SPECTACULAR SYDNEY! - Saturday Feb. 5th - Sunday Feb 6th

We arrived in Sydney after a very rough crossing from Tasmania.  The seas finally calmed down prior to our arriving in port.  We were told by Australian passengers to get up early so that we can see the port which includes Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Opera House just as we turn into the channel leading to the port.  We got up early. Really early! - 6 am.  On our deck at the front of the ship was the best viewing of the entrance.

I had expected to hear Waltzing Matilda as we turned into the harbor and to see the blinding white sails of the Opera House.  No Waltzing Matilda nor bright white sails of the opera house.  But we stood on our deck as we made the entrance and it was spectacular even though it was overcast.  Although the photo below shows the sails as bright white perhaps because of the early morning hour the roof looked more beige.  The roof is made up of very small gary and white tiles.

Here's a closeup of the tiles.

Len went for a tour inside the opera house while I sat in the shade trying to cool off.  Although he was not supposed to take pictures inside the opera house he did.  The stage is tiny in comparison to the size of the theater, but is supposed to be all about the sound.  There are 3 different theaters in this building but they only went into 2 theatres.


We had a vantage point on Deck 6. Most everyone else went upstairs to Deck 10 to see the entrance.
Glad we were not in this crowd! (going under Sydney Harbour Bridge)

The temperature was hot and it got hotter throughout the day.  Mid morning it was a record heatwave.
The past week it had been in the high 90's and Saturday, today, it was 104!  I thought I was going to melt.

The harbor is insanely busy. Unlike anything we have ever seen.  Boats of every kind, especially catamarans are running all through the harbor.  There seems to be a million tourists in this town, especially Asian tourists.

We took a tour of the city whose winding streets you could get lost on.  Thank goodness our bus was air conditioned.  Everything is really expensive in Sydney.  Nice homes, not castles on the hills surrounding the harbor range from 2 million to 15 million dollars.  Their dollars are a little more than US dollars.
The average salary is $60,000/year

The city is clean and people are really friendly.  There are more than 25 museums, art galleries and fantastic parks.  The city is steeped in history and there are  many statues to Queen Victoria and founders of Sydney throughout the city. Founded in 1788, there are buildings standing today from the very early 1800's.
Amazing what prisoners can accomplish if they are beaten hard enough!

This island in the picture below sits out of reach in the middle of Sydney Harbour.  They used to put prisoners on this little island with little food and water as punishment for misbehaving.  They also hung a prisoner there and left him to rot so that his body was a deterrent to other prisoners.

Our bus took us to Bondi beach - supposedly the home of life-saving water rescues.  Since it was a Saturday the beach was crowded with people trying to cool off,

Personally, I couldn't wait to get back on the bus!

In the early evening there are party boats that go around the harbor - there are hundreds of young people on these boats. Loud music and flashing lights entice people to board these boats for drinking and dancing. I wonder if they have enough life vests on board.

 We stayed in Sydney for 2 days which was great because it gave us a chance to walk around the city on Sunday.

They offer a bridge climb to walk to the top of the Harbour Bridge.  It would have been nice to do had it not been so darn hot!

As we left Sydney at 6pm there were people on the bridge waving to us as we went under it on our ship!
We sail overnight to Melbourne, our next port of call.