Sydney - Day 3

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We went to bed pretty late for us last night. We did not set an alarm for this morning. I was up first before 6:30am. I don't know why. We had no plans set for today. I had a list of 3 things/places I was interested in. Two were near each other and the Sydney Aquarium was walking distance of the hotel. We did some research into the Aquarium and found that the boat through the Antarctic Penguins was only 2 minutes long. We decided that with Australia's school kids on break that it would be too crazy for us for a 2 minute experience. So we nixed that. We were left with NSW State Library and Sweet Addiction The Botanic story of chocolate at The Calyx at the Royal Botanic Garden. We did not need to be anywhere before 10am so we had a leisurely breakfast in the room from our grocery shopping stockpile. We were still out the door just after 9am. We scouted a new underground route to Central Station. This only worked to reach the South Concourse and won't help tomorrow when we move our luggage to the Indian Pacific. We paid about $4.10pp to take the metro 2 stops away. We got to the State Library about 9:30am. We needed to kill an hour before the free guided History & Heritage tour at 10:30am. We checked out some statues outside. I can never get enough of Matthew Flinders and his cat Trim. We checked out the gift shop. We each had a chocolate treat from Café Trim to set the mood for this afternoon. We used the restrooms and it was time. There were only 5 of us on the tour so it was nice. We learned that the reason there is a statue of Matthew Flinders and Trim is that Flinders' great grandson (or something like that) offered to donate Flinders' private papers to the 1st Australian library that erected a statue to honor him. Sydney beat out Melbourne by 2 weeks. She also showed us where someone had stolen one of Trim's brass paw prints recently. It was a good tour and it lasted an hour. We found a snack kiosk at the RBG and had sandwiches for lunch. We walked through a portion of the Royal Botanic Garden to get to the Calyx and the Sweet Addiction exhibit. It was interesting. We liked the chocolate samples at the end. We walked back towards our hotel via the gift shop of the Art Gallery of NSW. We went through the museum last time we visited Sydney and didn't feel the need today. We walked on to visit St. Mary's Cathedral. I had thought it was named for the only Australian saint, Mary, but it is for Jesus' mother. I was done by then. I have learned I just can't push too hard. When I get clenched up and my muscles burn, I need to stop and rest. We walked across Hyde Park to find the closest Metro station and paid another $4.10 pp to get back to Central Station. We took the first available train and it went the long way around with a stop at Circular Quay with a view of the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

When we got to the room, I packed for tomorrow on the train. We can check a 50 lb. bag but we can't have access to it. So, we have to pack just what we need for a day and night and day in a carry on. I hope I got it right! Clay did some work on the Internet. Then we went out and ate at a Mr. Noodle Chinese place on George Street. It was very local and authentic. It was good. We stopped at BreadTop for dessert to take back to the room. That's it.

We have to check out of the Rendezvous Studio Hotel by 11am. We can check in for the train at 12:30pm. I have no idea what we'll do for the couple of hours of in between time! If I don't post tomorrow it will be because of no Internet on the train. Check back after we get to Adelaide.

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