blue mountains.

on our first full day in sydney, we decided to catch the train to the blue mountains.  the blue mountains are a 2 hour train ride from the circular quay (downtown Sydney train and ferry stop).   when we arrived in katoomba, we hopped on a sightseeing tour bus to take us to the best places to see the blue mountains and the 3 sisters peaks.

we took a cable car across the mountains and saw this water fall and, on the other side of the cable car, some great views of the mountains.

then we took this super steep roller coaster type thing down to the middle of the mountain.

we took a little stroll and learned there used to be a coal mine in the middle of the blue mountains.  i can't believe that people used to work here in the middle of a mountain and the middle of the rain forest.   pretty amazing.

then we took a 5 mile stroll around the rain forest.

we even found some coal that must have fallen while transporting the coal from the mine many a year ago.

and since we were in the jungle it only made sense for us to do a little "monkeying" around!  ha!

this just makes me laugh.

after our little hike we headed back up to the top of the mountain on another cable car.

we were STARVING from all our walking, so we stopped at a little restaurant to enjoy a hot meal and a bottle of wine.  all with the view of a lifetime!

our bus tour guide actually told us an interesting story about a passenger he had on his bus one time. the passenger traveled to australia to see the blue mountains from germany, and on that particular day, the fog was too thick to be able to see anything.  the bus driver said you could barely see even 3 feet in front of the bus.  apparently, the passenger seemed more upset than one would expect about this unfortunate weather; so, the tour guide told him that things like this happen and the weather here is very unpredictable.  and the guy from germany looked at him and said, "you don't understand.  this is my third time traveling here, all the way from germany, to see the blue mountains and every time the weather has been just like this."  needless to say, we felt pretty fortunate that we had such a beautiful day to enjoy each other and our surroundings.

the lookout was really nice and provided some great views of the mountains and the 3 sisters peaks.  the three sisters are made of sandstone and there used to be 6 sisters, but the others have eroded away.

after that, we took the tour bus over to leura cascades.

at the end of the trail we got an amazing view of the side of this mountain.  photos don't do it justice because it was majestic.

the tour bus dropped us off at the little town of leura.  it was such a cute town and definitely worth seeing.  i only wish we had gotten there sooner because some of the shops looked adorable.  probably better for the wallet, though.

after a long day of amazing sightseeing, we hopped back on the train for our 2 hour ride back to sydney.  it was yet another fabulous australian day.