Exploring Sydney

Sydney has a population of between 4 - 8 million....depending on who you believe. There are only 20 million people in all of Australia...so that puts almost 1/3 of them in this area. Being a city on the water, it has some Boston like driving ......meaning roads have to sort of wind around and dodge natural geography...so not many nice right angle intersections! Good driving by Doug got us to our hotel....and after we got checked in we returned the car here in town with no damage. Sounds easy....but not so much. No more driving planned on the trip so we are on to other modes of transport!

On Saturday the weather / temperature was forecasted to possibly hit 40 degrees celsius in Sydney....which is 104 degrees fahrenheit......but thank goodness forecasters are no more 

accurate here than at home. May have gotten to 90...but in general it was comfortable. Church at St Mary's started our Sunday.  Mass was presided over by the Cardinal and included a boy's choir. Huge, beautiful church right beside Hyde Park....which  is named after its namesake in London, and is the center of Sydney.

 We took a bus tour of Sydney on the Sydney Express......a regular Coach with air conditioning....chosen over the open top double deckers based on the forecast.  We stayed on board except for a stop in Chinatown for some shopping and lunch, and then switched to the Bondi bus which explores the suburbs and beaches.  Great way to see many sights in a short time....and figure out what you want to go back and see more of. Back to the hotel in time to meet up with another yank now living in Sydney, Nick Tilley. Nick hails from St. Louis, was Chris Freeman's roommate @ NW, and is a Frat Brother. He arranged to get the afternoon off and meet us in town for dinner in Darling 

 Harbour. Nick has been in New Zealand, Southeast Asia and Australia for over a year, and was a great source of info. We also had the best dinner we've had so far on the trip. 

On Monday, the Wilde's headed off on an organized tour of the Blue Mountains.....and they will capture that adventure in a separate post. 

The Freeman's stayed in Sydney and met up with a college friend of Kay's mother...from teachers college in Union Grove, Wi.  Marjorie Short is 86 years young and is very feisty. She has lived in Australia for over 30 years, and has a million stories of her days in Bega, NSW...the dairy capital of Australia with her husband, and her many adventures in and around Sydney. She drives....very well in fact....and we had a wonderful adventure with her. We took her to lunch at Harry's Cafe de Wheels...which serves Pies and Peas.....meat pies, covered with mashed potatoes, smashed peas, and gravy. Made famous by serving the troops in WWII, Harry's has been in the same location on the Woolloomooloo Bay since 1945...and this is the first time 

Marge ate there! (So nice to find something we could introduce her to.)  The pies were suprisingly good, the tour in her car, the view of the soccer stadium and downtown from her balcony.....the stories....made for an outstanding day.

We got back into town in time to take the tour of the Sydney Opera House.....hugely impressive structure and entertainment center........but the story behind it is even more interesting. Certainly one of the most recognized and architecturally significant buildings in the world. 

Today was the first day that the weather wasn't bright and sunny on our trip. While the weather here has been great by our standards......down in the state of Victoria around Melbourne  ( 90 minute flight ) they have had some of the hottest temperatures and raging wildfires in history. Up in Queensland.....near where we will end our trip, it has been raining continuously and flooding, so the news is full of not so happy disasters. So we are very thankful  ......and we hope that it dries out up North and cools off down South a bit  before we finish the cruise.....which begins tomorrow!