedral |
Came home and did some blogging before we headed out to dinner. Our destination was Darling Harbour since this was one area of Sydney that we hadn't explored yet. It is quite close to our hotel and a really nice area. There were numerous wading pools, splash ponds, and playground grounds along with the I-Max theater and of course more shops and restaurants. We checked all the restaurants around the harbor and then decided on Blue Fish which had been recommended by our hotel staff. I had the seafood paella and Ron the mussels. Our meals were delicious. My paella had chicken, chorizo, mussels, clams, calamari and prawns while Ron had almost 3 dozen mussels in a scrumptious tomato broth. The food, wine, beer, setting, and company made for a perfect evening. We crossed the Pyrmont Pedestrian Bridge to take a different route home. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Views of Darling Harbour
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