This morning we bought a but ticket for the 'Hop on hop off' bus tours round and about the city. We did half of the city tour and then got on the tour bus to Bondi Beach.
The sun was shining although it was very windy and not particularly warm. Bondi is of course a beautiful sandy beach and there are large waves for surfing. There weren't an awful lot of surfers today but we sat and watched some. After a drink and a bite to eat we walked from end to end of the beach, had a little paddle and then caught the bus back to the city. It was lovely to see the outskirts and hear a little about the history of the different areas along the route.
Having repeated the first part of the tour we got off the bus at Circular Quay and went to get the ferry to Manly. The Queen Mary 2 cruise ship was docked there. She is huge and looked very impressive alongside all the old barges. It took about half an hour to get to Manly and it was good to see the different areas along the Parramatta River.
Manly is a fairly upmarket suburb of Sydney and has a lovely beach again with surfing waves but on a smaller scale. There wasn't the hustle and bustle of the city and we meandered around the shops and then caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and then a smaller ferry back to Darling Harbour. As we were arriving at Circular Quay the Queen Mary was just setting sail and the ferry had to wait until she had gone. It was quite an experience watching her sail by so close to us with all the lights on. Reminded of the Titanic in the film!
It was now 8:00 so we just went into the first restaurant we came to along the waterfront and had a lovely Italian meal. Another very busy day!