Sydney Stop Over

Our flight from Fiji arrived into Sydney at night so we walked across   Cockle Bay wharf for some dinner and to enjoy the neon lit skyline views of the central business district. As it was our first time to Sydney we planned out our day over dinner, listing the sights we wanted to see, but since Sydney has a Hop on Hop off bus we started with that.

We took the route around Sydney first seeing all the major sights such as the bridge and the Opera House and making our list of places to return to. At central station, we switched to the Bondi line and headed outside of the city to Sydney's exclusive beach town - Bondi Beach. It was cold and windy, but that didn't stop those Aussies from going to the beach! But, it was cold enough to stop Melissa from getting ice cream! 

The next morning we headed straight over to the Sydney Opera House for a close up view. From far away you can't tell, but the roof is tiled with lots of individual large tiles. We sat around watching the all of the water taxis and ferries leaving from the central business district to other parts of Sydney.







At the footsteps of the bridge and opera house is the Sydney Saturday market. With numerous stalls with food and handicrafts you could spend all day there wondering about. I was more intrigued by a store with at least a dozen different types of Australian honeys to sample, from wild to lavender. I picked up two jars of my favorite. Melissa found a christmas ornament to add to her collection, so neither one of us left empty handed... that is what I call a good morning! After a bit of shopping we took the short walk over to the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The best views of Sydney are from ON TOP OF the Sydney Harbor Bridge of course! So when Melissa saw the flier for a tour offering just that, we had to do it. After paying  for the tour, we had to fill out countless forms to sign our lives away as well as several more medical disclosure forms. The first 45 minutes of the tour was getting suited up in the provided windproof suits and to leave ALL of our belongings in a locker.. and they were serious. No camera, no necklaces, no change. They even provided a hat that was clipped to the suit so it would not blow off and made us use a bungie cord for our sunglasses. We thought it was OCD at first, but then they explained they didn't want anything falling on the cars below us. 

After being suited up, we went through an indoor training course on how to tether to the scaffolding and how to maneuver through the stairs and open breezeways. Before we were off they put us through a metal detector to make sure no one was sneaking any contraband. 

We were up by the flags later in the day

It was not easy climbing stairs in those wind suits, but once we reached to top we were glad we had them. It was a very clear day so we could see the Blue Mountains just over the horizon and had a birds eye view of the Sydney Opera house. The guide took a photo from the top, which they were more than willing to sell you once we got down. So when we got done we took the best photo...a free one. 

The bus tour mentioned the Sydney Fish Market had some excellent fresh seafood, so we made it their our last morning. We walked around a bit admiring all the fresh seafood, some we could identify and others we had never seen before. I even found a Brazilian soft drink we absolutely love, so we did have to get one of those. Yes, seafood for breakfast, we were jet lagged so 8am was just a number and the only question was which restaurant to choose. We decided on a platter which had a bit of EVERYTHING.. grilled squid, BBQ baby octopus, grilled scallops, pacific oyster, shrimp, grilled gem fish, mornay fish, and Kilpatrick fish and it was awesome! Then we were ready for our flight back to Hong Kong, but not before saying thanks for such a good meal.

We flew Virgin Atlantic direct to Hong Kong and enjoyed lunch together at 35,000 feet, a first for us!