February 18, 2023 – Sydney, Australia

Set my alarm for 5:15 am.  I recall being in the choir on 2020 cruise when we entered the Sydney Harbor.  This time, I’m going to participate by going to listen to the choir sing at sunrise (I still don’t have a voice).  Went up to deck 15, the sky was a beautiful purple behind us as the sun poked up over the horizon.  The choir all gathered on pool deck (bathrobe brigade).  As we approached downtown Sydney and could see the Opera House and Bridge, the choir began to sing, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘I Still Call Australia Home’.  Lovely job (especially our dear friend, Martha)!

We’re lucky this time that our ship gets to dock right between the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  Beautiful scene from our balcony.  Bob and I disembarked and strolled over to the famous Opera House.  We climbed the stairs and took pictures.  What a beautiful location!  From there, it was just a short walk to the Royal Botanical Gardens.  Such a gorgeous day, we decided to do our own walking tour.  My original plan for Sydney was, climb the famous bridge.  Unfortunately, I still have a horrendous cough so climbing with a group of people would not be a good idea.  Guess we need to come back to Sydney 😉

We did a leisurely walk through the gardens and stopped at a nice cafe for a cold drink.  We were listening and watching for the fruit bats that we remember from years ago.  They are enormous and are called flying foxes.  We asked the gardener and he said they tried to scare most of them away because they are so destructive.  Understandable!

We walked back to the harbor.  It’s Saturday so lots of activity in port, especially wedding’s.  Who wouldn’t want that as a backdrop for wedding pictures!

We miss our friend Martha already.  She disembarked in Sydney and will be flying back home to Tennessee in a few days.  

Bob and I took an Uber to Queen Victoria Building.  Wow, what a spectacular place!  It first opened in 1898 and has elaborate Romanesque architecture.  The inside is stunning.  Stain-glassed central dome looks down on balconied floors linked by grand staircases, arches, pillars and intricate mosaic tile floors.  As you walk along the top floor, you can see several levels below.  The ceiling is all glass and allows the sun to fill the entire building (by the way, it’s an entire city block).  The ‘royal clock’ is located at upper level.  The plaque on the side reads ‘By appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  Turret Clockmakers Thwaites & Reed Ltd Hastings England”.  The clock activates on the hour from 9 am to 9 pm.  It has 6 scenes that briefly illuminate to display a diorama of English royal history, before dimming and rotating to next scene.  Most have mechanical animation that includes executions and knighting of Sir Francis Drake.  The QVB also has the Great Australian Clock.  It weighs 4 tons and measures 30 feet tall.  It lays claim to the world’s largest hanging animated turret clock.  Both were spectacular!  We wandered around the different levels to see the very high-end shops, coffee and tea shops, antique stores that seemed to specialize in estate jewels.  Nice 😉

We left the QVB and decided to stroll down the hill to the harbor and back to the ship.  Looks like a storm brewing in the near future.  O, the grand ole architecture we saw in downtown.  We just loved it.  Hey, for those back home in NY, we spotted the IBM building too.  Just think, little old Endicott, NY, birthplace of a company that employed many of our relatives, ourselves and seen around the world (sadly, very run down buildings back home).

We spotted our ship in the distance and the sky grew angry.  Quick, let’s get on-board.  We boarded and went up to the pool deck for a drink and to watch the sky.  Blue behind us but billowing dark clouds rolling across downtown with flashes of lightning inside.  It was dramatic for sure.  We decided to go sit our our balcony since it faced the Opera House.  We watched the busiest ferry port I’ve ever seen dance right in front of us.  It was a precision dance for sure.  There were about 10 ferries that would go back and forth delivering tourists and locals alike.  As we sat on our balcony, a ferry would pass and everyone would shout and wave.  I just love Australians!  We sat and had watched as dusk arrived, lighting across the water and what do you know, our friends, the flying foxes we had been looking for.  If you weren’t paying attention, you’d think it was just birds flying, BUT, right from the Royal Botanical Garden, just a short distance away, you could see one after another.  I zoomed in to take video and sure enough, BATS!  Big bats!  And, there were a lot of them.  Lightning the in the background with the Opera House right before us.  It was quite entertaining.  Nighttime arrived and suddenly, right in front of us, fireworks at the Opera House.  It could not have been more spectacular.  We could hear, in the distance, a bride and groom being announced.  Nice timing for us!  We were lucky enough to see 2 different display’s of fireworks and enjoyed them immensely!  Soon, we hear the horn from our ship and it’s time to go.  Shouts and waves from people watching as our ship backed away from the dock.  The gorgeous Harbour Bridge right behind us (the one that you see on New Year’s Eve with fireworks).  We sailed away and soon a bend towards the sea prevented us from seeing that beautiful city.  O, I would love to come back here and stay.  So much to explore….and climb 😉

Farewell Sydney (and Martha – safe travels home)!