Sydney: Day 2

Last night we had a really wonderful dinner at Pony Dining, which features a wood-fired grill.  I ordered a Cherrywood Old Fashioned, with Woodford Reserve and cherry bitters -- so good! Charlie had some red Australian wine that he enjoyed. For appetizers we tried wood-fired flatbread with baba ganoush and a macadamia-crusted Gruyere soufflé with romesco sauce.  Both were very good, especially the soufflé, even though it wasn’t very photogenic.

For our wood-roasted entrees, I had the spatchcock chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies while Charlie had rack of lamb (not pictured). Delish!  

For dessert, we each had the wood-roasted macadamia and salted caramel tart with creme fraîche, which must be on the menu in Heaven. Plate-lickin' good!  Sorry about being too excited to stop and take a photo. . . .

Early this morning we got to see the Celebrity Edge ship docking.

This morning we enjoyed another delicious breakfast in the hotel. My plate included eggs over easy, toast, hash browns, bacon AND sausage, and a huge grilled mushroom.  Needless to say, I couldn't manage all of that. Charlie had a wonderful crab omelet.

We walked to meet our tour guide, Stan, at 10:30.  We were part of a group of about 20 people. I misled you earlier, as I thought the tour was about the first residents of the area. Instead, it was about the first English settlers. Stan explained that if the U.S. hadn't declared its independence from England, the British would have continued to use it as a penal colony. Once the U.S. refused to take more prisoners, the British had to find a new place to send them. 

The First Fleet in 1788 included about 757 English prisoners and soldiers and crew totalling 1200.  They arrived in 11 small ships about the size of the ferries we see today, and the trip took eight months. The Gadigal people had lived in the Sydney area for 50,000 years as hunter-gatherers, and were pushed aside as the settlement grew.  The first English arrivals found mostly rocks -- hence The Rocks is the name of the area around the port where our hotel is.  The prisoners had to chisel building blocks from the rocks to construct the buildings.  They used a mixture of burned oyster shells and sand for mortar. Here's an example from one of the earliest buildings.

Our guide showed us many other historic buildings, including those built to house visiting sailors and as storehouses for the imported goods.

Cadman’s Cottage, one of the earliest homes in Sydney, built in 1812

Institute for Seamen, showing the place we had lunch yesterday

One of the first warehouses on the docks

Walkways through The Rocks area

Note the worn sandstone steps next to an old bank for sailors

Another sailors’ hotel

Our guide, withe the old  sawtooth-roofed warehouses that are next to our hotel

The tour ended in a courtyard with a mural depicting Sydney's history, which was a good way to tie together all the stories our guide related.  

After the tour we were ready for lunch, so we walked down George Street to Morrison's, an oyster bar we'd spotted yesterday. It was excellent! Charlie had two delicious fried oysters ($7.50 each!), and we both had hamburgers. Then we did a little souvenir shopping as we returned to the hotel to rest.

Tonight we have reservations at a waterfront restaurant within sight of our hotel, so I’ll report on that tomorrow. Thanks for reading!