Saturday 26th October 2002

After another night with little or no sleep, we got up at 07.00 AM and started our last day in Sydney. Brrr ... It had just rained when we stepped out onto Jamison street. Cold, windy, cloudy, perhaps more rain ... Is this Australia or Belgium? Well, 'no worries', right? Almost got blown out of our socks, but we continued our exploration anyway. We walked along Bridge street towards the Gardens to catch a last glimps of this beautiful park and then followed along Macquarie street towards Hyde Park, passing some of Sydneys prominent Victorian buildings: NSW State Library, the Parliament House (people had layed down flowers in the courtyard and the flags were half mast because of the recent bombings in Bali), next to that, Sydney Hospital with the legendary 'Il Porcellino' (a statue of a bronze boar that is supposed to bring you luck if you rub his porky nose ;-) and finally the Hyde Park Barracks, former home to convicts, orphans and widows. We walked through Hyde Park, where people were making preparations for the Food Fare which would start in the early afternoon ... and which we 'planned' to enjoy later on too, hence the fact that we were dragging around a beachbag with beachtowels etc. But in this wheather? Yikes!

We were in dire need of a hot coffee and some 'breakie' by now and found our 'drug' in the magestic Queen Victoria Building. It's a grand shopping mall, just as impressive on the inside as on the outside, housing the usual mix of eateries and shops. After our stroll through the QVB we decided to make good use of our Sydney Explorer pass again and took the bus towards China Town. where we trolled through the area and checked out the nearby Paddy's Market.

Then we made our way to Darling Harbour, a 'normally' busteling area of town, but in this wheather ... Darling Harbour is like the playground/entertainment center of the city. We checked out the Northern Territory centre, the Harbourside Shopping center with its impressive Food Court, walked along the Maritime Museum, did the famous Sydney monorail (unimpressive!) and had lunch at a 'Sushi Go-Round bar'. Soo cool! Loads of delicious Japanese dishes passing along on a conveyer belt ... You just pick your and pay! Voilà!

We left Darling Harbour and walked back towards Hyde Park, passing some major shopping streets and another 'grand' shopping mall, the Strand. The Food & Wine Fare had really kicked off by now. What an atmosphere! Even in this lousy weather there were hundreds of people there. Enjoying a meal with a good glas of wine ... sitting on the grass, having a good time and doing their thing for charity (part of the procides of the Food Fare go to the Australian Aids Foundation). We decided to join them and had a glass of Aussie wine and a sit-down. (Ehm, ... was it our imagination, or did the earth under our bums feel 'warm' all of a sudden ? ;-)

We left the 'festival' atmosphere of Hyde Park behind and visited the neighbouring Australian Museum. This is the oldest museum of Australia, and houses an important archive of Australian Natural History.

Now we were really tired, but we still wanted to visit the Saturday Markets at The Rocks, so we went towards George street and just followed it into the heart of area. The Market is not very big, and mostly had common 'Australiana' goods on sale. But, interesting nonetheless. Radica decided to hava a typical 'hot corn cob in The Rocks' and then we made our way back to the hotel ...

And found out our wedding pictures had already been delivered to our room!
Sorry we can't show them properly (we tried some).

cheers,
Radica & JJ