Sydney Harbour Bridge

Due to the mistake made with the dates for the hotel in Sydney, we arrived a day earlier than originally planned. This worked out quite well as we did not need 2 nights in Canberra as we managed to see all we wanted to in 1 afternoon!We were very lucky to get a fine afternoon to explore as the previous day Canberra had suffered from terrible storms.
The weather in Sydney has also been kind to us. Most of Australia seems to have had the worst start to summer than ever before. They now have full reservoirs for the 1st time in years.Sydney has suffered high winds and storms so the prospect of climbing the bridge was not something we were looking forward to. However from the time we drove into the city the sun shone and we were able to spend a couple of 'happy hour' sessions overlooking Darling Harbour and watching many groups celebrating their Christmas 'do's'. We used our time on Wednesday to work out how long it would take us to walk to the start of the bridge climb so that we could be sure to get there on time on Thursday. The rest of the day was spent doing things and seeing places that we had missed in October.
Thursday morning was just about as good as it could get - not too hot, not too cold, not too windy and no rain. We were in a group of 10 - all but 2 were from the UK. We were a bit apprehensive at first but once we had climbed the upright steps to get onto the arch, we felt completely safe and were able to enjoy the views. What an experience! (Brought to us courtesy of Ceri and Rich. We are really grateful to them for giving us the gift vouchers as a present for putting up with them - or should that have been putting them up - for 16 months.)We were at the front of the group so were able to ask many questions. It's unfortunate that no one is allowed to take a camera up but the group leader took several photos and we were given a complementary group photo with the certificate that we received at the end.
The climb was the last memorable thing we did in Australia.
Singapore tomorrow.
No more blogs for this trip.
BUT - WATCH THIS SPACE! We will return in April when we will be travelling to Chicago, San Antonio, the Grand Canyon (another dream place) and San Francisco.