Day 3 Sydney

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Day 2 Sydney



Jingi Walla! That means “hello, good day” or “welcome everyone to country” in the language of the Arakwal people one of the 500 aboriginal tribes in Australia. This a.m. we took a 2 hour walking tour of The Rocks neighborhood with our guide, James who is aboriginal from north of Sydney. The Rocks is in the shadow of the Sydney harbor bridge and it is the oldest neighborhood in Sydney. Full of pubs, restaurants, shops and the popular Rocks outdoor Market that is every weekend January and February. Most of buildings are all made of sandstone in this historic area. The oldest buildings in Sydney are right here. Sydney began in 1788 when the British arrived with a fleet of ships and the foundation of a penal colony began. Prior to this, the British would send their prisoners to America until we won the war against them and our freedom in 1776. Bring me more “19 crimes red blend Australia wine”. We grabbed lunch at a cafe at the Rock after the tour, I bought a couple of souvenirs from an authentic aboriginal shop and headed back to the hotel. We booked a hop on hop off for the day to see the city.



At 3:30pm we walked to the city hop on hop off stop nearest our hotel and began our tour. It took 90 minutes for the full city tour then about 30 minutes for the transfer to go to Bondi beach (pronounced bond-eye). It was huge, beautiful and I really would have loved to get into the water. After checking it out and taking a few pics, we hopped in a cab (www.13cabs.com.au) for the 10 minutes cab ride to Watson Bay and dinner at Doyle’s on the Beach. This restaurant was recommended by our friends Peter and Deb Brown who live in Brisbane Australia.



The restaurant was founded in 1889 by the Doyle family. We sat at a beach front table for 2 and were just in awe of the view and the evening. We ordered Sauvignon blanc wine to start while we surveyed the menu. We settled on an Entree called Doyle’s Mixed Plate which included a stuffed jumbo prawn, salt & pepper calamari, smoked salmon pate, Sydney rock oyster and a king prawn (WITH the head and shell on!). We each ordered this same entree and a side of garlic bread. We seriously thought about sharing a side of their fish and chips but after gorging on the fantastic entree, we when straight for the tipsy strawberry dessert with ice cream and whipped cream and an alcohol laced sauce. SO Good!! Next time I make my grand mariner cream sauce, I’m serving it over ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream! I had made the reservation at 7pm after asking Alexa what time would be sunset. We saw a beautiful sunset and the sun exploded with gold and yellows around the high rise buildings in Sydney. Absolutely gorgeous and so memorable.





Watson bay has its own ferry so we hopped on and watched the remaining sunset on our way back to circle quay. Our final day on our own in Sydney, tomorrow we have to place all our bags outside our room by 8am and we are transferred to the ship at 11:30am. We saw it in port today on the city tour. So excited!

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