Splendid Sydney

Hi to all. We made it, at 8:30 a.m. on April 1st. That was about 5:30 p.m. on March 31st in Winnipeg, so we were "travelling" for about 28 hours. Qantas was great. We had those individual movie/t.v./c.d. controls with lots of new movies to see. We also slept a bit, so arrived in Sydney surprisingly refreshed. We dropped off our things at the hotel, showered, and set off to explore Sydney Harbour, which is within walking distance.

The weather is perfect - about 25 degrees. I have a sunburn already in spite of using sunscreen. The harbour is just like all the pictures - the Opera House, the bridge, and all the sailboats being the highlights. We took the standard pictures. Can't attach the camera to this computer, so the pictures will have to wait for next time.

The Harbour area and the area between the harbour and our hotel are filled with parks. Today we walked through Hyde Park to get to the harbour. That makes two Hyde Parks in our list of "places visited". The Royal Botanical Gardens run the length of one side of the harbour area. They are filled with all kinds of exotic trees and other plants. Ross took a picture of a big spider, but that's the first one we have seen. As we approached one area, we thought we heard the sound of birds. However, it was a part of the park frequented by "flying foxes", a.k.a. bats. There were thousands hanging upside down in all the trees in that area, and they were making all kinds of noise. Very strange sensation to walk underneath them all!

Our bodies caught up to us, and by 5:30 p.m. we were asleep, and slept through to morning. Today so far we have gone on "The Rocks" walking tour. The Rocks is the area of the city at the harbour where the original settlers, the convicts, landed and had to make their homes. It got its name because it is all sandstone, so the convicts had a tough time. Very interesting tour - we learned all kinds of things, including the fact that Elizabeth Mortimer, who was convicted of stealing two hairbrushes and some knives, was deported to Australia and ended up marrying John Cadman, who was sent here for stealing a horse (it was better than being hanged in England). They lived in Cadman House, the oldest house in Sydney. They were married in October, 1830, in St. Phillip's Church. Is Elizabeth in our family tree, Jeffrey?

This afternoon we take a tour of the Sydney area by bus, and tomorrow a harbour tour. We are contemplating climbing to the top of the Harbour Bridge on our last day. I'll let you know next time if we decided to try it!