Sydney sights

For those of you Pacers who are reading this, Shon is out for a run on a rainy Sydney morning. His route will take him around the Sydney Opera House, and through The Domain, their main park. We were there yesterday in 35C heat - quite a change today! The Botanic Gardens in the park are chockers full of fruit bats hanging in all the trees, tens of thousands of them!!
We have been in Sydney since Wednesday afternoon and our feet are not happy with us. We have walked many kilometres since then. Wed aft, we wandered around town and ended up in Chinatown for dinner at a food court. The area feels more like Singapore than Australia. In fact, we have noticed throughout downtown Sydney that in many areas, we are in the minority as whites. Thursday, we took the ferry across to Manly, along with many teens on their school hols. The scene made me wish I was a teen again - long ocean beach with breakers rolling in, teens hanging out, playing soccer, frisbee or footy or just looking good! The whole town has a beach holiday feel to it. Our objective was the Manly Scenic Walkway, a 10 km path along the esplanade, past expensive houses then a bush walk through a section of the Sydney Harbour National Park. It was a beautiful walk, very hot in places but cooler in shady areas. We passed through different ecosystems, from very dry to wet, and saw many Eastern water dragons (a land based lizard that grows to 2 feet), beautiful spring flowers and many spectacular vistas over the harbour. We stopped for a picnic lunch at a small beach enroute and took our shoes off for a cooling wade in the clear ocean waters. Felt a million miles from the city! After our walk, we bussed back to Manly then made the most of our transit day pass by taking 2 or 3 more ferries to other parts of the harbour, ending with a night ferry under the famous bridge into the quay by the opera house.
Yesterday, we walked around town - Hyde Park, the NSW Art Gallery, the Domain (another picnic lunch), around the Opera House, a gelato by the Circular Quay (where all ferries come and go), transit train to another part of town, a real coffee (by Shon's Canadian standards of drip coffee) at Starbucks in Darling Harbour then the Aquarium. The aquarium is awesome, especially a plexiglass tube that allows you to be surrounded by sharks, huge rays, other fish and a loggerhead turtle as they swim over and beside you!!! After 2 hours there, we were ready to relax and found a happy hour pub by Darling Harbour where a Cuban Festival was starting for teh long weekend. Great music, good chatter with fellow patrons then we went next door and had a patio seat across from the festival stage so enjoyed the music and terrific people watching as we ate dinner - oh, and a wonderful fireworks show,too!! Tummies full, we strolled back to our hotel past lively Friday night crowds. Oh, our aching feet!!
Shon just popped in after his run - said it felt good.
Today, we will walk across the Syndey Harbour Bridge, check out a market in The Rocks area (like Gastown). Tonight, one of my former students from Pitt Meadows and his wife are picking us up for dessert and coffee in their part of town. They are med students and live near Sydney univ.
Tomorrow, off to the Blue Mountains west of here to stay with Jo and Dave, who were on exchange in Vernon last year.
Will send more from there. I will post this then see if I can add photos separately before my time is up. Thanks, Bev, for the tip on the RSL dinners. I had thought of them but weren't sure if just anyone could go.
Love to all, Les and Shon