After lunch we walked around Watson's Bay for a bit. It's a five minute walk to the Pacific Ocean side, from where you can get good views of the North Head, the other part of the entrance to the Harbor, where Manly is. There's a big navy base on Watson's Bay which puts alot of Watson's Bay off limits, but there's a nude gay beach on the harbour side on the way back to the ferry if that's your cup of tea.

Watson's Bay sits on the narrow strip of land separating the Harbour from the Pacific Ocean. Doyle's is a very famous tourist trap sitting at the beach, waiting to catch tourists as they get off the ferry. It's been around for about eighty years, and has now spread to four or five different buildings, all serving the same very average seafood. But the views are great, looking all the way back to the Sydney skyline, and it's a great place to linger outdoors over some wine and oysters. But the cooked food tends to get rubbery and tasteless, so remember fresher is better. And don't be in a hurry, as service is really slow. (Food-9, Decor-12, Service-8).

The ferry then travels along what's called the Eastern Suburbs, a half dozen neighborhoods lining the harbour housing Sydney's most expensive real estate. I live in Darling Point pictured here (top floor of the building on the right with the little white boat docked in front). Because land on the harbour is so expensive, houses are crammed into every bit of space, which isn't as pretty as it should be. There are quite a few grand old homes lining the harbour, but most of the places are luxury apartments built to maximize views, which don't generally constitute great architecture. Just behind these waterfront places are the neighborhood centers, which usually have great old houses, nice cafes and quiet treelined streets. They're very nice places to walk around, and very much off the tourist circuit.

As we pull out of Circular Quay, we get great views of the bridge and opera house, including closeups of vast expanses of smoky brown glass encased in linoleum. But notwithstanding the Opera House it's still one of the most beautiful boat trips you can take. After leaving the Quay, the ferry chugs by quirky Fort Denison in the middle of the harbour. Overcautious British had it built around 1850 during the Crimean War to protect Sydney from the possibility that the Russians would somehow make it all the way down to Sydney. Needless to say the fort was never used, but nowadays it houses a nice little cafe.

Woke up late on Saturday and met our friends Murray and Jenny. We checked out the weekend market in the Rocks for a bit, which consists of people selling trinkets in an outdoor market set up to upstage the usual shops in the Rocks selling trinkets. Then we headed out on the harbour, taking a ferry to Watson's Bay for a lunch at Doyle's. There are two main tourist ferry lines, one to Manly, which is popular because it's the longest one, dropping you off on the far north shore, and the other to Watson's Bay, which also goes to the end of the harbour but stays on the south shore. I like this one better because a)it's the one I now take to and from work every day and b) it goes in and out all the bays along the way so there's lots more to see, while the Manly ferry goes straight across the harbour so you're mostly looking at water.