Breakfast
Our morning started with a visit to "Pancakes on the Rocks", the Rocks being a term for this area of Sydney. The place was hard to find as it was located up a set of stairs on a side street, but the effort was worth it as the speciality pancakes were very good and set us up for a day of exploring the city.
Sydney Opera House
We went first to the Opera House to check out the exterior. We decided not to wait for the first interior tour.
Botanic Gardens
The Sydney Botanic Gardens were our next stop and we spent more time there than expected. We were not able to see the Governor's House as the gates were all closed but we wandered some of the paths, looking at the beautiful trees and plants.
Mrs. Macquerie's chair
Then we went off in search of Mrs. Macquerie's chair. After a winding path along the harbor front, we found it. The "chair" is an exposed piece of sandstone cut into the shape of a bench. It was carved by convicts for Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of the Governor of New South Wales.
Rose Garden
We went back into the Botanic Gardens next in search of the Rose Garden. We didn't know what we might see given it was late autumn, but there were still a lot of flowers in bloom.
Hyde Park Barracks
Now it was off into the city. We walked past parliament, which was under construction, and the Mint, which was not open on weekends and Sydney Hospital and found ourselves at Hyde Park Barracks. A woman greeted us there and told us about the free audio tour, so we picked up headsets and an iPod and learned about the history of the founding of Sydney by convict labor and about the First Nations peoples who inhabited the area.
City Walk
We stopped to view St. Mary's Cathedral that had been built using convict labor and paused at the nearby park and its fountain celebrating the Gods (as well as turtles). We only made it as far as Sky Tower on our planned walking tour, The tower was very expensive and decided it was not worth the price and Janie was feeling tired so we caught a tram back to Circular Quay (accidentally not paying for it because when we heard we had to "tap on" and "tap off", we assumed there would be a place onboard to do so, but instead you had to do it at the station, which we had not).
Dinner Cruise
After walking around the Rocks for awhile, we were able to find a seat at a brewpub where Janie had some wine and J. R. ordered a local beer and we had some burgers and relaxed. Then we went back to the hotel and showered and changed because we had a Starlight Harbour Cruise planned. We bordered the Capt. Cook vessel and were taken upstairs and seated by the window. Our service was lackluster, with the waitress expecting us to order via the QR code on the table, but the ship's wi-fi was not working and J. R. could not get a signal on his Australian SIM. So she begrudgingly look our drink and food orders.
Soon we were off cruising the harbor, passing a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that would be doing a similar route to ours. We had some incredible views of the city from our seats and also from the back of the boat after dinner. We passed under the famed Harbour Bridge on our way to Darling Harbour and back.
We walked back to the hotel after the cruise and turned in for the night because we had a relatively early morning the next day.
