Queen's Birthday Weekend - Part II

There's nothing like a "Sydney" sweatshirt to shout "TOURIST!" Um...no really, I was cold, so it was a necessary purchase. Anyhoo, the second part of Australia's national holiday weekend took us on a long walk back to Sydney Harbour for round two of our expedition. The top couple pictures Ron and I decided were a necessary new angle of ourselves in front of the Opera House (as if we hadn't taken enough!). Then again, just a few feet away, there was an outdoor wedding taking place over looking the Opera House, and I was trying to kill time so I could see what the bride looked like. Silly I know, but I'm sure you ladies reading this would have done the same thing. Much to my dismay, the bride took so long to come that we had to take off before I could see her as it started to rain. The wedding photographer was probably dying to get us out of the background anyway!

Our initial plan was to take a ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo, another highly recommended activity; however, once again the weather man had other plans in mind. It rained off and on throughout the day, so Ron and I decided to postpone our trip to the zoo for a sunnier day. In the meantime, we walked around the harbour again and stumbled upon a fun little crafts/trades market, which was under the tents as you can see in the picture above. This market was located in a district on the harbour called The Rocks. The Rocks were large stone buildings built in 1864 as housing for sailors and continued to do so until the early 1980's. It has since been turned into a tourist attraction, hosting a wide variety of indoor/outdoor pubs and restaurants, and it is also one of the first places recommended to kick off a tour of Sydney. We enjoyed our time wandering through The Rocks and taking in the locals' goods. I also included a picture I took of St. Mary's Cathedral, which is across the street from Hyde Park in Sydney CBD. The picture doesn't do it justice, and it really is a much larger and more impressive site in person, and I thought it was worth including.

Next, we walked across the main part of the Sydney Harbour bridge (where the cars drive, not the high climb we will be doing in a couple weeks). Oddly enough, on the other side of the harbour was another small outdoor wedding overlooking the Opera House from yet another angle. Did I mention that the day before we had seen yet a 3rd wedding party on yet another side of the harbour over looking the Opera House? Ron and I began to wonder if we should have gotten married on this side of the pond, since it seems to be such a hot spot! Okay, I digress...on the other side of the harbour we took a little tour of Luna Park. It looks like something out of a movie. Luna Park can be seen across the harbour from the Opera House and has a creepy carnival sort of feel to it, not that the weather helped to deter the feeling. From there, Ron and I hopped on a wharf (ferry) and crossed back over the harbour and begin our hike back home. By the time Sunday night rolled around, we were both completely wiped and officially called it a day.

Monday was the actual "Queen's Birthday" holiday, which afforded Ron the day off, so we wrapped up our 3 day weekend by going to Bronte Beach and taking a nice long run along the coast to Bondi Beach. For those of you who have been following our blog, Ron posted some fantastic pictures of the coast and the running path along the cliffs overlooking the shoreline. Since we were on a run, we didn't have our cameras, but I assure you, it really is just as stunning as the initial pictures Ron posted. All in all, it was a great weekend, and we are already planning our adventures for this coming weekend. I'll be sure to post more pictures. I'm pleased to say that as I'm typing this, the sun has finally come back out - let's pray that it's here to stay!