OK, OK, I know it's cliched, but we are in Sydney after all and if Sydney is about anything it's about the Opera House. So there's sort of this compulsion to lead off with the totally expected this time.
We left our hotel, pictured here, at a reasonable hour, ie. the sun was well up. The Russell Hotel is a charmingly older hotel smack dab in the middle of the area called the Rocks and just so barely off the harbor. A very convenient location suggested by our friends in Melbourne and a lovely little accommodation.
Our first adventure for the day, after breakfast, was to get on one of the many ferries and head out of the harbor to Manly a nearby town. We then spent the next three hours on a medium sized trek about Manly.
As we explored, we saw some of our first wildlife of the trip, exclusive of the pubs, of course. This is one of a pair of Cockatoos we saw sitting on the ground calmly munching on pine cones.
And a little further along the trail, we found this guy sensibly sunning him/herself on a handy rock. I think a local called it a Tear Drop Lizard. I'm sure Ed will correct me if I'm wrong about that.
This is what part of the coast around Manly looks like. We probably walked between five and six miles and it was well worth it. And, to our delight, the temperatures in Sydney changed yesterday afternoon from 30 degrees to 17 or 18 degrees (all centigrade, of course) and with the stiff breeze we were actually a bit cool at times.
Along the way, we passed this marvelous little section of rock face that really wanted to have it's picture taken. It's not really a picture "of" anything. I just really like the image.
That one was what I would call "found art". Also along a part of the path there were some examples of public art. A couple of those follow.
These are part of a series of nice little metal sculptures that were just rather randomly set in the rocks lining the path.
From Manly we retuned via ferry to Sydney and had to go by the Opera House once again. Sorry. But it's just so THERE and it's really pretty darn impressive.
Back on the ground in Sydney, we ventured through the Botanical Gardens and ended up at the Museum of New South Wales where we found some more critters -- for you critter lovers in the group.
This was in a section of the museum devoted to aboriginal art.
From there we finally staggered homeward on very tired feet. After a period of revival at the hotel we ventured out one more time for a lovely dinner at a place called, Fish on the Rock. One more foodie shot and we'll be done for the night as it's past time to call it a day. So our Monday ends and yours begins. Have a great day.
Fran had a cod dish which she liked a lot and I had a fish dish I've never heard of before. The fish was called Barramundi and it was served whole but deboned and stuffed with prawn and veggies. It was swimming in a slightly spicy coconut and red curry sauce that was extremely tasty. A delicious ending to another very good day.
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