Sydney, Australia

Sydney Opera HouseSydney Harbour Bridge Manly Beach Surfer

Joe Bill & Tanja (new German friend)

Pat, Joe Bill & Martha (New Irish Friends)

Bondi Beach

Mexican Restaurant (Murray, Trish, Sandy, Joe Bill, Daina, Benn)

We touched down at Sydney (city population 4.3 million) airport at 5pm yesterday (Monday) and took the 30 minute taxi ride to our accommodation on the outskirts of Sydney - it was a 25 minute walk from the CBD. After the high 44.6C (112F) temperatures in Sydney the day before we arrived, we were relieved to find a cool change had passed through by the time we arrived.

This morning we decided to jump on a double decker bus and do a tour of Sydney and Bondi Beach - the overcast and drizzly conditions weren't ideal for sightseeing around Sydney Harbour and the beach, but we enjoyed our day and had lots of laughs. The first bus we hopped on was a bit a of worry - we wondered what we had got ourselves into as the engine in the back was louder than the speaker giving the commentary. Fortunately our first stop (Opera House) was not far up the road and the next buses we caught were great - what a relief. On our last leg we met a lovely Irish couple - Pat & Martha. Once they knew Sandy & Joe Bill hailed from Arkansas, they entered into a lively discussion on Bill Clinton.

The Opera House is a World Heritage site and is an iconic building and one of the world's greatest performing arts centres. It has 2679 seats and on the roof are 1,056,006 white and cream tiles. When you stand on the steps of the Opera House, you look across the harbour to the Sydney Harbour Bridge - a stunning view. After walking within the Opera House, we made our way dodging the puddles to catch a ferry for the 30 min ride across Sydney Harbour to Manly, a suburb north-east of Sydney CBD. Joe Bill & Sandy tried a bit of Aussie culture by eating an authentic meat pie for lunch. They have now witnessed all aspects of our classic advertisement for Australian Holden cars that goes: "Football, meat pies, kangaroos & Holden cars" - We ate dinner at a football club last night, they had a meat pie today, they patted kangaroos at the Australian Zoo and they saw a Holden car at Manly today. They can tick all of those boxes now!

Back on the bus and off we went to Bondi Beach 7 km (4.3 mi) east of Sydney. The beach is 1 km (0.6 mi) long and a beautiful beach on a sunny day. Despite the poor weather conditions today, there were a few hardy surfers riding the surf, and Joe Bill managed to grab a board and hug the owner! We had a 30 min wait for our bus connection, so we walked to the pavilion on the edge of the beach, and enjoyed a coffee and muffin, served to us by a lovely young lady from Germany. It has been very interesting to find that nearly every cafe or restaurant we visit has staff from overseas, all here on working holidays - Switzerland, Germany, Sweden are just some of the countries I recall they were from. Back to our hotel for a shower and rest, before walking up to a nearby Mexican restaurant where we were joined by my son Benn and his girlfriend Daina for a pleasant dinner. We left them with a plan to meet again tomorrow night at a German restaurant at the Rocks, the area that was the original settlement at Sydney harbour.