We left Penang on Wednesday 6th February and flew to Singapore, where I met Kelly who brought my stolen purse out to the airport for me. I had to go out through immigration, meet her and then come back in again. I wonder if I have the record for the shortest stay in Singapore? The credit cards were still in it, but of course were no use now. Thank you Kelly for coming on the long trip out to the airport.

Thursday, 7th February
We flew overnight to Sydney on a large, full plane with screaming babies and got very little sleep. We were met at Sydney airport and taken to our hotel, Four Points by Sheraton, right on Darling Harbour. Reception took quite a bit of convincing that we had actually booked and paid for a room at all. Eventually they discovered that it had been cancelled! They reinstated it but then said we hadn't booked breakfast. So Trev pulled the receptionist over the counter by the lapels and then she saw reason. No, not really, it wasn't Faulty Towers, and eventually they agreed that yes we had paid in advance for breakfast. As we had arrived early in the morning and our room wasn't ready, they took our bags to store them, and off we went go explore.

It was soooooooo warm, and that's not a complaint! We walked round the harbour and found a place for breakfast, under an umbrella. We sat and enjoyed the view and the change of pace from the busy week we'd just had. Then we walked back to the hotel, up to the eighth floor and unpacked. The room was good but the view was stunning. A friend who stays here from time to time had recommended we upgrade to a harbour view, and it was good advice. We had a wonderful view of the harbour and all the activity below. First thing was to find a launderette, we hadn't done any laundry since we left the UK. On almost every street corner there was a 24/7 store, and one had a bagwash next door, so we took everything in and the next day it was washed and dried for about GBP8.

Friday, 8th February
We walked to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and stood and marvelled. It really is BIG! Trev had intended to do the Bridge Walk, but it was $260, which is about GBP130, and we didn't feel it was value for money. After all, it's only a walk, and you have to do it yourself--it's not as though they carry you! So we admired it from afar. As we did the Sydney Opera House. That is a beautiful building, quite breath taking.

Then we walked to The Rocks area of Sydney, one of the oldest parts of the city. It is a bustling lively place, with delightful architecture, museums, restaurants and interesting shops. It's quite similar to Boston, USA.

More about The Rocks

We walked back to the hotel, and had a snooze and a shower, and then went down to the harbour and had an Italian meal.

Saturday, 9th February
We both slept well, and seem to have the time difference cracked now. I think we moved forward five hours in time when we flew from Singapore to Sydney. Today, we bought tickets for the city tour bus, Hop on Hop off, for two days. So we hopped off at Sydney Opera House, walked around the outside and then did a guided tour inside. It's difficult to imagine how vast it is. Even when we were standing outside we had no idea how big it was. It was only when we got inside that we could appreciate its size. In my diary, I wrote "What a wonderful, sensational, unique building". I was quite bowled over by it. The use of materials, the design, the unexpected features all combine to make it one of the world's greatest modern buildings. There are five performing areas--studios, theatres and an auditorium. Nigel Kennedy was playing during the time we were in Sydney, but we couldn't get tickets.

It rained all day, and so Trev bought me a very smart Sydney Opera House umbrella! We got back on the bus and had intended to get off at the museum, but we missed the stop. So we just went back to the hotel and had a rest, before going out to eat--another Italian!

Sunday, 10th February
We used the second day of our tickets and went to Bondi Beach. We travelled through the Sydney suburbs and it really is a most pleasant city. I think it would be a good place to live, especially if one was twenty something!

We walked along the beach, enjoying the sunshine. But we hadn't realised how strong the sun would be. I could feel the sun burning me, and it was lucky that we met some people and had a chat with them, and the woman gave me some suncream. She offered some to Trev, but of course, real men don't wear suncream, do they?

Bondi Beach is beautiful; long golden sands, turquoise sea and foaming white rollers. Most people were surfing, but there was a small roped off area for swimming and Trev went in. He only stayed in for about ten minutes--not because it was cold, it wasn't, it was delightfully warm--but the rollers made it impossible to swim and very hard work to stand up.

We had a couple of drinks in a bar and an ice cream before catching the bus back to the hotel. We could already feel the effects of the sun. The only part of me which got burnt was my feet, but poor Trev had really caught the sun, and his face was so red. Over the course of the next few days, his nose and forehead became like leather and then peeled. FoRtunately he seems to have have suffered no long term effects.

