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Published: March 6th 2008
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To make up for the lack of pictures yesterday I've got a quite startling number of views of mountains today! I think I got a little snap happy, but then you're allowed to when you have a 4 gig memory card.
Anyway, yesterday I went to the opera which I really enjoyed. I'm afraid to say I'd never been to an opera before, and decided that as far as locations go you can't really beat walking up the steps of Sydney opera house and walking in under the huge shells. I arrived early to have a drink and a spot of dinner, and found a very reasonable cafe just next to the opera bar where I had a pie, salad and a glass of sparkling wine for 6.75! A bargain considering the location and the quality which was very good. I had to have another glass of wine afterwards just to confirm that I really did like it! ;o) The good value soon wore off however when I came to buy a programme for a whopping 7.50...a trifle steep methinks, although it did contain lots of articles to read and wasn't all just full-page adverts.
My seat was right
One for Simon!
This gift shop was right on the main street in Leura on the end of a row running down the side of the auditorium so I had a slightly obscured view of the upper half of the stage due to the seats above hanging over, but hardly any action took place up there and I could see everything else including the surtitles. I don't think I've actually mentioned that it was La Boheme that I saw, and I loved the music and found it very easy to follow what was happening. They'd made it a very amusing production and it rolled along, and although I found it thoroughly unbelievable I decided that was all part of the opera experience! At the interval a nice girl who was also on her own came to talk to me which was lovely, and at the end I walked back to the station with all the lights of Sydney glittering round me. All in all an excellent evening.
Today I had a brilliant daytrip to the Blue Mountains which are just outside the city. I went with APT which is the company that owns Connections who my long tours are with, and again I was impressed by how organised everything was and how friendly
The first of many...
Our first good view from the coach window our guide was. He was hilarious and told terrible jokes all day as well as providing an interesting commentary. We drove out to a small town called Leura which was just like a little English country town with a pretty high street full of cafes and independent shops. I went to a chocolate cafe recommended by the guide and had a stick of strawberries dipped into their chocolate fountain - the chocolate was delicious and the waitress drizzled the whole plate with it so there was lots to eat. I also ordered an iced chocolate drink which was delicious. I'd seen other people drinking these in Australia so knew what to expect, but a word of warning to anyone who comes here and thinks they're going to get a Starbucks-style frappe - it's so much naughtier and yummier than that! You get a big glass that you might have a knickerbocker glory served in, and the inside is all drizzled with chocolate in swirly patterns. The glass is then filled with a mixture of a cold chocolate drink and icecream, and topped with lots of very solid whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. You're given a straw and a long spoon
to attack it with, and it's pretty much like eating a pudding. Delicious and more than a little fattening.
After this stop we drove on to a viewing point where we could see the Jamison Valley, Mount Solitary and the Three Sisters which are the most famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains. It's a beautiful view hence all the photos! Our next and longest stop was a visitor centre where you take a short funicular train down to the bottom of the valley, do a boardwalk round the dry rainforest and then come up in a cablecar. The funicular is officially the steepest railway in the world and gets to 52 degrees at one point! They play the Indiana Jones themetune when it sets off and it's really good fun. The weather today was gorgeous again and I enjoyed wandering round the boardwalk looking at all the trees and occasional glimpses of rock walls. Not many people took the longest route which I did, so it was really peaceful. The cablecar was nice and large and didn't wobble at all so wasn't scary. After a thoroughly enjoyable time I then bought a very tasty toasted chicken wrap and
sat in the sunshine in the rooftop cafe for my lunch.
In the afternoon we drove on to another viewing point, Cahill's Lookout, for yet more pictures. Our final stop was a wildlife park where I finally got to see echidnas! I went to Taronga Zoo the other day and saw most of the native Australian animals but the echidna tank had been closed for renovation so I hadn't seen them. Today however there were three of them waddling around and they were so cute! I also saw various birds, a Tasmanian Devil (possibly the ugliest animal I've ever seen), kangaroos, koalas and a very sleepy wombat which looks pretty dead in my photos! You can't hold koalas in New South Wales so it's a good job I did that in Queensland - here you can only stroke them. We could also scoop up animal food in small icecream cones and feed these to the supposedly tame kangaroos, but as soon as I tried this the kangaroo snatched the whole cone out of my hand and proceeded to fight over it with an emu! I decided not to try to get it back...
On the way back into
Sydney we drove through the Olympic park which was really interesting to see. The athletes village is now private homes and has become a new suburb of the city, and all the stadia are used for sporting events, concerts or exhibitions. There's a ferry port there and we caught a boat back to Circular Quay to end the trip. I'm really pleased I went on the tour as it was a great day out and I loved the mountains. I'm looking forward to my trip to Canberra on Monday even more now!
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Juicy
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A mexican hedgehog?
The Echidna (or enchillada as I misread it) looks like a hedgehog! Very cute.