G&B: 2004: Sydney

On Tuesday, another plane journey (this time a larger Boeing 737). It was two and a half hours to Sydney and another 1½ hours forward in time zones. We stayed with Peter, an old school friend of Bruce, and his wife Lorraine, and their two boys Morgan and Evan (13 and 10 respectively). They made us very comfortable, Morgan having given up his room to us for the duration. We were only 15 minutes from the city centre by bus. On Wednesday, we went into the Centre and met up with Geoff’s old school friend Craig (who Geoff had not seen for over 30 years!) Craig showed us the sights of the Centre, and took the obligatory photographs of us by the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Sydney is a large city, but it is very attractive with its waterside setting and its mixture of Edwardian, Victorian and modern buildings. We also visited the botanical gardens, with its collection of cycads, banksias, and other exotica.





	Bruce was especially excited (but not delighted…) to see the hundreds of flying foxes (fruit bats) in the trees there. We walked back through the city and into Darling Harbour and the Aquarium, where we walked in transparent tunnels under the sea, to see sharks, rays and other fish swim above our heads. They also have a collection of brightly-coloured Barrier Reef fish as well as penguins. Having walked pretty much solidly for seven hours and covered most of the City Centre, we had an excellent Thai meal to end the day.

Sydney (1)