The sun shined through our east-facing hotel window and woke us up early on our first morning in Sydney. We got up and started our day by walking a few blocks to Bread Top for dim sum / Asian-style pastries. We got an apple bun, a coconut bun, and a ham & cheese croissant, which were all good. We then walked through Hyde Park, which is a fairly large park in the heart of the city and just a couple blocks from out hotel. Then we walked by St. Mary's Cathedral, which is the large cathedral we could see from our hotel room.

We then continued walking to the Royal Botanic Gardens. The weather had been cool, but by this time the sun had come out and it felt a little warm. There was a neat part of the gardens with succulent plans from around the world. The gardens are on a small peninsula and we continued walking out to Mrs. Macquarie's point. From there, we had an awesome view of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There was also a seat, called Mrs. Macquarie's chair, which was carved in 1810 for the governor's wife. We had a good view of the CBD and the opera house from this area.

Sydney CBD, Opera House, and Bridge on Vimeo.

We walked along the water to Bennelong Point where the Sydney Opera House is. The Opera House was pretty neat. It's such a unique and interesting piece of architecture. We took a few pictures there before heading back into the gardens. There were lots of neat plants and flowers as well as a pond with ducks. There were also a lot of very large bats perched on the trees, technically they were grey-headed flying foxes, which have killed several trees since they have moved in.

By this time we had spent enough time at the park and were about ready for lunch. Again we had trouble finding anything good, so instead we ate cheaply at some food court. Our next stop was Bondi Beach, where the beach volleyball events were held during the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney. To get there, we took the train from downtown to Bondi Junction and from there, took a bus to the beach. We were fortunate enough to have clear skies and pretty comfortable temperatures, which made the beach seem even more beautiful.

Bondi Beach on Vimeo.

We spent a lot of time here walking along the beach. We walked to a viewpoint where we watched the waves crash into the rocks.

Pacific Ocean Waves at Bondi Beach on Vimeo.

There were a pretty good amount of surfers here and other people just out enjoying themselves. And the area around the beach seemed pretty neat as well. We stopped inside somewhere to have ice cream before heading back into the city.

Sydney has a pretty good ferry system and we took a ferry from downtown to the suburb/neighborhood of Manly. It was a very scenic ride out of the city with views of the city skyline and its landmarks as well as the forested and rocky harbour shoreline. Once we arrived at Manly, we walked along the water for a while. On our way back, it started to rain, and by the time we got back to downtown Manly, it was raining pretty hard. Fortunately we had an umbrella this time, so we didn't get wet, and fortunately there were several places around to eat. We decided to stop at a pizza place, which claimed to have the best pizza in Australia. In my experience, when a place says they have the best food, they usually don't. Still, we decided to give it a try. The pizza was pretty good, but nothing too special. Pizza in Australia is a little different from American pizza. They put much less sauce on the pizza in Australia and the crust is thinner, though not really thin-crust. While we ate we could see the rain pouring down outside. We also heard thunder, which was cool since we so rarely have thunderstorms in Seattle.

After dinner, the rain had slowed down some and we decided to walk to the beach on the other side of Manly. While the beach had emptied, there was a very bright rainbow out in the ocean.

Manly Beach and rainbow on Vimeo.

Before heading back into the city, we stopped in the grocery store to pick up some snacks for later. It was dark outside for our ferry ride back into the city and again we enjoyed the beautiful views of the Opera House and the city lit up at night.

By this time a lot of the stuff in the CBD had closed, so we went back to our hotel and went to the observation level on the 45th floor. It was a fitting way to end a day of beautiful scenery. This was possibly our best day in Sydney, as we got to see a lot of beautiful things, and had good weather overall.