Sunday Evening in Sydney

First, I apologize for the absence, as we have had limited e-mail access while in New Zealand, so I was unable to blog. Secondly, the links for videos do not appear to be working on previous blogs. I will upload the links from Rachel's Mac (yes, it appears to be a PC problem, as the page will not load from my computer nor Tim's Dell).

I will be blogging quite a bit over the next couple of weeks to catch up to present. I want to keep the entries in order. Therefore, this blog incorporates events from Sunday February 24. I will also change things up a bit by beginning with "Reflections" on this blog.

Reflections - Two Queens Pass In the Night

On Sunday evening February 24th, the Queen Elizabeth II (pictured above behind Liz and Rachel) and the Queen Victoria, passed for the first time in their lives in Sydney Harbor. The Queen Elizabeth II entered the harbor for her last time (she will be retired to become a floating hotel in Dubai following this farewell voyage). The Queen Victoria (pictured below) was departing after docking for the weekend, and the two ceremoniously passed each other at the fort in Sydney Harbor, where they saluted each other with their maritime horns to the applause of thousands who had gathered along the Sydney shore to watch this historic passing. It was quite a spectacle to behold, as both ships are enormous.



The Blog - Darling Harbor and the Botanic Gardens After a magnificent weekend at Eaglereach, Port Stephens and the Hunter Valley Wine Region, Tim, Liz, Rachel and I returned to Sydney.

Following the passing of the Queen Victoria and the QE II, we walked through the Botanic Gardens, where we saw several amazing birds and the "flying foxes", as the Aussies call them. The flying foxes are actually very large bats, pictured here sleeping in the trees. We waited around and watched them come alive at dusk and begin flying around the harbor area. Luckily, these are fruit bats, so there is no danger to humans or small dogs or cats.

After watching the bats, we walked over to Darling Harbor, where Tim and Liz used to live when they lived in Sydney before. This is a really cool area with lots of restaurants and shops. We ate dinner at one of the outdoor restaurants and then strolled around the harbor after getting ice cream at one of the stands inside the shopping area. We stayed around until it was dark.

On our way home, we passed the Aquarium (topic of a future blog) and walked through the financial district on our way back to Tim and Liz's current apartment. Sadly, they headed for bed to begin another work week, as Rachel and I plotted our strategy of what we would do first in the city on Monday.