Sydney, Australia

Our first view of this fun city was the striking Opera House with the sun rising behind it. A great way to arrive! Strangely enough, both the Opera House and the famous bridge are much smaller than I had imagined - I had thought everything in Australia was supposed to be so big.

This is an incredibly easy city to get around in. The bus, train, and taxi hub is right at the wharf. Beyond the wharf are the financial, shopping, trendy restaurant, museum, botanical gardens and parks districts. It is not a square or a round city, but petaled by the numerous coves in the harbor. It is not too large, and it not too high. The tallest skyscrapers are about 50 stories. There are many residential districts with row housing fronted by charming wrought-iron fences.

Many of the suburbs are across the bay, reachable by ferry or bridge. For instance, the fantastic zoo is approached by ferry, and then one has the beauty of the Sydney skyline behind the giraffes!

We enjoyed our two days and nights here, made so much better with the company of our wonderful niece, Lee. We got to see Lee's Sydney, and she was a marvelous tour guide. She has lived here for about two years. She made all our dining reservations and we had nouvelle Australian at Bill's, a drink at the Orbit bar overlooking the city as it revolved, and a truly exceptional tasting menu at Rockpool, one of Australian celebrity chef Neil Perry's restaurants. While dining at Rockpool we ran into 3 different people from our cruise ship, the Regent Seven Seas Mariner, who were playing hooky from the boat for the night to try out this restaurant! So we felt like we knew lots of people in Sydney... Earlier in the day we had run into another friend, and heard about her grand night at the Opera on Wednesday, at a performance of the rarely performed "Lady MacBeth".

This opera performance was part of the memorial service which took place at the Opera House on Wednesday, March 25, in honor of the Danish (sic) architect, who died about a month ago, and who had to really fight for his design 30 years ago. Now, of course, his design is iconic of Sydney, and Australia. His elderly children attended the ceremony where he was honored by Cate Blanchett and other Australian actors, and by Aboriginal dancing and singing.

One thing I had most wanted to do in Australia was to hang out with koalas, and Lee helped make this possible. We spent most of Thursday at the zoo, and had a special Koala experience, which included a very private and personal visit with some of these creatures. Of course, during our whole visit they were sleeping and digesting their Eucalyptus diet, but we got lots of pictures of them and learned all about them. There was a mother and two daughters - one 18 months old, and one 6 months old. I even got to stroke her little leg - very dense fur! Later we saw some who were more awake, and chowing down on their eucalyptus luncheon. And we also saw a brand new baby Pygmy Hippo who was born just before Christmas - so cute.

We got to see Lee's apartment in the Woolahara neighborhood, and also saw the charming Paddington neighborhood with it's chic housing and boutiques. I spent most of Wednesday at the New South Wales art museum with its permanent collection of Aboriginal art and the Archibald Prize collection of portraits.

There's lots more to see and do here, but we feel we saw a lot in a short time. It's a very athletic and outdoorsy community... many of the place names - Hyde Park, Charing Cross, St. James - are from London, but the weather is so much better!

We leave later today for the Cairns area, where we're looking forward to some time on the Great Barrier Reef. In the meantime, see ya latah, from Austraya!