The Melbourne Cup, The Sheaf and Manly Beach

On our second day in Sydney our main focus was finding a place to make a bet on the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s best- known sporting event. It’s known as “the race that stops the nation." It is actually an annual public holiday in the state of Victoria.

We had a recommendation to go to “The Sheaf,” a pub, a very big pub with lots of rooms, inside and out. There were rooms you ate in, and other rooms that you could smoke in, so when our food was ready, we took it outside to eat and then came back in so the men could smoke their cigars. It was packed with people of all ages, A lot were dressed like we see in the states at the Kentucky Derby, gorgeous dresses and beautiful hats, men were in suits. The food was delicious, fish and chips, the beer and wine was flowing and we had many great conversations with the very friendly Australians. All four of us had bets on different horses and one of us made a little bit on a horse that just squeaked in at the end.  

Yesterday we took the half hour ferry ride to Manly Beach. The water was a beautiful blue/green with white caps. it’s a huge surfing beach and there were a lot of kids taking surfing lessons. Another class of kids were taking volleyball lessons on the sand. We couldn’t figure out if the children here were on spring break or this was all part of their school curriculum. The ride over on the ferry was gorgeous as you can see from the pictures.

It’s been a great three days in Sydney.  Today we’re headed over to the Gold Coast, a short hour and half flight. We’ll have two days there. It’s been cool and windy here in Sydney, hoping to find it a little warmer there.

Will write again from the Gold Coast.