Tidal pool display at Sydney Aquarium
The aquarium was our first glimpse of a phenomenon which was to be repeated throughout our trip - tourists videotaping or photographing everything in sight. The videotapers tended to just start their camcorders and let them run as they walked through the halls, or through the shopping malls as the case may be. Most seemed more attentive to the camcorder than the wonders they were taping. Some, traveling in groups, were most fond of taking pictures of each other in front of various sights - usually blocking the pedestrian path while doing so. When they get home, they'll have lots of pictures of their friends, I guess...
One more from the aquarium - this was a tidal pool display. And no, these are not artificially colored, plastic alien replicas, they are real, live aquatic critters. Check out the bright blue starfish - we saw a lot of those!
Tidal pool display at Sydney Aquarium
Finally, we crawled into bed at around 7:30 and fell instantly asleep...
... only to wake up at about 3:30AM! Isn't jet lag fun! Our scheduled outing for today was a cruise around Sydney Harbour, which is quite large. It starts near two of Sydney's most famous landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Here's a shot of the two together, taken from the cruise.
Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge
The bridge is really quite magnificent in design and construction - those two stone pillars at each end are there just for show, they're not structural. One of the things you can do is go on a "bridge walk" on top of the structure. You're dressed in a special gray suit (so as to not distract the drivers below) and are tethered safely (so they say) continuously. We didn't do this, but here's a picture of some who did...
Sydney bridge walkers
© 2002 Steve Lionel - - Home