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Published: November 8th 2013
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Chinese garden
Set against the city skyline So today started as if we were at home. I put some wasing in the drier and then made breakfast. Amazing how quickly you can fall back into non holiday mode.. Glad we haven't got too many apartments on this trip. Mind you at the Ayers Rock resort it was $5 to launder a pair of knickers!!!!
So today we headed out to darling harbour. On the walk there we stopped at the Chinese garden, probably drawn in by yet another BRIDE heading in for a service. Funny thing was, when we got into the garden Ian suddenly remembered he'd been before!! Ian visited Sydney about 20 years ago when he was working for BOC. He has very little memory of this trip, like most events in his life. Look this is the man who can't remember what year we got married or how to spell my middle name (after 30 years of marriage it's still got an E at the end!). His only recurring memory of this trip was that he had the best wee of his life overlooking Sydney from a gents up in a high rise restaurant with windows looking out over the city as you do
Wedding underway
This one had a harpist who then jumped up and started officiating!!! it. Tonight we decided it was the Westfield tower.
Still I digress. The gardens were lovely. Built to celebrate the bicentennial, they appeared slightly incongruous amongst all the high rise offices around. And I did sneak a picture of the bride for you. Mind you, yet again you had no option to walk right last them as they were doing vows so I'm probably in their pictures as well. We also took some self time shots of ourselves. I would have posted the one of Ian's backside when he thought 2seconds was long enough to come and sit beside me. But he got to it first and deleted it!
We left the garden and headed round to cockle bay wharf and Darling harbour. Actually I think I preferred it to Sydney harbour. Fair enough it was missing a couple of key photo opportunities(!) but from a strolling and eating perspective it was far more pleasant and accessible.
So off to Bondi beach which involved the ferry back to Sydney harbour and their a bus. Ferry was fun albeit I'm not sure I needed any more photos of the bridge or the opera house but, hey, we'd never
approached from that direction and gone under the bridge.
The bus took us through Paddington district where all the designer clothes shops are. Very pretty area and obviously no option to get off as buying bus tickets is a nightmare and we only had our ticket to Bondi return!
Bondi beach is beautiful although the cafe/bars behind it leave a bit to be desired. Surfing abilities on show also left a bit to be desired although that could have been surf quality. Not a patch on the ones we saw in Maui. Sorry.
Bondi also contains an outdoor swimming pool set overlooking the beach. Most impressive setting. To join the swimming club there you have to swim 4 of the 5 winter sessions every year for 5 years. If the water isn't cold enough they put ice blocks in! No surprise they are called the 'Bondi icebergs'!. Or you can just pay the $6 for a public entrance!
After a quick sit down we were off again for an Ian 'quick stroll' along the coastal path to Bronte, another beach resort around the bay. This was made even more interesting as the path was host to
View from Darling Harbour ferry
Don't think you've seen a view from this side of the bridge - could you tell the difference? an exhibition called 'Sculptures by the sea'. This contained over 20 sculptures made specifically for the walk and many made using the existing landscape.
After that I was ready for a drink so we headed back to Haymarket where we met Mark a very nice drunk from Queensland. He was on his first ever holiday at the age of 39 (apparently his boss had sent him??), he had done the bridge climb That morning when I assume he was still sober and then gone to play a game of 'pokie' (or slot machines as we know them) and had won $5,000.
Interestingly the pub we met Mark in also had a betting shop next to the bar??
Finally freshen up and back to Darling Harbour for a quick steak at 'Meat and Wine company' in Darling harbour followed by a quick trip to a bar with a bit of live music. Although we became more obsessed watching old 80s music videos that were on silently next to them. And yes Ian you were right. Bowie/Jagger did record 'Dancing in the streets' for Live Aid but that's still no excuse for dad dancing from two cool rock heroes.
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