VOYAGE to the SOUTH PACIFIC ... Amelia, where are you?

Sydney - Day 2 Nov 1, 2009

"I find it useful to remember everyone lives by selling something.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

Sunday we decided to sleep in a little after we had decided to make this a free day…nothing organized; just get around and see the sights; go to the Queen Victoria Building (a classic Victorian multilevel building transformed into a high end shopping venue); go back to The Rocks markets.

We started out by walking a block up into the Rocks and bought a ticket for the Sydney Explorer Hop-on/Hop-off narrated double-decker bus journey. The total circuit takes about an hour and a quarter and covers all the main sights, the waterfront, and inner city neighborhoods. We took the complete circuit and then circled back getting off at the QVB. This site has been seen in movies and TV travel shows and it gives places like Mazza Galleria, Trump Tower, and Rodeo Drive a run for their money. Ferragamo, Gucci, Prada, etc., they are all there. Stevenson was correct about people selling, although we saw quite a few browsers in these, we didn’t see much purchased merchandise passing by the cash registers. We stopped for tea and a Lamington pastry before strolling down to Darling Harbor to catch the Explorer back to The Rocks.

Back at The Rocks Market we revisited some stalls that had attracted us on Saturday and bought some of these things that of course we couldn’t do without…don’t ask. A stop at Rocks pub for a cool cider and then back to the ship.

At night the ship invited an extended Aborigine family to put on a short folkloric stage show that featured didgeridoo playing (of course), and some dancing, and dreamtime stories and chanting unique to the tribe these people represented.

Early to bed tonight…………….RBM