With the boys at work, Annika and I decided to take a 2 hour trek from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, a well known and recommended walking trail along the coastline.

You may think of Sydney as a huge city with the Sydney opera house. You are right, but the cool thing about this Australian city is that it’s right on the coastline. Not just a straight coastline either, like the ninety-mile beach with sand that stretches as far as the eye can see, but more like  little fingers protruding out of the landmass, creating these little bays of sand.

We began at Bondi Beach. Bondi or Boondi is an Aboriginal word meaning “water breaking over rocks or noise of water breaking over rocks”.

One of Australias most visited tourist sites, it is famous for being an sandy escape close to the city, it’s sculpted Australians, and a cutely humorous TV show called Bondi Rescue.

This beach is also nicknamed the muscle beach of Sydney, with good reason, there are a few outdoor gyms along the way and you may be able to spot gym enthusiasts flaunting their hard work. Unfortunately for us today it was too cold, so Annika represented the thousands of athletes of Bondi Beach by pulling off this awesome move 🙂

Well, the muscle models flexing are not the only beautiful thing to gaze upon on a trip out here. There is some really cool street art along the front too.

The coastline is so pretty. The coastal road winds over the hills of the coast, past yellow sandy beaches and through a pretty graveyard.

We ended up at Coogee. A sweet seaside area with a multitude of nice brunch cafes and coffee shops.

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Our dinner destination that evening was a really old 1921-built pub called the Glenmore Hotel. It is one of the last surviving pre- Harbour Bridge buildings on Cumberland Street, north of the Cahill Expressway.

The site is known to have been occupied from the early years of 1800, although it is likely that, like the other ridges of The Rocks, it was occupied by the encampment of settlers in the first weeks of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788.

The food was incredible hearty pub cuisine, something I’ve missed whilst being in Japan. The main attraction though was the beautiful night cityscape and lit up Sydney Opera House viewed from the rooftop. A highly recommended dinner spot.

Stay tuned for part 2; a ferry ride through the city, and the story behind how the Sydney Opera House was built.