Dec 24- 29

We went back to Sydney since my father visited us in AU for the holidays and since it was his first time in AU we had to do all the main sights and Sydney is definitely the place to go.  You could spend 10 days in Sydney and not be bored.  It was odd being in a very warm climate for Christmas and seeing pine trees (fake) all over the place.  We hopped on a bus our first day which looked like a gaudy Christmas wonderland with decorations in every place possible.  It had bows ton the seats, garland hanging from above head holders, and pictures of Christmassy things on every window.  Everyone who was on the bus was laughing and the driver greeted everyone with a “Merry Christmas.”

We had wanted to reserve Christmas dinner but lunch seemed to be more popular in AU and almost all nice places offered lunch but rarely dinner.  We had lunch on the Showboat for Christmas which was very nice, though there was no show for Christmas.  We got poppers, drinks were included, and we had a wonderful view.  Sydney definitely looks its best from the water in the Harbor.

View from the boat

After our cruise we were surprised that the Aquarium and Wildlife World were open so we went to them.  Both are well worth a visit, and I especially liked the butterfly exhibit where butterflies fly all around you and land on you as well, but they were way too hard to photograph.

Sea Dragon in the Aquarium

In the following days we were tour guides for my father since we had already done mostly everything in Sydney so we sent him to the highlights such as the opera house tour and The Rocks walking tour through historic Sydney.

We also went to the botanical garden which is gorgeous and allows for wonderful views of the bridge and opera house.  When we lived in Sydney we would often go there for picnics on the weekends.  It is a home to many birds and lots of bats which are spectacular at night because they start flying and the sheer volume of them make you feel as if you are in a horror movie

Darling Harbour is a must and there always seems to be something going on such as Chinese New Year, street artists or dragon boat racing.  The Sydney Tower is not so great since other buildings around it seem to be equally tall so the view which you’d like to see of the opera house is much obstructed.  Hendrik and I had been there because we had the Sydney card which is well worth it if you are going to be in the city for a week, not so much if you are only going to be there for a few days.  We told my dad that he had seen Sydney way better from the boat.

Sydney from the botanical garden

As for beaches, I recommend going to Manley beach instead of the famous Bondi.  Manley is much prettier since it is longer and behind it there are trees and a road with surf shops unlike in Manley where you have lots of busy roads and dull pavement.  Unless you are a good surfer, Bondi often seems too rough and is deep while you can stand in the water quite far from shore in Manley and there are usually smaller waves for not so good surfers like myself.  We tried surfing 3 times there and never got the hang of it.  If I every have the chance again I think I’ll take a lesson.  We took my dad to Manley beach instead of Bondi since we did not have time to do both.

Manley Beach

There are always day trips from Sydney, and Hendrik and I have done the Hunter valley tour which is the wine region near Sydney and the Blue Mountains.  We went with Tours-r-us with my dad.  This took us to the Olympic park, which is not that interesting especially if you are not interested in the Olympics.  It turned out to be more of a bathroom break than anything else.  Then we headed out into the Blue Mountains and did the scenic railway, flyway and Skyway which are all part of Scenic World.  These are so popular with the tourists but they are nothing special, but really if you don’t have all day to hike there is no other way to get to the boardwalk and the rail and flyway take you up and down.  The boardwalk is very nice and it is a peaceful walk.  Then we stopped at the famous three sisters, and Hendrik and I did a mad dash to them since we did not have too much time and it looked really cool to be able to go down to them, but really the view is much better from the lookout.

Blue mountains and the three sisters

Near the end of the day we visited Featherdale Wildlife Park which was nice since they let you pet most of the animals including wombats and koalas so there were many photo opportunities.  Unfortunately, the wombats were asleep, but nevertheless, this was a worthwhile stop.

My dad and I with a koala