Sydney: Opera House, Ferry to Manly, Harbour Bridge

Not too many people at the Opera House on a cloudy Sunday morning

We arrived in Sydney on Sunday morning and went straight to the CBD and Opera House.  Did the obligatory photos with it, took a path along the water, walked around the Royal Botanic Gardens, and went to the Gallery of NSW.  By Sunday afternoon, heading back to the Opera House to fetch the Berlingo to drive to the hostel, the Opera House was much busier than that morning.  (We'd taken our bicycles with us, which turned out to work pretty well except around the Botanic Gardens, where there is no cycling allowed on the multi-use paths and there are very few roads.)

This is it (supposedly.)

Lady Macquarie's chair

Sunday afternoon.

We did the rest of our tourist activities on Monday: started off the day by going back to the Opera House and Circular Quay.  We walked around a bit in The Rocks, the old neighborhood, and caught the 10am ferry to Manly.  It's a popular tourist thing to do, it's a good way to see the Harbour and it's a half an hour ride, so not a big time commitment.

Sydney Harbour Ferries- symmetrical so they never have
to turn around.

After the ferry ride we booked it to Mamak, a famous Malaysian restaurant.  (We'd swung by the day before at noon, just half an hour after they open for lunch, to find a queue that stretched past the shop front and in front of the neighbors.)  Getting there right at 11:30 was key: we were seated immediately and ordered our roti and curries.  (I have never had roti before and it was sooo delicious.)

Next was The Rocks Museum, followed by walking the Harbour Bridge.  We finished earlier than we thought so we went to the Contemporary Art Museum before heading back to the hostel.

Sydney Opera House from Harbour Bridge

Decorated palm trees

An enormous cruise ship docked in the harbor

No photos, unfortunately, form the highlight of our trip: seeing flying foxes in the evening.  When we first saw them Sunday night we could hardly believe it.  Monday night, on our way back from dinner, we took a walk through the park next to the hostel.  It was really spectacular.  Bonus: we also saw two possums.  (And Australian possums are a thousand times cuter than North American possums.)

Also no pictures from our departure through the suburbs Tuesday morning, including our venture to Tokyomart in Northbridge to pick up all our favorites: kanpyo, houjicha, and awamori to name a few.  It was a little bit of a hectic drive out of the city.  Also a surprising thing happened on our way out of town: there was a police checkpoint stopping cars to give breathalyzer tests (it was the day before New Years Eve.)  It was also 10am... a little unexpected.