Saturday, September 29, 2007

Two more great days in Sydney

I promised to go back and "back fill" on the rest of the trip. Over the next few days I'll be doing just that. By the way, I now have some pictures posted on the previous blogs, so go check them out.
On Saturday morning, the sun shone and we decided to take a trip to the Sydney Botanical Gardens. They are alongside the harbour, just beside the Opera House. There are specimens from all over the world in these beautiful gardens and the walk was lovely. Along the way we saw more ibis, local varieties of parrots and even bats, lots of them. We were told later that they were fruit bats. As you can see, these gardens are alongside the CBD (Central Business District and very easy to walk to.














That afternoon we took a cab out to Lane Cove, a suburban area and visited with some friends who had moved to Sydney. Tim and Karola Reed, who met while working at I/PRO have three lovely children in Mieta, Vivian and Zoltan. They put some Barrimundi on the barbie and we had a great meal. Karola was our son Dale's first "Nannie" for a few months when she had migrated from Hungary to go to school in the U.S. Many of you know that I was a consultant to I/PRO at the start and maintained a good relationship with them throughout their history (alas, then have just recently folded the tent). Anyway, I was able to get Karola an interview there after her college days and the rest as they say is history. Tim is originally from Melbourne and the move to Australia made sense for them as they were growing their family. We can see why. A lovely house with a nice yard, pool and their own resident (big) lizard who keeps the place clear of snakes!
That night, we went looking for bars with great views. The best view we found was from harbour level along side the Opera House. Karen did not think the picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was very good, but I think it came out great.








On Sunday, we walked down to the Circular Quay, wanting to take the ferry to Manly. We had been told about the Coffee Tour and it was starting up in a few minutes. It took us towards the mouth of Sydney Harbour into what they call the Inner Harbour. The Inner Harbour is surrounded by houses and reminiscent of inlets in Puget Sound.

When we got back from the Coffee Tour, we hopped on the Manly Ferry with about 1 minute to spare. It took us over to Manly which is a suburb of Northern Sydney. A thin neck of land where the ferry lands on one side and a beautiful beach is on the other. We walked the boulevard from the ferry to the beach. Reminded us of Venice Beach. Not much surf that day but a beautiful setting all the same. Had a wonderful lunch and headed back to the city. The next morning, we were heading up to the Hunter Valley for some wine tasting and the conference. Stay tuned for that.

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