9/9/06-We arive in Sydney after a 14 hour flight. It was strange following the setting sun and not seeing any light until we arrived at Sydney around 6:30 a.m. We lost the 8th when we crossed the international date line. Our hotel is a Marriott located a few blocks from the main docks, called the circular quay.
This evening we took a dinner cruise around Sydney harbor. The city is beautiful from the water. Reminds me a little of Stockholm with the various bays around the harbor. Obviously, the architecture isn’t as old, but the feeling is similar. The Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House are as impressive as the photos and images we have seen over the years. We were unable to visit the Opera House as there wasn’t anything playing while we were in Sydney, but I am looking forward to the scheduled bridge climb.
9/10/06 – a few blocks from our hotel is an area called “the Rocks”. It is a preserved section of the original city and is where the original fleets of ships unloaded the prisoners from England that formed the basis of the colonial population of Australia. We took a guided tour and heard all about the evolution of the city from a prison to a bustling, modern world city. There were, of course, a lot of old yarns like the time they found a human arm in the mouth of a shark and were able to solve the murder….
In the afternoon, we took a bus tour of the city. This was a great way to see how big (4.5 million pop.) the city is and get a broader understanding of its diversity. It was also a good activity as it rained all afternoon. Rain has become a theme of this vacation.
9/11/06 – We took a ferry across the harbor to xx in the morning. In the afternoon we walked over to the Sydney Bridge and checked in for our 4:10 adventure. There were only three of us so we had a very personalized climb. A young Aussie named Ryan guided us up the superstructure and to the top of the arch where we proceeded to walk to the tallest point of the bridge, walk across to the other side and then back down. It was rush hour, the sun set while we climbed and the rain held off until the last few steps. The city at night was spectacular. Ryan took a number of photos along the way and I posted them to pbase. This was certainly the highlight of the Sydney leg. Forever more, whenever I watch the fireworks from the Sydney bridge on New Year’s eve Jan and I will be able to say “we were there on the bridge!”