Sydney 30 Jan - Saturday

Yesterdays blog has been updated. 

The weather forcast for today was not to good, temp around 26°C was OK, but overcast and showers latter was the out look. Pat and I therefore decided to take our coats and umbrellas and do the Hop on Hop off tour of Sydney and Bondi. While Liz and Dorothy went off to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Pat and I walked up to Central Quay and bought concessionary tickets on the tour bus. We were a bit miffed, that we were not asked to prove our age (over 60), obviously looking our age these days. But on the other hand, we did save 25% on the price of the ticket ($30 each instead of $40 each).

The first half of the tour is around Sydney, the first thing we saw was "Sydney Tower Eye". Pat and I were in Sydney with Wally (a friend of ours) back in 2003 (when we won the Rugby Union World Cup), we all went to the top of this tower then, which has a revolving restraunt at the top. I remember at the time we tried the bush tucker: Kangaroo, Emu and Crocodile. It was different.

Today being Saturday, there were a few street markets around. Pat was not very happy, as she was not able to Hop off to shop, due to her broken foot still slowing her down.

You can see the City skyline behind the old warehouses, which have now been done up and are now very desirable properties.

The tour bus passed the Opera house.

Then on to St Mary's Cathedral. When this was originally built, there was a tax that had to be paid on completed dwellings. So the builders did not complete the spires until that tax was abolished some 30 years latter, which may be why they look much newer than the rest of the Cathedral.

An interesting building with greenery growing everywhere on it's outside.

Back towards Sydney Harbour and there is a different liner docked there.

Pat and I hopped off, stumbled off is perhaps a better description, at Darling Harbour.

We had a coffee, below is the view from the cafe.

This is the view looking the other way.

They are advertising a fireworks display tonight. But as the heavens opened again around 5:00pm and persisted for several hours. The fireworks display was cancelled.

Back on the tour bus and under Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We passed Oxford Street, which is the area we stayed in, when we visited in 2003. At that time I had not been to Sydney before, so did not know which hotel to book online. But I knew Oxford Street in London was a nice area, so I booked Oxford Street in Sydney.

It was not until Pat and I were walking down Oxford Street, passing various shops with leather straps and whips, bars full of "Village People", blokes holding hands and wearing leather pants with no backside in them, that we realised we were in the gay centre of Sydney.

The commentary on the tour bus confirmed what we already knew.

Below was the first park in Sydney. The obilisk was initialy used as a reference point to measure distances to other towns. But as The roads were not that straight the distances were not that accurate.

Smart car at the traffic lights next to us. I think he's still looking for his bonnet.

There is a preservation order on this sign, as it has been in Sydney for so long. 

First view of Bondi Beach

It looks a lot cleaner than it did when we were here in 2003.

As Pat was not up to going on the beach, I went down on my own to check the beach and have a paddle in the sea. As you can see I took a selfie, my very first selfie, I actually pressed the wrong key on my iphone by mistake and was looking at myself instead of the sea, so took a selfie.

As you may have noticed, I had my hair cut this morning and I can't do a thing with it.

Got my iPhone facing the right way. The beach is a lot cleaner than it was in November 2003, when we were last here. In fact it now looks spotless. Good on ya mate.

Pat and I had an icecream in Bondi before hopping back on the tour bus to Sydney. We just got back to the hotel As the heavens opened, so stayed there for evening meal.