Monday, 11th February
Today we were awake early ready to go on a tour we had booked to The Blue Mountains. Just before we went down to breakfast, the phone rang, and it was the tour company asking if we minded going on the tour tomorrow aas they were overbooked. That was fine by us, so now we had to plan what we would do today. We walked through Queen Victoria Arcade, which was a delighful old arcade, remiscent of those in Birmingham. It's interesting how many places there are here with UK connections, either by name or origin, etc. Then we walked to Chinatown, but that was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe we never found the right place, but all we saw was a shopping mall with some Chinese shops.

We caught the monorail back into the centre. It's fairly new I think, and goes right past people's bedroom windows! We got off at Darling Harbour and walked up to King Street Wharfs to see a huge cruise ship which was berthed there: "The Sun Princess". It was the biggest ship I'd ever seen. It must be fantastic to go for a cruise on one of those--that's my next project!

We walked round to the other side of the harbour and had a couple of drinks, all in the cause of seeing where we might eat tonight. On the way back I visited an internet cafe and had a couple of hours for GBP4.50. Bliss! I caught up with all of my emails and did a bit of surfing too. Internet cafes are on every street corner here. The 24/7 shops often have a couple round the back of the shelves. It seems far easier to find internet connection here than in the UK.

Tuesday, 12th February
Today we really went on the Blue Mountains Tour, and it was one of the best days of our holiday. We were picked up at 8.00 a.m. from the hotel in a twenty-two seater bus, and set off through the commuter traffic. Eventually we left the city behind and our first stop was at Featherdale Wildlife Park. Here we saw a lot of Australian wildlife, including kangaroos, wombats, echidnas and koalas. There were also some very pretty native birds. I fell in love with the koalas. They are so pretty, I want one for a pet. I even had my photograph taken with one. One isn't allowed to hold them, as it stresses them, but I was allowed to stroke it. I'm not really too sure about animals being kept in captivity, some of the animals were pacing back and forth, back and forth, in their cages. They had worn a track, they had done it so often. But I wouldn't have seen them at all if they hadn't been in captivity..............

Read about the park here.

Next we stopped for morning tea and boomerang throwing, and then we went to a beautiful viewpoint, called Katoomba, which means 'Sublime View'. We looked out across the mountains. It really was sensational. We could see for miles. The mountains are covered with eucalyptus trees, and the sun draws the oil out of the trees. This forms a blue mist over the mountains, hence the name. Due to the climate, the trees go right up to the top of the mountains, there is no treeline as in the UK.

After all of this excitement, we went for lunch at a country club. it really was most civilised, days of the Empire stuff!

See The Wentworth Falls Country Club here.

Probably the highlight of the day was the trip some hundreds of feet to the floor of a temperate rainforest, in a cable car. We did a twenty minute walk trough the lush vegetation and then went back up on the steepest railway in the world. 1:1.28. It wasa breathtaking, unbelievable! It was so steep.

Read about the railway here

It was time to start back, and on the way we visited a charming little town called Leura. A lot of the architecture here reminds me of New England, and Leura was no exception. Little wooden shops, a wide main street, not much traffic.

Then we visited the Olympic village, where the Sydney Olympics were held. I have reservations about spending so much money every four years on what, it seems to me, turns out to be white elephant when the games are over. The flats were sold off, I think, but the stadium is there and used for football games from time to time, but the huge concourse, where all of the athletes and visitors must have thronged during the two weeks of the games, is empty, the running track is seldom used; the whole place just seemed deserted. When we visited the Barcelona Olympic village last year, it was just the same. Surely it would make more sense to hold the games in Athens every four years, where the whole idea originated, and use the same facilities each time. All of the participating countries could pay their share towards the upkeep. There, that's my soapbox put away for now!

Finally we were taken to the ferry, and went back to Sydney along the Parramatta River. That was a great finish to a wonderful day. We went under Sydney Harbour Bridge, past the Opera House and into Circular Quays. Here we disembarked, and, as the ferry back to our hotel didn't leave for forty-five minutes, we whiled the time away in a local bar--we can always find some way of amusing ourselves!

Tomorrow we're up, up and away again, this time for Perth. I'll add some more when I get time. Thanks for coming to read all about our holiday.

Back to Holiday Page

Home Page