A Night At The Opera

[Malcy]

Oz run 9. Can it be our last day in Sydney already? What a fantastic place. After running the Harbour Bridge on Sunday, Monday was to be the Opera House and Botanic Garden. That was a great excuse to spend Sunday night hanging out at the bar that takes up the whole of the harbour side of the building. Pure theatre. Hmmm - maybe not theatre, but you know what I mean. mmcinteractive.com/oz/24.jpg

Up with the lark Monday morning before the rest of the family, and ploughed through the sea of Sids on their way to work. The run up to The Rocks went without drama, same as Saturday. At each intersection, the 'green man' was at green, so no excuses for stopping on the way. Actually, there were a couple of red men that I jumped (so to speak) but even if a jaywalk cop saw me, I was out of there before he or she would have known it. See? The C25K has some unforeseen side benefits!

2.5k later I found myself at Circular Quay, overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Again. It's suprising how a view that was just amazing two days previously had become ho-hum. Yeah, Sydney Harbour Bridge - so impress me why don't you... How pretentious is that? (:->)

A stop for a quick photo of myself against the bridge let me see how much better it is to run with someone - 23 attempts to get myself and the bridge in the same photo, all unsuccessful. But my sweaty shirt was getting cold and it was time to move on. Back to the quay, round the wharves where you get the ferries to all sorts of interesting-sounding destinations, then there I was. Outside the Opera House, with no-one else in sight. mmcinteractive.com/oz/23.jpg

Round the very end of the building and stopped for another few shots before heading round the back and into the Botanic Garden. I had planned a nice run here, based on Google Earth's satellite images. However, looking down from space means that you don't see the vertical wall/cliff between the Opera House and the garden. Oops. However, there is a convenient access to the garden for those who fall into this particular trap. Running through the garden was amazing. It was also pretty steep and I confess to walking the last hundred metres or so (:-<) but who cared? Only one super-speed runner had overtaken me, and that made up for it. (note to anyone about to be overtaken on a run - stop to take a photo... a great technique for saving your pride).

And that was that. Both runs ticked off, had run round both iconic buildings and seen the fantastic views over the harbour. mmcinteractive.com/oz/25.jpg (this photo taken later in the day while walking the bridge with my better half)

A leisurely run back to the hotel left just enough time to clean up and pack before check-out time, then breakfast and some more sight seeing before heading to the airport for the flight back to Adelaide. Just two days and one final run left in Oz. Not sure whether to do the beach, which I had planned but not yet done, or the beautiful track round the Mighty River Torrens, which I simply love (well, except for the smelly bit beside the zoo). Let's wait to see how it turns out.