7 th February 2011

We are suffering today as the temperature has dropped dramatically – from 42 degrees to a more manageable 25 degrees!!! A 17 degrees drop is probably still warmer than it is in Manchester, especially having just watched Match of the Day and seen the rain in Liverpool and Wigan.

Today we set off for a walk through Hyde Park obviously named after the original Hyde Park in London. Sydney's was declared a public space in 1810 and became a venue for early colonial cricket matches, prize fights and horse races. In 1932 the park saw the construction of the Archibald Fountain, a ludicrously ornate affair. The first stop on our walk was to visit the Anzac Memorial, a most impressive War Memorial. Opened in November 1934 it was built to commemorate the courage, endurance and sacrifice of Australians who served in World War 1 and was later rededicated to honour all Australians who have served in wars and peacekeeping missions. The interior dome is studded with one star for each of he 120,000 New South Wales citizens who served in WW1. The pines near the entrance grew from seed gathered at Gallipoli and the Pool of Remembrance and Sacrifice sculpture are particularly poignant.

After such a magnificent building we then encountered the Archibald Fountain which, as I have said earlier, is completely OTT and cannot be described. We continued our walk through The Domain, a green area preserved by Governor Phillip in 1788 for public recreation and which connects the Royal Botanical Gardens to Hyde Park.

Our final stop on this walk was at the iconic Sydney Opera House, probably one of the world's most recognisable buildings. Building started in 1959 and after a tumultuous tirade of ego clashes, technical difficulties and delays, the Opera House opened in 1973!!! The 67m-high roof features 27,230 tonnes of Swedish tiles (1,056,000 of them) and the Concert Hall organ has 10,500 pipes! (Slightly more than the organ in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester!).

By now we were ready for lunch and we found a cafe with views to not to miss – The Opera House on one side and the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the other side; it certainly puts a different perspective on the cafe culture of Hull and Manchester!

Replenished, we made our way to The Rocks, the site of Sydney's first European settlement and now something of a tourist trap with cobbled streets, renovated colonial buildings and cafes. We finally made our way back to our hotel via the Queen Victoria Building which was built in 1898 and is full of fashion boutiques, jewellers, etc. After a rest (in other words a sleep) we returned to Darling Harbour for a last look around before heading back to re-pack our cases ready for the next stage of our adventure.

Tomorrow we will board the Diamond Princess for a 23 nights cruise which will ultimately end up in China. I hope you will continue to join us.

A final word on how hot it has been in Sydney the hotel even provided an extra key to leave the air conditioning running while we were out.

Just a reminder Posting updates will depend on our ability to find an internet source when we are ashore; the ship internet is definitely very hit and miss as it is based on the satellite being in the right place at the right time – so please check every couple of days or so to see if we have posted anything.