We left Singapore on Christmas night to go to Sydney. After a
flight full of screaming kids, we arrived in Sydney at 6 in the
morning. Which meant that we were pretty tired and cranky when we got
to our hotel. After catching a little sleep, we decided to wander
around a little. Our hotel was in a great location in the Rocks and
it was a short walk to the Harbor Bridge (one of the land marks we
kept taking pictures of).
Jill in front of the Harbor
Bridge
Next we caught a bus (the ferries weren't operating) to Watson's
Bay. The Sydney-Hobart sailing race was going to start in the early
afternoon and that would be a great place to see it get underway.
Jill catching a little more sleep in
a park at Watson's Bay.
We had a few hours to spare and spent it enjoying the beautiful
weather in Sydney. It was cool out with a light breeze and warm
sunshine. And not too much humidity. It's been almost a year since
we've been somewhere that wasn't humid.
Jill at the Gap looking out at the
ocean
Looking back at the city from the
Gap
Top of the Gap looking down the
coast
After a nice Aussie style lunch - Fish and steak on the Barbie,
hot chips (french fries) and, of course, good Aussie beer, we headed
back up to the Gap for a view of the race.
The boats at the starting
line
Jill, with the sailboats rounding
the point behind her
The sailboats heading to Hobart,
watched by thousands of Sydney-siders
In the picture above, Sayonara (Larry Ellison's boat) has already
in the lead. He ended up winning the race, but many boats were not so
fortunate. During the two day race, a storm battered the boats, many
abandoned the race, several were sunk and a few people lost their
lives or were injured. Hard to imagine from such nice weather at the
start.
From Watson's bay, we went to the Paddington market so Jill could
do a little shopping and then back to our hotel to catch another nap.
We went for Italian food for dinner and crashed early.
The next day, we started with a walk around town and then down to
the Darling Harbor to see the Sydney Aquarium. We strolled around the
harbor in the nice weather and had another Aussie lunch (with Aussie
beer) sitting along the harbor and watching the tourists. We took the
monorail from there (loaded with Japanese tourists) back downtown
where we went up the Centrepoint Tower for a beautiful view of the
city.
Looking from the tower back towards
Watson's Bay
We looked around the shops downtown and took our time heading back
towards the hotel for another nap (hey, we were on vacation!). We
went for another Aussie special for dinner - we cooked our own steaks
on the barbie down in the Rocks right next to our hotel. We then
stopped into one of the many bars in the Rocks for more Aussie beer
and a good one man band. We even ran into another American couple
from Missouri.
The Sydney Opera House at night,
taken from the Rocks
The next day we decided to go to the Sydney zoo. After a breakfast
of fish and chips (really greasy, and really good), we stood in line
for more than an hour for ferry tickets over to the zoo. Sydney was
crawling with tourists and the zoo had to be one of the more popular
attractions.
The Harbor Bridge from the
ferry
The Opera House from the
ferry
The zoo was interesting: it was nice to see the kangaroos and
koalas and other native Australian animals, but it was way
overcrowded.
Jill and a Koala
Trying to ignore the tourists
Looking back at the city from the
zoo
Another picture of the Opera House
from the ferry
We had another typical Aussie dinner : fish and chips at Doyle's
Seafood. We had a few more Aussie beers and then crashed early to
prepare for our early morning heading north to Townsville, the Great
Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea.
The Opera House from the Harbor
Bridge |
