Sydney- Australia’s first city

Sydney is a beautiful City and I was overjoyed to be here for the second time. Last time was 12 years ago and it has not changed much from then.

Woke up on Serenity and this is the view I encountered from our veranda. What a great way to to be welcomed to Sydney!



We went up on deck and looked around. The day was gray, but warm and very pretty. Sydney is such a pretty city to view from the water.



The Sydney Bridge



Last picture of our ship. Goodbye Crystal Serenity. It was a great voyage!!



Here we are staying at the Marriott in Sydney- not a bad transition. This is the rooftop pool with the great views of the city!



First stop on walk from hotel.



Very dramatic and impressive memorial. It has a wonderful museum as well.



St Mary’s Cathedral stands in the centre of Sydney as a Christian statement of grace and beauty. Generations of artists have bequeathed to it their magnificent gifts in stone and glass, designing a unique space of solace and prayer within this vibrant city. This Cathedral represents the spiritual origins of the Catholic Church in Australia. It is one of Sydney's most treasured historic buildings and one of the finest examples of English-style gothic churches in the world. William Wilkinson Wardell, the 19th century architect, dreamed of a gothic structure shaped from the local yellow-block sandstone on which this city is built. The building was finally completed 100 years after the architect's death. The Cathedral is dedicated to Mary Help of Christians.



St. Mary's Cathedral



The Royal Botanic Gardens, which are just a short walk around the water's edge from the Sydney Opera House, is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful settings you will see anywhere, with the gardens filling an area of land between the harbour and the eastern part of the central business district. The gardens sit on the side of an undulating piece of land and the harbour views from up on the hill are superb. There are large trees with a wonderful shade canvas and this makes the best spot imaginable to stop and have lunch - sitting on the grass and taking in the harbour views.



A place to rest after much walking



Did not like these bats that the more you looked the more you see! Over the years different sections of the gardens developed. One of the first was the Palm Grove, established in 1851. It is one of the world's finest collections of palm trees, with more than 140 different species, including the cabbage tree palm, a Fruit Bats Sydney native. Many of the gardens' numerous fruit bats (aka flying foxes) choose a spot high up one of these palm trees. Near the Palm Grove is the First Farm, the site of the colony's very first cultivated farmland. In 1862 Sydney's first zoo opened in the Botanic Gardens but it relocated to Moore Park in 1883.



Famous Bondi Beach. We had a great day exploring this area.



Loved this gigantic pool on the Beach.



Opera House up close and personal.

Visit of Hope to Sydney Cove, near Botany Bay

WHERE Sydney Cove her lucid bosom swells,And with wide arms the indignant storm repels;
High on a rock amid the troubled air Hope stood sublime, and waved her golden hair;
Calmed with her rosy smile the tossing deep,And with sweet accents charmed the winds to sleep;
To each wild plain she stretched her snowy hand,High-waving wood, and sea-encircled strand.
“Hear me,” she cried, “ye rising realms! record Time’s opening scenes, and Truth’s prophetic word.
There shall broad streets their stately walls extend,The circus widen, and the crescent bend;
There, rayed from cities o’er the cultured land,Shall bright canals, and solid roads expand.
There the proud arch, colossus-like, bestride Yon glittering streams, and bound the chasing tide;
Embellished villas crown the landscape-scene,Farms wave with gold, and orchards blush between.
There shall tall spires, and dome-capped towers ascend,And piers and quays their massy structures blend;
While with each breeze approaching vessels glide,And northern treasures dance on every tide!
“Then ceased the nymph — tumultuous echoes roar,And Joy’s loud voice was heard from shore to shore —Her graceful steps descending pressed the plain,And Peace, and Art, and Labour, joined her train.

Poem by Erasmus Darwin about Sydney