The first thing we saw this morning was the bridge and the Opera House - and it didn't matter if you weren't facing the window as they were both reflected in the mirrored wardrobe doors in the opposite direction!

Sydney CBD from our breakfast table

It has been a lovely day today, weatherwise and we have had a lovely day in Sydney, reacquainting ourselves with some favourite haunts. We started by taking the ferry from our hotel to Darling Harbour. This is just a little further west than the bridge and a development we visited on previous holidays. It has been vastly increased in size but sadly has lost the monorail that we enjoyed riding on. It seemed space age at the time but I think must never have caught on because it didn't go anywhere significant. It has now been dismantled!

Darling Harbour

Remains of monorail station

We wandered round a bit and enjoyed the children's fountains but decided you could have too many restaurants and bars and so caught the ferry over to Circular Quay, where the main action is! We stopped for coffee in one of the many cafes near the Opera House - like Darling Harbour, eateries seem to have proliferated here too. Then we walked over to The Rocks area just under the pillars of the bridge.

Fountain fun!

In the past this was quite a rough area but is now very much the place to be on a Saturday morning! There is quite a large street market with lots of crafty things on sale. Last time we visited I was beguiled by a large piece of pottery, which had to be shipped home, so today I was much more circumspect and didn't buy anything! I remembered what John had said (see some previous blog)!

We had a substantial lunch in The Rocks and then walked back over to the Opera House. We had hoped to be able to see the part of the foyer that has been done exactly to the architect's specifications. When it was first built it proved much more expensive than had been projected and so the decoration of the foyer was skimped. Since then, however they have tried to do a small part as was intended but unfortunately today it was being used for something else and we couldn't see it and anyway you have to take a tour to do this!

Instead we walked into the Botanic Gardens again - thankfully hot and sunny today! We admired the Moreton Bay fig trees and several other interesting plants and trees and then sat down for a rest. No sooner had we sat down than some kookaburras set about laughing and we soon spied them sitting in a tree nearby! After a cup of tea and then a little later a very small ice cream we caught the ferry back to our apartment.

Moreton Bay fig tree

I should have told you earlier that we had seen a big cruise ship docked in the harbour on our way to Darling Harbour and then when we got to Circular Quay there was a huge one there! Since returning from our Sydney tour we discovered they were both due to sail in the late afternoon and we have been greatly entertained by watching these slowly make their way from their berths and out of the harbour. This is a tremendously busy harbour and it was quite some feat to turn the huge ship whilst surrounded by ferries and leisure craft!

Huge cruise ship reversing out into the harbour

It is now dark and we are awaiting some fireworks which apparently happen each Saturday night but we don't know what time! Hopefully I'll be able to report on them tomorrow but as we fly to Singapore that may not be possible. We think WiFi at the hotel there might be prohibitively expensive - we shall see! We will be sad to leave Australia as we always love being here and have thoroughly enjoyed our brief time in Sydney - it is a great city. However we are getting just a bit homesick and will be glad to be home on Tuesday.