Sydney's Harbourfront by Foot

Sounds like the title for a shore excursion from a cruise ship, doesn't it? Well, it could have been one, except that there are very few cruise passengers that we have ever seen, and lots that we have seen so far on the Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships that have been here, who could have kept up with us.

(Keep in mind that our original "plan" for today was to take things easy and get over the jet lag.) We started out with a hearty breakfast. Hotel breakfast buffets are notorious for being rather unimaginative and ridiculously pricey, so Monica had done a bit of research beforehand on places close by that would fit our requirements - good and reasonable. The first one we found was called Pancakes On the Rocks. Less than 10 minutes from the hotel and offering a nice, big breakfast complete with huge buttermilk pancakes...or chocolate ones, or coconut ones if that's what you want.

Was delicious! They even add grilled pineapple AND banana!

From there, we just followed our feet, down to the Overseas Passenger Terminal (where Voyager of the Seas was having turnaround day in the midst of renovations to the building - what a mess!), and around Circular Quay. Our route ultimately took us around Bennelong Point where the Opera House sits, around the Opera House and into the Royal Botanic Gardens, following the harbour walk around the Gardens, eventually finding ourselves on the FAR side of the Gardens, overlooking the Royal Australian Navy Base. At about this point, our FitBits told us we had hit 10,000 steps for the day, and it wasn't even 11:00 AM!! We criss-crossed our way around all over the Gardens before turning around and deciding to head for the hotel, about another kilometre away at that point, for a little pool time at the hotel.

One of the neat things about our Surface tablet computer is the One Note function. Using that, we've been able to trace our route onto a map so we can refer back to it again later. We'll try to upload a photo of it if we can (or if Matthew can e-mail us how to do it!). But in the meantime, here are some photos of our wandering -

Government House, situated in the Royal Botanic Garden

A busy Circular Quay from the Cahill Expressway above.
We found a short cut over the ferry terminals.

     

Because we had already walked about 14,000+ steps and still needed to acclimatize to the heat and humidity, we spent a little time at the pool and patio. Then, of course, it was time to eat again. Considering we hadn't had lunch we thought we'd visit an old favourite restaurant - the Lowenbrau Keller German Restaurant in the Rocks. To be completely honest, the schnitzel wasn't quite up to expectations, but everything else was good!

Larry must watch too much 'Triple D' on Food TV.
He ordered the pork belly dinner,and it was sooooo good!

Such was our first "take it easy day" in Sydney! Too tired to do anything else, we went back to the hotel and hit the sack.