Eight hours nonstop...a marathon

An embarrassment of riches as far as pictures and things done today.  My eyes are squinted with tiredness as I do this blog tonight.  We started at 9:15 after a really nice buffet breakfast at the hotel.  Had Vegemite---can't say I'm impressed...think of it as a partially dissolved bullion cube. 

First on the list was a bus tour of Sydney and environs, and believe me when I say Sydney is a very large city.  One of our first sights was "The Rocks," which is the site of the first settlement of Sydney in 1787.  One of the things that we saw was this public art, but the really interesting aspect is the rock behind it: sandstone, which is all over the place.  Most public buildings are made of it, and it underlies Sydney.  Not many useful large trees in this area, so sandstone became the building material of choice.

Check out the gull eye

Tanis admiring the skyline

Our next stop was Darling Bay (Sydney Harbor is bay after bay after bay.), where we stopped to admire the Center Quay area across the water, which happens to be where our hotel is located.  Lots of birds in the area, some rather fearless.  This gull's cry is much softer than the gulls I am used to in California.

After leaving the Darling Bay area we drove through the central part of Sydney.  A few of the sights follow:

Paddington area "lace"
Wrought iron brought over in the form
of pig iron as ballast

Queen Victoria Market

The obelisk from which
all distances are measured.

We next walked through the Royal Botanical Garden.  Many of the plants here were plants that I am used to, but we saw many that were very different.  This bunya pine is not really a pine, but comes close.  It has lethal nuts that can kill you if they fall on you.

Our tour guide, Lyndal

Leaves of the bunya pine

Tanis and an unknown tree with really great bark.

Mynah bird, native to India

A sacred ibis, not native, but everywhere

Rainbow lorikeets, a native

We left the central area of Sydney and drove south.  We stopped to look at "The Gap", which is the area where Sydney Bay opens into the ocean, and where we will be passing out in our cruise ship in two days.  After this stop it was on the Boondi Beach for a lunch stop.  Windy but warm, with the most incredible fine white sand.

The Gap

Breakers at Bondi Beach

A wattle, the native acacia of Australia

Playing a didgeridoo

Back to Circular Quay, a tour of Sydney Harbor by boat...very enjoyable, then a walk along the waterfront to the Sydney Opera House.
 Many sights along the waterfront, with entertainers of many types.  This one was very interesting, and I remembered hearing the didgeridoo in one of the Crocodile Dundee films.









The Sydney Opera House is a fascinating building.  To begin with, it is not white, but a creamy beige, with many shades of tiles making up the surface.  It is also not one building, but three separate ones, with three small and one large theater in one and the main concert hall in the other, the third being a restaurant.  We had a tour throughout the building, which is the youngest World Heritage Site.  A truly iconic building, you cannot look at it and not think of Sydney.

Up close and personal

"The Cleavage" between the two buildings
which make up the Sydney Opera House

Concrete supports for the roof

Totally exhausted, Tanis and I had to eat.  Off we went to a nearby restaurant called Selah.  What a good recommendation!  We had fish and chips, but what fish and chips:  flathead fillets in spiced batter, hand cut chips & sauce gribiche.  The veggies were broccoli, sugar peas and green beans with lemon butter and toasted macadamia nuts!!!  That plus a glass of Australian wine finished off the day in a satisfactory manner.

Only one glass each :-)