We escaped the racing fever in Melbourne by taking a long overdue trip to Sydney. For various reasons, Sydney was one city I had longed to visit since I was a teenager and only after almost 5 months of arriving in Australia, we were able to make the trip. Since Melbourne Cup(the race that stops a nation) was on a Tuesday, we took the monday off and made it a long weekend at Sydney. We stayed in Four Points by Sheraton at Darling Harbour, in a room overlooking the bright lights of Darling Harbour.
The Opera house was a bit a of a surprise. We had seen countless pictures of it, but nothing honestly prepared us for the scale of the structure. It took 14 years to build and went over 107 million AUD in budget. We wanted to do the famed Bridge Climb over the Sydney Harbour bridge, but unfortunately, for various reaons never got around to it. We explored the busy and congested streets of the city, window shopped in the famous Queen Victoria Building, went on a tour of the Rocks and took a ferry to Manly Beach to catch the fabulous view of the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera House from the sea.
We rented a car and drove to the Blue Mountains. This was probably a mistake since a coach tour would have made better use of time, let us see more places and we would not have been so tired at the end of the day. We did not realize that daylight savings started that very day and hence lost out that one hour. The Blue moutains' town of Katoomba is about 90 minutes from Sydney and Jenolan caves were a further 90 minutes. Having heard a lot about the underground caves, we went for it, but it proved too tiring, especially when the road was excessively narrow and winding. The caves were no doubt very extensive, but the guide bored us to death, making a probably half hour tour a one and half hour one. The scenary around the caves were breathtaking. By the time we got back to Katoomba, we were too late to take the scenic railway and contented ourlselves by driving up to the 'Grand Canyon of Australia' and the 'Three Sisters' rock formation.
We would have dinner in one of the many restraunts in the Cockle Bay Wharf or Harbourside complex, both of which was behind the hotel and an excellent spot to hit the bright lights. We were content with strolling along the bay and sitting on the water edge for some time before getting dinner and heading back to the hotel. Surprisingly, on the last day, our feet were dead tired and we cut short our tour and retired to the hotel room to relax before catching the flight home. As with the Fiji holiday, I flew out early since Raj had official work in Sydney for the next couple of days.
