Sydney

Hello everyone.

We have just spent 6 days in Sydney and we both loved the place.
It is a great city and seeing those landmarks in real life is very cool but very surreal.

On arriving we went straight into the centre for our first views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We wandered around an area called ‘The Rocks’ for a drink then took the ferry to Manly and back to take in the views of the Harbour. All of the boat routes can be used with your travel pass, so they make a great way of seeing the rest of the city. We spent £20 each for unlimited travel around the city for a week – bargain!

The next day we explored Darling Harbour and went shopping in Kings Cross. Later on we went to a 1930’s style fairground, Luna Park, to have a ride on the ferris wheel and the old roller coaster, but we dissaponted to be told that there was a storm coming and the outdoor rides were closed. 5 mins later and it was chucking it down, with lots of purple lightning lighting up the sky. Very dramatic!

We spent one afternoon walking around the Botanical Gardens. To our surprise this was a very popular place to get married, but with the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the background, the wedding photo’s are gonna be good. There were lots of Japanese people getting really close up to the couples mod vows and taking hundreds of photo’s (they really are snap happy), which we thought was pretty rude but very amusing.

Sydney has some great beaches and we spent a few days at Manly and the world famous Bondi Beach.  One of our highlights was fish and chips with our legs dangling off Manly Wharf (and the huge beers from the bavarian beer bar there).

I enjoyed the StarWars exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum – Rach humoured me while we looked round a 4ft wide Millenium Falcon. She preferred wandering round Paddington market – lush food stalls.

On St Patrick’s Day we went out for dinner and drinks in Darling Harbour – very cool place, great view from the restaurant balcony.

On the way out of Sydney we went to Palm Beach, aka Summer Bay. We were lucky enough to catch them filming – a very dramatic helicopter sea rescue! Take a look at the pics. Around the beach it’s nothing like Summer Bay – the houses sell for millions. We had ice creams at the Surf Club!

We are now en route to Byron Bay – staying at very picturesque oceanside camp sites along the way. This is the life!

Bye for now.