Sydney: Convicts, Tall ships, Misty Mountains, Big shrimp(?) and big Bats.......really big...

Arrived in Sydney and off to the Harbor we went (sound familiar Randi, however we had room keys and a good map).  We wandered into the Botanical Gardens which were full of crested cockatoos,

 ibis and the biggest bats (which they call flying foxes for a reason!) I have ever seen.  This colony that lives in the gardens are fruit bats (what kind of fruit are they eating; watermelons?) so they do not eat bugs like the nice Canadian bats.  They are killing the trees as they hang upside down (see Mom, cool picture isn't it?) and strip off all the leaves.  Did I mention they were HUGE? 

 Phew, off to the harbor to see the famous opera house.  Very neat building but its beige, I thought it was white? 

Anyway, off to dinner and I am having prawns, you know shrimps.  See the photo?  Is everything here extra large? 

So we go check out the old convict barracks.  The rats that used to inhabit this old building during convict times took the convicts stuff to make nests.  So in the old building which is now a museum they have relicts that they found once they were digging into the old floors to create the museum.  I don't want to see the size of the rats here, have you seen what a Tasmanian devil looks like; a big rat. YIKES! 

Now off to a tall ship cruise of the harbor (the opera house still looks beige).  A neat old ship called the Southern Swan built in 1922 took us on a 2 hour cruise around the harbor.  When I went to talk to the captain  imagine my surprise to find him steering with his foot while talking on his cell phone..... 

So off to the Blue Mountians we go.  After a 2 hour train ride we hop the bus and all we see of the famous Blue Mountains, is mist.  Oh well you cannot do much about the weather.

Off to the maritime museum for a look a replica of James Cooks ship, the Endeavour.  Imagine the surprise to find out its out on a a trip around Australia.  Cool.  A replica of a Dutch spice trading ship was in its place.  We have not been on a wine tour for at least a week so it was time.  The first stop on the wine tour was a wildlife park (with no wine, I might add!) where we had our first look at kangaroos and koalas. 

 

 Ah cute aren't they but I think the kangaroos can kick you to death with their feet (they balance on their tails to do this with their feet in the air) and the cute koalas get grumpy when you wake them up from their 18 hours of sleep every day.

 We end up on a tour with a Danish couple (who were of drinking age which is 18 in Australia) and 14 underage teenagers from the Phillipines.  They were denied wine at two stops but at the third winery, no one asked so they were served.  Its always entertaining to see people drink for the first time.....ever....   So for our last day in Sydney we find out there is a beer festival going on, so guess what we did?  I think my liver may need a year rest after this trip!  Oh yeah then Quantas went on strike, crap.  We re-booked our flight to Tasmania and off we go to the next stop on our tour of down under.