Wednesday/Friday, April 5 - 7: We arrived in Sydney (New South Wales) at 6:20am, which means we'd been traveling for about 34 hours. Sydney is 14 hours ahead of the US EDT. We had no April 6th this year because we crossed the International Date Line, but we'll get two June 30s when we come home. We flew Korean Airlines from Atlanta to Seoul to Sydney. We have never had better service on an airline than what we received on KAL. Upon arrival in Sydney we hit the ATM machine for Aussie dollars, bought a coke with ice for Rory, purchased two "Travel Passes" (which provide unlimited use of the trains, buses and ferries for 7 days), and found the shuttle bus that would take us to our hotel (Challis Lodge) in Potts Point. The weather is beautiful: sunny, dry, temperature in the 70s--a perfect day.

From our hotel we can actually see the Harbour Bridge. Potts Point is a quiet area within walking distance of the City Center. Since our room wasn't ready, we left our luggage and headed for Circular Quay. On the way we walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens and saw flying foxes (fruit bats), hanging from the tall trees. A bit further we encountered two sulphur-crested cockatoos walking on the grass. Seeing exotic birds "in the wild" is one thing Rory had been looking forward to--and we'd been in Australia only a couple of hours!! Circular Quay is the hub of ferry transportation in Sydney. The Sydney Opera House sits majestically on the northeast tip of the quay and the Harbour Bridge spans Sydney Harbor to North Sydney. We decided a ferry ride would give us a rest, so we took the short trip to Darling Harbour, intending to just take a quick look and then the return trip to Cirlcular Quay. But, we saw a sign for the Australian Outback Gallery offering a free 30 minute "Sounds of the Outback" performance. The Gallery itself was just another store selling Aboriginal souvenirs and arts and crafts. But the show was worth the time (not to mention the price). We were entertained by a young man, Jeremy, who, until he was 16, had not known his father or his father's family. What he discovered was that his father was an Aboriginee. For the next two years Jeremy lived with his father in northeast Queensland and learned about his culture and also to play the didjeridoo. We were the beneficiaries of his talent. He has been playing the didjeridoo for over 8 years and provided a good explanation of the instrument and how to play it. The didjeridoo is traditionally used to tell stories and Jeremy played/told several stories involving dingos, wallabees, and crocodiles...fascinating! Playing involves mostly being able to vibrate the lips and blowing at the same time. But the hard part is breathing properly. Neither of us was able to get it right!

We took the ferry back to Circular Quay and headed back to the hotel, passing through the Botanical Gardens again. This time we spotted a man feeding rainbow lorikeets and suphur-cresteds. He offered us some sunflower seeds and in no time, Rory was covered with lorries and cockatoos. Within 15 minutes we counted over 50 cockatoos and 10 lorries. Back at the hotel, we check in to our room, which is pretty spartan, but roomy and has a balcony overlooking the quiet Challis Ave. Unfortunately, we've been given this room in error and we move to a much smaller one. (Old joke: so small you have to go outside to change your mind.) This one has a double bed and a small table with two chairs. It does have a small fridge and sink and is equipped with eating utensils (as if there was enough room to eat). After getting settled we headed out to find some dinner. Neither of us was terribly hungry, so we settled for a light dinner and some wine in an outdoor restaurant a short walk from our hotel. Our impressions of Sydney so far: BEAUTIFUL, much less noisy and congested than other large cities. After dinner and a shower to wash away the grime of being up for more than two days, we were asleep by 8pm.

Saturday, April 8: Another beautiful day greeted us this morning. We slept pretty well and took our time getting ready and then went out to find a place for brekky (breakfast). A small cafe across the street from our hotel did quite nicely, not only for breakfast, but also for the opportunity to meet a friendly couple. They live in the Blue Mountains and were in town to rent out the flat they keep in Sydney. Within about 20 minutes of conversation they had invited us to come up to visit them. and offered to put us up overnight. We took their phone number and told them we'd call.

