Australian Holiday

In February, we spent a week in Sydney, Australia.  It was summer in Sydney, so the weather was great (albeit a little hot some days).  Generally, we absolutely LOVED Sydney, and put it on the list of places the Pharrs would move, if given the chance ;)

Day 1 (Monday)

We arrived in Sydney at 9AM and headed to our hotel.  We knew we'd be fighting jet lag so scheduled a tour to keep us awake - the Sydney Bridge Climb.  It worked!  The bridge climb was invigorating, exciting and informative, and it helped us to make it through the rest of the day, which consisted of visiting some local pubs and a seafood dinner on the harbor.

Day 2 (Tuesday)

Again, knowing that jet lag may be plaguing us at the beginning of our trip, we made our second day a nice relaxing day at Manly Beach.  It was gorgeous!

Tuesday night, we had tickets to see The Pearlfishers (an opera) at the Sydney Opera House.  I'm not sure if opera is mine or Matt's 'cup of tea', but it was enjoyable all the same, and it was really cool to see an opera in such an iconic building.

On the way to the opera house

After leaving the opera

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Wednesday was the beginning of our site-seeing days.  We started this day with a city tour of Sydney, which was super informative and provided some great color and cultural background to the city as well as providing us with multiple photo-ops of the city.

We finished the day with a river cruise luncheon with good food and great views.

Cruisin'

Wednesday night we went to BANG - a Bangladeshi restaurant.  Matt always picks out some great local restaurant for us to try when we travel, and this was an experience!  The food was adventurous (for us anyways) and very tasty.

Fuska (so good!) and White Bait - those are not french fries! If you look close, you can see the eyes and tails!

Duck-egg omelet - so good!

Beef Kabob - again, so good!!

Goat Curry - never had goat before.  It was delish!

Day 4 (Thursday)

This was our nature day.  We headed out to the Blue Mountains to do some sightseeing and hiking.  First, we stopped at an actual park built into the mountains (Scenic World) and then we stopped at a couple of view points.  Matt and I were able to get in a few short but heart-elevating hikes and get some great photos of these lovely mountains.

After the mountains, we stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got to interact with some of the local animals - even got to pet a Koala!

Day 5 (Friday)

Friday was wine day - always my favorite day! We got to tour and sample wine from 3 different wineries.  Most of these wineries don't export to the US, so it was nice to taste wines I wouldn't have necessarily tasted before.  Also, in Australia, they are very liberal with their tastings and pours - which was fantastic!

Day 6 (Saturday)

This was our Sydney-sider day.  We just hung out in the city - walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens, visited Hyde Park, did a little shopping, had a picnic in the park, had a beer at a bistro/gastropub that sat in the park.  It was a lovely and relaxing day to finish off our visit to Sydney.

Sunday morning we were up and back at the airport to come home.  Sydney was a lovely and friendly city with beautiful surroundings - both man-made city scape and natural beauty.  Would love to return one day!