Another suggestion from many people who love the Sydney area is to visit the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. We knew there would be some interesting mountain gorges but didn’t really know too much else even after looking at our guide book. I booked two nights here and very are impressed by the views and the town of Katoomba. We are staying in a nice hotel (Palais Royale) that requires a lot of walking up and down hills – duh – it’s a mountain town!

After arriving by train from Sydney and checking in we had lunch and walked awhile to Echo Point – the first of the amazing views of the mountains and valley in these Blue Mountains.

After taking in the huge views we decided to walk a cliff trail to Katoomba Falls, about a 30-45 minute walk. All along the way the views continued… But Katoomba Falls was tiny, but there were cockatoos everywhere!

Today, Thursday, we decided to take the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus (hop on-hop off) to see more of the area of scenic area of Katoomba and it’s neighbor Leura. Although we thought we’d seen a lot of the mountain view yesterday there was still much more to see and we picked another area for a cliff walk as well. Very tired after a couple of hours walking but enjoyed it.

We left the cliffs and after a while the bus took us to the small and pretty town of Leura where we ate lunch. Then another bus ride and back to Katoomba and a walk to our hotel. On the way we stopped at the elegant Carrington Hotel and later laughed at the comfortable cockatoo just sitting on the sign as we went by.