Sydney is great. Aside from the US, it is definitely the biggest city I've been to for a while, and with that comes lots for things to do, places to see and food to eat.

However, it turns out that I only just made it to Sydney before my carrier Qantas grounded its entire fleet. Hopefully this isn't another run like I had in the US, where disaster seemed to follow me at each turn.

Although I had only booked a hotel for 2 nights on arrival at Sydney, I booked another hotel for a further 4 nights. In both cases, I was within easy walking distance of the Central Business District (CBD), and I did quite a lot of walking around for the first few days, just getting my bearings and building a feel for the place. I also did the hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the CBD one day, and the same thing on the trip out to Bondi Beach on the next day. Sydney is a really nice place to just hang out.

The Sydney Opera House is as spectacular close up as it is in the usual distant shots with the Harbour Bridge in the background. Close up you get some wonderful shapes and can appreciate the tiling and ridges in the concrete. But I didn't just want to see the place, I wanted to experience it, so I went to a performance of Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land". The performance was good, the language was beautiful, but the story was a bit bizarre. Also, Sydney Opera House is actually made of several performance venues, and the Drama Theatre is in the bowels and much like any other venue you will have gone to. Anyhow, I was glad I went.

Bondi Beach was also beautiful, with the classic fine white sand. The waves were only about 3 foot when I went in, but I had forgotten how powerful even small waves can be. As the big ones rolled in, there is a moment when you feel you can fly as it lifts you off your feet and pushes you along, only to be spat out 10 yards or so further along the beach. I was also amazed at the tow that was generated by an incoming wave sucking the water back and dragging me a foot or so back into the sea.

After being pummelled for about an hour, I had an amazing salami sandwich (with home-made salami, green tomato relish and cheese), and sat in a bar on the front drinking wheat beer. This happened to be the Melbourne Cup day at the races - the biggest horse race in Australia. Like Lady's Day at Royal Ascot, this was an excuse for many to buy a new hat. Unlike the UK however, you didn't have to be going to the races to get dressed up. Bondi beach is always a place for the beautiful people, but this day they were all in their very best clothes. (I definitely feel at home of the beautiful set:-)). They say that when the Melbourne Cup race is on, Australia comes to a stand still, and this certainly looked to be the case.

In addition to these, I saw:

• The Woolloomooloo Wharf (taking sometime to choose my next yacht);
• The Pumphouse Museum (the most confusing building I've ever been in);
• Lots of people dressed up for Halloween;
• Lots of Shopping Malls;
• The Anzac Memorial (very nice);
• The Royal Botanical Gardens and down to Mrs Macquaries Seat;
• The Barracks Museum describing the settlement of Sydney;
• Kings Cross with its heritage Coco Cola sign (oh, and I believe it is the red light area of Sydney thought obviously I didn't notice that sort of thing);
• The IMAX theatre which claims to have the biggest screen in the world;
• Had a go on the overhead Monorail.

I thought I was beginning to get a grip for the place, and decided to go to the Queen Victoria Building shopping mall. Having toured the upstairs, I went down to the basements and discovered a whole new network of tunnels that connected one mall to the next. I had to pop my head out of an exit every now and again just to try and keep a grasp of where I was. You could travel miles and miles down there. And you would never get hungry with an apparently endless stream of coffee shops, burger places, juice stalls and many fine restaurants.

I was also very impressed by the Sydney Aquarium. It starts with the usual collection of tanks with multicoloured fish swimming around, and the tanks that claim to have some kind of crabs but appear completely empty till a 'rock' opens its eyes. This is all fairly normal stuff, but it then takes you to a very large tank in which you look down on some large dark blobs (not able to see much). The path then takes you down and you find yourself walking through a tunnel and the place is suddenly alive with sharks, rays and dugong (a cow of the sea) - amazing! Then, as you leave, you can experience the sea life in another way with a fish and chip supper.

Another highlight of the trip was on the last night when I was able to meet up with my old school friend Raj and his friend Victoria. I last new Raj when we were at school together nearly 30 years ago. It was great to catch up and find out how he is doing. We meet at the Summit Restaurant as the sun went down (which is on the 47th flour and spins around once every 45 minutes), and then went on to a Sushi restaurant. I've always wanted to try sushi, but have been a bit intimidated my it. However, the food in Australia is the same superb quality that I found in New Zealand, and Raj and Victoria were able to navigate through the menu. We had dumplings, a great selection of raw fish, some crab volovants (for want of a better description), some Tofu (like scrambled egg), lamb, pork, and all washed down with some hot Saki. (Apparently, if you pour your own saki, it shows you are an alcoholic.) Delicious food, great conversation and lots of fun - a big thanks to Raj and Victoria.

On Friday a caught the train to Melbourne. Distances in Australia are all far, and domestic flights are very common. However, I'm doing enough flying already on my holiday, so I decided to try the train in this case. The train itself was very good with a slightly modified InterCity 125 engine and much better coaches than we have in the UK. The scenery was mostly farm land, so I still haven't seen any Kangaroos yet. With the longer journeys in Australia, there are a few differences. For example, the do a "baggage check-in" for large bags. Also they try to prepare hot food to order since we were on the train for 11 hours.

Melbourne looks like another nice city, but I'll cover that in my next post.