Day 14 - City and sea

Up and out for breakfast in a nearby cafe... at the counter "Just go through and I'll come and take your order...". 10-15 minutes later, I went back in and ordered... Australian service at it's finest.

Fuelled by Raisin Toast and Flat Whites we hit the road.

First stop 'Mrs Macquarie's Chair' where she waited to watch the ships coming into the harbour. Great views from here... despite it being overcast.

You can see the bridge...

Arty tree + bridge shot

 And SOH...

Do you know what the roof is covered in? Find out later...

Or both together... Karen was concerned I was going to get washed away in the pursuit of the prefect blog-shot!

Precariously balanced on a rock trying to keep my feet dry...

Onward to the famous Bondi Beach, which was very windy, cold and wet. Surf looked good but no time to try it. To be honest, we were expecting something bigger...

Surf's up dude! 

"It's behind you!!!" Moments later the wave hit and despite jumping up, Karen's shorts were soaked!

Wave? No, I'll just stand here...

 I'm not celebrating having dry shorts... but I could be.

Despite wet pants, it's still smiles all round.

Surf-lie

There were other stops on land, taking in Nicole Kidman's old school, Russell Crowe's harbour-side apartment (now property of the ex Mrs Crowe), the mouth of the harbour, the waterfront business district (high-rises) where we had lunch before boarding the boat for the afternoon cruise - there are pics, but we're trying to stick to the highlights!

Great views of the bridge from the water - in a couple of days, we'll be where these people are.

Bridge (not social) climbers

The weather had distinctly improved as the day progressed... it was lovely!

I take a GREAT selfie!

 View of SOH only available from the water...

Expect to see this building a lot

 Look! It's us! And a famous Australian landmark!

On a roll, selfie-wise

 I like this pose - it makes it look like it's a model - it's not though, WE'RE REALLY HERE!

Can you tell what it is yet?

 Busy, busy, busy - this isn't even the most crowded we saw it.

The place to be seen

Is it a sail, is it the bow of a boat...? No it's the SOH! Shame about the security light/camera on the tip though.

Creative use of lines here

What did you say it was covered in? Bet some of you said 'bird poo' - we know what you're like... It's actually 1,056,000 triple-glazed, self-cleaning Danish tiles in cream and off-white. The idea was to give the effect similar to a seashell.

Karen was desperate to see something here while we had the chance - particularly the ballet, as The Sleeping Beauty was premiering here tonight... but every performance had been sold-out since before we came away. They also had a couple of other things on, but nothing we fancied enough to justify the ticket price.

On the off-chance, we went to the ticket office...

Me: Hi, I know the answer will be 'No'... but are there any tickets available for the ballet?
Ticket Attendant: Funny you should ask... they just released some more tickets today - which performance were you interested in?
Me: Saturday, 7:30?
TA: I have 2 tickets for seats together in the circle...
Needless to say, Karen was VERY excited and despite the cost we took those last 2 tickets...