Then we were off by train to The Rocks (a redeveloped area overlooking Sydney Harbour and Circular Quay). Rick had stayed in this area when he was in Australia in 1991 and knew there was a crafts market on the weekends. We browsed, spending most of our time (but none of our money) on things Australian. After about an hour or so we took the pedestrian walk across the Harbour Bridge. The views of the harbour are magnificent and we took more photos of the Opera House than anyone will care to look at. We took the train back across the harbor and then walked up George Street to the Queen Victoria Building (QVB). The QVB is an old building that was converted into an upscale shopping mall. We had an early dinner in Chinatown, took the train back to Potts Point, and phoned Jennifer and Wayne (the couple from breakfast). We'll go visit them tomorrow and see the Blue Mountains. After two stops: for a bottle of wine to take along tomorrow, and some juice for breakfast, we returned to our hotel. Rick convinced the hotel desk clerk to let him on his computer to check email, etc. (We'll need to find an internet cafe in the next couple of days to update our website.) We ended great day #2 in Sydney and we'll be up early tomorrow to catch the train to Katoomba.

Sunday, April 9: WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY AWAITED US!! We packed our backpacks and headed for Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. The train ride of a bit over 2 hours left us off at the Katoomba railway station. We walked two blocks to the Carrington Hotel and caught the #2 Trolley to Echo Point (A$2.60 each). At Echo Point we looked out over the valley. The view is magnificent and stretches for miles--a green-filled "Grand Canyon" with sandstone cliff faces turned coppery orange by the reflected sun. To our left, the Three Sisters (natural rock formation), and to our right the Prince Henry Cliff Track, a walking trail that snakes along the canyon to the Skyway cable car. Before heading for the path, we called Wayne and Jenn and arranged to meet them in an hour where the Skyway would let us off. Then we hit the trail for a 30 minute hike (with full packs!!). The path was mostly paved and actually had guardrails at the most treacherous points, but it was great exercise and an even greater experience. We had a short wait for the cable car--there's only one! It takes only about 5 minutes to make the crossing (and costs A$8 each way). The views are worth it--especially of Katoomba Falls, which drop a greater distance than the height of the Harbour Bridge. While Rick waited for Jenn and Wayne, Rory spent a few minutes watching the Crimson Rosellas (bright colored birds, primarily red, but also with green and blue markings). Along came Jenn and Wayne. We stopped along the way to their house to view the Three Sisters from the opposite side of the valley.

Jenn and Wayne's house is on a large tract of land in the town of Blackheath (two train stops north of Katoomba). It's actually two houses: the old house built in the mid 1970s and the new house built in 1998. We got the quick tour of both, followed by a great lunch of vegetable soup, bread, and cheese served on the veranda of the old house looking out on the valley. We watched more crimson rosellas and little silver eyes flitting about. Wayne had begun making a pear tart for dinner dessert, so Jenn loaded us in the car and we went for a quick tour of Bleackheath. It's a quaint, tourist town of around 5000 people. At the east end of the town is Govett's Leap overlooking the remarkable wilderness, blue gum tree-covered, Grose Valley. On the way back to their house, we went by the community swimming pool, set beautifully among tall pines and gum trees. The pool was built by the citizens of the town to commemorate those who died during World War II. During construction, all the businesses in the town closed up on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays, allowing the proprietors, their employees and other townspeople to work on the project. Back at the house, they suggested we go for a trek or bush walk--they do this quite often and the area surrounding their property has a maze of trails. The area is well known to hikers and climbers and we encountered several of each during a 1 1/2 hour hike. The views were fabulous; valleys, majestic cliffs, waterfalls and hidden grottos, and the most beautiful and fascinating plant life. At times we felt we were making our own trail and we were challenged to keep our footing on the rough paths and stone steps. Rory tripped twice, breaking her sunglasses in two on the second fall, but we survived the challenge otherwise unscathed. It was a bit of a relief to see the house come into view at the end.

