10.16.2012           Sydney

We started the day on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus again and went on the second tour, to Bondi beach and other beaches.  The beaches, views, and neighborhoods were quite nice.  Once we finished that tour, we got back onto the bus of yesterday and went out to the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge, also known as the coat hanger bridge because that is what it looks like!  Long walk on a hot day.  We walked 7.5 miles, not bad for an asthmatic and heart patient including up a ton of steps and across the bridge..  John in particular was quite worn out when we returned to our rooms.

Here are a few notes and observations from Sydney:

Folks don’t tip much here.  The rational seems to be that the minimum wage is over $15.00 per hour.

We purchased a good deal on internet usage from the YWCA across the street.

We see very few cops here, maybe that is why jaywalking is so common.  There is no one out to enforce it.  They have red stop light and speeding camera, but there is always a sign warning about it.  We saw a sign stating that violating speeding light areas could result in loss of license.  Severe, ya think.  We have seen one car in use and two officers on foot in the two days we have been here.

We have seen two street people, one sleeping in the park and another with the usual cardboard sign asking for cash.  That’s it.  Very few dogs about as well.

Sydney is very clean, no debris on the streets at all.

Tomorrow we are booked for a full day tour out to the Blue Mountains.  They are reputed to be spectacular.  Hope so, since we will be picked up at our hotel at 7:10am!

We finally found a grocery store late today, so we picked up dinners for tonight and tomorrow, the supermarkets that we have found are extremely small.

1. Clearly, they knew somehow that we were coming to visit and named a street for us!!  Nice!!
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