Day Nine: Saturday

Day Nine: All Around Sydney and the Opera.

Today we did some Sydney sightseeing. We were so happy to be able to walk around instead of drive and super thankful for the improved weather. It was absolutely gorgeous, just a little windy, okay, really windy.

First, we got coffee (of course) and waked our way down to the harbor to start at the hub: the Circular Quay [ki]. From there you can get anywhere. We took some pictures of the Opera House, and took in the hubbub. We listened to a man performing with a didgeridoo, which was pretty cool.

From there we went to The Rocks and perused through their Weekend Market. We decided to buy a boomerang as our souvenir and are still debating about whether we'll actually try to use it. There were many cool things there, different than the usual market kinds of things, more Australian-ish things and not as kitsch as I had expected.

After shopping we were ready for the walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It provided as many breathtaking views as was promised and also about took our unattached items with the wind. It was spectacular and a really easy fenced-in walk along the sidewalk. Another option was to do the BridgeClimb, which takes you up and over the bridge via the arch. Blake and I both agree that this would be cool to do, but it required booking ahead and was a bit expensive.

After our exhilarating walk over the bridge and back we did a few self guided walking tours to see some of the historical buildings and places around town and squeezed in a little shopping. We didn't buy anything though, because their prices -even on sale- were way higher than ours. They have great shopping there, everything you could get in the US and more.

After we'd seen everything we wanted to see, we walked back to the hotel and got ready for the opera. It was fun to get a little dressed up and have a night in the city, which we don't get to do often in Kennewick ;).

We saw La bohème, which was on our list of Italian operas that we want to see. It was a great opera, easy to follow and a simple but not too predictable story line. It was also fun to listen to it after having been to Italy and learning a little Italian. It was fun to be able to follow along and recognize what they were saying a little better, not that I could have gone without the English subtitles ;), I definitely still needed them!

It was a really fun day and evening and we're not sure what we would have done differently, even if we had more time. Probably the only thing would be to tour the Zoo in Sydney (Taronga Zoo- which is on it's own island in the harbor- cool). It definitely has koalas, which we didn't get to see. Oh, and there's the BridgeClimb.

A little better than our french press coffee.
We'd finally gotten used to ordering too.
Long Black for Blake, Flat White for me.

The man playing the didgeridoo.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge, from the Circular Quay.

Because of this picture, I spilled coffee on my shirt.

Sydney's pride and joy

The Market at The Rocks

The boomerang booth.

It was pretty large market.
The sculpture description: "The sandstone relief is a 
memorial to the convicts, soldiers and settlers who made
up the original settlement at The Rocks."

On the other side of the bridge - North Sydney.

On our way back across.

Our hotel

St Mary's Cathedral from Hyde Park.

Hyde Park was great. Look at all that was going on.
Wedding pictures being taken, musicians playing,
And this bubble guy. He was brilliant, he made all
kinds of bubble shapes and sizes and the kids loved it.

Hyde Park

Ready for the Opera

The bridge at night.

Dinner before the opera

A perfect ending to a great trip!