We prepared the bedroom in the old house, cleaned up from our hike,, crossed the little footbridge to the new house, and chatted over drinks while dinner was prepared. And what a great dinner: steak, sausages, broiled potatoes, fresh vegetables, and a pumpkin risotto!! Wayne's pear tart disappeared without much effort as did a couple of bottles of Pinot Noir. Before and after dinner, we pitched in to help their son Owen with his history project. Owen is 15 with an emerging talent for the drums and the typical teenager's habit of putting off schoolwork until the last minute. We probably had more fun with the project than he did, since it had to do with the influence of American music, fashion, food, television, movies, etc. on Australian contemporary culture. We enjoyed talking with him. When we asked if his parents were forever bringing home stray Americans, he just rolled his eyes. Since we were pretty tired and our hosts had "Monday morning" to look forward to, we said our good byes and thanked them all profusely for their hospitality. It gets a bit chilly in the mountains, so we piled the comforters on the bed and slept like babies. We've been in Australia only three days and have already had the experience of a lifetime. Thank you Jenn & Wayne!

Monday, April 10: We awoke this morning expecting everyone to have already left, but Jenn and Wayne were running late, so Rick, who gets up early anyway, had the opportunity to say goodbye again. We suggested they might want to meet us in Brisbane at the end of our trip in June, and they seemed to consider it favorably--we sure hope so! We had such a wonderful time and tried not to think that we might never link up again. Rick had asked Wayne if they'd ever been in the cafe where we'd met before Saturday, and he said "no", they had been looking for a place for a quick cup of coffee, so it was purely coincidence. If you know us at all, you know how much coincidence has been a factor in our lives together.

We left the house and hiked up the hill to the train station, waiting only a few minutes for the train to Sydney Central that comes thru Blackheath every hour. Once back in Sydney we decided to take the ferry to Manly, one of the best known beaches; but first we had to find a pair of sunglasses for Rory. There's never a sunglass place around when you need one and it took us a while to find what she wanted. We got to the Quay in time for the 4:30 trip to Manly. We're very glad we didn't plan to spend much time there. The beach was nothing special and made us wonder if the other beaches in Australia were as overrated as this one... (The ferry ride was nice, though.) We window-shopped along The Corso (a pedestrian-only street), had a nice dinner, caught the 7:35pm ferry back to Circular Quay and the train back to our hotel--we'd had enough walking for one day.

Tuesday, April 11: We were in no hurry this morning: Rory slept in; Rick worked on the Aussie journal for our website. It was a bit before noon when we finally got going. We decided to visit Sydney Olympic Park where the 2000 Summer Olympics were held and we were planning to take the tour of the various venues. The Sydney Royal Easter Show was also underway at Olympic Park. The Easter Show is similar to State Fairs in the US, geared primarily for children, and with an admission price of A$29.50, the Olympic Tour was looking better and better. However, we found that because of tonight's Rolling Stones concert at the Telstra (formerly Olympic) Stadium, there would be no Olympic facilities tour for a couple of days. The best we could do was a trip to the Observation Deck of the Hotel Ibis and Novotel for panoramic views. Following a nice lunch where we discovered Tooheys Old Dark Ale, we walked to the Aquatic Center. Inside the scholastic swimming championships were being contested. At least we got inside an Olympic facility. Before boarding the train back to our hotel, we sat outside the Easter Show grounds and watched the people coming out with all their bags of freebies and the prizes they had won at the carnival. Dinner tonight was fruit, crackers and cheese, washed down with nice cold water followed by an evening of Aussie TV.

Wednesday, April 12: Another beautiful day in Sydney: high temperature in the mid 80s, low humidity, cloudless blue skies, no sign of haze or pollution. We got up early so we could make the first Opera House tour of the day at 9am. The earlier you go, the better chance you have of seeing all the theaters (of which there are 5). The Opera/Ballet theater (capacity 1500) and the Concert Hall (capacity 2700) are the most impressive. While waiting for the tour to start, Rick recognized a former colleague from Gartner (Jack Cunningham and his wife Deena)--small world!! The tour lasted one hour for A$23 per person, but it was worth it. While sitting in the Concert Hall, the tour guide asked if anyone would like to sing. Rick was ready to try "When I"m 64", but Rory held him back. How many people can say they've sung at the Sydney Opera House? Rick hummed it quietly!!

