Day 11--Sydney still

Ice Cream on Pancakes!

I'd never had ice cream on pancakes but it was pretty tasty!

On the advice of the Concierge at the hotel I next went to the Captain Cook Cruises to book a harbour cruise.  They have a cruise at 2:00pm called High Tea At Sea!  That's the one for me!

This is the ship I went out on--more on that later.

Since I had about 4 hours before the cruise I walked past the Opera House and into the Royal Botanical Garden.

There's a lot of paved walking paths within the park.  One follows alongside the water for quite a ways-I only walked a part of it.

This tree intrigued me as it has lichen growing on the trunk.  Reminds me somewhat of a carrot all the leaves on top and the root exposed.

Lots of lovely lawn and no nasty little signs telling you not to walk on the grass-instead signs encouraging such behavior!  There's some of those crazy building blocks turned into ACTUAL  buildings!

 

I find these trees so interesting!  A Ficus Macrophylla f. Columnaris (or Morton Bay fig)  Google it there's more photos.

This is a close up of the same tree.  This tree has no central truck but many trunks that form from an arial root.  Each of the trucks you see once was a dangling bunch of roots that grew until they reached the ground and became a trunk.  Very interesting.  I saw a lot of them.

White Ibis were very common on the ground This pair in the front is adult and chick-the chick is feeding.

Some plant art!

Do you see the Whale?  Hint--his tail is on the left.

I visited the gift shop and left a few dollars there: another mug, a children's book on Australia for my collection of books to read the Grands, and a tote back which asserts that I don't need therapy but just need to go to Australia!  Not so sure about that!

One could wander in the gardens for an entire day but I do have other plans, so, I head back the way I came.

In front of the Opera House there were some young people doing a very nicely executed Kpop dance.  I stood and enjoyed it all the way through!  Such energy!

The Opera House and the bridge in the background.  I think this would have been on the way back.

This is the best photo I took of the Opera House~I think It will make the photos wall!

The setting for tea.  It was lovely but I wished for someone to share it with.

The crazy people doing the "Bridge walk!"  I did not attempt it.  My Knee has complained quite a lot lately and I didn't want to hear worse complaining--So--I didn't go.  Plus, I don't do well with high places, most especially those with edges!  I don't regret not doing it!

Once back at the Quay I watched this depart!

Then I headed back to the hotel to pack for the next part of the journey.