Day 142 Sydney, Australia

Today was a pretty amazing, yet exhausting day. We took off around 9:00 this morning and started walking toward downtown Sydney heading eventually for Chinatown. Allan and Sandra met some pretty special people last night at Icebergs, a restaurant at Bondi Beach and made arrangements for us to join them and some other friends for lunch in Chinatown. Today was the parade and celebrations for the Chinese New Year, the year of the Rat. Anyway, we headed out and along the way we parted because I wanted to go up to the top of Sydney Tower and they didn’t. Allan & Sandra were still basking in the glow of the bridge climb and weren’t interested in going up the tower. They continued on and I went up the tower…. What a view! It was a little tricky taking photos because of the reflections but I managed. After coming back down I wandered to Hyde Park and checked out the Archibald fountain and St. Mary’s Cathedral. From there I headed off toward Chinatown. I went via Darling Harbour so I could go to the Chinese Gardens. Darling Harbour was very nice but those gardens were just magnificent. I really enjoyed walking thru the gardens and seeing all the beauty, just amazing. As I walked around town I kept intersecting with the big parade being held to celebrate the New Year. As a matter of fact the celebrations went on pretty much all day. There were dragons and fireworks every where you turned it seemed. After the gardeds I continued making my way to Chinatown and the restaurant where we were having lunch. I found the restaurant but since I was a bit early I went to the market. It was very, very crowded. Lunch was just amazing. Our new found friends were just great. We were at the restaurant for almost 4 hours I believe. The food was great and the company fabulous. Perhaps on my next visit to Sydney I see some of them again…. That would be nice. After lunch, Allan, Sandra & I walked back toward the harbor and dropped our things at the ship. On the way we stopped at the Queen Victoria Building which was unbelievable… I have seen few buildings more beautiful on the inside. We went out again and were getting pretty tired so we called it an early night and went back. It was a very, very nice day…. Sydney is such a very special place…