Doing the town and the beach (4/16)

Full day today as we are doing the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus around Sydney and out to Bondi Beach. Caught one of the first HOHO buses at the Central Station. Just pure luck – we had just arrived and were beginning to explore the area looking for the bus stop – when the bus magically appeared! Hopped on (excuse the pun), found they only took cash, so we handed over our last dollars (literally!) – and off we went.

Great way to see all the city. Headed over to Darling Harbor, where we got off and wandered a bit, found an ATM, then had some cappuccino at a little outdoor café. Boarded the bus again and took the circular tour of the city, including the red light district (which we ended up seeing and hearing about 4 times on these trips – just the way the buses ran and intersected routes!). Saw all the sights, then changed buses at Central station for Bondi beach.

Perfect day for our ride, about 70 degrees, partly cloudy (mostly fine in Aussie terms) and a cool breeze. The HOHO was an open air double decker bus, so we sat up top the whole time, watching out for low hanging branches that could definitely do some damage if you weren’t careful! Got to Bondi (pronounced Bon-deye) around noon. The bus stops for ½ hour, you can get back on then, or wait for the next bus in 2 ½ hours.

We had lunch at a café called Lamrock, where they had a “Tapas for 2” that was a main meal! Chorizo, squid, octopus, Cajun chicken, olives, feta, sun dried tomatoes, prosciutto and bread. Really great. Sat in the sun for a bit, then headed down the Coastal walk to Bronte Beach. This is a walkway that stretches down the coast along a number of little beaches. It’s carved out of the cliffs and limestone on the shore and is a beautiful exercise on a lovely day. We walked to Bronte and back, about 7 KM roundtrip. It was a perfect day to walk up and down the coast.

Caught the 2:20 bus back to Sydney, then wandered about shopping for this and that in the shopping district. Finally found a hat for Ed – not a real Tilly Hat (which are very hard to find, as it turns out), but a nice cloth hat with mesh to breathe and a string to tie it on in heavy winds. I also bought what I am calling a Gilligan Hat! It was on sale at a little shop that sold “Outback Clothing” and was going out of business due to leasehold issues. The owner was quite sweet and she told me she had one of the same hats and loved it – we’ll see!

Had dinner in the 24-hour pub downstairs in the restaurant. Cute place with great snacks and wine/beer. Headed out to the Cruise Critic meet and greet at the Sheraton up the street. About 50 of the C.C. group showed (think there are over 100 total in the group). Nice to get to know everyone – and start putting faces with names. But way to big to meet everyone – of course we have almost a month to do that on the ship! We stayed for quite a while then headed back to the Hotel Coronation.