Sydney

Thursday:  Our first morning in Sydney began with  a private walking of the Rocks and Sydney Harbor. Our guide Colin gave us a detailed history of the settlement as a penal colony to modern times. Our tour finished at the famous Opera House. After lunch we spotted a free shuttle bus and hopped on it to see where it would take us and pretty soon found ourselves at the Sydney Tower the highest building in Australia where the view from the top was fantastic. Our ticket included the Oz Treck a virtual reality ride across Australia. It brought back many recent memories of where we had been over the last 4 weeks. We were glad we took Peter's advise to take this ride. We noticed a Mono Rail from the top of the tower which we later went on it took us to Darling Harbor and back again to where we started. We walked thru Hyde Park and St Marys Cathedral and back to our hotel via George St where we saw beautiful stores. Later that evening we were picked up by Kevins cousin Frank for a night out at an Irish Pub. Frank had arranged for his brother Michael and friends from Galway to be there it was a special treat for me to meet the Ryan brothers Freddie and John whom I grew up with in Galway and have not seen them for 40 years. Later Ellie's brother Philip and his wife came along they are here from Ireland for their daughters wedding. We had a great night for remembering family and old times. MR&K


Mary Rose