Alyce and the Mackster (thanks again!) picked us up at the house in San Diego around 8 PM, just after son Jed called to wish us “Bon Voyage.” Qantas flight 108, a 747-400 big bird, took off precisely on time.We settled in for the long haul: fourteen hours, but who was counting?
Having cashed in almost all our chits, we were lucky enough that this part of the journey included an upgrade! The ability to sleep—Kathy for seven hours and Amy for a record nine—meant that we arrived in Sydney on time and relatively refreshed. We awoke around 500 AM to a glorious sunrise over the South Pacific. What an immense and majestic vastness that ocean is! Balletic clouds drifted across the sky as we approached Sydney and when the plane banked right we had our first glimpse of this magnificent city. All we could do was sit quietly looking out the window in silence for a few minutes, at once amazed and still unable to grasp that we were about to arrive.
Cabin crew Phil and Brendon (pictured here) were superb: gracious and generous with advice and tips on where to go and what to do and how to stay awake on the first day in town.
We checked into the Mercure Hotel, conveniently located in the center of the city and set out in search of an internet café on the way to the harbor. It turns out that Mc D’s is the local internet haunt, but the threat of smelling French fries and burgers at this hour of the morning proved more than we could bear. Instead, we coffeed up at a nearby Starbucks and walked the two miles to Sydney Harbor.
Seeing the opera house for the first time was breathtaking. Even though you’ve seen it in pictures, the sight of this elegant bird of a building perched on the edge of the harbor is a monument to creativity; it is an architectural wonder.
Having cashed in almost all our chits, we were lucky enough that this part of the journey included an upgrade! The ability to sleep—Kathy for seven hours and Amy for a record nine—meant that we arrived in Sydney on time and relatively refreshed. We awoke around 500 AM to a glorious sunrise over the South Pacific. What an immense and majestic vastness that ocean is! Balletic clouds drifted across the sky as we approached Sydney and when the plane banked right we had our first glimpse of this magnificent city. All we could do was sit quietly looking out the window in silence for a few minutes, at once amazed and still unable to grasp that we were about to arrive.
Cabin crew Phil and Brendon (pictured here) were superb: gracious and generous with advice and tips on where to go and what to do and how to stay awake on the first day in town.
We checked into the Mercure Hotel, conveniently located in the center of the city and set out in search of an internet café on the way to the harbor. It turns out that Mc D’s is the local internet haunt, but the threat of smelling French fries and burgers at this hour of the morning proved more than we could bear. Instead, we coffeed up at a nearby Starbucks and walked the two miles to Sydney Harbor.
Seeing the opera house for the first time was breathtaking. Even though you’ve seen it in pictures, the sight of this elegant bird of a building perched on the edge of the harbor is a monument to creativity; it is an architectural wonder.
After walking around the harbor, and deciding that we probably wouldn’t do the Bridge Climb—being tethered to the bridge scaffolding for the chance of a stupendous view at the hefty price of $169 Aussie dollars per person just didn’t seem worth it. We’ll walk across tomorrow for free and perhaps take in Luna Park, which is an amusement park throwback to the fifties that has been reopened again, much to the chagrin of the locals who invested in high price apartments on North Sydney and aren’t too happy at the screams and shouts of the tourists riding the ferris wheel outside their balconies.
Then a boat ride to Manly seemed like just the thing. The half hour journey landed us on the ocean side of town and we made our way to the beach’s edge past a row of tacky shops and surfer hotels some of which have magnificent art deco facades that have been recently restored. By this time, the dizziness of jet lag was setting in. Half hour again across the bay for a view of Sydney not to be missed.
So it’s 530 PM and the sun has already set in the southern hemisphere’s winter and if we can make it to 800 PM we are golden. Sleep and perchance to dream...
Then a boat ride to Manly seemed like just the thing. The half hour journey landed us on the ocean side of town and we made our way to the beach’s edge past a row of tacky shops and surfer hotels some of which have magnificent art deco facades that have been recently restored. By this time, the dizziness of jet lag was setting in. Half hour again across the bay for a view of Sydney not to be missed.
So it’s 530 PM and the sun has already set in the southern hemisphere’s winter and if we can make it to 800 PM we are golden. Sleep and perchance to dream...
