Woke up at 6:00, showered, blogged, and off to breakfast by 7:30. Out to catch a ferry to Manly Beach area.
The ferries leave about every 30 minutes so we weren't aiming for a specific one, just the fun of riding a ferry across the harbor, then walking around a beautiful area. Manly Beach is about 10km North East of us. It was about 72 degrees and the breeze felt really nice. We sat on the bow an took in the various sights and other passing boats.
Again, the view of the opera house wasn't as nice as from the pier opposite, but that didn't stop us taking the pictures anyway.
Off the ferry, we headed out toward the beach. We turned left and started walking along the beach, but on cement. Neither of us wanted shoes full of sand. There were drinking fountains every hundred feet or so, and beneath every fountain was a dog dish. There were also dog dishes (water bowls) in other areas like near picnic tables. This must be a very dog friendly area.
About this time I realized that if I kept going in this sun, I'd get a sunburn so Mike went and grabbed some sunscreen so we could both slather some on. Since I don't have my hat, I made sure to get ears, cheeks, and nose especially good.
After a bit more walking we noticed a life guard sitting in a chair under a big awning. There was a sign on the chair saying something like "Unmanned drone monitoring taking place". He did have a drone controller in his hands and he appeared to be watching it intently. About that same time we noticed signs on the beach saying "Beach Closed". But there were a few people in the water near the shore and many surfers in the water a bit further out. There were allot of large waves rolling in.
We kept walking for a while and saw another lifeguard putting up more "Beach Closed" signs. We decided to turn around and walk over near the rocks where most of the surfers were.
We stopped fairly often to sit in the shade and watch the people going by but no one seemed that bothered by the beach closed sign, at least not the surfers.
When we rounded the corner and got over near the rocks we found a nice bench to sit on in the shade. About that time we heard loud speakers from the shore making some announcement. I couldn't make out a word of it and neither could Mike. A lady next to us explained that they were warning the surfers that the beach was closed and that no one would be coming out to rescue them if they got in trouble.
It also warned that the water near the rocks was a rip tide and not to surf so near the rocks or they would be injured. Last, there were 2 swells coming in and trying to surf down the middle would result in injuries. Most surfer did move over a bit, but by now there were so many surfers in the water that it was hard to catch a wave. Many moved right back over near the rocks and the riptide, ignoring the warnings.
We talked with the lady a bit and she told us her sun surfs and isn't home from school for 5 minutes before he's shedding clothes and heading down to the beach to surf. She loves living in the area though.
We headed back for the ferry and grabbed some drinks and I got a nectarine to eat. We paid for the return by scanning our phones' credit cards. It cost $1 austrailian (about 75 cents) to ride the ferry. We could ride on the bow so we sat on the port side in the shade. It was a nice ride and a really good nectarine.
From the ferry we headed to the hat store that Mike found. They had a great selection of australian hats. Besides replacing my leather crushable hat, I also wanted to look for a more ventilated hat as well. The had store had both. I picked out a medium brown soft kangaroo leather foldable hat with a contrasting band. Then I also got a hat with a canvas brim and top and a mesh body. The leather hat as $109 ($75 us) and the canvas was $55 ($37 us).
I wore the mesh and canvas hat the rest of the day. It really did breath well and didn't cause me to sweat like my old leather hat used to. It'll probably be my main hat most of the time.
After buying hats, we went to a conveyor belt sushi place for lunch. That's the 3rd sushi lunch this trip and probably the last. We were all done when Mike asked the lady if they do Inari and she said yes, so Mike ordered 4. I was nicely full but by the end had over eaten again.
We were right by the hotel so we took my extra hat back and dropped it off. I finished yesterday's blog text and rested a bit. Then we headed for another adventure. This time we took an Uber out to Miller's Point. We walked around the outside of the point enjoying the breeze and sights. We stopped a few times to enjoy the views. There were allot of small boats coming in and out past this point and they were fun to watch. Once we got around to the far side, we took a taxi over to China Town.
