Molins Down Under: Sydney

Another flashback to our Sydney trip...

So we basically had four nights and three days in Sydney, and after one day at the zoo, we spent one day in centre town and one day dodging the heat at Manly Beach.

Our second day was starting to heat up (almost 30 degrees that day) and our big day in town started with the ferry ride from Manly Beach - a boat ride bargain at about $7 a head that took us past the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge straight into the Circular Quay wharf. People commute on this ferry and I can't imagine a nicer way to get to work.

The Sydney Opera House was simply breathtaking, and interestingly, almost even more beautiful up close. I didn't realize it's tiled with a striking mosaic effect. We still felt the heat and so had a long rest in the Botanic Gardens before exploring the old working class area called The Rocks. I think that needs a post of its own though, because we managed to find a tiny little museum about life as an immigrant worker in Sydney in the 1850s that made for a perfect little interlude in the day. The girls would have loved to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk where you climb to the top of the arch but the price tag was over $1000 for us to do it, and that seemed just a leetle steep.

That evening we were in Paddington for dinner with an old friend of Toby's - Tanya Bailey and her husband Julian. They made us so welcome and we loved the sight of the fruit bats flying overhead on the terrace as darkness fell. The girls were also in heaven because Tanya and Julian have not one, not two but THREE border collies (including a 5-month old puppy). Hooray! I think that did more to perk up the girls after a hot and exhausting day than anything else could have done. In fact, I think from the girls' point of view we could have skipped all that boring touristy stuff and gone straight to see the dogs - they were the highlight of the Sydney trip.