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Amber's Pictures |
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Amber's Journal Quay to the City (Quay is pronounced 'key".) Today was a real go go go day! Today we started with breakfast at the Taronga Zoo-tea and pastries with a guest star bandicoot (named Crash of course!) The Taronga Zoo's terrific! It's filled with amazing things like platypuses, species of trees that dinos chomped on, kangaroos, wallabies, a huge "flower clock", tree kangaroos, koalas, emus, evil-looking cassowaries, and my favorite the TASMANIAN DEVIL! Sadly, they don't spin or go "Gahwbuwhahahabah", but they are actually kind of cute in a somewhat demented way. I loved them. Then we all took a zippy little run around the Sydney Harbor in a jet boat to enjoy the sights and a stiff sea breeze that made my hair look like it was trying to get away from me. Great fun! We then headed for dockside for a delicious pizza lunch, and of course we then had to do something to burn off all those calories? Oh what to do? A gentle little bike ride round the historic Rocks district? Oh sounds most delightful! The ride started very easily pedaling through the beautiful historic area with our guide stopping now and then to point out art installations, convict barracks, historic buildings, a small amusement park called Luna (reminded me of the Coney Island one I've heard about) and such. Then: the route went uphill occasionally through traffic! This was hard! I was pretty puffed out and sweating by the time we reached the Observatory, and pretty much needed a rest by the time we pulled over for a nice group shot overlooking the harbor. Several riders took a little jaunt over the bridge, but I demurred, feeling that it might set off my fear of heights. A freak-out does not enhance the day's fun. I also had a bit of trouble managing my bike's gears, so was afraid to go too fast downhill, and I wobbled a bit from time to time! That afternoon on the way back to the hotel, we passed through a beautiful old shopping center called the Strand that had lovely Art Nouveau details and David allowed me to buy a nice little opal necklace. When we got back to the hotel, he let me get a couple more in a store in the lobby that had some nice deals so I could have some beautiful souvenirs of Australia. That evening we joined up with two other ladies from the tour, had a Chinese dinner at Circular Quay and we went to see Pirates of Penzance at the Sydney Opera House. (David spoils the heck out of me!) The lobby of the opera house is disappointing-it looks like a bus station, very cement and dull, but the actual seating area is lovely and has utterly amazing acoustics. The play was fantastic-I've seen The Pirate Movie (made in the 80's) which is based on it, but have never seen the real thing, so I enjoyed it a lot! I was humming songs from the operetta for at least a day, it was a nice change from the "sheep or two and a kangaroo" song which can really get stuck in your head! |
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