Tourist for a day (Sydney day 2)

Wednesday is where I started my first day in tourist mode – it was an incredibly pleasant way to start the day, by cruising leisurely up the river on the ferry picking up fellow travellers on the way to the city, and I have to say that I concur with everything I’ve read so far about the majesty of Sydney harbour.  I used to think “yeah, sure, whatever” when people raved on and on about how amazing the harbour is … well, I’m one of those converts now too – there are no words to describe the view as you approach the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the Sydney Opera House nestled in beneath it, it truly does take your breath away!  It probably helped that it was a stunningly sunny day, but it was exceptional and definitely a highlight of my trip.  This photo is of my first view of the harbour as we sailed under the bridge (sorry, but it’s taken forever to upload the smaller shots, and I can’t be bothered re-uploading for the larger clickable versions).

Sydney Harbour Bridge with Sydney Opera House in the background

Sydney Opera House

I spent quite a bit of time just meandering around the Opera House, and watching the boats come and go, then I walked up to The Rocks area, which is rich in Sydney’s oldest history to find the information centre and plan my day.  As it turns out I ended up finding a walking map of the old classic buildings in the area, and walked for miles that day through many a back street (I followed the Colony walking map) – my feet were killing me by the time I finished, but it was great fun.  I then walked back and had a late lunch at The Rocks (at Nurses Walk to be exact, at the Gumnut Tea Garden) – it was lovely to sit under the shade of a big tree outside, sampling fresh mint and lemon iced tea and Caesar Salad with chicken, while listening to the live jazz duo … it was very relaxing.  Then I walked further into the city centre and went shopping – to buy a new wheelie case (as it turns out later on, it was a good thing I did, but I’ll tell that story later!).  After that I had to rush back to Circular Quay for the ferry trip home for Brenda to pick me up again.

The Rocks (behind the Information Centre)

View of part of The Rocks from the ferry

A local character in aboriginal dress at Circular Quay

While I was in The Rocks I had a couple of phone calls from my real estate agent, giving me an update that the work on the building won’t be taking place until May some time, as it’s quite serious and major work (the building is basically sinking!!) and has to get consent from the Council etc.  Sitting here in the freezing cold right now (where did that heat go while I was away??), not able to close the windows, I’ll be making another phone call myself next week for them to at least come and fix the damned windows so they’ll shut … hmmm 😦

Anyway, back to Sydney again … That night I just had time to quickly have a shower and get changed before we were being whisked off to dinner with a friend of Brenda and Nigel.  We went to a Chinese restaurant – unfortunately I have to say I didn’t really enjoy the food.  It’s strange, as I absolutely adore most Asian foods, but Chinese isn’t one I really enjoy … There was only one dish out of the 4 that were ordered that I really liked (everyone chose a dish and we shared) – I felt dreadful, and a bit difficult, but I ended up ordering a Tom Yum soup instead while they polished off the other dishes (and I have to say the soup was yummy).  All-in-all it was a great night, though, especially when we relived some stories that I’d forgotten about – there was lots of laughter and merriment, as well as lots of wine haha.  We ended up tiring ourselves out so much, though, that it wasn’t long that we were in bed!

The next day is all to do with the function itself, so I’ll wait and post that separately tomorrow … I’m starting to get quite tired as I’ve been at work all day, and didn’t get in until very late last night … I’ll finish off the rest of the trip tomorrow 🙂  (Apologies also for any typos, but I’m getting too bleary-eyed to read my own typing!)