Day 2 was an awesome day! We woke up this morning, awake, alert, and mmm, rested! Yay! So, we got up, grabbed breakfast and set out for the Taronga Zoo. We got to take a ferry through the Sydney Harbor and take some classic photos of the picturesque sites of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge. I should also mention that the weather was perfect – warm, sunny and clear with a nice cool breeze.
Once at the zoo we saw: the kangaroos, duckbilled platypuses (which are much more energetic than I imagined), the wombats and koalas and echindas and all the good stuff. Daniel reaffirmed that the giraffes, elephants, and goats have a fantastic view of the harbor. We were bummed to discover that the penguins are uncooperative, the pygmy hippos are unscary, and the Tasmanian devils are unavailable for photoshoots. One of the seals has one of the most adorable pups ever. As we were leaving the zoo there was a window to the seal tank that contained the mom and the six month old pup. Nala was adorable and the girls in the gift shop would take seal toys and get the seal pup to follow them back and forth – it was incredibly cute and precious and we caught a great video of the two girls playing with the pup. Honestly, it was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen in my life. We stayed and watched Nala, mesmerized, until Daniel finally peeled me away.
So after another ferry ride back and another great photo op, we headed to climb the bridge pylon, which is supposed to unveil a beautiful view of the city. We marched the 200 steps and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful 360* view of Sydney. Very pretty. And wonderfully clear. Today (Day 3) it’s absolutely pouring and disgusting, as it was on Day 1, so we really really lucked out.
After enjoying the view from the bridge we headed back to our hotel to shower and recharge before dinner and the concert. Sydney is expensive. We’re also staying in the prime part of town. And food prices are ridiculous. Fortunately, the conversion rate is in our favor and is .8 instead of the 1.5 that the euro was last summer. But still. Basic meals are pricey and really nice meals are only a little bit pricier. So, we decided that we would splurge one night, and that since we were getting dressed up and going to the concert, we might as well enjoy ourselves and have a beautiful, extravagant dinner on the harbor.
So, we headed back down to the Rocks and to the harbor and perused the restaurant menus and chose the one that had main courses that appealed to both of us. The food at the Great Ocean Room was absolutely fantastic and our table looked right out on the harbor and the Sydney Opera House. We ordered truffle French fries as our appetizer – we had never had anything made with truffle oil – but we quickly appreciated its reputation! We split a cabernet-merlot blend from Southern Australia. Daniel’s main course was blue fin tuna fillet, lightly seared, and I enjoyed an aged twenty days Australian Black Angus sirloin served with truffle butter. It was an absolutely delicious meal and were very pleased with our splurge!
After dinner we were onto the Sydney Opera House for the “power and panache” concert. The first half was Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and the second half was William Walton’s Symphony No. 1. I had preordered our tickets months ago and didn’t remember where we were sitting – so imagine our surprise when we walk in “Door 4” and discover we have second row seats!!! Both were great pieces and it was really fun to actually be inside the Opera House, but we were fighting jet lag off and on towards the end of the night. The pianist was excellent. And it’s really hard to explain, but the ladies restroom was really neat. We enjoyed a really yummy ice cream flavor on the way back too – honeycomb and butterscotch.
After our magical evening on the harbor, we headed back to our hotel for the night, absolutely beat, but very excited to have had such an awesome day!
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