Sydney, Australia

We landed in Sydney after a grueling flight and were taken to our apartment near Sydney Harbor at the Goldsbrough Apartments. Our apartment had everything we needed and was only located a short distance from Sydney Harbor, an easy walk. We grabbed a hot shower and put on some fresh clothes and walked over to Sydney Harbor. It was Sunday afternoon and the place was packed with families and people enjoying the sunshine. We were amazed how clean and beautiful it was. We had dinner at the harbor and turned in pretty early.
The next morning we had a Sydney Harbor tour and we spent the morning seeing all the hot spots of Sydney. Our guide gave us a real up close look at the bridge and told us the history. We traveled out of Sydney and saw many beautiful well kept homes that were on the market for millions. We had a brief stop at Manly beach, a surfer's paradise and strolled down the beach. We headed back into Sydney for our lunch cruise on the Captain Cook. This tour gave us a look at the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House from the water. We cruised along the shoreline dotted with homes and marinas. The harbor was bustling with activity---sailboats, water taxis, jet boats, a big cruise ship and lots of other tour boats.
After the tour we headed to the Opera House for a up close look of the modern marvel. It was an amazing structure and the roof is made up of thousands of small tiles. I took lots of photos trying to catch the sunlight reflecting off the roof. We toured the area known as Circular Quay and grabbed a ferry back to Darling Harbor were our apartment was located.
The next morning we were picked up very early for an all day tour of the Blue Mountains. We headed out of town, had breakfast at the Featherdale Wildlife Center with the koalas. We had the chance to see and feed kangaroos, wombats, wallabies, koalas and got a look at a big croc. We then headed up into the Blue Mountains that get their color from the oil in the air from the eucalyptus trees. We stopped at many beautiful lookout points and our guide was a wealth of knowledge of the flora and fauna of this area. We stopped at an old hotel called the Imperial for a tasty lunch and break. We stopped at Scenic World where we took a ride on the Scenic Skyway with a glass floor and an incline railway and a cableway that gave us some awesome views. We ended the day with a stop at a cattle resting station where we toasted a good tour with some bubbly. The tour then dropped us off for our boat ride back into Sydney. We grabbed the ferry back to Darling Harbor, had dinner and went to our apartment to pack up. It was a long day, but we got to see and do lots.
The next morning we had a flight to Cairns, to pick up our rental car and drive to Port Douglas, Australia.