Well, we've had a few days in Sydney now. Been a busy time and pretty tiring so not had much time to update the blog but WOW what an amazing city! There's loads of stuff going in the city as we've arrived in the middle of the Sydney festival and they are also hosting the Asia Cup. We arrived at about 7:00am on Tuesday morning after an 8ish hour flight from Singapore. The flight was really good but only got about 3 or 4 hours sleep which would later catch up with us. Was overcast and raining when we arrived but it soon cleared and has been roasting ever since. We dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed out to explore. We are staying at the The Rocks which is a small area right next to the harbour between Circular Quay and Darling Harbour. It's one of the oldest parts of Sydney so loads of history about the place and loads of really cool bars and restaurants. We needed to get a coffee so had a walk around Circular Quay and got our first sight of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Was amazing to see these famous landmarks close up and the harbour area is just stunning! We got a coffee and a cake and then had wander around the harbour and had a walk through the Botanic Gardens before heading back to the hotel for a quick change.
Circular Quay is where most of the ferries leave from so we decided to jump on a ferry to Watsons Bay which is right at the southern tip of the harbour. Watsons Bay is an old fishing village and most people go there for the seafood and fish & chips! Nae as good as the Newmachar chipper but the setting is absolutely stunning with a couple of small beaches and loads of small sailing boats in the bay. We had a wander around for a couple of hours just admiring the views. When we got back to the hotel at about 5.00PM we were both absolutely done in so decided to have a quick nap and never woke up until about 5am the next morning....HA HA! Was probably just what we needed.
The next day we decided with all the walking about we'd been doing to do the typical tourist activity and do the opentop hop-on, hop-off bus! Was a great way to see most of the city and sights and it also went to Bondi Beach which was our plan for the day. We apent a few hours at Bondi beach soaking up the rays, catching some waves and watching the surfers. Was great just to chill out for a while! On the way back we had to change bus at Central station and I had somehow managed to lose our bus tickets so we ended up getting a taxi back to the hotel and missing half of the bus tour!
Had a fairly quiet day today. Had a walk across the Harbour Bridge which was cool and the views of the harbour are pretty amazing. We then got the train back across the bridge and into the city centre for lunch and a bit of shopping. We then decided to have a trip up the Sydney Tower which is the highest building in Sydney at about 300m and the views of the city from the observation deck are just amazing.
We've managed to pick up a campervan in Sydney, which it was looking like we might struggle to get one as everywhere was booked up, so we pick that up tomorrow morning. That will be our new home for the next couple of weeks and we will be heading into the Blue Mountains tomorrow for a couple of days. Not sure what the internet connections will be like in the campsites so the blog updates might not be all that regular but we will try and update it when we can. B & V......
P.S. In case you were wandering about the hats, we were given them at new year from our good friends Tony and Angie so will be coming with us on our travels and will be making an appearance every now and then...!