The beautiful Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Australia: A lot bigger than you might think.

Took a 17 day tour around both Oz and Kiwiland hitting the standard tourist highlights starting with the Great Barrier Reef and and Ayers Rock.

From my airplane window: a late morning view of the other side of Ayers Rock

In Melbourne's extensive botanical gardens.

Sydney skyline

Both Melbourne and Sydney are beautiful, clean, vibrant, green, impressive cities with superb public transportation systems. Sydney has more "iconic" scenes however.

My obligatory photo of the dramatic Sydney Opera House

Famous but empty Bondi Beach on an unusually chilly, windy day.

Next time I want to do the three-hour climb over the top of the bridge

The design was radical for the 1950s or even for today

A subgroup of the many wedding parties getting photos taken beside the Opera House

My last day in Sydney was the first day of the three-week long Sydney festival featuring all kinds of music, dance, and performances in the parks and elsewhere.