Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral and a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens

This Sunday, we attended mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. It was a high mass said by the Bishop, with a full boys choir, singing in Latin and English, accompanied by a magnificent pipe organ. It was a very enjoyable experience. The cathedral is located at the edge of Hyde Park, which houses the ANZAC war memorial.

 The Cathedral was built in the 1800s out of brown sand stone in traditional English Gothic style.

 Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770 and his statue is in Hyde Park.

This is the war memorial to the Australian & New Zealand fallen soldiers from WWI & WWII.

After mass and lunch, we decided to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which is a huge park located in the centre of Sydney. It is an incredibly beautiful green space that is an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The grounds were well manicured.

 An impressive Sun Dial

 There were lots of birds in the park.

 There is a great view of the Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge from the park.

 What a magnificent old tree. There are hundreds of very large trees there.

 There were lots of colourful flowers.

 Yes, these are cacti. Sydney has a sub-tropical climate.

There were still some flowers in bloom.

This fountain was donated to commemorate the French/Australian WWI alliance.