Today was a partly sunny day in Sydney, and we started by exploring the Circular Quay area by our hotel.  This area is basically the main transportation hub of downtown Sydney, where you can catch a bus, train or ferry to pretty much anywhere in the city.  It’s also a great spot for restaurants and cafes, as well as the Botanic Gardens and the famous Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

This is the wharf area at Circular Quay.  We had lunch at one of these sidewalk cafes.

Looking back at the city skyline from the wharf.

Here is the Opera House at the end of the pier.

Looking across at the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the pier by the Opera House.

For a while, we thought about doing the Harbour Bridge climb.  However, after seeing the people in the following photo walking across the top of the bridge, we chickened out reconsidered.

Later in the afternoon, we took one of the Sydney commuter ferries over to Manly, which is a beach area of Sydney.

We arrived in Manly and explored the area.  There are plenty of shops, cafes and restaurants, and a very nice beach.

After dinner, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay.  Sydney is a beautiful city at night, and while I tried taking some photos of the harbour bridge and opera house all lit up, my amateur photography skills are simply not good enough to take night photos from a moving boat.

We then returned to the hotel to pack for our flight to Hamilton Island tomorrow morning.