Sydney

Saturday June 17th – We got an early start and met Sue in front of the Art museum in the Domain. We decided to get a ticket for the “Sydney Explorer Bus”. This bus runs every 20 minutes and stops at 26 different points of interest in Sydney. There is also a commentary and a helpful and informative bus driver. The best part is that you can hop on and off all day long. This worked out really well for us. First we went to Mrs. Macquarie’s chair which had great views of the Opera House and the bridge. We rode around the city and got off next at the Queen Victoria Building which is a gorgeous 1800s building which takes up an entire block and houses a mall with over 200 stores. Our next stop was at the Star Casino for Sue to get souvenir chips. Then it was on to “The Rocks” where the weekend market was on. The Rocks is where Sydney’s first settlement was established and used to be full of convicts, whalers, and street gangs. It is now a historical area with cobbled streets and colonial buildings. We shopped thru the market and had lunch before hopping onto another bus to check out the Paddington Market across town. All of the markets have interesting and unique arts and crafts made by local artists. From there we headed to “Circular Quay” (pronounced Key) and grabbed a harbor cruise. We timed the cruise perfectly because at the end the sun was beginning to set and the light was stunning. The cruise lasted about an hour and had commentary for all the points of interest. We went to the Hard Rock café for dinner and although the service was slow the food was excellent.
After being on the go for 12+ hours we were spent. But it was a productive day and we saw a lot of Sydney.