Saturday 19th January. Cooler Sydney - phew

We woke to some cloud and some sun but happily much lower temperatures ~23c. This was a great relief as quite simply the human body does not function very well when the air temperature is 10C about normal blood temperature. At least we could now walk around the city and this is exactly what we did taking in the botanic gardens and much more.




When we were last in Sydney just over two years ago, we saw lots of Flying Foxes (large bats) roosting in the trees in the Botanical gardens but none this time. Apparently they have been badly damaging the trees and the park authorities now have a concerted programme to keep them away and to rid the park of bats.





We rode on the monorail which does a fairly short loop around the western part of the centre and were surprised to read that this will be closed at the end of June 2013. Apparently the monorail has proved very expensive and has attracted significantly fewer passengers that originally envisaged. It was purchased by the Government of New South Wales in March 2012 specifically so they could close it and facilitate redevelopment at various sites along the route.

We had planned to visit the aquarium but the queue was quite long and I could see the lovely lady wife becoming impatient and getting close to throwing things so we moved on!

The P&O liner Pacific Dream was parked outside our window last night and until ~17:00 today when it decided to leave - see below.

 

The visit to see Verdi's A Masked Ball had been booked before we left the UK (seems like a long time ago now) and we set off early to walk down to the Opera House and enjoy the atmosphere. It was Saturday evening and the night life in Sydney had started early and was already in full swing - parties everywhere. Great views from several vantage points around the Opera house and the interior is almost as impressive as the exterior.

It was a very modern production and whilst I would have a preference for more traditional costumes etc, we thoroughly enjoyed the performance by a truly international cast.

The nightlife had ramped up a notch or two by the time we walked back to the hotel and it was clear that Sydney would be well awake for many hours after we had gone to bed.

We both agreed that Sydney is a truly great city; it really has everything except of course the extensive history and old buildings of European cities. Whilst expensive, Sydney must be one of the best cities in the world in which to live.