Well we arrived in Sydney to a cool and rainy 10 degrees (centigrade) and were wondering if we had brought enough clothes with us!? Luckily, our friends, Greg & Paivi, whose house we were staying in, were able to fit us all up with jumpers, coats, hats, etc. For the most part of our Sydney adventures, the weather has been simply diabolical! We have gotten one day out of six without any rain and made the most of that day on a friend’s boat tooling around Manly Bay and the Sydney Harbour areas. My son was made honorary captain of the day and did a brilliant job of steering the boat.

The day ended with drinks overlooking the Middle Yacht Harbour Club at Sunset from our house on Clontarf Beach. On another day where the weather was at least a bit friendlier, we visited the Koala Park, fed the kangaroos and got to pet the koala bears. Normally you only see the koala bears sleeping in the trees. We were informed that they sleep as much as 18 – 19 hours a day!

The continual rain didn’t allow us to do our fishing trip which we had promised the children. Fortunately throughout all of our time in Sydney, two of our three children had compatriots their same age – William was 7 and he and Callum could play the whole day without the slightest argument. Frieda, 10 years old, was the same age as our Bryany and you would have thought that they known each other for years. Of course when travelling with children, having them sorted out is half the day’s challenge already dealt with.

We got to downtown Sydney via the Manly ferry. On the way over, the water was so choppy that you would have thought we were in a speedboat race! With the rain coming on and off, we split our time with walking around the town and in and out of the shopping malls of Pitt Street and the beautiful Queen Victoria Building with its stained glass windows.

At Darling Harbour we were able to enjoy the aquarium as well as a South African Safari adventure film at the IMAX theatre. All in all, Sydney gives you the feel of a big city, yet without any of the “angst” that goes with it! The town was full of tourists - mostly Asians as well as some Europeans. Our planned visit to the Blue Mountains had to be cancelled because of the poor weather conditions. Needless to say my children were quite happy that they didn’t have to sit in a car for 6 hours.

Sydney is a great example of a “young” city where most of the architectural masterpieces are impressive modern buildings, the foremost example of this probably being the Sydney Opera House on the waterfront near the Circular Quay, which is renown throughout the whole world. Nevertheless there are some real treasures to be found, like the Town Hall, the Queen Victoria Building as well as the Houses of Parliament. It was in front of one of these that I tried to “capture the moment” with my travel tec watch in full view! Needless to say you can’t read the 8 hour time difference with Switzerland, nor the 3 hour time change before we hit Beijing!

This is a truly great city with its touristy and well positioned Darling Harbour as a natural magnetic focus point in the middle of town. You feel very comfortable walking around on foot and not the least bit of insecure feelings with the children. Sydney we will definitely be back!