We walked some of the area then spotted an indoor market. The building was HUGE and so was the market. It felt kind of like the old market in downtown Honolulu. A mixture of small booths selling various things, food stalls, entertainment, and full blown restaurants. We spent quite a while looking around but only bought a few things. We decided to head back to the hotel for a bit for a breather.
I wrote more on todays blog, then we tried to figure out what to do for dinner since the town seems to get full fast. Eventually we settled on chinese food. we haven't done that yet.
We had nearly 2 hours before our reservation (so I could digest lunch) and we decided to go walk to the middle of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. As we were leaving the hotel we asked the concierge about the stairs to get on the bridge. He told us the best way was to walk the opposite direction to the end of the ferry terminal, take the elevator up to the road level, then walk along the road to the bridge.
We followed his directions and found the elevator. Then we walked and walked and walked for about a kilometer till we got to the bridge and the steps we'd been asking for originally. His directions added allot of up and down and around a kilometer to the trip. BAD DIRECTIONS. So now we were on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We started walking toward the middle and admiring the views. There were allot of people on the bridge with us. I think allot were people actually commuting to or from work because there were allot of backpacks. There were also allot of runners.
We got about 2/3 of the way to the center and were down to 45 minutes till our dinner reservation. We decided we'd finish the walk to the middle, then call an uber once we got off the bridge to get us back in time.
It didn't take as long as we thought to get to the middle. We took pictures and admired the opera house yet again. Then started back. We were pushing the pace a little and got back faster than we expected. It also turns out there's an elevator one and off the bridge so it's wheel chair accessible. We opted for the energy conserving method of getting down.
The uber dropped us on the side of the street near the restaurant but he had no idea where it was and neither did we. We walked up and down the street for 10 minutes before spotting a small sign saying "Spice Temple". We walked over and saw a small alcove with an emergency exit and not much else. There as no door. We were puzzled for a while until we realized that the whole wall on the left side WAS the door. There was no push sign, you just had to shove and it swung inward. That wasn't the last oddity.
There were no lights so it was dark. It was series of stairs leading down to the basement with a red led strip recessed into the bottom of the walls for mood lighting, and real candles sitting on the floor gave the only real light. It conjured allot of possible businesses, but "Chinese Restaurant" wasn't one of them.
The whole restaurant was very dark. Just small lights over the tables and a few mood lights in various spots highlighting the wine behind the bars. The only "Chinese" looking thing in the whole place was a couple of paper lanterns hanging by the bar. Nothing in the place looked oriental, even the staff who were all wearing suits.
It was so dark we had to turn on phone flashlights in order to read the menu. Mike took a picture of me with the food but we had to hold still for 5 seconds for the camera to get enough light.
For once, we really did order a light meal. Some pickles as an entree, then Szechuan chicken, Char su pork and vegetables for main. It was just right and I wasn't stuffed to the gills like I usually feel. It was very good.
After we finished, I stood up and my feet hurt. It only took a short bit of walking to get the stiffness out but it baffled me why sitting would cause my feet to hurt. We fumbled our way back out through the darkened halls and stairs. We thought about trying to get a picture of the entry stairs but it was just too dark and weird.
It was only 7:30 but we were both beat so we headed to the hotel for a break. I was working on the blog and about then is when I realized just how much walking we'd done today. 3 pretty major walks plus meandering the chinese market. It explained my sore feet after the restaurant and our general tiredness. But as Mike said, it wasn't like we walked 10 miles on the first day, we've built up to it.
After an hour resting, we decided to go find some ice cream. We walked over to the pier and got some, then walked out on the pier till we came across a busker playing spanish guitar. He was very good so we sat listening, eating ice cream, and looking at the opera house for half an hour. The people watching was also pretty good. Lots groups walking past having animated discussions in every imaginable language, but you could usually tell the general topics like anger, happiness, awe, tired etc without having to understand the words.
I took a long hot shower before I went to sleep to try to ease the soreness I was sure to feel in the morning.
Steps today was 24.983 or 11.75 miles
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