We added some pictures to our picture web site from Australia. Please click on the link on the right hand site to view these pictures.
This morning we arrived in Sydney, Australia. . This brings to an end Segment 3 of the World Cruise and the start of Segment 4. During the course of this cruise we sailed a total distance of 3,587 nautical miles or the equivalent of 4,125 land miles.
On Segment 4 of the World Cruise we will cruise from Sydney, Australia to Hong Kong, China. This segment is seventeen days in length and includes eleven (yes eleven) sea days.
Sydney is one of the very well known cities of the southern hemisphere with a population that exceeds four million people. There is so much to see in Sydney. Its harbor is one of if not the most beautiful harbors in the world. A very well known building is the Sydney Opera House. Another well-known site is the Sydney Harbour Bridge which many locals and tourists enjoy walking across. Sydney is also very well for it numerous and its beautiful beaches. Other major tourist sites include The Rocks and Millers Point, the Traronga Zoo, Sydney Aquarium, Australian Museum, Chinese Garden, Sydney Olympic Park, and so many other locations they are too numerous to list.
I began the day with a workout in the Fitness Center at 4:05 AM (yes 4;05 AM) while my wife slept in since she is still not feeling well. I wanted to start early enough so he would be done with the workout in time to watch our sail-in to the Sydney Harbour. While it was very dark we still enjoyed nice views of the city all lit up and I took some videos of our arrival. There were some intermittent showers and some lightening and thunder from time to time.
The ship had two choices and one was to arrive very early in the morning and the other option was to arrive later in the morning. While the latter option would give us a better view, it was not chosen since today is disembarkation for those passengers who are not on the next segment of the World Cruise and also since we are only in Sydney for one day until our ship sails out of the Harbor at Midnight.
We also enjoyed breakfast in the room afterwards. After the sunrise I went back outside to take videos and pictures from all around the ship.
From the ship we enjoyed a great view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Opera House, The Sydney Skyline and even Luna Park where this evenings World Cruise Event will be held.
We walked to the Sydney Opera House. This facility was completed in 1973 and draws over 2 million visitors each year. We walked all around the Royal Botanical Garden, and we walked by the Government House. We walked by a variety of other sites including the State Parliament House, the State Library, the Domain, the Government House, the Conservatory of Music, and the Rocks. We also walked both ways across the Sydney Bridge and also saw a variety of other sites including the Sydney Centerpoint Tower. During our walk to the Opera House and all around the Royal Botanical Garden we saw numerous local out from those taking a nice walk to those jogging.
After walking all morning we returned back to the ship for lunch in the Main Dining Room. After lunch we went back out and we walked in the downtown area, which was so very vibrant. We walked to the Queen Victoria Building, which now contains over 200 boutiques. The architecture of the building is quite impressive.
We had a wonderful walk throughout the day and afternoon. We walked almost twelve miles so add the ten+ miles that Keith did on the Elliptical Machine this morning it added to a lot of mileage.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves today. We are avid walkers and this is a walker’s city. While the skies were overcast, we were fortunate that it didn’t rain while we were out and the temperature was mainly in the 70s so it was a nice day to be out and about. The locals who we spoke with were very friendly and helpful to us. The city was extremely easy to get around. The harbour is outstanding and it is nice that right outside the cruise ship terminal is an assortment of stores, restaurants and cafes and that from the pier we could walk to so many interesting places. This city along with Melbourne and Hobart are places that we would like to return to again as there is so much more to do that we did not have an opportunity to take advantage of given our limited time in these ports. Sydney has a wonderful atmosphere and is one of the nicest cities in the world.
Today we also ran into a couple of people who are not working on the ship right now but people that we sailed with during the course of last years World Cruise. This would be Peter who was the shore excursion manager on this ship and David who was the Sports Director. They are both very friendly people and they are both from Australia. The were both visiting the ship today.
This evening we have our first of two World Cruise shore side events. This event is only for those who are on the Full World Cruise and most of the details of the event are kept from us so we will be surprised. We have been told that the event is called “A Walk-About Sydney. It will be held at the Crystal Palace Ballroom, at Luna Park, in Sydney. The attire for the evening is Country Club Casual and we have been asked to be ready at 5:45 PM so we can be transported to this event. I will post details of this event tomorrow. We can see this venue from the ship and we also had nice views of Luna Park during our morning walk around Sydney.
Keith
