Yesterday, Jan and I walked from our apartment to the Circular Quay.  As we were walking I was interested in the old buildings mixed in with the new buildings.  Jan told me that the blue collar workers fought to keep the old buildings and not allow them to be torn down when they built the new ones.

We took an elevator up to a sidewalk that was along a highway over the Rocks area.  I loved looking down at the Jacaranda Tree.

They are so beautiful and are all over Sydney.

We had a good view of the street with the old warehouses.

We found our way to the Sydney Bridge.  No, I did not pay over $250 to do the climb.  We just wanted to walk across the bridge.  We discovered that there was a museum at the top of the 1st pylon.  So we waited until 10:00 and then climbed the staircase to the top.  We read about the history of the bridge and were able to walk all the way around the outside of the pylon.  My camera was giving me problems, but I managed to get a couple of panoramic shots.

In this one you can see where the people who actually climb the bridge have to walk.

This is a view of a government house across the water.

It was so wonderful being up there so high.  We could see so much of the water and watch the ferries as they went in and out of Circular Quay.  The waterways around Sydney are fantastic.

After our time at the top of the pylon we walked the rest of the way across the bridge and over to The Milsons Point ferry stop so we could return to Circular Quay  We met Rose for lunch at Appetito, the same place we ate a couple of days ago because the food was so delicious.

This afternoon Rose and I took the ferry to Manly.  I took a few more photos of the Sydney Opera House as we passed it on the ferry ride.

We had another view of the Hornby Lighthouse.

My first impression of Manly is that it is way too touristy.  Once we got through the very touristy section and watched the children playing at Manly Beach , we took a walk to Shelly Beach.  I took off my shoes to walk in the water.

Then we tried to find out way through the National Park area to the North Head.  We did have a couple nice views.

I did get to see a lizard.  Somebody called it a water lizard.

But the path through the National Park seemed to be blocked.  So we just meandered through the streets of Manly back to the ferry.  We were pretty tired and we had a big evening ahead of us.

Last night we went to the Opera House.  It was great to be down at Circular Quay in the evening and watch all of the people who were out at night.. I took more photos of the Opera House.

Here is Sydney at night.

We went to hear Paul Zukerman play the violin and lead the SSO Fellows.  They played Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42: Mélodie, Serenade mélancolique for violin, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G, and Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4 in F minor, Op36.  We all loved it.  Our seats were in the box on the side of the orchestra.  What an absolute treat it was to watch him conduct the orchestra seeing both the front of him as he conducted and being so close to the instruments.  None of the 3 of us are music experts, but we really enjoyed watching his face.  He seemed to be enjoying himself so much and seemed really connected to the members of the orchestra.

Rose took the bus home after the concert because the next ferry wasn’t going to leave for about an hour.  Jan and I walked around for a bit, went out for ice-cream, and boarded the ferry.  What a surprise it was to see the Opera House lit up with images of Poppy’s.  It was the beginning of Remembrance Day when they honor their veterans.

Jan said that the sometimes really light up the Sydney Bridge. It wasn’t lit a lot last night, but it was cool to see it at night.

The ferry ride took us to Darling Harbour.  It was easy to find our way from the Harbour to our apartment.  Every time we stopped to look at our map, several people would ask us if we needed help. They would give us directions and say that it was much too far for us to walk and that it could take over 20 minutes.  I guess our grey hair really makes us look old – just a bit of friendly ageism?  It was hard to get around and find our way when the streets go under overpasses. Anyway, it did take us about an hour to meander through the streets and find our way home so we didn’t get back until after 12:30.

This morning we took the bus to Paddington.  By the time we got there, it was time for a coffee/tea break.  We went to an adorable little coffee shop that was in one of the old houses that had been gutted on the inside and remodeled. We seem to pick all the best places for our meals and tea/coffee breaks.

We walked through some of the back streets of Paddington.  Jan pointed out the balconies that had what is called, “Paddington Lace” as railings.  Here are some examples.

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I had to photograph this house with the Jacaranda Tree in front of this place

Some of the houses had sideways staircases.

And some seemed to be recessed just to the side of the one next to it.

We found the old Paddington Reservoir which had at one time been turned into a below ground car park until it collapsed.  It was now a lovely little park.

We found Centennial Park and searched for the Labyrinth that was built there.

I loved walking it.  It was a great way for me to take time to be quiet and try to process what is happening in the world today.  When I finally reached the center and looked up, there was one of those wonderful gum trees that looks like a tree is growing out of the top of the tree.  Perfect.

Jan and Rose were waiting in the shade and I took the quiet time to walk back out of the Labyrinth and look back at it and the tree.

The grove of Paper Bark Gums near the labyrinth was beautiful.    This may be the last of my seeing these trees.

We found our way beck into the center of Paddington and took the bus back to Circular Quay.  We had lunch again at Appetit0. As Rose and I were walking to the restaurant, I remembered how we ate at the same place in Santiago many times because we knew it had really good food.  That is how we felt about Appetit0.   Jan met up with two of her old friends and brought them to the restaurant to meet us.

It was a great way to spend our last day in Sydney.