Sydney on to Adelaide

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Walking home on Wednesday night, we passed some traditional Aussie houses - a bit New Orleans-like we thought:

 Thursday morning was spent in the Botanical Gardens. This wasn't an exhibit - we just spotted it out in the park - beaut isn't it?:

We went to Hyde Park Barracks where a lot of the original convicts ended up - great exhibition - we could have spent more time there but we had a plane to catch. Here's a modern mock-up of their sleeping arrangements:

Eventually, it was Adelaide and Kelly was there to greet us and take us to our apartment in the gym buggy:

Kelly's cycle run (part of the Tour Down Under) started at 6 am, so we gave that a miss and just chilled out on Friday on the beach in front of our apartment block:

The final photo had to be shown. We both had on our Qantas jammies this morning as we stepped out on our balcony:

From HK to Oz

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We did the official coach tour on Saturday (including the steep tram up to the top of Victoria Peak) and our own thing on Sunday, which included a visit to Times Square, Happy Valley Racecourse, then an unscheduled couple of tram rides which were broken by a fascinating walk through a street market. The second tram ride was in the wrong direction however and we had to get off and take a taxi back to our hotel - a theme that was to be repeated.

Saturday's trip included a stop at a temple:

Dinner on Saturday was at a Szechuan restaurant we just happened to stumble upon, but Sunday was at the rooftop 188 restaurant at our hotel - fabulous and what stunning views from the 41st floor:

On Monday we decided to walk to the ferry across to Kowloon where we walked the Avenue of Stars - Jackie Chan was one of the 2 names of film stars we knew:

Great views across the water to Hong Kong Island:

The journey back was fun - we got on the wrong ferry! This meant we had to walk an extra couple of miles back to our hotel - we were both hot and sweaty by the time we got back.

Our overnight flight with Qantas was good - flat beds again - breakfast came before we were ready - we wanted to sleep on! It was an early morning arrival in Sydney and it was no surprise that our rooms at the Marriott at Circular Quay weren't ready. We used the early arrivals lounge for a while then eventually got our room. After washing and changing, we walked down to the waterfront to view the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and who should we bum into but Richard and Gail Simcox, who had flown in yesterday! We had a couple of beers with them at the nearby Paragon Hotel:

Then we tried to walk our beers off and went towards the Opera House and came back through Hyde Park:

Tomorrow Kelly meets us in Adelaide - as Lauren would say, whoo whoo!