Fortunately the water was back on by morning on our first full day in Sydney. We’d stopped at a grocery store the night before to grab breakfast fixings, so after a couple pieces of toast with peanut butter and some instant coffee, we headed north towards the harbor and the famous Sydney Opera House.
It was quite a long walk – about 45 minutes. We passed by plenty of interesting sights on our way, including St. Mary’s Cathedral, which was just completed in time for the Sydney Olympics. Just as interesting was the huge underground aquatic center, which was evident above ground mainly by the silver metal walls you see in the photo below, which sported a few windows to look down on the human fish splashing around.
(Doesn’t it seem strange for early December? Sunny? Swimming? What?)
The church was pretty impressive, and Dad took us back through the next day to have a look at a painting that particularly struck him. Beyond that, we navigated through the Japanese tourists who briefly filled the sanctuary, got the required photo and then leaped back on the A/C bus waiting outside.
From there we walked alongside the Botanical Gardens and finally saw the grand sails of the Opera House.
It is truly impressive. Much more impressive than in photos.
The famous harbor bridge was across the way, and we could make out the crazy people walking along the top of it.
We lurked around the area for a few minutes, then walked the promenade full of restaurants and tourists in search of a cheap meal. (Ha!) We did manage to find a good one, to our surprise, in a food court just across the street from the harbor. I continued my trend of eating Thai beef salad, while the others spread out to sample other fare. This meal among the corporate workers of Sydney reminded me that normal people actually do have jobs.
After that we boarded a ferry to the Taronga Zoo, which was across the harbor and closer to the sea. I guess I didn’t realize how far up river downtown Sydney sits – I was under the false impression that it was right on the ocean, but that’s not true. It’s quite a few miles to get to the crashing waves. From the ferry we got great views of the Opera House.
I think the others were a little ho-hum about going to the zoo in the first place, but Dad was excited to get out on the water to look back at downtown. It didn’t take long to get to the entrance of the zoo, which was at sea level, and we opted to take the gondola to the highest point, given that the zoo is on a hill that is quite steep.
We’d missed many of the animal demonstrations because we’d come in the afternoon, but the Birds of Prey show was the final show of the day and was on our agenda. We were all hankering to see koalas, which were hilarious and cute as they sleepily munched eucalyptus. We spent quite a while gawking at them.
Then it was on to the reptile house and finally to the amphitheater for the bird show.
My photos don’t do the show justice – it was amazing how the host could call in those huge birds and get flocks to do what she wanted them to!
After sitting in the hot sun for about 30 minutes, we grabbed a drink and then wound our way down the hill, stopping to look at the meerkats, tigers, elephants, kangaroos and sea lions, among other animals. It was a great outing.
By the time we took the ferry back across the harbor and walked to the hotel, our feet were killing us and we were pooped. So we got take-out from the Thai place in our condo building and called it a night.
gallopingnelly
