On the Rocks

Sunday morning we woke-up and wandered down to Paddy's Market.

This was on my "things to do in Sydney" list.

 

We arrived at opening time, and were very glad that we did.

 

It wasn't long before it was filled with people and it was easy to lose small children, big children and even a Mum or Dad if you weren't all clipped together on a rope.

 There was every possible thing for sale there.  Anything that you could imagine.

Fresh fruit and vegetables.

Some items were not for the fainthearted.

I had seen these before, these did not faze me, not in the slightest.

I mentioned before that you could buy any possible thing that you could think of.

Well, you could also purchase things that you wouldn't think of in a thousand million years.

 
 

These fazed me a little.

Kangaroo scrotum bottle openers.......

I will move on

The only thing that we bought involving a kangaroo, was a kangaroo skin for Samuel.

 

I found a really good deal on clip-on koalas.

Joshua's tip of the day........

Don't buy opals at Paddy's Market.

MOVING ON

We hopped on the monorail, then decided that it wasn't going to get us to where we wanted to go, but enjoyed the ride anyway.  We hopped off and had a leisurely walk through the streets of Sydney until we found our way to The Rocks, a very historic part of Sydney.

 

 I love historic buildings, homes, areas.......

Loved the terrace homes

 

They had a market there as well.

 

Susannah Place had a museum that I would have really liked to go and see.

But, Sam was about at the end of his rope for our Australia trip and kept trying to kick the resident cat.  Sooooo, I settled for browsing the little gift shop and bought myself.......

 

I'm not going to tell you what this is, all guesses in the comment box please.  

It bought back memories for me!!!

Also bought some ANZAC biscuits 

for the kids to munch on.

 

We had a very overpriced enjoyable meal at "The Bakers Oven".  There was a little courtyard at the back where you could sit and eat.  The waiters had to keep shooing parrots away, they kept trying to steal everyone's food.  The parrots that is, not the waiters!  Of course, Sam though this was hilarious and fed wanted to feed his sandwich to them.  The parrots that is, not the waiters......

The courtyard opened onto "The Nurses Walk" which paid tribute to......well, nurses of course!

 

One of our favorite things to watch was the street performers.

Sam loved the didgeridoo music.

By this time, Jessie and I were pooped and Sam had definitely had enough of crowds, noise and taking in the sights.  So, we started back to the flat.

We walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens and Hyde Park, this took us straight to our accommodations and kept us away from the busy streets.  Sam could run to his hearts content and the big kids enjoyed it as well.  As for me, there were lots of park benches to sit down on along the way so I could rest my aching feet!

 

No, this tree isn't sprouting huge seed pods, there are fruit bats hanging off it.  I refused to walk underneath.  Jessica and Jim strolled right underneath.  When I told them to look up, their stroll became a little more speedy.

Jessica found a tree she absolutely loved.  She was very sad to leave it.....

Sam may become a botanist, he studied nearly every leaf, plant, and root that we came across.

Back to Jessica and her favorite tree......

 

Jessica was just following directions.  These signs were all over the place.  There was even signs that told us to walk on the grass.  I am just glad that the signs didn't tell us to become friends with the fruit bats.

 

Jessica, Sam and I spent the rest of our afternoon resting our aching feet, packing and maybe, just maybe we had a little nap.

Jim and Joshua on the other hand, went on the great opal hunt of 2009.  They ended up here.....

 

If I had known this was where they were going, I may have been able to gird up enough energy to go, but I was left in the dark and uninformed, therefore, I stayed at the flat.....packing......doing laundry......slaving......working my fingers to the bone.......while Joshua and Jim 

DID THIS!

AND THIS!! 

AND THIS!!!

OK......so I lied about this one.  Couldn't get Jim and Joshua out there with a ten foot pole.  A million dollars probably wouldn't do it either.

Sam and I.......in a heartbeat!!!

We finished our day with the finest cuisine to be found....

 

aka Burger King

Not sure why it is called "Hungry Jack's" in Australia.

Bit of trivia.  The fast food drinks and food portions are smaller in Australia and we didn't miss the missing portions at all!

 

So ends our time in Sydney.

Sally-Ann