We have finally made it to Australia! Our goal for our day in Sydney was to see as much as possible without running around and exhausting ourselves, and I think that we found a perfect balance. Let’s start from this morning, though. Our wake-up call was early – 5:45am – as the captain had previously announced that we would be passing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge around 6am. He was right about the time, but he had failed to mention that it would still be pitch black that early in the morning, and it was only the lights of the ship and of the city that enabled us to see anything. Oh well. We got dressed, gathered our last things, and went up to the Panoramic Buffet for a packed breakfast with the other disembarking guests. While the food on the ship has, overall, been pretty good, I will be glad to skip the buffet eggs and sausage for a while. We had selected the first available departure time, meeting in the Cabaret Lounge at 7:50am. It would have been nice to sleep in a bit longer, but the only way to see Sydney without feeling rushed was to wake up early and power through.
As the first group off the ship, we had almost no lines going through passport control and customs, and Ann Taylor was glad to add an Australian stamp to her passport. We spotted both of our suitcases immediately – thankfully! – stopped by the ATM for Aussie dollars, and we were in a taxi by 8:15am, even earlier than I had hoped. Another fifteen minutes, and we had arrived at the Sheraton at the Park hotel, at the northern end of Sydney’s Hyde Park. Ann Taylor made the astute observation that in less than a year we had stayed near Hyde Parks in both London and Sydney. Are there any others in the world that we should explore? At 8:30am, our room was, understandably, not yet ready, so we checked our bags and set out to explore Australia. Today was another gorgeous day, so we walked up to Circular Quay, which is part of the main harbor, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House at opposite ends. Of course, we started with the requisite tourist pictures in front of both landmarks, although we elected to pass on the nearly ubiquitous selfie sticks.
Shortly after 10am, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was highly recommended on TripAdvisor, where I found most of the activities for our vacation. I am sure that the temporary and permanent collections were truly inspiring examples of modern art, but I simply don’t have the eye to appreciate colored fluorescent tubes arranged on a wall. Thus, I was glad when Ann Taylor agreed to call an audible and duck out after only thirty minutes. Thankfully, there was a craft fair in The Rocks neighborhood next door. Yes, the museum was such a dud that I was thankful to kill time at a craft fair. There were some interesting souvenirs, but I shuddered at the prospect of trying to safely transport a boomerang home, and then figure out somewhere to display it in our apartment. Aside from a few postcards, we decided to save the local souvenirs for our return trip to Australia, whenever that may be. Walking around the harbor, we actually ran into other guests, and a few crew members, who we had met on the ship. It turns out that we were not the only ones who thought that The Rocks, which was originally home to Sydney’s prisons, was a great place to spend the morning.
After our early start, I had planned for an early lunch, with an 11:30am reservation at The Australian hotel restaurant in The Rocks. Before we left New York, I had searched for places to try local cuisine in Sydney, although most of the highly rated restaurants – at least per TripAdvisor standards – featured French, Japanese, Indian, etc. foods. Who knew that it would be so difficult to eat a marsupial in Australia? Thankfully, The Australian featured the “Coat of Arms” pizza, with half-kangaroo and half-emu. Probably not the best way to try Australian food, but with dried cranberries and red peppers, the kangaroo half was quite tasty! The emu half was also good, and I also enjoyed a beer from New South Wales, which was much better than the non-alcoholic beer that I had mistakenly ordered during the second pub lunch on the ship. Ann Taylor seemed to really enjoy her crispy bacon pizza, so we were both fans of our first Australian dining experience.
Although we did not have time to walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we knew that we wanted to explore the Opera House, with a guided tour at 1:30pm. We learned about the history of the building, which recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary. The guide took us into the main theater where the symphony performs, and four smaller theaters that host more intimate plays, dances, and concerts. The Opera House was just as impressive from the inside as from the outside, and we were very glad to have an opportunity to learn more about such an iconic Australian building. Apparently a survey from a few years back revealed that more non-Australians know of the Sydney Opera House than know about Sydney itself. It has been so nice for Ann Taylor and I to get to know both! After the walking tour, we stopped for a snack at a gelato spot on the harbor. Ann Taylor gets all of the credit for this spontaneous idea, which was just as nice – maybe better? – than the activities that I had planned on our Excel itinerary. I suspect that our blend of planning and spontaneity will come in handy many times with Baby Shaw.
On the way back to the hotel, we took the long route through the Royal Botanic Gardens, another highly rated destination, and one that was a lot easier to appreciate than the museum. We walked through open fields, near cultivated rose gardens, and past a wide variety of native trees, which featured a wide variety of native spiders. Those things were big! Thankfully, we avoided running into – or stepping on – any of the native snakes that Australia is known for. After our natural detour, we arrived back at the hotel in mid-afternoon, and we were able to check into our room. We had a couple of hours to relax before dinner, so we took the opportunity to write out postcards, rest on the couch, and enjoy the views of Hyde Park and the eastern side of Sydney. Ann Taylor and I also appreciated the elbow room of a hotel room that was three times larger than the cabin where we had spent the past sixteen nights. We learned that the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade would make its way past the hotel in the morning, but the concierge confirmed that it would not be an issue for us to catch a cab to the airport tomorrow.
Ready for another Australian dining experience, Ann Taylor and I walked over to Darling Harbor, which was an electric hub of shopping and dining on Saturday evening. We had reservations at The Meat and Wine Co. at the southern end of Darling Harbor. The service was not quite as wonderful as we had experienced on the ship, but the food was even better! After sharing a very tasty bread board, I had the kangaroo steak – free from any mozzarella or tomato to mask the taste – and Ann Taylor had a skewer of beef fillet. Both of our meals were quite good, and we enjoyed them while watching the sun set over Darling Harbor. It was really the perfect finale to our vacation dining – so good, in fact, that neither of us had room for dessert for the first time in two weeks. After dinner, we walked around the other side of Darling Harbor, then over the bridge that took us back to the hotel. We learned that there would be fireworks over Darling Harbor at 9pm; however, with a long travel day ahead of us, we wanted to ensure that we got as much rest as possible.
If, yesterday, I could hardly believe that it was our last day on the ship, it is even harder to believe that we return home tomorrow. We will fly from Sydney to Los Angeles, arriving earlier on Sunday morning (local time) than we took off, before we fly to New York, to complete the journey home. As much fun as we have had in the South Pacific, I believe that both Ann Taylor and I are ready to get home and see our friends and family – and, yes, our co-workers, too – again. What a fabulous vacation this has been!
