L2O2

While in transit to mainland Australia and our three final days ‘down under’, I noticed one final interesting sign here … and I’m planning on a post about signs, so this is just a taste for now.

The final days of our vacation are spent in Sydney. We have a room at The Russell, an older hotel/bed & breakfast right in the heart of Sydney, in an area called The Rocks. The Rocks is where the first convict ships anchored and the take-over of Australia from the Aborigines began. There are not many rocks left but the area is a very bohemian mix of old and new with little alley ways and lanes leading all over the place. A veritable rabbit’s warren! It is much fun exploring this area dominated of course by the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. By the end of our first day we are comfortably ensconced in our room after a several hours walk around the area.

On our second day we take most of the day wandering around. Believe me you can spend several days here and still not discover everything. We visit a very nice museum called The Rocks Discovery Museum. It is very good at describing the history of the area and for getting a feel of the development from the first inhabitants to present. The hardest thing we do today is deciding where to have lunch and supper. Oh the stress of vacations!

We are very busy on our final day in Australia. We booked a harbour cruise the day before and start our morning off with this. Sydney Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in the world. And even though our tour is over two hours long we still do not see the half of it. What a wonderful place to live.

After all that ocean air we have built up quite an appetite so we are off to meet one of our friends from the Overland Track for lunch. We met Chris Carlon and his dad Graham on our first day on the Track, when they arrived at the first hut quite late in the evening, wet, shivering and just a little hungry. They had started their trek right from the bus at 3:15 in the afternoon and didn’t arrive at our hut until 7:30 in the evening. That meant several hours hiking in the dark. Combine that with the wind and the rain, and as they say over here, good on them for even making it. Anyway they have their own stories to share and we hope they take some time and add them to our travel adventures in the comments.

Chris took us on a brief little tour of the banking district of Sydney. It’s amazing, one minute we are walking down this busy street full of the hurly burly of business and with just one turn we are in a back alley all by ourselves. The building Chris showed us was the main waterworks for Sydney from the first days of settlement. You can still see the original building which now serves as a fancy nightclub and a very good eatery. We can vouch for the eatery because we have lunch there. A very enjoyable hour or so is spent with Chris finding out more about him and a little bit more of Sydney.

Chris points us in the direction of King Street Wharf and the Queen Victoria building. The Wharf is in Darling Harbour and is okay but the Queen Victoria building is something else. Three floors of Victorian and Edwardian charm and all kinds of shops and stores. It also has the best men’s room I have ever been in!

With afternoon coming to an end, we take ourselves back to the Russell for a shower and change because tonight … tonight we have tickets for the Bohemia concert in the Sydney Opera House! After seeing pictures for so many years, it is so hard to believe that we are actually here and can touch and marvel at the splendor of this magnificent building. The interior is nothing like we had imagined. My command of the English language is not good enough to convey the magnificence of the inside. Suffice to say that the inside is all curving and soaring concrete supports and carpet and wood and glass and windows, oh it is so inspiring. And the symphony is just as magnificent as the setting, with flashing bows, thunderous horns and wondrous woods. Just the perfect ending to our fabulous visit to Tasmania and Sydney.

And now we are on our way home … a very long long flight with a very useless, tedious, stupid waste of time, customs stop in Hawaii! Keep those security folks occupied in the middle of the night though!