Downtown Sydney is a mixture of art, huge buildings, and nice areas like this: a pretty floral garden between two buildings on a plaza.

Exploring the streets on a rainy day, we saw this unique “Monkey Pub” on a corner— see the inset upper right.

Our hotel was in the middle of some nice high rise buildings and not far from the harbor.

Not far from the hotel was a small park—and this humongous tree.

A view from the area near the Sydney Opera House.

An area not far from the main harbor of Sydney is “The Rocks.” It has a lot of cultural and artful stores, restaurants, and bars.

The Rocks District is to left of this park; the harbor is to the right; the famous Harbor Bridge is in the distance.

In The Rocks district is the Russell Hotel

The Hotel looked like a great ‘bed and breakfast’ place. It wasn’t open the day we were there.

This was a flashy ice cream store along the main drag of The Rocks.

Another ritzy joint along the strip.

This looked like a good place to eat—if you have LOTS of money.

This was a very nice art gallery in The Rocks area; the little critters were in the window.

One of the side streets had a group of artisans showing their wares. The Café on the left had good desserts to enjoy.

All signs and storefronts were brightly painted.

Dominating the Sydney skyline was this huge observation tower. The fee was ridiculous, so we didn’t go up to the top.

MacQuarie was a famous person in Australia’s history—there were shopping malls and many other establishments bearing his name.

Parts of the city blend the old buildings with the new skyscrapers.

A couple more high-rise buildings downtown.

Steel and glass has modernized Sydney over the years.

I spent a lot of time looking up while taking photos!

We spent two nights in a hotel not far from the observation tower— this is a shot from the harbor.

A very nice chocolate “factory” downtown.

A decent shopping mall was about a mile from where we spent most of our time just North of Sydney.

Near the subway station downtown, there was a government building with a nice plaza. On one side of the plaza, there was a place for folks to have lunch (see the small photo to the right).