The day started off pretty easy. Paul (Angie's brother) escorted us across the ferry into Sydney and then took us to the Custom's House to get a birds eye view of the City. There is a scale model of Sydney under the plexiglass floor and Paul pointed out many points of interest that we might want to check out during the next week. I took the opportunity to practice the bridge climb, but more about that later.
After a quick coffee and scone, Paul headed to work while Angie and I took a bus to Hyde Park. We stopped into Saint Mary's Cathedral for a quick tour and prayer for a safe trip in Sydney. It is supposed to really be amazing when the sun is shining through the stained glass windows, but the day is overcast and threatening rain so we didn't get to experience this.
After peaking in the church we made a few wrong turns but finally found our way to the Hyde Park Barracks. The Barracks was essentially a prison built by prisoners about 150 years ago.
From the looks of the hammocks that they slept in, the early settlers in Australia were shorter than me. The barracks were later converted to an orphange of sorts for all the teenage girls imported from Ireland during the potato famine to help even out the male female ratio on the island. It served as a court house more recently before being turned in to a museum.
After a mad dash in the rain, we bought ourselves a couple of umbrellas and grabbed lunch at a nearby cafe. Of course by the time we finished eating the sun came out. Our next stop was the Royal Botanical Gardens. After about 20 minutes of searching, we finally found what we were
looking for... the thousands of fruit bats that call the botanical gardens home. Since the bats are nocturnal, we found them hanging upside down from the trees sleeping. From a distance they looked like pine cones but I've never seen a palm tree with pine cones before. We did get a chance to use our new umbrellas just in case the bats decided to go to the bathroom while we walked under the trees.
I think Angie could have watched the bats for
hours, but we had to head to the Rocks for our bridge climb. The walk started off pleasantly enough, but when we were about half way there it started to rain. I'm not talking a pleasant April shower sort of rain but rather a torrential downpour. Our umbrellas did a good job keeping our hair dry but by the time we arrived at the Bridge Climb office our pants looked like we just pulled them out of the rinse cycle. I've never been so glad to have to don an ugly jumper (required uniform for the climb) but it was dry while my clothes were soaked. Our guide Dan, helped us get strapped in to all of our safety gear and walked us through a practice climb on the bridge simulator before taking us out to the bridge. Fortunately during this time, the rain had moved past and we were able to enjoy, the dry, but overcast climb 150 meters above the water and traffic onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It is amazing that the city approved this type of tour, but I'm certainly glad they did. The geaky structural engineer that still lives deep down inside of 
me was thrilled to be climbing on the worlds heaviest truss bridge in the world with a spectalur view of the Sydney Harbor and the Opera House in the background. We got plenty of time to take in the view and see downtown Sydney light up as the sun went down (unfortunately the sunset was obstructed by the rain clouds) before heading back down the bridge. And if the day couldn't get any better, Paul had dinner ready for us when we got back. I think this is going to be a great vacation...
After a quick coffee and scone, Paul headed to work while Angie and I took a bus to Hyde Park. We stopped into Saint Mary's Cathedral for a quick tour and prayer for a safe trip in Sydney. It is supposed to really be amazing when the sun is shining through the stained glass windows, but the day is overcast and threatening rain so we didn't get to experience this.
After peaking in the church we made a few wrong turns but finally found our way to the Hyde Park Barracks. The Barracks was essentially a prison built by prisoners about 150 years ago.
From the looks of the hammocks that they slept in, the early settlers in Australia were shorter than me. The barracks were later converted to an orphange of sorts for all the teenage girls imported from Ireland during the potato famine to help even out the male female ratio on the island. It served as a court house more recently before being turned in to a museum.After a mad dash in the rain, we bought ourselves a couple of umbrellas and grabbed lunch at a nearby cafe. Of course by the time we finished eating the sun came out. Our next stop was the Royal Botanical Gardens. After about 20 minutes of searching, we finally found what we were
looking for... the thousands of fruit bats that call the botanical gardens home. Since the bats are nocturnal, we found them hanging upside down from the trees sleeping. From a distance they looked like pine cones but I've never seen a palm tree with pine cones before. We did get a chance to use our new umbrellas just in case the bats decided to go to the bathroom while we walked under the trees.I think Angie could have watched the bats for
hours, but we had to head to the Rocks for our bridge climb. The walk started off pleasantly enough, but when we were about half way there it started to rain. I'm not talking a pleasant April shower sort of rain but rather a torrential downpour. Our umbrellas did a good job keeping our hair dry but by the time we arrived at the Bridge Climb office our pants looked like we just pulled them out of the rinse cycle. I've never been so glad to have to don an ugly jumper (required uniform for the climb) but it was dry while my clothes were soaked. Our guide Dan, helped us get strapped in to all of our safety gear and walked us through a practice climb on the bridge simulator before taking us out to the bridge. Fortunately during this time, the rain had moved past and we were able to enjoy, the dry, but overcast climb 150 meters above the water and traffic onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It is amazing that the city approved this type of tour, but I'm certainly glad they did. The geaky structural engineer that still lives deep down inside of 
me was thrilled to be climbing on the worlds heaviest truss bridge in the world with a spectalur view of the Sydney Harbor and the Opera House in the background. We got plenty of time to take in the view and see downtown Sydney light up as the sun went down (unfortunately the sunset was obstructed by the rain clouds) before heading back down the bridge. And if the day couldn't get any better, Paul had dinner ready for us when we got back. I think this is going to be a great vacation...
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