Sydney

How ya goin'?  We must be in the land of Aus.  It's been 26 years since we first visited here and we both wish we could stay longer.  It has been a jam-packed two days in Sydney.  We could not ask for a  better location for our accommodation.   From our balcony we look directly across to the Sydney Opera House and  behind is the Harbour Bridge.  
For our first day we purchased a city  rail pass and headed to the Blue Mountains, which is a two-hour train ride out of Sydney.  They are called the Blue Mountains because of the blue haze in the air, which results from Rayleigh scattering of sunlight by the very small particles of vapor emitted by the abundant Eucalyptus trees.   On our day there it was cloudy with periods of rain so it was grey instead of blue; but what better way to experience the rain forest in the Jamison Valley?  We took a hop-on hop-off bus that was included with our train ticket.  The view from Echo  Point was brilliant, overlooking a rock formation called the three sisters and the cliffs bordering the Jamison Valley, as well as giving nice views of more distant mountains. We toured around on the bus and got off at the Skyway which is a tram with a glass floor that takes you across a small valley to the cable car and Funiclar Railway.  We took the cable car to the valley floor.  The valley has three paths on boardwalks of 10, 30 and 50 minute duration and we took them all. A sculpure exhibition was held along one of the walks which provided for some good and not so good art on the forest floor.  I liked the piece which was a giant sale tag on a gum tree that said "Complete dining room set $299."   While we walked these paths, the rain started to get fairly heavy and persistent.  At the conclusion of our walk, we took the funicular railway back up.  It is the steepest railway in the world with a grade of 52 degrees in some places.  I was glad we took it going on the upward journey because it would have been really scary going down!   By the time we left the valley floor the area was completely socked in with mist and rain which did not make for the best hiking conditions so we opted to visit the village of Leura before taking the train back to Sydney.    
We spent the evening walking around the area in Sydney known as the Rocks.  The Rocks is a trendy area of shops, restaurants and pubs around Sydney Harbour and the Harbour Bridge.  While we were under the bridge we saw people with headlights doing the night bridge climb tour.  For around $225 you can climb the Harbour Bridge.  It is very popular and they do a roaring business. We saw about 30 people climbing that night and the next we saw five or six different groups of at least 15 people doing the climb during our 30-minute lunch break.  
On our second day in Sydney, we opted to stay in the city and explore the sites.  For $35 you can get a ticket for the hop-on hop-off bus, which does a 90-minute loop around the city, along with commentary, but we chose to walk.  We began the day at the Royal Botanical Gardens which, when it was designed, contained more than 3000 species of plants.  These gardens are spectacular with fountains and ponds, interesting birds and lovely gardens such as the rose gardens, the herb gardens,  the palm gardens, tropical gardens and the begonia gardens.  It was at the begonia gardens that we found these massive spiders that build webs that are 3D in shape.  The webs are about 1/2 meter in size.  One of the gardeners saw us observing these spiders and told us that these spiders were brought into space on one of the shuttle missions to see if they could build their webs in micro-gravity conditions.  Apparently, the spiders had no difficulty adapting to the lower gravity, building webs that are more symmetrical than the webs they build in the gravity of Earth.  
While we stared at the web we caught movement in a tree overhead and saw that two of the nearby trees were full of very large fruit bats suspended from the branches.  When they occasionally roused from their slumber to spread their wings, these bats showed wing spans of about a metre.  The gardener told us that they are considered an endangered species and are protected, but their numbers are rapidly increasing and there is some talk of trying, once again, to control them as they seem to be regarded as something of a pest.  Later that night as we sat on our balcony waiting for the sail away, we saw scores of these bats leaving the park and heading across the Harbour to feed. 
After the botanical gardens we walked to Hyde Park and then the two big neo-gothic cathedrals: St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral and St. Andrew's Anglican Cathedral.  Next we hiked to Darling Harbour which is another upscale area with shops and restaurants and a lovely Chinese Garden which had some outstanding Bonsai trees.  You can dress up if you wish in Oriental costume as you walk the gardens to get into the spirit of the gardens and enjoy tea at the tea house.  After the Chinese Gardens, we walked to the aquarium which, while interesting, was not nearly as good as the Ocean Centre in Maui.  As the Cel remarked: "That was all right, but the Maui Ocean Center blows it out of the water, so to speak."  
Then, after stopping for supplies, we headed back to the ship.  Everyday items proved to be rather expensive: nail polish remover $5.95; deodorant $6.29 Australian (1 AUD = 1.06 CAD.)  The other interesting tidbit is that pennies are apparently no longer used because after the cash register indicated the total of our purchases, it then rounded the total to the nearest 5 cents.  
Next we sail along inside the Great Barrier Reef to Cairns.

Cruise tip: if you want to go the the Blue Mountains from Sydney go to the city transit office and buy a Blue Mountain day pass for about $50.  This will give you a ticket to Central Station, a train ticket to the Blue Mountains in Katoomba, and a ticket for the hop-on hop-off bus.  Then buy a $25 ticket from your hop-on hop-off bus driver to take the Skyway, Skytram and Train into the valley.  Plan on an all day experience.  

Cruise tip 2:  buy your Sydney aquarium tickets online and if you go later in the day it is 1/2 price which appeared to us to be an appropriate value versus the full $35 entry fee you pay at the door.