Winter In Sydney

So, today marked our third day in Sydney, Australia.  We hit a rare winter heat wave, so the weather has been clear and sunny and about 64 degrees - just great to walk around town and discover things.  And Sydney is imminently walkable.

We started on July 5th - walking to the Botanical Gardens, the Opera House (WOW), and Circular Quay (don't ask me how to pronounce it).  I think we were trying to make up for the long flight when we couldn't get up and walk.  During this walk, we found out about the coming Rugby game between the Australian Wallabies and the British & Irish Lions.  We had noticed lots of people walking about in red shirts with crests on them.  Turned out that thousands of Brits and Irish follow this team every four years when they travel to one of the Southern Hemisphere Commonwealth countries.  That's when I really looked at all the flags flying along the curbs:  alternating Wallabies and Lions flags.  After three hours dockside at the Quay, we headed downtown to Westfield Mall (yes, just like the one on Market Street in downtown San Francisco). I bought a couple of things I'd forgotten to pack (yes, it happens), then we had a nice lunch.  And we were seated next to a group of Lions fans talking about the game.

On the 6th, I knew I needed to get my Hard Rock Sydney pin, so we headed out early again - but this time we took the city train from Kings Cross station to Town Hall, right near Darling Harbour.  So much easier and faster than walking it.  We found the Virgin Mobile store and got sim cards for Australia, then hunted geocaches, and then made our way down to Darling Harbour and the Hard Rock.  This one didn't have the selection of pins that many others do, but I picked out two nice ones.  Then it was time to hunt one more geocache and get some lunch. And at lunch we were surrounded by Lions fans.  The big group at the table next to us wanted to know if we were going to watch the game and proceeded to give us the history of this round of matches.  So, of course - we wound up getting a pizza, some wine, and watching the game.  The Lions won big time - they dominated.  And the shouting in the streets started immediately after the ending.

Finally, today being our last day, we've made our plans for a taxi at 5 IN THE MORNING, settled up our bill with George (who has been one of the nicest and most helpful hosts we've encountered), and then headed out to Bondi Beach to walk around.  Between train and bus, we were at Bondi by 9:30 this morning.  As we were taking the trail hike around to point to Bronte Beach we noticed a very long, dark, BIG shape in the water just outside the breakwater where the kayakers and surfers were.  It was a whale.  Lee got some pictures of it amongst all the people in the water.  It took some time for the lifeguards and others to get it to turn around - we really thought it was trying to beach itself. Then we continued our hike for 2.5 kilometres each way.  Back at Bondi - a nice lunch with sangria, then back on the bus to train to hotel.  It is winter here, so daylight is starting to fade (it's 4 pm).
 
We head up to Cairns tomorrow to see Delene.  Sydney is San Francisco, Southern Hemisphere.  Big city, varied and cosmopolitan, lots of shopping and restaurants.  Now we are off to a smaller town that is a huge vacation resort area - and Lee and Delene are diving the Great Barrier Reef.

Next adventure.