Happy New Year! - Tuesday, January 1

Today we toured Sydney by foot.  We began the day by taking the train to Circular Quay.  The ride from our hotel out by the airport to Circular Quay only took about 15 minutes.  Once there, we headed to a quaint little restaurant for breakfast.  Food here is extremely expensive.  After breakfast we walked through the area called The Rocks.  The buildings are built right on top of large rocks that used to be right on the water.  Many buildings are quite old and the entire area has a lot of charm.  At the observatory we watched a large ball drop at the top of the building.  This used to be the only way in Sydney for its citizens to know what the time was.  It still happens everyday at 1:00!  Next we wandered over to The Opera House.  We were amazed at how beautiful the roof is.  You can see the individual tiles used to construct it.  Then we walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens.  In one area there are over 180 different species of palm trees!  Back over to The Rocks for dinner at a German beer garden.  Delicious!  After eating we wandered more, but by then our feet and legs were ready to call it quits for the day.  Back on the train and arrived at our hotel room at 10:00.  Sydney is a beautiful city.  The harbor is just gorgeous!  We didn't take the climb up the Harbor Bridge - you know how I feel about high places.