Blue Mountains

The Three Sisters

Cascade Falls

Some old coal miners

Time to get out of the hustle and bustle and the coughing being  being in close proximity to 3 million people.  Hired a car and headed to the country.  Oh so long to get out of the city.  Absolutely stunning when we did get there.   Got some tickets to go on the world's steepest railway to check out the coal mining from the era and a cable car that went across the chasm.

Palm Beach

Summer Bay Surf Lifesaving Club and Kiosk

Palm Beach, beautiful beach, but no palm trees

 Another day took the bus and headed for Palm Beach.  It was one of the L buses (means Limited stops.) but it did stop heaps as it went further from Sydney.  Took hours to get there.  When we hopped off, wondered what we had come to, the shops at the end of the beach where we got of the bus were closed, only open in summer we presumed.  Where the coffee shop?  They had a toilet at least.  Walked along the beach and saw flags flying, Must be a shop.  A little kiosk called Summer Bay, for those of us of OUR generation, didn't know what that meant, but turned out that is where they film Home and Away for all those soap lovers.  Well they had a range of pies, mince, chicken and curry.  So we refuelled on pies and coke.  the old guy in the kiosk said they would be filming later in the day. They were having lunch.  Well we decided to walk to the light house.  Good track up cut out of the limestone rocks.  Great view once we got to the top of Palm Beach and the harbour on the other side.  Came back down and stopped for an ice cream at the kiosk, Lovely they had put up umbrellas and more tables and chairs.  While we were sitting there scoffing our ice creams a camera crew was setting up their railway track for their cameras.  Must be gonna be some action.  he "famous people" and their enterage arrived.  We  thought we might move as didn't fancy being extras on TV.  Think they were about to ask us to get out any way.  We had met some girls on the bus that morning and they were excited because they would see their heroes from Home and  Away.  Well we had to ask who they were.  They had been filming one young guy with his surf board, jumping off a picnic seat, must have felt a dick doing that.

Walking along beach to track to climb to light house look out

Taronga Zoo

Snow Leopard

Meer Cat

Lima

Had a full day at the zoo.  Caught the bus from Neutral Bay to Circular Quay then caught the ferry across to Taronga Zoo.  The Cable Car was out of action so then go a bus to the top then spent the day walking around the zoo checking out the different displays on the birds, elephants, spiders, etc. Junk food for lunch again.    Caught the ferry back to Circular Quay then a bus back to Neutral Bay.  Most days we didn't get back till about 8.00pm and were pretty naffed by then.  Had wanted to go out to see Kings Cross but maybe another time.

Hop On Hop Off

Every day is getting warmer. We Go to Circular Quay to pick up the sightseeing bus, which does and circuit of the city and out to Bondi Beach with a running commentary of everything that you go past so you can either hop off to see or go back to see. We hopped off at Bondi and look around, walk up to a look out at one end of the beach.  then later stopped off at the Australia Musuem that has all the dinosaurs.

Our First Day

HMAS Vampire and HMAS Onslo

Today it is back across to Darling Harbour and the first visit is the Maritime Museum actually we might have fitted this is yesterday, I think, we did so many things that I can't remember the order. Great story of Scott at Antartica, that would be Robert Falcon Scott in 1912.  HMAS Vampire and a submarine were there to have look over.

Lace work on a truck

After the Maritime Museum went to check out the Power House Museum, the boys went first and Sally and I checked out some shops first then found our way there.  Was a long walk but got there.  Was a really interesting place.  Had a Lace Exhibition, don't think the guys were too impressed with this but was interesting seeing the work that had gone into some of the pieces and not all lace as you would imagine.  A lot of scientific stuff, space exploration, studies for students etc.  The Powerhouse Museum is located in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Its unique and diverse collection spans history, science, technology, design, industry, decorative arts, music, transport and space exploration

Whew its hot now, feet are swelling and sweating, need to get a cold drink. Walk back to catch a train, then a bus and back to Neutral Bay to have dinner at The Oak.  Named because it has a huge as oak tree in the court yard.

Off to Sydney

Well this day was off to an early start as have to be at the airport at 3.00am to check in to fly with LAN.   First time flying with South American airlines.  They had good service only bothersome thing was had to listen to announcements in espanic then in english all while trying to watch a movie.  Scott and I checked in and waited for Chris and Sally then went off to have some breakfast and coffee before boarding the flight.  Got picked up at Sydney airport buy a shuttle to take us to Neutral Bay on the North side of the harbour.

We had rented a 3 bedroom apartment for the nine days we were their which turned out to be a really old building.  We had the penthouse whoa hoo,  no curtains in the  master bedroom, they had succumbed to ultra violet and some of it on the floor.  Not 4star but had the facilities we needed and hey we were only going to be there to sleep.

It was Sunday Craig and Shane picked up the key for the apartment, they had been touring around the day before.

Craig Chris Shane Sally Alison and Scott

Busker at Darling Harbour

First stop was the 7Eleven store to pick up our "mymulti1" pass,  for $41 each, which would get us on the bus, train and ferry.  First stop Darling Harbour, it was packed, a boat show and some other exhibition on, people every where, then these boats came in from a fishing competition, some of the winners got $20,000 cheques.   Walked around the harbour viewed the bridge, opera house and walked around the city.  Got the ferry from Circular Quay to take us to Manly for dinner.  A guy there had a voucher for $100 and he and his son had ordered their dinner so gave the left over from the voucher to us, which was kind of him.  Craig and him had a good chin wag over dinner.  Decided we need to come back to Manly to see the beach in the day. Caught a bus back to Neutral Bay, found the supermarket to stock up on some fruit and cereal for breakfast and the liquorking was next door, and all this right beside the bus stop.  S short walk got us back to our apartment.  Man did we do some walking, decided that needed to wear walking shoes not dress up boots, dam brought the wrong sort of shoes.