A beautiful rainbow over Darling Harbour greeted us at breakfast this morning. After breakfast and a quick trip to drop our laundry at Wash in the Rocks, we joined the group to walk to the Sydney Opera House for a guided tour.

We learned the story of the construction of the Opera House, the political battle that brought in a new architect, lots of statistics, and got to see (and hear) the Sydney Symphony rehearsing and watch the some of the members of the Australian Ballet practice some of their moves. We weren’t allowed to take photos during either of those segments, but photography was OK during the rest of the tour.

Lunch was included at the Opera Bar; the view and conversation were good and the food was ok.

After lunch, our guide Ronan took us on a short walk through the Rocks and told us a few stories about the early European settlement of Australia. We’d seen the William Bligh statue on our Monday walk but didn’t know why it was there; Ronan explained that Bligh was the fourth Governor of New South Wales and suffered a second mutiny here (it was the only successful armed takeover of an Australian government)!

Ronan also took us to see the “First Impressions” statue on Playfair Street; he told us about the protest demonstrations because the statue completely omitted the original inhabitants of the land, the Gadigal People (Aborigines). The statue itself is interesting because it’s a three-sided sculpture; it would be easy to miss one or two sides if you weren’t paying attention!

We had a little time before this evening’s Harbour Cruise, so we went out exploring again. We didn’t go very far, though – it was perhaps 200 meters to the YHA Sydney Harbour, which is built atop ruins from the early European settlement of Sydney. They call it the Big Dig.

We returned to our hotel and met the pre-tour group (about 20 of us; there will be 100 or so on the main tour) before getting onto a coach which took us to Darling Harbour and the Spirit of Migloo for our journey around Sydney Harbour.

We ate, we drank, we talked, and we enjoyed the sights.

The Sydney Opera House was the star of the show, with the bridge playing a supporting role.

The route also gave us a nice view of Luna Park, which is modeled after Luna Park on Coney Island. It’s had its ups and downs over the years, but currently looks to be approaching its 90th birthday in good shape.

Today (Wednesday) is the first official day of our pre-tour. After breakfast, we went to the lobby to check in with our Tour Director, Barbara; we met a couple of other guests as well as Matthew, one of the local guides. We’ll be taking a Sydney Harbour Dinner Cruise this evening, but we’re free until then.

We’d thought about doing another one of the permanent volksmarches, the Spit Bridge to Manly Walk, but the weather was vaguely threatening and I was afraid about feeling rushed, so we decided to walk the Sydney Harbour Bridge instead.

Matthew suggested that we walk to Wynyard Station (about 10 minutes south of the hotel), take the train one stop north to Milsons Point, and walk the bridge back to the Central Business District. Unfortunately, the train was delayed about 20 minutes because of urgent track repairs, so it probably would have been faster to walk the bridge both ways (the south bridge stairs are only three minutes’ walk from the hotel)!

We finally reached the north bridge stairs just outside the station and began our excursion.

The walking path is on the East side of the bridge, which gave us great views of the Opera House, the Botanic Garden, Circular Quay, and The Rocks.

We also saw a group of climbers beginning their ascent of the bridge.

The bridge is a little under a mile long, so it didn’t take us long to reach the south end, where we were faced with a choice: take the stairs down to Cumberland Street and walk three minutes to get back to our hotel, or continue on the Cahill (pronounced “Karl”) Walk towards Central Quay and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The choice was clear.

The Cahill Walk ends just outside the Botanic Gardens at a sandstone sculpture, Memory is Creation without End, made from remnants of old demolished buildings in the area.

We decided to have lunch before going into the Gardens, so we went back to Circular Quay and ate at Four Frogs Crêperie. The food reminded us of [Crêperie Broceliande] in Montmartre – the atmosphere, not so much.

We returned to the Gardens and explored parts we hadn’t seen on our walk on Monday, especially the Herb Garden, the Palace Rose Garden, and the Trial Garden.

I’m sure we could have done more, but a little rest was nice!

We took another long walk on Tuesday, this one from Bondi Beach to Coogee (about 7km). It’s a very popular walk, with great scenery, interesting places to explore, and lots of opportunities to people-watch. It reminded me of West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz except that the traffic was far, far away.

Our hotel concierge suggested taking an Uber to Campbell Parade, across from the beach, and looking around there before beginning the trail. Even at the early hour, the sidewalk was crowded and lots of eating (and drinking) places were open. We avoided them and crossed over to take in the view on the beach side.

We walked down to the official start of the trail at [Bondi Icebergs Club] (https://icebergs.com.au), which they describe as the “only licensed swimming club in the world”. We didn’t go in (that seems to be a theme of this trip so far!), but we did stop and enjoy looking at their salt water pools.

There are lots of steps and climbs along the trail, and you’re rewarded with great views.

Flowers, too, like this Yellow King Humbert canna lily.

Bondi Beach is famous for its surfing; we didn’t see many surfers there, but there were a few off Bronte Beach.

The annual Sculpture by the Sea event takes place along this part of the walking route; some of the sculptures are left in place after the event, like this one.

The view from Lookout Point was to die for – literally, since it’s just outside Waverly Cemetery.

We stopped for lunch at Sea Salt in Clovelly, then continued south to the designated end of the trail segment at the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, one of at least four Surf Life Saving Clubs we’d seen along the walk.

We walked a bit further to get to the south end of Coogee before turning around.

I was intrigued by the signs at McIver’s Ladies Baths, but obviously could not go in!

We walked back to Coogee’s main drag and explored a bit, treating ourselves to cones from Andersen’s of Denmark, a small local chain which turns out to have started in Solvang (but is no longer there).

We stayed close to the hotel the rest of the day. Dinner was at Hart’s Pub, about three minutes walk from the hotel. Tuesday is their pub trivia night, but we chose not to partake. :-)

We slept well last night – the hotel’s bed was far more comfortable (and much bigger) than United’s lie-flat seat, and there wasn’t any turbulence, either.

Our room rate includes breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, Altitude (on the 36th floor). We ordered our drinks as soon as we sat down; I asked for black coffee, as usual. I expected a big cup or mug filled with coffee, and maybe a carafe so I could manage my own refills, but I got this instead:

I told the server that I’d ordered black coffee, and she said, “Yes, it’s a long black”. I drained the cup in two gulps and did a web search to see what a “long black” was – it’s an Americano with half the water. I asked another server if I could get “brewed coffee” and was told “no”, so I ordered an Americano.

When the server brought that drink, she had some real coffee mugs on her tray; I asked what was in them and was told “lattes”. I thought about ordering a latte without the milk, but decided against it; instead, I found the hostess and asked how to get a lot of coffee in a mug.

She suggested asking for a “long black in a mug”; tomorrow, I’ll see if that’s the magic incantation.