Tuesday December 16th Sydney Bridge Climb-Aquarium

I had forgotten to turn off the automatic off-on for my Blackberry, so I received a phone call around 2 AM (about 7 AM Vancouver time) I must confess I didn’t answer. Anyway, after that, we returned to bed but slept in until close to 7:30. It was up and out of the apartment by 8, time to stop for coffee, then off to the Sydney Habour Bridge Climb. What a production! They have a special suit that every one must wear, which has lots of places to hook things on like your hat (which they provide), your sun glass strap (which they provide), and special shoes for those of us who wore sandals. You can see the get-up from the pictures. We then signed a release, took a breathalyser test and received very detailed instructions on how hook on our safety line, and how to climb up and down a ladder. Then we were off! There were 14 in our group – I was the only Canadian. We had two from Denmark, a family from Chicago, a couple from England and another from Alaska, along with two friends from Sydney who had never made the climb before, but took advantage of a friend’s visit to partake.
The climb took about 2 hours and in total we walked up and down 1348 stairs and covered 1.8 KM. It really wasn’t that strenuous, but our guide Millie had everything timed to the minute including pictures etc. We were not allowed to take anything with us like camera’s or watches, so the pictures were purchased!
However, after the walk, I did go back across the bridge on the pedestrian walk and went up the 202 steps to the top of the pylon to take the next set of pictures. Even that is an amazing view. On my way back to the Circular Quay I stopped to take a picture of this unusual Christmas Tree in Rock Square.
Then I went back to the Circular Quay to meet Harry who had been very patiently waiting my arrival. Mind you, he did take the time for a quick brunch and a tour of the Sydney Museum. We had a meeting time set of 2 PM and more or less met at that time.
Then we were off to lunch and after that took a ferry ride to Darling Harbour. Here we toured the Aquarium and wandered around Cockles Bay.
After a lovely dinner by the water, we decided to head home. However – we had been watching and had not seen a ferry for quite some time, and our waiter didn’t think they ran this late, so we decided to take the train home. After a couple of false starts, we found the train station and went the 2 stops to home. By the time we got home we decided we had had a very full day, and were quite happy to sit and relax over a drink.