Actually, we're not quite in The Rocks. We "settled" for a room at the Intercontinental, just a very short walk from Circular Quay. Posh, you say? I have to admit, we used Priceline.
This is actually our second day in Australia. After an eerily silent train ride from the airport to the city (no one spoke on the train...except Ian, of course), we arrived at our hotel at 8 in the morning, fully expecting to be "homeless" for a few hours until our room was ready. Our travel guardian angel was looking out for us though, since a room was ready!
We know, of course, that "taking a nap" is the absolute worst thing to do for jet lag, so we spent the day strolling around Circular Quay and The Rocks, taking in the Opera House from all different angles, and enjoying the sunshine along with other tourists and lots of Sydneysiders, as well. Ian, for some reason, is fascinated by the Opera House, and desperately wanted to take a tour of the inside. Since following directions and listening weren't his best skills yesterday, we passed. Instead, we took a little tram ride around the Royal Botanic Gardens. Since we can see them from our hotel room, I'm sure we'll stroll around there again.
Now, I've never been to Australia before, and I haven't had time to read as much as I would have liked about Australia and Sydney. However, what I have read about Sydney led me to imagine a city founded on towering sandstone cliffs. Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, carved into the sandstone cliffs so that she could keep a lookout for ships sailing into the harbor. Dawes Point, with its observatory high above the camps of the English marines and convicts. Turns out the cliffs and such are much lower than I had imagined. Funny how what we imagine isn't always quite the way things are. Nevertheless, Sydney Harbor is beautiful, and we enjoyed a spectacular afternoon watching ferries and catamarans go by, lunching on meat pies, and staving off jet lag. And it worked! We called it an early night, and got up this morning ready to go.
The only problem is that we don't know where we're going to go...so stay tuned!
This is actually our second day in Australia. After an eerily silent train ride from the airport to the city (no one spoke on the train...except Ian, of course), we arrived at our hotel at 8 in the morning, fully expecting to be "homeless" for a few hours until our room was ready. Our travel guardian angel was looking out for us though, since a room was ready!
We know, of course, that "taking a nap" is the absolute worst thing to do for jet lag, so we spent the day strolling around Circular Quay and The Rocks, taking in the Opera House from all different angles, and enjoying the sunshine along with other tourists and lots of Sydneysiders, as well. Ian, for some reason, is fascinated by the Opera House, and desperately wanted to take a tour of the inside. Since following directions and listening weren't his best skills yesterday, we passed. Instead, we took a little tram ride around the Royal Botanic Gardens. Since we can see them from our hotel room, I'm sure we'll stroll around there again.
Now, I've never been to Australia before, and I haven't had time to read as much as I would have liked about Australia and Sydney. However, what I have read about Sydney led me to imagine a city founded on towering sandstone cliffs. Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, carved into the sandstone cliffs so that she could keep a lookout for ships sailing into the harbor. Dawes Point, with its observatory high above the camps of the English marines and convicts. Turns out the cliffs and such are much lower than I had imagined. Funny how what we imagine isn't always quite the way things are. Nevertheless, Sydney Harbor is beautiful, and we enjoyed a spectacular afternoon watching ferries and catamarans go by, lunching on meat pies, and staving off jet lag. And it worked! We called it an early night, and got up this morning ready to go.
The only problem is that we don't know where we're going to go...so stay tuned!
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