sydney: harbour walks, watson's bay & stunning views

well, it looks like we have left melbourne just at the right time as a quick glance at the weather tells me it's 43 degrees there. wowsers. now it's been a cool 31 here in sydney and that's about the highest i can go so lets hope it stays that way. we started our visit to sydney off in appropriate style with a trip down to the harbour and a look at the sydney harbour bridge and the opera house. we popped into the museum of contemporary arts for a look around the exhibitions and a cup of coffee in the cafe which had some rather good views of the harbour too.

we visited the rocks, the oldest part of sydney, and the rocks discovery centre which was really interesting. then we walked along to sydney observatory for some lovely views and an astronomy lesson.

as it happens while we are in sydney the sydney festival is on - i don't think we are going to see any shows but you never know! anyway, we made good use of the pretty spiegeltent in hyde park (i was like - they've got one too!) and had a cider while leafing through tasty festival brochures. we finished the day watching the sunset over the harbour bridge from the opera house which seemed rather appropriate! 

on wednesday (today) we hopped on a bus back down to circular quay where we watched a rather good street performer for longer than intended before buying a return ferry ticket for watson's bay and jetting off across the harbour. getting the ferry gave excellent views of the harbour and made it easy to see just how big it all is. once we'd got to watson's bay we set off straight to doyle's in search of a table for lunch. doyle's has got a reputation for seafood and had been recommended to me numerous times and i really wanted to go there. luckily for jamie they do steak as he is not a seafood fan although he did enjoy attempting to tell me the seafood diet joke about ten times during our meal. here's a picture of doyle's on the beachfront. 

after our lovely lunch we went onto the beach for a bit of a swim, paddle and sunbathing. 

to finish the day off we went to the 36th floor of the shangri la hotel in the city and treated ourselves to a cocktail overlooking the bridge and city.

oh yeah. and on the way home in paddington tonight we came across this quirky sculpture by a bus stop. i rather like it.