Sydney: The City of Stairs

Yesterday was a day of stairs. Everywhere I went, from the train station to the opera house to the harbor bridge was nothing but stairs. I'm getting ahead of myself though.

My plan for today was to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I woke up a bit late but made it just in time to get all suited up. They give you a jumpsuit, a climb belt, a neat little device to attach you to a cable running up the bridge, and a radio. Then you start climbing steps. I couldn't take my camera, but I got these shots later that will show you where I was. We went all the way to the top, across, and then back down. The weather was gorgeous, and the views were incredible. It was a totally exhilirathing experience, and I highly recommend it!

Here's the bridge, and then a closer shot of the people climbing it.





After I climbed the bridge, I went over to the opera house to have the tour that came with my sunset cruise. It was really neat to be able to get inside the symphony and opera halls when they were just setting up. I have about five million more pictures of the exterior of the opera house, but in an effort to be interesting, I'll show you the interiors. Here's an example of some of the woodwork:



And here's what the main symphony hall looks like:



They were working in the opera hall, so I still wasn't able to get a good picture of it.

Since the day was clear, I decided it would be cool to go to the Sydney Observatory for the night tour. I had some time to kill first though, so after a quicky dinner, I whizzed through the aquarium. I got to see lots of great Australian fish and sharks, plus a gigantic crocodile and even a little platypus.

I made it over to the Observatory and took the night tour. I'll admit I was quite exhausted from the day and it was hard to concentrate. However, we did get to look through the telescope, and I got to see Betelgeuse (a star in Orion), Saturn (so cool!), the Moon, Alpha Centauri (the closest star to us, actually two stars), and a constellation called the jewel box. It was awesome to be able to see all those things, so in the end I was glad I went.

**Darn - I wanted to update about today too, but I'm just about out of internet time, and since I'm leaving here today, I don't want to buy more. I promise tales of mountains and football tomorrow!**