Sydney

Saturday August 27th

We arrived in Sydney at 8a.m. after a 9 hour flight feeling very tired, so I am afraid when we reached our hotel, we slept until after lunch time. Then, it took us some time to get ourselves organised. We needed to visit the Apple store because I couldn't get the local SIM into the iPad (the paper clip I had was no substitute for the proper Apple tool) and Paul had no signal on his phone. The SIM problem was quickly solved, but Paul's phone said it had lost the network and nothing seemed to work. Unfortunately, shops shut here at 5, and we failed to get to the 3 phone shop until about 5 past, so we were stuck. We went off to sightsee instead.

We weren't far from Circular Quay so we walked there and enjoyed the ambiance - all the ferry boats coming and going across the harbour, and beautiful views of Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera House.

The bridge was particularly spectacular against the sunset.

We wandered all round the area. Sadly, the Botanic Gardens shut at 5.30 so there was no time for them, but we admired all the brass plaques to Australian writers set into the pavement.

It was dark by 6, and we opted for early supper at 6.30 because we had missed lunch. We sat under the stars (well, under the clouds really) and had a very nice supper accompanied by a busker on a Spanish guitar. As a bonus, I managed to get Paul's sulky phone to offer me some alternative networks, since it had lost its own, and it eventually worked. We need an early night, as a tour company will pick us up at 6.25 a.m.