We've spent the past two days enjoying more great outings, where today's was, once again, thanks to Angie. After collecting us at the usual rendezvous, we enjoyed a lovely scenic drive to Mona Vale, where we met Melina and Laurence, friends of Angie, for a very tasty lunch at the Bronze Kiosk, followed by a walk on the beach.

Yesterday, after a bus and train ride into downtown Sydney, it was time for some additional tourist delights offered by the city.

After a morning coffee at the St James Metro café and a walk through Hyde Park, we visited St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, one of Australia’s most beautiful and significant buildings, as well as Australia’s largest Cathedral.

After the first Cathedral was destroyed by a fire in 1865, architect William Wardell was commissioned by Archbishop John Polding to design a new St Mary’s Cathedral. According to Archbishop Polding to Wardell in a letter dated 10 October, 1865: “Any plan, any style, anything that is beautiful and grand. I leave all to you and your own inspiration” and he certainly hit the mark. Besides St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, it is one of the most magnificent Cathedrals we have seen, particularly the main alter and the stain glass windows. While the style is considered "English-Style Gothic", it is constructed of honey-coloured Sydney sandstone and Wardell used Australian native flora throughout as a decorative element to ground the Cathedral in its local setting.

It took close to 100 years to finally complete St Mary's, with the first stage constructed between 1866 and 1900 and stage two between 1912 and 1928. However, the original Wardell design was only finally completed in June 2000 when the metal frames of the imposing Southern Spires were lowered into place by helicopter and then sheathed in sandstone.

According to a former Archbishop of Sydney, this beautiful Cathedral is considered to be a historic building, an architectural wonder and a monument to the role which christianity has played in Australian life from the first days of Europeans. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians. In 2010, blessed Mary MacKillop was canonised in Rome and given the title of St Mary of the Cross, thus becoming Australia’s first Saint, following which the statue of St Mary of the Cross was unveiled at the Hyde Park entrance to the Cathedral.

The Cathedral celebrates its sesquicentenary this year, 150 years since the laying of the foundation stone of the new Cathedral by Archbishop Poldin.

From there we walked to the Royal Botanic Garden and visited the Green Wall / Pollination exhibition which was most unusual. The Royal Botanic Garden, is situated immediately southeast of the Sydney Opera House and curves around the Farm Cove anchorage, occupying 30 hectares / 74 acres. The first farm, established in 1788 by Governor Phillip and farmed by the first European settlers to arrive on the Australian continent was at Farm Cove. Although that farm failed, the land has been in constant cultivation since that time, as ways were found to make the relatively infertile soils more productive. The Royal Botanic Garden was founded on this site by Governor Macquarie in 1816. Australia's long history of collection and study of plants began with the appointment of the first Colonial Botanist, Charles Fraser, in 1817, making the garden the oldest scientific institution in Australia and one of the most important historic botanical institutions in the world.

From 1848 to 1906, Charles Moore, a Scotsman who had trained in the Botanic Gardens of Trinity College in Dublin, remained director for 48 years and did much to develop the Royal Botanic Garden. He boldly tackled the problems of poor soil, inadequate water and shortage of funds to develop much of what is seen today. The Palm Grove at the heart of the garden is a reminder of his skill and foresight, as this is the reclaimed land behind the Farm Cove seawall which significantly expanded the area. Towards the end of his time as director, Moore, together with Ernst Betche, published the Handbook of the Flora of New South Wales, further establishing the Royal Botanic Garden as a centre for the science of botany.

Before leaving the garden, we had the opportunity to wander through the Rose Garden and see the Garden Palace. This building is an outstanding example of Victorian architectural exuberance, with towers and turrets deployed around a giant dome 30 metres / 100 feet in diameter, surmounted by a lantern 61 metres / 200 feet above the ground. This building was also destroyed by a fire in 1882 and the land added to the Royal Botanic Garden following its reconstruction.

Another short train ride took us to our last stop off the day, the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), where we enjoyed lunch at the Parisi Café. It is a late nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival building, designed by the architect George McRae and constructed between 1893 and 1898, replacing the original Sydney Market and was named to honour the monarch's Diamond Jubilee.

When it first opened, the QVB housed a concert hall, coffee shops, showrooms, warehouses and a wide variety of tradespeople. Over many decades, the concert hall became the city library, offices proliferated and many tenants moved in. Remodelling occurred during the 1930s to accommodate the Sydney City Council, then from 1959 to 1971, the QVB faced near-demolition. However, a massive restoration project was given the green light in 1982 and the fully restored QVB reopened her doors to Sydneysiders and visitors alike in 1986. A major refurbishment in 2009 restored her even further. Today the QVB stands in all her glory, testimony to the original vision for the building and the superb craftsmanship of the artisans who put it all back together again.

It was a wonderful day filled with history and wonder!