Hunter Valley Tour and the train to Leura in the Blue Mountains- Days 24 and 25. - Sydney

This is a cool map of Australia.  I added it for Joseph as he is in LOVE with maps, just like Papa.

These rhinos popped up all over Sydney.  They high light the Rhino, an endangered species. They will be auctioned off to raise money for charity. They are beautiful. 

All along Darling Harbor, this wall was put up and painted with chalk board paint. People are asked to sign the board with their thoughts about love. Darling Harbor is celebrating February, the month of love. The wall stretches almost a mile. 

Having our first American Coffee for a month.  Mc Donalds sells "filtered" coffee. This was just before we got on our bus to go to the Hunter Valley for a day of wine tasting.  The Aussies call McDonald's "The American Embassy" or "Mackers"

Our first vineyard in the Hunter Valley. Wine tasting included almost 10 different wines from a light pino grigio to a chocolate port with cheese and crackers in between. This was more wine than I have had in months. Of course I was also drinking some of Tom's.

Draytons has been making wine since 1853 and is one of the oldest  vinyards in Australia. They are still owned by the same family.

Yes folks, he tried a few sips of the grape.

This was our second winery. Again, many tastings with crackers and cheese in between.  At this point, I was feeling a bit tipsy. 

This is the brewery and vinyard where we saw a movie about wine making and had lunch.

Our third wine tasting was at the Hunter Valley Cellar Door. They also had beer tastings but by this time, we were just plain hungry and skipped the wine and beer. They served us a truly gourmet lunch, family style. We ate at a table with two Chinese famlies and struck up a lively conversation with them about the U.S. They are going to visit this summer. We suggested they visit the west coast as they only have 10 days. They have a 19 year old son who wants to go to school in finance in the U. S. and is researching colleges.  Our lunch included bruchetta, salad with beets, roast beef, and other wonderful fresh veggies, caesar salad with chicken and garlic bread, pasta with fresh tomatoes and other delights, and deep fried squid.  We had it all except the squid.  The menu was on the placemat and paired with wines. (See above photo)

After lunch we were supposed to go to another winery but only one couple on the bus wanted to go so they were dropped off and we headed to the Hunter Valley Village. It was HOT. 120 degrees. It was hard to even breathe and we just looked for stores with AC.  It was a long day on the bus but we enjoyed seeing the Hunter Valley.  Look for it on wine labels in the U.S. They make wonderful wines.  The Hunter Valley dwarfs the Napa Valley in size and number of wineries. 

The Bavarian Bier Cafe in our Neighborhood. We stopped for dinner and I ordered a side of saurkraut and a side of red cabbage. Look at the portions. This is what it looked like when I was finished!  It was so tasty.

The train to Leura in the Blue Mountains. We had stopped at this beautiful little town last week when we went to the Blue Mountains. We only had a half hour there and we decided to head back up there on a train.

 When we were comfortably settled on the train waiting to go along with four filled cars of travelers ( they call them "carriages",) they made an announcement they we had to get off and go to another platform to get on a different train. You should have seen the people move!  It was a two hour ride that stopped at 17 little mountains towns.  We met a little white mouse who popped out of the seat in front of me and scared me half to death! He kept poking his head out between the seats so we got up and moved back a few seats. YOW! We had lunch and walked around town for about an hour and then headed back. Nice day in the cool mountains.

Aussie trivia:  It costs about 65,000 dollars for a K- 12 education in a public school in Australia. A private school will cost about 95,000 for K-12.