Kathleen
Sydney, Australia – March 24-29, 2016
Sydney is a big, beautiful, cosmopolitan city, with the emphasis on beautiful. With the stunning Sydney Harbor cutting through the middle of the city and the hilly streets, you are hard pressed to find an area without a stunning view. The harbor area stretches for miles on either side of the water and includes national parks, the zoo, gardens, the opera house, beaches, restaurants, and etc., etc.
We had five lovely nights in Sydney. We stayed in a fairly central location and were able to travel around on the metro system, including ferries, pretty easily. The first night we headed down to the harborfront to have a celebratory dinner after meeting up with my Aunt Maureen, who was waiting for us when we arrived. Aunt Maureen is an excellent traveller (you might remember her from our Ireland trip) and we were happy to have her join us for part of our Australian adventure! We had dinner on the waterfront with the Opera House lit up in the background and had to keep pinching ourselves that we had actually made it to mainland Australia….and the opera house was no illusion but THE Sydney Opera House, probably the most iconic landmark in all of Australia.
Four days of sight seeing, shopping and dining in Sydney was enough to whet our appetites and we are hoping to get a chance to go back before leaving Australia to try to hit a couple of sites and areas that we missed. You could spend years in Sydney and not experience all it has to offer! Probably the most memorable experience we had was a treat from Aunt Maureen. She booked us tickets to see the opera, Turnidot, at a stage jutting out of the water at the botanical gardens, with the lit up opera house as a backdrop. It was an amazing spectacular and a spectacular venue. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we were so greatful to have had the opportunity. Aunt Mo got to see a choral and instrumental performance in the opera house as well, but due to the extraordinarily lovely weather, Steve and I opted to run up to the Harbor Bridge that day. Aunt Mo thoroughly enjoyed the inside experience at the opera house as well.
After our five nights were up, we headed into the Hunter Valley and Blue Mountain areas, close to Sydney but more rural and beautiful in a completely different way.