Sydney

We landed at dawn... Cleared immigration and customs quickly, then grabbing a cab for our B&B in the rocks... We were earlier that expected, but the we're able to leave our luggage before setting off on foot to explore.

We walked down towards the circular quay (we discovered some question about how to pronounce the term) in search of coffee, and found a Starbucks...

Now caffeinated we set out to explore... It was quite early... A good bit before 9:00 am... We had reservations for an opera house tour at 11:00... So we headed away from the opera house back towards The Rocks and Sydney bridge... DownTown Sydney, at least the popular tourist areas, is quite tiny, and very walk able.

From the quay to the bridge is hundreds of yards rather than kilometers or fractions there of... We found and explored the weekend street market. The rocks is touristy, but full of locals... The market was more for locals than a t-shirt emporium. We climbed to the base of the bridge (The Rocks are steep and full of stairs, but not uncomfortably so)

Walked from the bridge to the opera house, along the edge of Sydney Harbour arriving 45 minutes before our scheduled tour (we had made our reservations on line) but were able to change our tour time...

The opera house was impressive, Spectacular buildings, interesting designs, complicated and optimistic story. It is the only World Heritage building to be listed while the architect was still alive.

Ate lunch in the Opera cafe, (not your typical museum or "site" cafe, high end food, sitting over looking Sydney harbor...) explored the Botanical Garden, with its flying foxes, really large fruit bats, then worked our way back via the street market to the B&B...

As we climbed the steps back up the hill we encountered a photo showing the same street from the same place 120 years ago... One of the prominent but now missing buildings recreated with a life size screen... All part of the Sydney "Bid Dig".... An archeological project, which included peripherally a house museum... ( of course I run a house museum, so was intregued)

Back at the B&B, I took a quick shower, the set off by myself, while T and her sister relaxed... I fee turned to the museum a block away... Suzanna place, a set of four row houses, here called "Terrace houses" The houses were occupied from the mid 1830's until the 1880's... the tour and stories were good. The preservation plan was not expected... The are preserving them as is... Peeling paint, sagging ceilings, furnishing each room to support a specific moment in time and a story... The tour guide carried an IPad loaded with photos... I would recommend it highly.

Exiting said house museum, I continued my walk, down to the Sidney bridge, then, north and east along the water front, a neighborhood of gentrified docks, now condos, with an amusing street art project and a sign, "END OF ART" nearby... I never determined if the sign was in fact art... It felt like it might be, even if unintentenal.

Back to the B&B to collect the women, Tina having done some research on local food... The was a well regarded pizza place 3 doors down... It was next to the youth hostel, was quite the place, particulaly with the hostel crowd...with at least 2 bachelorette parties (this might have served as a warning for the rest of the evening). We continued, down the street looking for a well regarded Bristol with a roof top beer garden... Sadly it was closed for renovation... Our search for dinner continued... It was a little before 6 local time, but much later according to our internal clocks... But Sydney (particularly, "The Rocks") is a late night party town... And at 6:00, we are terrably, unfasionably early... The bar scene was in full swing, but the food service had not yet begun... we considered finding drinks and waiting for food to find us, which would have been culturally adventuresome thing to do, but would have resulted in 3 or 4 very drunk Americans... We continued our search...

What had begun was an assault by brides with photoghers and bridesmaids, and groomsmen, most with white limos, some with flower girls, parents and other supporters... They were bloody everywhere... In at least one case there we're 3 bridal parties (most with multiple photographers) waiting for a specific spot... I suggested s drinking game which required the participants to each drink a beer for each bride that passed... The downside would be that one would get drunk way to rapidly...

We found a nice Italian place, ate, retuned to the B$B, and went to bed a little after 8:00... Tomorrow we head to Ayers Rock.

Now after dark, I can see the opera house from our window