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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.
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