A quick word. The internet fee at this hotel is absurd and therefore, I will post Day 16 early tomorrow, then there will be no more until after the 19th when we return home.

For Day 15, an easy flight to Sydney and I was glad it was a Sunday afternoon because I imagine that traffic in from the airport would have been quite jammed. We once again have a great location from the hotel in the historic area known as “The Rocks” and within steps of Circle Quay. I’ll read more about the Rocks, although it was apparently where many of the convicts worked and later a neighborhood that was considered unsavory was established. That is hardly the case today and we poked around among small restaurants, passed the Museum of Modern Art, and looked up the street at the closing hours of the weekly market that we chose not to explore since it was rather late. The claim of the Fortunes of War to be Sydney’s oldest pub though will draw us there for a meal. According to one of the pamphlets, one other pub makes the same claim, but this one is closer to us. Circle Quay on the Harbor has a variety of cruise boats and ferries, to include one that takes you to the zoo entrance. Aside from the fact that I love zoos, we haven’t see a koala bear yet.

There is also a red double-decker hop on-hop off option that goes to almost 30 stops with commentary and that’s the plan for tomorrow as we determine which, if any, spots we will want to return to after we have completed the tour. We did cut back in eating for lunch and that helped and the regular restaurant in the hotel was closed, so it was the bar again. That’s actually the fourth meal we have eaten in a hotel bar, but when you are staying in high end places, that translates into a high end meal, just with a more limited menu. My husband had calamari and I did prawns in a spicy tomato sauce, so it wasn’t as if we were having beer and nachos. (Not that I don’t thoroughly enjoy a good plate of nachos). The cricket match is scheduled to continue until Tuesday and Australia has pulled ahead with a comfortable lead and my husband has grasped at least the basics of play. Our driver on the wine tour was a big fan and he explained a number of things about it on Friday as we drove back from the tour. He had been listening to the match on the radio and we assured him he could continue to listen to that instead of playing a music selection for our benefit.

Anyway, the topic is Sydney. The clouds began to clear and the weather promises to be nice for the remaining part of our trip. We shall see what the City is all about.