The ferry ride to Watson’s Bay takes about 20 minutes, as we pass beautiful beaches and craggy coastline cluttered with multi-million dollar houses. These are the most expensive areas to live – and you can see why – the views are astounding and you are so close to the city, it’s a simple commute, by car, rail or ferry!
We arrive in Watson’s Bay at the perfect time for lunch. Unfortunately a huge Sydney Ferries boat has also arrived, disgorging hundreds of other hungry souls. Sigh. The recommended restaurants at Doyle’s. They are famous for their fish, and they have a takeaway restaurant right on the wharf (order at the counter, find a table, wait for your number to be called, and take your food away in paper to go containers to your table) and a regular restaurant (much higher priced) on the beach. We look at the menu, which all looks great, but the place is packed. I can’t even find the beginning of the line to order – so we walk up the street to Watson’s Bay restaurant – part of the hotel there on the corner. The atmosphere is much better, lovely 2 tiered deck overlooking the water, with umbrellas, etc. The food is way pricier (it is EXORBITANTLY expensive here – Sydney was just named in the top 3 most expensive places in the world to live) – but we don’t want to fight the crowds. Plus they have octopus on the menu – so you know we’re staying here!
Order from the bar (so British!), take your pager and your drinks, find your table and wait. It’s so pleasant on the patio, the wait (which really isn’t all that long) doesn’t matter.
And when the food comes – wow – it doesn’t disappoint! Fish and chips – tender, delicate and delicious – and octopus salad – wow! Huge little baby octopus with chimichurri sauce and a salad. Lovely!
Now it’s time to walk off our lunch – so we head up the hill to walk through the “Gap” National park. It’s a lovely little path along the side of the cliffs facing the ocean. The climb helps us burn off the chips – the view just makes the effort worthwhile!
We leisurely stroll back to the harbor and break our way through the throngs of people waiting for the Sydney Harbor Ferries (yeah, they may be cheaper, but there’s no commentary and they are packed to 
the gills – our ferry is comfortable with plenty of room, inside and out). Half an hour back, great scenery – like the war memorial to one of the naval ships lost in the early 1900’s to the war, we decide to stay on to Darling Harbour and walk around there for a bit before catching the ferry back to Circular Quay. So, on the way to Darling Harbour, we pass Solstice again, as well as go under the bridge watching the bridge walkers way up there (yikes – no way!) and on to the other side of Sydney Harbor where the Luna amusement park is located (closed during the week now that summer holidays are over).
Then it’s onto Darling Harbour, with 39 restaurants, 30 bars, 11 cafes, 60 shops, 2 museums a Chinese garden, aquarium, wild life exhibit and Imax theater – this is a hoppin’ place, anytime of the day or night. We wander around a bit, just enjoying the afternoon sun (LOL – it’s hot even if the air temp is in the mid 70’s, that sun just bakes in the Southern Hemisphere). We hit the info center, collect lots of brochures we’ll reference and then recycle on the ship tomorrow afternoon once we sail and stumble on this place…..is this my restaurant or what???
Perusing all the specials going on, we pick the restaurant with the best happy hour special ($5 each for beer and wine – big BARGAIN in this city!) to sit and have our afternoon beverage. Beautiful setting – that’s a fountain with silver swans or birds or something or other!
After relaxing a bit, we decide to ditch the ferry and just walk back to Circular Quay. Sydney’s an easy walking city, and it’s truly not that far, plus we’re looking for a grocery store/bottle store to resupply our supplies! We restock and head back aboard to rest our weary little legs and feet in the solarium hot tub!
Even though the city is beckoning, we aren’t going back outside tonight. Everyone else is, so we figure we’ll have the ship to ourselves! Which we do – and enjoy a pretty quiet evening looking at the Luna amusement park (lit up even though it’s not open tonight), the Sydney Harbor bridge and other city highlights from the ship.
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