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We only had a few days on land. We spent our first day in Australia in Townsville, a city on the northeast coast in Queensland north of Melbourne. Then we were on the boat for a week before returning to Townsville for one night and the last two days were spent in Sydney. Click on the thumbnails below to see enlarged pictures.
	This is our first view of the land down under. This is an aerial view of Sydney. If you enlarge it you can see three different colored squares on the photo denoting our hotel, the opera house and the harbor bridges
	This is a view of Townsville from the ocean as we headed back to land after a week at sea. Land was looking really good to me by now, but some of the ladies on the boat were enjoying this view even more than I was.
	Here I am in front of the most famous landmark in Australia, the Sydney Opera House. I never dreamed I would actually be seeing this in real life. This was a great trip.
	Another famous landmark in Sydney is the harbor bridge. You will be seeing a lot of these two structures later this year when the Olympics are in Australia. You could climb to the top of this bridge for a fee. You couldn't pay me to go the top. diving with sharks doesn't frighten me, but that would. Zack, Johnny and Jennifer were braver than me. They made the trip to the top and got a great view of the city. I was satisfied just to look at their pictures.
	At night we had great of the harbor from our hotel. The bridge is easily seen in the top left and the opera house is visible just to the right of the center of the picture.
	Sydney is a great city. It is hard to describe. It is like someone took the best parts of New York, London, San Francisco, New Orleans and Key West to make this city. It has peaceful harbors next to big new buildings and space needles that blend in surprisingly well with the preserved older architecture.
	Parts of it have the feel of a busy city with several forms public transportation from ferryboats to overhead monorails.
	Street vendors selling fresh flowers, fruit and newspapers are seen in the day. In the evening there are street performers down on the harbor.
	The many harbors around Sydney, as well as their parks and botanical gardens make it easy for people to find a place to relax during a break from work. This little sea gull joined me for lunch at Darling Harbor. Once I finished my lunch, he was gone.