Restaurant, parks and beach tour

Our friends have a lovely city view from the balcony of their home. We hang out in the morning and have coffee. On Wednesday, we had a welcomed cloudy day. It even got a bit cool later in the day... an unfamiliar feeling.

Lorikeets visit every day.

On Thursday we visited Sydney's Botanical gardens. The construction of the garden started in the mid-1800's. It's built around the governor's mansion and is very close to the Sydney opera house. Apparently, the wife of the first governor loved gardens.

flower pictures are so boring but I have never seen a flower like this one

There are so many unusual plants here. They have a wollemi pine which is a very rare tree that has existed since the Jurassic era. We had a picnic and wandered around.  Then we visited the public pool that is on one side of the park near a naval base.

aircraft carrier in the background. We know it's Australian because they painted a red kangaroo on it.


After the pool, everyone was hungry so we ate gelato. It keeps the kids happy so we can continue our walking tour. We then visited a building called the Customs house. It's also near the harbor and from the mid-1800's - early 1900's, all customs inspections happened here. It's a historical building that has restaurants and a museum. Right now, they displayed a miniature version of the central business district in Sydney.

photo from the internet (small Sydney)

my photo from the top. the floor is glass and the city is underneath

on the way home we stopped at a park to play

We traveled by ferry from home to downtown and back. Lots of fun.

Thursday evening we sat on the patio and watched enormous bats fly by. They all fly in the same direction apparently. My friends say they are fruit bats but they are very big.

Friday we journeyed to Bondi beach. We rode a bus to Coogee beach which is connected to Bondi by a coastal walking trail. Along the trail there are small beaches that have swimming areas created long ago. They are basically concrete walls that are filled with the water that splashes in from the ocean. Some of the beaches have separate tiled pools not connected to the ocean.

walking the trail

view from the trail

approaching our second beach area


Have I mentioned it is hot here? The UV index is always "extreme" so while yesterday was only in the 80's, it felt a lot hotter.  We spent a couple of hours at the first beach then walked about a mile to the second beach. The kids were very unhappy about the walk. There were tears and complaining. We were happy to make it to the next beach but after about an hour decided it might be time to head home. We did not make it to Bondi beach but here's a photo from a tourism website:

next time Bondi

Our next stop was a vegan burger place called Soul Burger. You have never tasted veggie burgers like these. I don't like veggie burgers. These were amazing. I could not believe it.  I had an "Aussie" burger with beetroot relish, lettuce, tomato, spanish onions and aioli.

We woke up this morning and ran around the lake nearby. Then we all went to a Turkish restaurant for breakfast. Jack reports he loved the juice called the "omer special". Jack is sitting here as I type.

I need to visit Turkey