Although folk from Sydney have a silly name (They are called Sydneysiders) they do have a lot to be proud of. They have a wonderful city, great attractions, good bars, great beaches, and a superb range of dining options. They put on good parties (Examples: 2000 Olympics, Rugby World Cup 2003, etc.) and have a laid-back, out-door lifestyle that would be envied throughout the world. For our time in Sydney, we tried to sample as much of this as was possible, but a week doesn't go very far in such a superb place...

The City: Everyone knows the images of Sydney. The Harbour Bridge (apparently loving known as "the coat hanger" but it doesn't have a hook on the top so it's a pretty useless image) and the Opera House, which is probably only matched Bilboa's Guggenheim for the most whaked out mass scale architecture in the world. (Birmingham of the 1960's regeneration is not included) We enjoyed a great walking tour around the city, despite the fact that it was hot and humid. Fortunately, we were able to use the weather as a great excuse to sample the good bars Sydney has.

We won't list all the great things we saw as it would just read like a shocking tick list and would almost seem to scream that we are claiming to have "done Sydney!"... BUT some of the highlights included climbing the Harbour bridge Pylon (Alas, it was on the inside, they wouldn't let me be spiderman and scale the outer walls. Wise of them, I suppose.) Sydney also has a few good museums. The one we particularly enjoyed was the convict history at the Hyde Park Barracks. I was really perversely enjoying reading about the good whippings that the poor convicts got. I guess that the bloodier a history lesson is the more little boys like me enjoy it. Also I should mention that there was only about half a dozen or so Cassidy's who came through here (in the old days) and it was always for a bit of "noble theivery". You know they lifted the odd sheep, or a loaf of bread to support the family. Nothing bad like the pages and pages of Boyle's (Mark's old dear's family) had committed!  

The Bars: Well like any civilized place Sydney has a cracking choice of pubs. We sampled, err, a few. Despite the sampling, our favorite continued to be John & Johanna's local, The Icebergs. It was at the Icebergs that Heide and I met with an old rugby mate from the Birmingham Civil Service. Tony Carr, is a big gregarious, typical Aussie and really good fun to go out with for a few beers. It's even more fun when there's more than a few supped. I'd stopped with Tony and his family when I was last in Australia back in '97. Despite the years that it has been since we last met we picked up like it was yesterday. Cheers Tony, Thanks for a great night. Hopefully next time his wife Jill and their two girls: Zoe and Jasmine will be available to come out for a drink too.

In a nut shell, or maybe a few nut shells, this sums up our time in the wonderful city of Sydney. It's a fantastic place, full of great fun loving people and certainly a city I'd be happy to come back to time and time again.