The day dawned hot and sunny and before a day out in Sydney - we decided to go for a run. Our first for quite a few weeks and as to be expected was hard going. Shirl thoroughly enjoyed it running along (or should we say 'slugging' along) and had a stupid grin on her face much of the time and Dave endured the heat.

Home for a shower and into the city. We'd forgotten that Sydney has these amazing trains that are double decker - and so much more comfortable in rush hour - and have 'bench seats' that you can flip to face the opposite direction, or each other if travelling in a social group. Circular Key was buzzing with tourists and city workers, a didgeridoo player sitting crossed legged with its deep notes playing over the bustle, a man entertaining a crowd on a uni-cycle, joggers patiently weaving in and out of pedestrians, ladies walking past clutching bouquets of flowers - hopefully from 'Mr.Right', a P&O cruise ship Pacific Jewel and the Queen Mary2. We had lunch in an Italian restaurant and watched the world go by for a while, a young man presented his girlfriend with a necklace and she gave him a handmade card, awwwww!

A stroll along the front with a scrummy ice-cream took us to the amazing Sydney Opera House outside of which is an exhibition of statements from Sydney folks on what it means to them - 'I know I'm home when I see the Opera House and everything else slips away'. The nearby Botanical Garden provided a wonderful green oasis covering 37acres an amazing 37 acres. Our feet were hot and our legs were tired so we took a 30minute 'Choo Choo train ride' through the gardens with a great commentary from the young lady driver - a Canadian. The botanical gardens were very beautiful, the trees and plants were weird wonderful to our UK eyes - Dragons Blood Tree, hundreds of Flying Foxes (fruit bats) nestled and wriggled wrapped in their wings high above our heads (but don't touch, rabies!) and a large and amazingly aromatic herb garden.

Leaving the relative peace and green of the gardens we walked through gorgeous Hyde Park in lovely shade accompanied by buskers' music to the Museum of Australia where we particularly wanted to see the Aboriginal section. In the end we had less than an hour amongst the exhibits and anthropological explanations which were thought provoking.

Having been ejected - and before the Museum's closing time - we worked our way through rush hour to Darling Harbour which looked beautiful in the mellow heat of the early evening sunshine, the sea twinkling, the Gin Palaces bobbing, couples wandering past with Valenitne flowers and chocolates! A sea front bar appealed to us and we sat with a beer and dinner enjoying the atmosphere, Darling Harbour on Valentine's Day - perfect!