As a reminder, this will be the last post until around the 19th due to connectivity issues. With that said, on to Day 16.

Our luck with weather continues. There was rain early in the morning and enough cloud cover that we took our rain jackets, but the skies did clear by late afternoon. We took the red double-decker bus that provided a nice overview of Sydney, and yes, we drove past the famous Opera House twice. Their Hyde Park is quite pleasant, although much smaller of course than the London namesake. It was lunch at The Fortunes of War, in what is supposed to be the oldest, still existing pub in Sydney.

We then re-boarded the bus to go to the Australian Museum that is having a special T- Rex exhibit. The bus takes the circuitous route with sightseeing stops and we realized once we got to the museum that it was only about a mile walk back to the hotel and we would do that rather than take the bus through the other tourist spots again.  We had actually passed two other museums that were of interest to us – the Power Museum and the Maritime Museum weren’t really in walking distance for the return – and we do both love dinosaurs. The museum was very well laid out and the special exhibit was fun – video presentations mixed with the educational information. The regular exhibits were nicely done and it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

The stroll back gave us a close-up look at some of the places that we’d gone by quickly that morning and we arrived back in time for my husband to check in on the cricket match. England has rallied and forced play into one more day, so it’s hard to know for sure who will prevail. Australia is ahead and we’ll keep our fingers crossed. We did decide on the little Italian bistro close to the hotel for dinner and it, like the larger one we enjoyed in Melbourne, was delightfully authentic. The hotel we are in was doing Whiskey Monday with a special flight of whiskeys for a not altogether absurd price. We therefore declined having a bottle of wine with dinner and stopped in at the hotel bar. They actually had almost forty single malt whiskeys and then another 50 or so of other types – bourbon, rye, etc. I stuck with another glass of wine and husband enjoyed the flight. Last day tomorrow will be the ferry ride across the harbor and going to the zoo.