Sydney

Our plane touched down in Sydney straight after dawn. When the plane neared Sydney airport, we got an incredible view of Sydney's harbour and its skyline (18 kB). In Hyde Park (70 kB), which was on the way from our hotel to the harbour, we saw ibises (70 kB), which are as common in Australia as are sparrows in Germany. Sydney's harbour belongs to one of the beautiful harbours in the world - we could see just on our Harbour tour of the 1000 bays (41 kB). The tour started at Circular Quay (55 kB) between Harbour Bridge (48 kB) and opera house. You could get up on one of the Harbour Bridge's pylons - however, starting not from the very bottom but from the street level. From here, the view of the opera (56 kB) is simply terrific. Later on that evening, we had dinner in a restaurant right at Circular Quay (47 kB) with a view to the opera and the Harbour Bridge.

After coming back from the Blue Mountains tour, we had one last day in Sydney. With only little time at hand, the Sydney Explorer Bus is just right for tourists. A one-day-ticket entitles you to hop on and off the red buses as often as you like. The buses do a 22 km round and stop at 27 sights. The driver tells you what sight's next. The Sydney Explorer ticket also entitles you to a discount entrance at the Sydney Tower. From a height of 305 m, the view down on Sydney (65 kB) is spectacular. Right near the tower, in Darling Harbour, a modern entertainment complex, you'll find the Sydney Aquarium (43 kB). The Guinness Book of Records puts it down as the world's biggest aquarium. You'll walk through huge glass tubes while you've got sharks (some of them over 4 m long), mantas and other fish swimming all around you.

Sydney is a great city to see, however, we flew then right into the outback.

last update: 24.11.1999