Days 1 & 2 Down Under

We arrived at LAX with no problem and plenty of time to spare. The first surprise was when the ticket agent informed us that I would need a visa to fly to Australia. I was not aware of this at all and had a mini panic attack. Luckily the agent was able to take care of the paperwork and I paid a $25.00 fee to get one. The flight was 14.5 hours and it actually didn’t seem that long...thank goodness. We both slept for 6-7 hours and watched a few movies. Harley enjoyed the airplane food and I wasn’t too disgusted by it. We took a cab to Sydney with is about a 25 minute ride. The weather is much cooler than I imagined it would be.

We arrived at them Menzies hotel at 10:00 and surprisingly we were able to check in early! The hotel is centrally located and the room in nothing fancy. It reminds me of a few hotels in Europe in which everything is small.  Thank goodness it was truely a king size bed though. After getting cleaned up and ready for the day, we hit the streets. First stop was to have a meat pie and a ginger beer for Harley. I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty the meat pies were. Then we walked the streets and ended up at the Sydney SkyTower. The SkyTower is Sydney’s landmark tower which affords you a 360 degree views of the city. It wasn’t the clearest of days but still the views were amazing. My only complaint would have been that it was a bit pricey! We then wandered the streets, walked through Hyde Park, and stopped in the Queen Victoria’s Building which has been renovated and turned into an upscale shopping center. We were so exhausted, we went back to our hotel to rest for a bit. We began walking the wrong direction which we actually realized after about 20 minutes. Ooops. We took an afternoon nap and woke in time to get ready for dinner with Harley’s sister Pam and her husband Hugh. We walked down to the part of the city called the Rocks to find a place to eat. Unfortunately the streets were jammed packed and every restaurant was also. We ended up eating at a sidewalk cafe and the food was decent. We had a lovely visit with Pam and Hugh over dinner and retired to bed early to prepare for our big day.

 

Day Two began around 4:00 when we woke and couldn’t get back to sleep. We must have since the alarm woke us at 6:00 to get us out the door for a 7:00 pickup. We had arranged a tour with a company called Blue Diamond Tours. It is a small company owned and run by a young married couple. They picked us up in a 12 passenger Mercedes van. Seven others joined the tour. It was great to have a small intimate group. Our first stop was for English tea, scones, and pretzels at a little family owned bakery outside Sydney. Then they drove us into the Blue Mountains which is about an hour and a half from the city center. We first went to Scenic World which is an old coal mining area that has been turned into a tourist attraction. You first ride across the valley in a glass floor Skyway. When you arrive on the other side you take a railway which is supposedly has the steepest incline of any in the world at 53 degrees. It was a bit nerve wracking....yes. Then you have arrived in the Jamison Valley.

We walked through this beautiful rainforest canopy for about an hour and tried not to freeze. You return via a scenic cableway. The views of the Blue Mountains and surrounding valleys were beautiful. A stop at a beautiful waterfall preceded the most popular lookout at Echo Point. The site was crammed with tourists but we were able to get some incredible views of the Three Sisters, despite the less than ideal pictures. A quaint shopping village nearby was the next stop. Lunch was had a the Sportsmans Club. We then traveled to Featherdale Wildlife Park just outside Sydney. It is a small park with animals common to Australia. We saw wombats, emus, tasmanian devils, dingos, koalas, wallabies, kangaroos, echinidas, penguins, and much more. We feeds some tiny wallabies corn flakes and had our picture take with a koala. Unfortunately, not ten minutes after arriving the battery on my camera died. So I went for my backup and the battery on it was dead. I was sooooo sad. I wanted pictures of allthese cute animals more than anything. Oh well, there wasn’t much I could do but be disappointed. They drove us by Sydney’s Olympic Park which is completely still utilized. The tour guides Alena and Rob dropped us off in Breakfast Point and we took the ferry back to the Circular Quay. Due to the weather, we chose to sit inside which obscured the views a bit but the bridge and city views were spectacular. Wished I had a working camera.  We walked all over trying to find a place to eat dinner tonight and settled on a meat pie for Harley and a Subway sandwich for me. We were to the point we were so hungry we didn’t care. The tour guides recommended a chocolate bar and it just happened to be down the street from our hotel. So on the walk back we picked up a toffee flavored hot chocolate and honestly weren’t too impressed. Another early night for us.