Tuesday -
Today we toodled around the city. We started by walking around the Sydney Opera House and through the beautiful botanic gardens.
We then hopped on the ferry to have lunch at the Sydney fish market. Out on the wharf, where we ate, there were a ton of seagulls trying to get at everyone's lunch! One couple got up and LEFT THERE TRASH ont he table - it was immediately swarmed by seagulls. The guy keeping the wharf clean ran over and told them to get back and clean up there trash - it was ridiculous!
Next, we took the Manly Ferry out to Manly beach. We walked along the pedestrian area, called the Corsco, and down the boardwalk, watching the surfers and the volleyball players. Half way down the beach we found a playground which had a cool spinning thing - a big circle that you could sit on and it spun like a merry go round. Geoff had fun playing on this, the slide, and the also the spinning poles. We went farther down the beach and watched the surfers catch waves on this insane patch of beach where the waves crashed right on the shore! Geoff played in the sand and we watched the ocean as the sun set and the sky faded!
We walked back towards the Corsco, stopping again at the playground for Geoff to play. (He hadn't fallen asleep yet for a nap, and he was starting to nod off - at this point, we wanted him to stay up for dinner). We ate dinner at the Steyne Hotel at the Corsco before heading back on the Manly Ferry - Geoff fell asleep on his way to the ferry, which was about 7:30 PM.
Back at the hotel, we all made it an early night because we planned to get up early in the morning. Geoff never woke up, so we hoped he would sleep until at least 6:45.
Wednesday
He did. He slept until I woke him up at 6:45. We got up and out early - got McDonalds by 7:45, on the subway by 8:00, at central station by 8:10, and on our train to the ZigZag railway in the blue mountains by 8:24. The train ride was 2 1/2 hours there - but it went pretty quickly, actually.
It was 42 degrees in the mountains. The train was shorter then we expected, but fun. Parked near the station was a James engine from Thomas the Tank Engine, so that was fun to see. We enjoyed hot chocolate and ate lunch on the train.
After the zig zag, we hopped back on the city train (after Grandpa Gary got to wave it down with the green sign) and took it about 45 minutes back towards the city to Katoomba. Katoomba is very touristy. There is a hop on hop off bus that is $25 a person - no way were we going to pay that for an hour and a half. We thought we'd take a taxi, which was reasonable ($10), but it only held four of us, and we would have had to wait for a taxi with a car seat to be called for us. We walked a bit into town and sure enough there was a city bus - $2 per person per trip. Perfect. A nice lady (a retired nun and teacher) spent time helping us with the busses, and then, once Geoff fell asleep and the boys went to a bar to wait for the bus, spent some time talking with me about teaching and her order of nuns.
We took the bus to Echo Point, and then a hike across the canyon rim (with me, and then grandpa, and then uncle blake carrying a sleeping Geoffrey and Grant carrying the stroller ) to Scenic World. We took an ariel tram with glass floors across a section of the canyon 1000 feet high! The views of the blue mountains here was spectacular - covered in amazing trees, an amazing waterfall - just beautiful.
After a trip to the bathroom (and a free game of frogger on an old school video machine) we took the bus back to town. We had about 40 minutes before our train to Sydney left, so we stopped at a woodfire pizza place and shared a small garlic and cheese pizza to tide us over (we weren't due back in the city until 7:30.)
After a long train ride back to the city, we walked back to "The Rocks" to find a place for dinner. WE decided on a kitchy German beer hall, complete with an oom-pah band!!! We dined on pretzels and schnitzel, and Geoffrey bobbed his head along in time to the loud music. Fun!
After a loooong day, we decided to hit the hay, and pack in the morning!
Today we toodled around the city. We started by walking around the Sydney Opera House and through the beautiful botanic gardens.
We then hopped on the ferry to have lunch at the Sydney fish market. Out on the wharf, where we ate, there were a ton of seagulls trying to get at everyone's lunch! One couple got up and LEFT THERE TRASH ont he table - it was immediately swarmed by seagulls. The guy keeping the wharf clean ran over and told them to get back and clean up there trash - it was ridiculous!
Next, we took the Manly Ferry out to Manly beach. We walked along the pedestrian area, called the Corsco, and down the boardwalk, watching the surfers and the volleyball players. Half way down the beach we found a playground which had a cool spinning thing - a big circle that you could sit on and it spun like a merry go round. Geoff had fun playing on this, the slide, and the also the spinning poles. We went farther down the beach and watched the surfers catch waves on this insane patch of beach where the waves crashed right on the shore! Geoff played in the sand and we watched the ocean as the sun set and the sky faded!
We walked back towards the Corsco, stopping again at the playground for Geoff to play. (He hadn't fallen asleep yet for a nap, and he was starting to nod off - at this point, we wanted him to stay up for dinner). We ate dinner at the Steyne Hotel at the Corsco before heading back on the Manly Ferry - Geoff fell asleep on his way to the ferry, which was about 7:30 PM.
Back at the hotel, we all made it an early night because we planned to get up early in the morning. Geoff never woke up, so we hoped he would sleep until at least 6:45.
Wednesday
He did. He slept until I woke him up at 6:45. We got up and out early - got McDonalds by 7:45, on the subway by 8:00, at central station by 8:10, and on our train to the ZigZag railway in the blue mountains by 8:24. The train ride was 2 1/2 hours there - but it went pretty quickly, actually.
It was 42 degrees in the mountains. The train was shorter then we expected, but fun. Parked near the station was a James engine from Thomas the Tank Engine, so that was fun to see. We enjoyed hot chocolate and ate lunch on the train.
After the zig zag, we hopped back on the city train (after Grandpa Gary got to wave it down with the green sign) and took it about 45 minutes back towards the city to Katoomba. Katoomba is very touristy. There is a hop on hop off bus that is $25 a person - no way were we going to pay that for an hour and a half. We thought we'd take a taxi, which was reasonable ($10), but it only held four of us, and we would have had to wait for a taxi with a car seat to be called for us. We walked a bit into town and sure enough there was a city bus - $2 per person per trip. Perfect. A nice lady (a retired nun and teacher) spent time helping us with the busses, and then, once Geoff fell asleep and the boys went to a bar to wait for the bus, spent some time talking with me about teaching and her order of nuns.
We took the bus to Echo Point, and then a hike across the canyon rim (with me, and then grandpa, and then uncle blake carrying a sleeping Geoffrey and Grant carrying the stroller ) to Scenic World. We took an ariel tram with glass floors across a section of the canyon 1000 feet high! The views of the blue mountains here was spectacular - covered in amazing trees, an amazing waterfall - just beautiful.
After a trip to the bathroom (and a free game of frogger on an old school video machine) we took the bus back to town. We had about 40 minutes before our train to Sydney left, so we stopped at a woodfire pizza place and shared a small garlic and cheese pizza to tide us over (we weren't due back in the city until 7:30.)
After a long train ride back to the city, we walked back to "The Rocks" to find a place for dinner. WE decided on a kitchy German beer hall, complete with an oom-pah band!!! We dined on pretzels and schnitzel, and Geoffrey bobbed his head along in time to the loud music. Fun!
After a loooong day, we decided to hit the hay, and pack in the morning!
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