Exploring with Suanne

December 23

Up at 5 am due to the time change, we explore our accommodations at the Westin, our base for the next ten days. Susan has scored a suite on the 28^th floor with a spacious living room and bedroom that have floor to ceiling glass walls overlooking the city and giving us peeks of the harbor between the skyscrapers. We are in the heart of the Sydney central business district. The concierge lounge has a full breakfast buffet in the morning and a cocktail hour with snacks in the afternoon.

Suanne Adelman meets us in the lobby to take us on a tour of the eastern shore of Sydney harbor and along the coastline. Susan quickly interrogates her and finds out that she is Jewish. Her parents were holocaust survivors who came to Australia after the war. Both were in Dachau and Auschwitz as teenagers and luckily survived. She runs a tour guide service and specializes in Sydney and the surrounding area. Her husband is President of their synagogue. 

With the two MOTs (Members of the Tribe) in the car, it was a day of mostly listening for Mike.

She showed us all the hidden byways along the harbor until we reached the entrance to Sydney harbor. We drove through many very upscale neighborhoods that shared spectacular views of the water. As the views improved, the real estate values increased. Not uncommon for $20 to $30 million prices along the shoreline.  Some have their yachts just off their back yard ready to cruise.  Many neighborhoods have their own private beaches accessible only if you know the “secret” narrow lanes to them. A little off-putting is the prominent installation known as a shark fence. Suanne assures us almost no one is eaten by sharks. Still at some point the neighborhood found the need for a fence. She confides she only swims where there is a fence.

At the end of the neighborhood tour, we reached the “Gap”, the cliffs that line the entry to the harbor. These shear rocks drop straight down onto raging surf and ragged boulders. The view is awesome, but signs line the walkway urging anyone thinking of leaping off the Gap to call the suicide prevention hotline.  Evidently this occurs enough to make this necessary.

Then on to Dover Heights, where we stop in a park to see a different view of downtown Sydney. We come up a young woman throwing balls with two dogs that look familiar. Suanne introduces us to Lisa Chimes, who is the co-host of a TV show named Bondi Vets. She is a veterinarian and lives in the neighborhood. The dogs we think are golden doodles, like our Cessna, are Cavadoodles. They are poodle/king cavalier spaniel crosses. She tells us in Australia, golden doodles are called “groodles”.  Later Susan looks up the website for Bondi Vets and we see this woman who we surprised with no makeup and in her dog training clothes is in fact a knockout and her co-host is an Adonis, also a local vet. Don’t have any idea what the show is about, but the hosts are worth a look.

Next stop is Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Sydney. The day is slightly overcast so only a few hundred people are on the water, surfing, swimming and sunbathing. Suanne takes us to Icebreakers’ Swimming Club, where an Olympic oversized pool is built along the shore line so some of the ocean waves break over the sides of the deck and into the pool.

On the home stretch back to the Westin, we circle the main park in Sydney to see the best view of the Opera House and the bridge.

 Remember this bridge because it will be mentioned in Christmas Day’s note. Sue Ann shows us Russell Crowe’s penthouse on the wharf. Susan zoomed the camera to its maximum to get this shot of Russell’s house. She could not tell if he was home, but she tried. Can you see him waving from the window?

Next we sat in Mrs. Macquarie’s stone chair. A sandstone carving that was cut into the rock by convicts so the Governor’s wife (Mrs. Macquarie) could sit on the point and watch the ships go by.

Finally, Mike had enough and needed his medicine because he had become grumpy. Lord Nelson’s Pub, the oldest in Australia, healed him for the moment.

The place was full of office workers who had taken early departure from work and cricket fans from England and Australia. A pint of homemade pale ale took the edge off a hard day of exploration.

Suanne dropped us off in time for a little rest at the Westin. Revived, we had a light dinner and walked around the corner to see “Jersey Boys”. Susan third time to see it and Mike’s first. Back home at 11:30.

This vacationing is hard work.