SYDNEY...BEAUTIFUL SYDNEY

March 24 (start of Australia's autumn)...18 days at sea over...Rhapsody docks at Sydney...and another Wallace Adventure begins!

No sooner did we dock and get to our hotel, but we were on the move...walking back to City Center and Darling Harbour...breakfasted dockside with the view of the Darling Harbour bridge and the Sydney Opera House...mere steps away! The bridge was an "outing" for some brave souls who actually "paid" $300 to walk up it to the middle and then back down...height, winds and and all. This twosome stayed grounded...we breakfasted dockside...the eggs may not have given us the "hen" but did open our eyes to costs...$50 and counting! Then we ferried over to the "the other side" of Sydney to get to the Taronga zoo and a guided tour that awaited us (Come to find out that "guided tours" are the ONLY way to enjoy the sites..whether about or stateside! )
Even managed to see a kookaburra..and he was not a zoo animal...just flyin' through! After our tour we headed back to the hotel to plan our evening out...dinner at Sydney Tower (at 305 meters high it is the tallest structure in all of Australia!) Would you believe "kangaroo steaks" and a waiter who explained ALL the sights throughout the rotation of the tower. Next morning we hiked to the Sydney Aquarium (for another guided tour) and an op to feed the rays and sharks! A leggo-ed King Neptune and his retinue decorated the aquarium (courtesy of the Chinese!) Jim saw his platypus...and he was stoked! It was real! It does exist (just in case you too wondered!) After seeing the aquatic sights, we "looped" Sydney on its monorail before stopping at The Rocks (Sydney's oldest village on its rocky shoreline)...to board the city's only authentic 220 tons timber tall ship...the Southern Swan...It was back to 1858 from crew dress, jargon, and sailing maneuvers. We did sail around the harbour, under the bridge, and even under the architectural feat of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Corps) where an Australian flag flies on one side and a New Zealand on the other. what a sail we had...and then a most memorable walk back to the hotel to prepare for our final night in the city...a trip to the Sydney Opera House to see the theatre's play "In The Next Room...or the Vibrator Play"....let your imaginations run with this one, and you probably would not be far form the plot! We laughed and laughed! It was great! And seeing it in the "73 architectural magnificence was even greater! Wow!

What a whirlwind time we had in Sydney...3 days and we did so very much...then it was time to pack it in and head stateside..13 hours again on the blessed 777! What a trip! What a ride! WHAT AN ADVENTURE BY THE WANDERING WALLACES!