Day 50 1st March 2011

Sidney and Aurora from Opera House

Sidney Harbour Bridge on the other side of Aurora

Eddy Avenue near Central Station, Sidney

We arrived in Sidney this morning. It is apparently the first day of autumn here but it is still very hot with occasional showers. Although, we managed to miss the rain. The ship had to be docked by 7am this morning since that is when the ferries start to run and it would be too dangerous for it to sail in.  Sunrise was 6.30am so the approach was largely in the dark. I did take a look at about 5.30am but all I could see was the city lights and I was not sure where the ship was. I then feel asleep to wake up as we were mooring. The circular quay were we have docked is probably the most scenic anchorage of any city. It is between the Sidney Bridge and the Opera House.

This morning we went on a hop-on hop-off bus tour. In our case it was most stay on but we did change to go on another bus to Bondi Beach through the suburbs. This way we did see a lot of the city with a guided commentary. Finally, we left the bus at the Central Station stop in

Eddy Avenue

. From there we walked up

George Street

through Chinatown and the centre of Sidney. It was rather like walking along

Oxford Street

in London with crowds of people. We sought a cup of coffee but the first place did not have a lift so we settled for Starbucks which at least we could get in.

In the afternoon we walked around circular quay to the Opera House which perhaps because we have seen so many pictures it did not impress us as much as we had expected. For one thing it is very difficult to get into if you are in a wheelchair with long flights of stairs everywhere. We did locate a lift but access was quite limited. The views from half way up were spectacular. I was more taken with the walk along the harbour front that leads to the Opera House. We found an impressive Chinese restaurant that offers a lot of Australian style Chinese food (e.g. kangaroo in black bean sauce etc) so we book a table for this evening. We can sit outside on the harbour side and watch the world go by. I managed to get a glass of Blue Lagoon, a local lager –not a bad brew.