The following image was taken from the sliding door of our stateroom after we arrived and docked.
The approach to Sydney was fantastic this morning. The city is simply iconic, with the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, and a gorgeous skyline framing our first views of the city.
Our first activity was a two-hour boat tour of Sydney Harbour, which is a huge, natural deep-water harbour with many inlets and islands and, of course, was the site of the first British settlement in Australia. Now it is a multicultural, cosmopolitan city of 5.2 million people. We sat back and enjoyed the cruise around the harbour on this beautiful day.
After the excursion, we had 1.5 days to explore Sydney independently. (Unfortunately, our ship was docked quite far from the heart of Sydney, Circular Quay, so we had to take a shuttle bus and then a ferry boat to get around.)
We took a ferry from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay. Bob: I have a very vivid memory of my first visit to this area in 1999 during a Tektronix work trip. It was such a terrific experience that I called Cheryl that night, telling her we needed to return, and we have twice!
We walked around Downtown Sydney for hours, taking in the beauty of the Opera House and the Botanical Gardens before lunch. The city is vibrant and bustling with tourists from all over the world and locals out and about. The business district seemed quite healthy.
Cheryl shopped for opals on George Street, in the heart of historic The Rock neighbourhood, directly west of the quay. This is a wonderful shopping area. It is also home to the Contemporary Art Museum, which has a sculpture in its forecourt much like “The Bean” sculpture in Millennium Park, Chicago. (See photo)
We had lunch at Fortune of War, advertised as Sydney’s Oldest Pub. We walked around downtown more after eating. Saw more feral birds (cannot get away from them in this part of the world). It just dawned on me that we do have a flock of feral turkeys near our house at Black Butte Ranch, the last image. I guess they are everywhere.
We then took a combination of light rail (map image follows) and the Viking shuttle bus back to the ship to change clothes for the evening ahead.
We started the evening by attending a classical sextet ensemble at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. An excellent show (note: some of the images only show five people; a sixth joined them.)
We ended the evening attending a performance of The Great Gatsby in the Sydney Opera House complex. This was our first-ever event physically within the storied venue, not in the iconic symphony concert hall, but in one of the several other theatres within the complex. The performance was like nothing either of us expected. It had elements of musical theatre, Cirque du Soleil (including a juggler), and interactive theatre. Before the show started, performers were actually mixing real drinks that other performers served to audience members. The show was very dynamic, audience-participatory, and really interesting.
I have been fighting sickness and allergies, and did not take as many photos as I normally do, and Cheryl’s phone did not properly save her photographs. However, an Apple miracle occurred, and a week later, the photos magically appeared (loving iOS).
Both of us captured night shots while leaving the opera house. Circular Quay is equally photogenic day or night.
We simply had a great day. The weather was fantastic. As noted, this was my third visit to Sydney, and Cheryl’s second. We highly recommend a visit to this fantastic city to anyone.