Sydney, Australia

Sunday 3rd March
 I had managed to contact Cheryl, a former work colleague whom I had not seen in sixteen years and she (and husband Alan) offered to show us around some of the sights of Sydney. We had a splendid day. While Cheryl and I chatted about old times, previous work colleagues and all that had happened in the last sixteen years, Ian and Alan chatted amiable about... well I don't really know what. We (or should I say, mostly me) were still reminiscing over lunch and I had to be reminded to eat my lunch since the others had finished way before me.

Alan and Cheryl showed us the harbour heads and Watson Bay where we had lunch then later a stroll on Bondi Beach (famous for its surfing conditions) while eating ice cream. We thought of you, Uncle Ivor, as we know how much you love your ice cream.  Alan and Cheryl then returned us to our hotel as they still had a 2 hour drive home.
On the street behind our hotel was a monorail and Cheryl had mentioned that the service  was to be discontinued in June 2013 so we went to find out about that. The monorail stop was within walking distance and it was still operating albeit late on the Sunday afternoon. Ian bought us a ticket each and we hopped aboard. It didn't matter whether you only traveled a short way - perhaps one stop or two, or you did a full circuit, the ticket price was the same. We went the whole circuit, then went around again so we had a fair idea of places we wanted to visit the next day. Cheryl had also mentioned that there was a hop-on hop-off, free shuttle bus that did a circuit of the city and it so happened that the reception desk at the hotel had a copy of the route map, so armed with that and the monorail, we were able to plan our next day out.

Monday 4th March
We had a full English breakfast (while keeping an eye on the door just in case Poirot appeared) which gave us a good start to the day, then, armed with our various maps we made our way to the bus stop. Most of what we wanted to see was situated near the Circular Quays so we hopped off the bus there. In no time at all we had discovered how often the ferry left, and from where - we wanted to take the harbour ferry out towards the heads, so with our day now clearly planned we started off for our first destination of the day, the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Ian drew the line at walking right over the top of the bridge (spoil sport) so we walked along the foot path that took us across it. The sights of the Opera House as well as parts of the harbour were spectacular and we lingered as long as we wanted to.
On our way back we had a coffee at a pavement coffee shop and watched people coming and going. Refreshed once again we set off for the Opera House, an imposing building that, along with the harbour bridge, dominate the Sydney Harbour skyline. Here we did the touristy things like take photos of each other sitting on the steps of the Opera House as a reminder that we had been there - as if we would ever forget such an experience.

It was quite a while  before we moved off and went to catch the ferry for our round the harbour trip (from Circular Quays to Manly and back). This trip took us the best part of an hour and a half and we were able to photograph the heads from many angles as well as the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge from different directions.

Next stop was China town. We took the shuttle bus once again and hopped off near to the imposing twin lions that seem to mark gateways to China Town in many other cities.

As you might expect there were as many restaurants as one might wish (we had other plans for dinner but we were tempted with a snack at a sushi bar) and outside one such restaurant, displayed in huge tanks, were the most enormous crabs and crayfish that I have ever seen. We could only image the damage those crustaceans would do to the wallet so we took a photo and moved on.




Our final stop for the day was Darling Harbour. We had been told about a restaurant called The Malay and although expensive, we said farewell to Sydney in style.
We love Sydney.