Australia Day

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Taxi arrived early, around 4 am. John, Nik and Vienna were all up to wave us off. I couldn’t believe we had been there a week and it was over. Didn’t let John see me upset, had a quiet weep in the taxi after we had left Lighthouse Parade. What a lovely week they had given us, they worked so hard to show us as much of Perth as possible.
I heard from one of my sisters that John and Nik were shattered after we had left, I can well believe it.

Flew into Sydney on a sunny ‘Australia Day’, lots of celebrations, the whole country was going wild. Booked into hotel, dumped our suitcases and caught an open topped, double decker Sydney Tour bus.
The itinerary should have been
1 Star City Casino
2 Maritime Museum
3 Chinese Gardens/Imas
4 Sydney Aquarium
5 King Street Wharf
6 Campbells Cove
7 The Rocks - visited here lots of historical buildings and great markets.
8 Circular Quay - at Pier 4, caught the ferry to Manley one afternoon and had a few meals and snacks at the restaurants on the Quay.
9 George Street Shopping
10 Queen Victoria Building - George Street - walked back to the hotel one night via George Street - Lots of snazzy cars cruising around, no police presence, but no trouble, just excitement and happy people.
11 Town Hall
12 Hard Rock Café - William Street - never saw this on the bus ride, but found it with directions and did a little bit of souvenir buying
13 Kings Cross - Darlinghurst Road - this was a lively place during the day and the night (red light district)
14 Fountain - Macklay Street
15 Wooloomooloo Bay
16 Sydney Opera House - stayed around this area a lot. Very popular all times of the day. Lynne and Chris went to an Opera on the Friday evening.
17 Botanical Gardens - spent our last afternoon in the gardens. The bats were amazing, never seen so many hanging around and a few noisy Cockatoo’s.
18 State Library - Queen’s Square
19 Australian Museum - Prince Albert Road
20 Hyde Park - Friday afternoon, we walked through the park and came to a Classic Car Exhibition with a vast array of all types of cars, vans and motorbikes. The men were in their element.
21 Central Station
22 Power Museum

However, a lot of the streets were closed off due to all the celebrations and special events, so we got a bit confused at times where we were.

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