Exploring Sydney: Rain, Rain, and More Rain!
Our plans for Sydney started out grand. We planned on lots of walking around the city, taking in the sights, and enjoying mild weather away from the northern hemisphere heat.
Stepping out of our hotel the morning of our second day, we were almost washed away by a torrential downpour.
Our original plan had been to go walk around in the Royal Botanic Gardens in the morning, but the rain began to come down in buckets with huge gusts of wind. After breakfast, it became clear that the weather was not going to clear up, so we looked for something to do that was mostly indoors. It was so bad out that the city even canceled their ferry service! After some quick searching, we found the Wild Life Sydney Zoo and the Sea Life Aquarium and decided to take an Uber over to Darling Harbour to check them out.
Wild Life Sydney Zoo
My favorite part was, by far the zoo. We saw many different animals, from marsupials to birds to reptiles. Many of the animals in their care were rescues, and you could tell that the keepers cared a great deal about them. Some of the highlights included watching a Tasmanian Devil spin in a circle (just like in the Warner Bros. cartoons!) and getting to pet a wombat.
I also enjoyed our time wandering through the aquarium, but it was extremely busy and packed unlike the zoo. After a while, we were just pushing forward through the exhibits to find the exit and escape from the throng of people.
Thankfully, by the time we explored the zoo and then left the aquarium, the rain had let up. It was still a little drizzly, but nowhere near as bad as it had been in the morning. We headed back to the hotel to charge our phones and check on our luggage; still no sign of it. We called the airline and were told that our luggage was in Melbourne, awaiting customs, and should be to us “by the end of the day.” It was frustrating not having any of our belongings, but at least there was clarity about the location of our luggage. I gave the person we spoke with our room number at the hotel and the hotel’s phone number so that they could call when the luggage would be delivered, then we made our way down to Circular Quay for our next appointment: High Tea!
High Tea on the Quay
As far as I can tell, what Australians call “high tea” is what everyone else calls “afternoon tea.” High tea is very popular in Australia — at least in Sydney, where you can have tea at almost every restaurant. Some places even serve a weekend “high tea buffet” where you can have your fill of as many finger sandwiches, scones, and petite fours as your heart desires!
For our high tea, however, we decided to do something a little different: we boarded a ship and had our high tea during a cruise around the quay! I was glad that, even though there was still some drizzly weather, the wind had calmed down and we were able to enjoy the views of quay as we sipped our tea and nibbled on our tiny delicacies.
Sydney Opera House
Our last big activity of the day was a tour of the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Opera House is supposedly recognized by most of the world’s population, and today it’s hard to believe it was only completed in 1973. The design, controversial at the time, is by far the best-known work of a Danish architect named Jorn Utzon. His design won an open competition despite the fact that Utzon had not consulted any engineers on whether the design could actually be built, and it turned out it basically could not. After decades of cost overruns and design tweaks, Utzon quit the project and left Australia. He never saw his masterpiece completed, but today the Opera House is the icon of an entire continent.
We were not really allowed to take pictures inside of most of the spaces in the Opera House, but we did take a few pictures, including a picture of Dan on the Iron Throne as one of the shows playing at the Opera House during our visit was a Game of Thrones parody musical.
The rest of our evening after the Opera House tour was pretty quiet. Well, after we got stuck in the rain trying to make our way to dinner. After a delicious sushi and seafood dinner on the harbor, we made our way back to the hotel to once again grab a few pints and relax. Our second day in Sydney may have been full of cold and rain, but like our first day, it was still an incredible day filled with a lot of great experiences.
