Sydney, Australia

After finishing 13 wonderful days in New Zealand, we flew to Sydney, Australia.  Andy used his reward points and booked us 3 nights at the Holiday Inn right in the heart of the main tourist area.  The hotel had a rooftop pool (it was a little too cold for us to go swimming), but the view from the rooftop was fantastic.

The view from the top of Holiday Inn - The building of The Rocks in the foreground and the famous Opera House in the background.

We got to spend the last few days of our trip exploring Sydney and the beaches nearby.  One of our first stops was the iconic Opera House:

View by day

View by night

We also took the Manly Ferry across the harbour to Manly Beach:

Sailing across the harbour

Manly beach

Some views during our walk along the Manly coastline

One of the public swimming pools by the beach

On our way home, we caught a beautiful sunset and I was able to get a few shots of Sydney in the sunset:

The CBD and the Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge

About to go under the bridge!

The next day, we checked out another beach - the famous Bondi Beach.  We've watched many episodes of Bondi Rescue, a show documenting the adventures of the lifeguards at Bondi Beach.  It was a little chilly so there weren't many people on the beach.  We didn't spot any of the famous lifeguards on the beach either...guess they were hiding out in their little hut.

The lifeguard shack

Beautiful beach

Bondi Icebergs and swimming pool

We did the Bondi to Coogee beach coastal walk which is about 6 km (3.72 mi) long.  It brought us by many beautiful beaches and cliffs.  It was a tough walk (for me), but we made it!

Taking a break to snap a photo while on the coastal walk

We were in Sydney on the weekend so we were able to attend a Saturday evening church service at Hillsong church!  It was a great experience.  The worship was fantastic (of course!), the message was good, and the people were super friendly.

On our last day in Sydney, we had some time in the morning before our flight left so we took a walk around the Sydney Botanical Gardens. 

One last shot with the famous Opera House and Bridge!

Another fantastic trip for the Sokoliks!  Writing these posts makes me wish I could just rewind time and do this vacation all over again.  It's just amazing how beautiful everything was.  You can check out the rest of my photos of Sydney by clicking on this link.  I promise this is a smaller album so you won't be overwhelmed by all the photos!  

Well, that pretty much wraps up our vacationing for awhile.  We're getting ourselves settled in to Houston now and tomorrow a very special visitor is coming!  I'm super excited!