I'd forgotten how beautiful -- and languishing -- dawn can be from a plane travelling east at over 500 mph.
After the long (we boarded the plane near midnight on Saturday), but otherwise uninteresting red-eye flight, we (that is, Chris Sterner and I) landed in Sydney only a few minutes after the promised time. The weather was gorgeous... meaning that it was warm and sunny and balmy. Not too hot or humid. It felt wonderful. We caught a shuttle (cheap!) to the Four Points by Sheraton (not!) at Darling Harbour. Yes, harbour here has a 'u'; get used to it. After unpacking and a light lunch of some really good and reasonably priced tapas at the hotel cafe, Chris and I decided to power through our jetlag and go for a walk. We headed north from the hotel, along Sussex street and then climbed the hill to the Observatory. Of course, we arrived at 5:01pm... yes, one whole minute after closing. No worries, mate, it's all good, etc. We were just on a ramble, so we descended the other side of the hill and found ourselves near the base of the Harbour Bridge, which we intend to climb... another day. Hey, we have to pace ourselves!
At one point, a very helpful Aussie gentleman stopped to ask if we needed directions. We were both flattered and flirty... until we realized that he was gay and assumed Chris and I were the same! Sigh. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, but this isn't going to be as fun a trip as we'd planned if all the good-looking men here assume we're lesbians. I took a look at my casual travel wardrobe, sensible walking shoes and aversion to makeup and realized, with more than a little chagrin, that I'm probably not going to be overcoming that initial first impression on this trip. Oh, well.
We continued through the Rocks neighborhood which was very, very quiet and quite lovely in the late afternoon. And, then, on to Circular Quay, an ice cream cone (I had one scoop strawberry, one scoop pistachio -- a delicious combination I discovered years ago in Italy) and around to the Sydney Opera House as the staff began preparations for the evening performances. Wow, neither of us realized how many structures comprise the complex, nor did we know that the roof doesn't look at all shiny white like it does in the postcards. My left foot (injured over a month ago) began to complain, so we took a taxi to Lord Nelson's Pub -- one of a couple of establishments claiming to be the oldest in Sydney -- and had dinner and a microbrew. I tried the "3 Sheets" pale ale and the enormously proportioned, but very tasty fish and chips... with wasabe mayonnaise instead of the usual malt vinegar. [Thanks to Ricky Manning for the great recommendation!] We taxied it back to the hotel to collapsed rather unceremoniously and indelicately at around 11pm. I'd taken OVER 50 PHOTOS (see link to the right-->)!! I guess I wasn't pacing myself, after all. As we were falling asleep, we both realized that we'd forgotten to get receipts from our assorted taxi and shuttle drivers. Well, there's always tomorrow. Steps taken: 13,282.