Reflections on Sydney

After a week in Sydney we have moved on to Cairns.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney was a great city with lots of great features. The city is beautiful with great infrastructure, a great transportation system, large and beautiful parks, and iconic features like the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Nearby are great beaches like Bondi and natural features surrounding the harbor.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

All of that comes at a price. Sydney is a very expensive city. When we parked in the city to take a tour of the Opera House we parked in a nearby public lot and after four hours had racked up a $60 bill. Food is also quite pricey. Supermarket and restaurant prices run about 50% higher than in the US.  Gas is about $6.00 a gallon.

We stayed in a motel in a suburb called Haberfield at about why you would pay in the states. We didn't plan it but it turns out that Haberfield is a restaurant mecca with a long list of places to choose from. Apparently tour buses bring in foodies from around the area to sample the culinary arts of the region.

Captain Cook's ship Endeavour (replica)

The weather in Sydney was not great for most of our visit with some rain almost every day. The weather report on the news said it was one of the wettest weeks in about thirty years. None the less we had a great time touring around the city. Our activities included walking across the Harbour Bridge, a tour of the Opera House, a visit to the maritime museum and the replica of Capt. Cook's ship Endeavour, a drive around the harbor and to Bondi Beach.

Queen Victoria Building, shopping center in Sydney

We are now in Cairns, a much smaller town in the tropics. We will be here for a little over a week before moving on to the South Island of New Zealand.