Not sure about the early rise on our 44th wedding anniversary, but we were up at 5.00am and ready to leave for the Canberra train station at 6.  We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time and of course we did do that!  But we certainly weren't the first there and the two coaches were ready and waiting to take the 80 passengers on their journey.  There were a few disappointed people like us, but that's life.  We were on the coach that stopped at Moss Vale, Bowral, Mittagong and Campbell Town.  We travelled into Sydney on the M5 Motorway and we did travel through a couple of quite long tunnels.  The final one was near the airport.   Peter said it was the first time he had been under the tarmac of an airport.   We couldn't really complain about our coach ride.  It was quite comfortable, but there was no stopping for any refreshments!Once booked into the Ibis on Darling Harbour, we found somewhere on the water front to have a light lunch.  We did a lot of walking to find the right restaurant!  Fella's weren't exactly impressed but they tagged along behind and didn't complain too much!  After lunch Peter and I took the ferry from King Street to Circular Quay and then walked to the Opera House to pick up the tickets.   We believed this whole area between Circular Quay and the Opera House wasn't like this in 2001, when we were last in Sydney.  It is absolutely magnificent!  Particularly the walk around to the Opera House.  Shops and restaurants were on our right and the 'Rapsody of the Sea' cruise ship, was in dock on our left.  We found a nice restaurant to book for dinner and took some photos to send to the kids of us slumming it on our anniversary.  At least then the boys knew what the day actually was! I was pretty pleased to receive text messages from the girls.  Both said "I was looking very slim in those jeans"!Our dinner was lovely as was the bottle of champagne that we had before leaving the hotel.  Kevin had mentioned to the receptionist why we were in Sydney and a bottle of the champers was delivered to our room.  It was compliments of the hotel, with a very nice card.  Now to the concert at the Opera House.  It was... Unbelievable..Sensational..and every other adjective that you can think of, that describes a very memorable evening!  It was a big risk for Troy and Adam to hold a country music concert in the Concert Hall of the Opera House.   The Concert Hall seats between 2,500 and 3,000 and it was nearly full.  As you can imagine they were over the moon!  They had close to a sell out audience and such an interactive audience.  It was also the first time that Adam had ever played at the Opera House.  Saturday we went to the Paddy's Markets in the old Wool Stores.  Why I don't know!   The guys really do dislike these 'Gypsy Shops', but it was their suggustion to go there.  We did have a nice coffee though and there were some more up market shops upstairs.  No purchases though.  How good were we?  We walked through China town and then decided to use up the 'Light Rail' day ticket we had purchased and see where that took us.  So to Dunhill Station we went.  This extension to the line had only opened two days before.  On the way back we decided to check out the Sydney Fish Markets!  Wow!  How big were they?  There was fish everywhere!  So guess what we had for lunch? Val and I had grilled snapper and a salad from 'Peter's Fish Shop'.  Had to buy lunch there!   The guys ended up with a feed of fish that was not quite as healthy!  From there it was back to the hotel to prepare for our train journey out to Homebush and the ANZ Stadium to watch the AFL match between Collingwood and the Sydney Swans.   We got there very early, so we had plenty of time to check out the memorablilia of the Sydney Olympics in 2000.  The football match was enjoyable, but not quite the same as attending a match with one of the WA teams playing.  33,000 attendees to a stadium that seats 80,000 was probably a bit disappointing and the Swanie supporters would have been disappointed with their teams effort once again. As for Collingwood, there is no doubt they really do have die hard supporters.  1/10th of the crowd nearly made as much noice as the Swans supporters!  We had a Collingwood supporter down in front of us that kept us entertained all night.  We enjoyed our second evening in Sydney and we can now say we been to another iconic venue!  Sunday we purchased a Red Exployer Bus Ticket and took in the 'Sydney Sights'.  We took another trip on the ferry following a visit to Madame Tussauds Sydney, which is on Darling Harbour.  The ferry ride gave us some nice shots of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and Circular Quay.   You just want to keep taking photos of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House!  The cruise ship 'Rapsody of the Sea' (which comes to Geraldton) had left whilst we were having dinner on Friday night and a new huge cruise ship from Holland was in dock.  We hopped off the bus at Bondi and had lunch on the beach.  It was really quite hot and Peter was the only one who had taken a hat.  Well it had been raining in Canberra when we packed.  So at Bondi three of us purchased a hat.  Peter reckoned he went to Bondi with three Aussies and left with an Italian tank driver and two tarts!  Fancy him saying something like that!!  We thought the hats were rather cute and lots are wearing them in Sydney!  So we will be Bondi women!   Much more appropriate I think!  We had some laughs with our hats for the rest of the day and of course us gals had to wear them home on the train!  Peter is threateneing to ditch mine, so there is every chance it will disappear out of the car. We also went up to the Sydney Eye before heading back to the hotel.  Sunday evening we dined at the Novatel Hotel next door.  We had an absolutely fantastic weekend and it was great to share it with Peter's best man and his lovely wife....our very close friends of many, many years.

And yes...the train was running on Monday, so we got our train ride back to Canberra.  It was a great weekend and the weather was perfect!  It is now time to pack up and move further south.  We are off into the mountains again to check out Mount Kosciuszko and Lake Jindabyne. 16 photos