Sydney

We arrived in Sydney city at 6am on Sunday morning, tired, bleary eyed and with an air of doom about us (we know we have another train journey to look forward too, tomorrow night. Yay. Not).
We decided to go with a taxi to get to the hotel, as we have no net now for quick map reading and were right royally ripped off as the taxi driver took us on the scenic route. Scum. Not feeling like it was the best start to the day, we checked-in to find that the hotel had no record of our booking. Luckily, before despair could take us, the lovely lady on reception pulled the records from the website we booked it from and confirmed our booking did exist. Wheee! We left our bags at reception and went into town to rustle up some breakfast, which we found at a nearby food court. Then, late morning we were able to check into the room, shower and regain our human sides after the night of misery on the train. Feeling considerably recovered, we sallied forth into town and took a stroll around the Botanic Gardens. Here, we were walking into the palm gardens, discussing a book when something, or rather, lots of them, attracted our attention. Flying Foxes. Hundreds upon hundreds of them, hangin like leathery pods from every branch of every tree for a considerable distance in front of us. Noiselly, the ruffled and squawked and cried and opened their wings and flapped about. They were amazing! It was was of the most sureal experiences either of us have had, surrounded by giant diurnal bats! Added to this, a huge flock of Cockatoos zoomed past, screaming defiances at the Flying Foxes, yellow head feathers whirling. Long black beaked ibis stalked about the ground, along with tiny red ground birds and bush turkeys. What an unexpected, sudden sight for us!
We were definately cheered by this encounter and we continued on to find the NSW Art Gallery in the hopes of locating an Eliasson exhibition we had heard about. No such luck, but we did end up having a group demonstration of the Didgeridoo which was excellent and obviously, very Australian!
After the Gallery, we wandered back through the gardens and up to Mrs Macquaries Point, which promised a brilliant view of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. As we sat on the wall overlooking the Harbour and across at the two architectural images of Sydney, we took lots of photos and peered out hopefully for dolphin glimpses. As we couldn't very well stop in Sydney and miss their icons, we had to go a join the tourists thronging about the bases for the obligatory cheesy photo. After which, we walked down through Circular Quay and stumbled upon the most glorious chocolatier shop, with beautifully decorated cakes and chocolates lined up in glossy rows along the counter. The persausive (as if we needed it!) Maitre'd suggested we go inside to look at things closer and when we emerged it was with a lovely brown bag, containing a brown box, that contains two very artful and very decadent deserts. Realising then that we were very hungry, we headed to the food court for dinner, filled ourselves nicely and have headed back to the hotel for an early night, so as to enjoy tomorrow and to better survive the following nights train journey.