Next stop: the Taronga Zoo. We caught the ferry to Taronga, and took the cable car up to the main entrance (admission: A$30 per person). We arrived at 11:30 and stayed till the last ferry back at 5pm. We spent most of our time in the native Australian animals area, getting good looks at platypi, wombats, koalas, wallabys and the like. The special 15 minute shows were entertaining: Seal show, and Free Flight (Australian) Bird show. The gorilla area was entertaining as well. Returning to Circlular Quay from the zoo, we trained back to Kings Cross, stopped for a drink at an outdoor pub to relax, and walked back to our hotel. Dinner tonight was pizza at a small place up the street and some grapes we bought at the local super market.

Thursday, April 13: After not being too impressed with Manly beach on Monday, we decided to give Sydney beaches another chance. We took the train and bus to Coogee Beach and hiked the 5km trail along the coast to Bondi Beach. The Pacific coast is defined by craggy sandstone cliffs and cove beaches. The views are impressive, but not nearly as spectacular as what we will see along the Great Ocean Road and on Kangaroo Island. The trail wound through the Waverly Cemetery and past several other beaches before finally reaching Bondi. The hike took about 2 1/2 hours along mostly paved paths. Trail markers along the way provided the only guide we had--surprisingly there were no "tourist" maps of the complete trail. For the first time since we arrived in Australia, the weather was cloudy and just as we reached Bondi, it started to rain lightly. Perfect time for lunch, so we waited out the rain for a leisurely couple of hours--except it didn't stop raining. We paid our bill and made a dash for the bus across the street--without getting too wet. Back in Kings Cross (near our hotel) it had stopped raining. We stopped at the Global Gossip internet cafe to check email. We haven't been able to connect our laptop yet--we'll take it tomorrow and see if we can.

Since we'd had a big lunch we weren't too hungry for dinner, but needed to eat something. We walked up Victoria Street and found a very nice little place called "Roy's Famous" in Potts Point, about four blocks from our hotel. A light dinner of salads, garlic bread and wine topped off our day and ended our first full week in Australia on a high note.

Friday, April 14: Rick went up to the Global Gossip early, only find that they would be opening late--it's Good Friday. Once it opened, Rick enlisted the help of the "techie" who ran the cafe--the bad news: neither of us could make it connect. So it looks like we will be unable to update our website until we get home. BUMMER!! The good news: we've got one last beautiful day in Sydney. We decided to go back to Chinatown and explore Paddy's Market--a huge flea market similar to one back home. We browsed, checking prices occasionally, but found no real bargains. The fact that we will have to carry anything we buy, and that our packs are already pretty full, provide some deterrent to making any purchases. After walking past the Chinese Friendship Gardens (admission was free 15 years ago), we ate lunch in Chinatown (really good mongolian beef). We decided to complete our walking tour, by visiting the Anzac Memorial and Hyde Park. One of the Sydney newspapers was sponsoring a photo exhibition in the park featuring huge reproductions of photographs depicting the development of Sydney in the 20th century. Rory wanted one last stroll through the Botanical Gardens and the opportunity to feed the cockatoos and lorries again. Despite checking numerous stores and shops we were unable to find any bird feed. Fortunately, the same man we'd met last Friday was in the same place just outside the Garden, with sunflower seeds to spare. Bird-fix satisfied, we went back to our hotel to get packed.

Neither of us was very hungry after our chinese lunch, so we decided go back to Roy's Famous to share a salad and have a glass of wine. Rick couldn't resist the opportunity to start a conversation with a couple sitting at the table next to us. They were from Alberta, Canada and had been backpacking for the past 9 months thru Asia and the South Pacific. We figured them to be a few years younger than we are; they had quit their jobs to take a year off. We chatted for over an hour and couple of glasses of wine. We would have liked to talk longer, but we'll be up early tomorrow to get a cab to Central Station and our train to Melbourne.