As the doctor said to the transvestite: "it won't be long now." That's how it's happening with the blog; another update from my phone following just 24 hours behind the last.
Today started in a lazy fashion, beginning with a brunch at Starbucks in Martin Place, having caught the train up from Central. We travelled the length of the Martin Place mall before finding the Lindt cafe, deciding to revisit later when we actually needed to eat.
By this stage Belinda's retail urges were growing to extreme levels so it was decided to take the train to Town Hall (we had CityHopper day passes so we couldn't resist) and then visit the Queen Victoria Building. There we visited a few shops that Belinda had taken an interest in.
After a time of admiring the architecture of the building we made it across to the Sydney Tower for a little kitch Australiana trash. The view from the observation deck was good and provided an overview of the size of the city. Once back from the top we did the OzTrek part of the ticket, which involved a rotating hologram theatre show and a motion simulator movie. It was expectedly corny and full of Australian stereotypes for the international tourists. The theatres were fun and it's always interesting to see what they sell to the international tourists about our country.
We were once again feeling a tad hungry so a short walk took us to the Lindt cafe for a delicious arvo tea of cake and iced chocolate. CityRail's dirty network took us to Town Hall to pick up some fruit at the Woolworths connected to the station for tomorrow's breakfast. Then it was back to the hotel to finish this entry and get ready for our upcoming bridge climb.
CityRail's city circle line provided our transport to Circular Quay for what was to be the biggest single activity of the holiday. It wasn't a simple case of taking the train from Central but instead a convoluted multi-leg trip beginning with dinner at a take away chicken joint then the monorail up to Galleries Victoria where we connected to Town Hall station.
A stroll up to the bridge brought us to the Bridge Climb headquarters where upon check-in w were informed that we were the only 2 people booked on our climb. There was a little time to kill before our experience began so we browsed the gift shop and Belinda shared how she was going to die and her lack of enthusiasm for the fast approaching climb.
Despite her reservations Belinda managed to pluck up enough courage to go through with our endeavour, encouraged by our knowledgable and friendly guide. Being a small group meant that our Discovery (disco) climb was exactly how we wanted, stopping and taking photos at our whim. This type of climb is only 1 month old and differs from the original climb by travelling along the lower arch to reach the summit, passing between traffic lanes on the ascent and between the railway tracks on the descent - lots of trains sighted and encountered at close range!
To cool our heels after the climb we couldn't miss a treat from the Cold Rock Ice Creamery near the hotel.
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