Monday, December 1, 2008

Final Day, not Night, in Sydney

Unfortunately my holiday is coming to an end. What to do on this last day in Sydney? Well first let me say, THE SUN IS SHINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I could not have asked for a better last day. I slept in, got some breakfast and then headed to Hyde Park. It was an area of the city I had not yet seen. Surprisingly, there was a Scottish Heritage Festival going on in the park. I got to hear some bag pipes and great Scottish music. Maybe these are the guys that were in the hotel last night walking around in kilts.

After walking through the park, I headed across the street to the Australian Museum. Lo and behold, they also have a dinosaur exhibit, as well as an exhibit on “Surviving Australia.” Similar to the museum in Auckland, it was very interactive. It makes a trip to the museum much more fun! After the museum, I walked to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens are HUGE and so beautiful. I know there is no way I saw all there was to see. I looked up at one point and was surprised to see a ton of bats hanging from the tree above. The further I walked, the more I bats I saw. They were everywhere, hanging from almost every tree. It was totally cool but also kind of creepy. Every now and again, one would spread its wings and take off and then grab hold of a branch on another tree and wrap itself back up in its wings. Amazing. I have to admit, I kept waiting for Batman to jump out!

I was getting hungry and so started to look for an exit out of the gardens and suddenly stumbled upon a river walk. I don’t know how I had not noticed this before, but there is a walk all along the river that takes you right to the Opera House. I followed the path back to Circular Quay (pronounced key) to look for a place to eat. Given it was lunch time, everything was packed. Since it was such a beautiful day, I decided to postpone lunch for a bit and took a ferry over to Darling Harbour. Even though it’s only about a 20 minute walk, I had yet to take a cruise through the harbour and figured today was a great day to do it. What a great way to see the city and for less than $5 US dollars a great bargain.

All in all, a good last day. Now as I sit in the lounge sipping my evening champagne, I’m contemplating what to do for my last Night in Sydney…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad you had such a good last day -- and got to see the sun! Hope the final night is just as good. I love the canyoning pics, you are quite the adventurous Hillbilly, aren't you?! ;-)