Thursday, March 31, 2011

Bondi Beach


Arriving to Bondi Beach and the weather is warm and no rain!!!
During the height of season you have to walk around the beach blankets.
Today was a great day to walk the beach.
 Peter is comfortable sitting on the beach and taking in the view.
Arlene has dipped her feet into the Tasman Sea.
John and I are relaxing and enjoying that there is no rain.

The sand looks and feels like brown sugar.
This place is just hopping during high season.

There is always a great surf for wakeboarder and surfers.

Always a good time for an ice cream.
Our last steps on the beach before heading back to Sydney.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Sydney Day 3 and raining.....everywhere else? Sunny!

A great way to see any city is to buy tickets for the Red Bus. These buses circle the city and will let you off and on throughout the route. Unfortunately the day started off raining and Peter had to take shelter under an umbrella because it was actually raining inside our bus!

Outside this Sydney hospital there is this statue of a boar. According to the tour operator...rubbing it's snout will bring you good health....I wonder why it's genitals are shiny?
Statues are plentiful in and around Sydney This one happens to be Prince Albert (the good) consort to Queen Victoria.
It finally stopped raining so we could sit up top and get smacked in the face by low wet branches.
Hyde Park and a German U-Boat gun.







Sydney Day 2 and it's raining!

The Rocks is probably the most highly visited part of Sydney. It is the oldest part of Sydney and it's where immigrants arrived and settled. Today it boasts a vibrant pocket of cafes and restaurants and interesting tourist shops and stalls.
















 The rain stopped long enough for us to have another great day.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Sydney...is there time to build an ark?

We arrived in Sydney under cloudy skies with a temperature of 21 and raining.

We quickly dropped off our luggage and started walking in the direction of the harbour.
The BLUE Hotel can be seen on the far right. BLUE is perfectly located on the Wharf at Woolloomooloo, Sydney.  We were not staying at the BLUE but at The Mariner's Court Hotel  once home to naval sailors and officers. The area known as Woolloomooloo (more 'o's then in a box of Cheerios') is fast becoming a contemporary area of Sydney.
We stepped into the NSW Art Gallery to get out of the rain and even better the entry was free!



The Botanical Gardens in Sydney was our next stop on the walk. The Botanic Gardens are situated overlooking Farm Cove, directly east of the Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay and Macquarie Street. It is 30 hectares in area.
Is this a poisonous spider? It looks harmless to me.

Encephalartos altensteinii a plant from South Africa

the cone looks like a triade and the seeds are soft and bright red in color.
 Then we turned into a path where the trees had these suspicious looking fruit....on closer inspection we quickly recognized that they were very large  fruit bats also known as flying foxes...and in almost all the trees!

The Botanical Gardens are await approval to relocate the 7000 flying residents however there is no way of knowing what will happen if they try to evict them or where they will go. These bats sleep during the day and begin flying around sunset. They weigh 1kg and their wing span is 1metre from tip to wing tip.
The Australian White Ibis are really ugly birds...they are a commonly seen bird in Sydney....it has a predominantly white plumage with a bare, black head, long downcurved bill and black legs and they are quite indifferent to people.
This angle is not the most photographed view but we are walking up from the Royal Botanical Gardens.

The Opera House's roof is constructed of 1,056,000 glazed white self cleaning granite tiles imported from Sweden.
John is very happy, this was the most important moment for him being in Sydney..seeing the Opera House and booking the back stage tour.
It stopped raining long enough for Peter to take this picture of me.


Sydney skyline looking away from the Opera House.
There is a walkway underneath with shops and restaurants.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is locally nicknamed "The Coat Hanger" because of its arch-based design.
The end of another great day and tomorrow we are coming back to do more exploring and hopefully it won't be raining!