Hop on, Hop off, day 2 -- February 5, 2019

We continued pretending to be kangaroos today and hopped quite a bit – on and off a bus, that is.  Doesn’t that make us authentic kangaroos? (Rhetorical question)

We started the day at a great little breakfast bagel place (Smoking Gun Bagel) in our “hometown” of Wooloomooloo (which, by the way, means either baby black kangaroo or “land of plenty” in aboriginal languages).  Then we hopped on the “blue” line bus and multiple aspects of Sydney that are more off the beaten path, including Bondi Beach and some of the more expensive suburbs.  Nice tour.

Then we hopped on the red line to head back downtown.  First stop was the Chinese Friendship Garden, which we expected to be okay, but which turned out to be a high light for the day.  We went on a tour of the gardens with the docent describing the symbolism behind the plants, whether large or small, how they related to the concepts of yin/yang, their positions within the gardens, the fountains, the structures of the buildings (the emperor's house had a gold roof), etc.  It was a wonderful escape from the hustle and bustle of downtown Sydney.  Another highlight was that today is Chinese New Year, so Julie, pretending to be a blonde Chinese person, wrote down her wishes for the new year and hung them on the fence area.

Next, we found one of Gil’s top end restaurants and had a fabulous meal at BEA, a circular-shaped restaurant on Darling Harbor.  The oysters were superb, and Gil’s “rocky road” dessert was created in the circular shape of the restaurant. Another highlight, according to Gil, was the Tasmanian gin – Slo Fine.

the BEA, a restaurant so fine and well located, we went back for a second meal

On our walk, we saw a copper Lamborghini.  Gil salivated.

After lunch, we headed to the Wildlife Museum.  This museum is about the right size (smallish) and only includes Australian animals and reptiles.  So we got our first close-up views of  koalas, wombats, crocodiles (a big one, happily sleeping!), quolls, wallabies, cassowaries, platypuses, and of course, kangaroos, particularly the Eastern Grays.  Gil and Debrorah actually got to pet a kangaroo, and Julie was mucho jealous.  Deb reports the fur was very soft. . . .

this is as close as Julie got to petting a kangaroo

It seems as if this was a short day, but it wasn’t.  We slogged back to our home base area and had a light dinner at a great little Italian bar (with tapas) on the Finger Wharf.  This wharf has a ton of upscale restaurants, along with customers dressed appropriately.  We were not among the latter, but they let us in and were polite to us :-).  Gil reports that the Italian gin was good, but if he could only have one martini, he’d have one with the Tasmanian Gin.

Bed felt good.