Our Excellent Australian Adventure – Part 2

We thought that it was never going to end. I’m talking about the 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney. There was one point where I was thinking to myself that the flight must have been half over because it seemed to have been quite a lot of doing nothing by this point. But when I checked my watch it showed that there was still 9 hours left.

By the time we all got out of the airport and into our hotel in Sydney, all of our spirits were on the rise. Our flight landed in Sydney around 6AM and we got to the hotel around 8AM. During our taxi ride into town we were all wondering why the downtown was so dead with barely anyone on the streets. It took our sleep-deprived heads a while to understand that it was pretty early Sunday morning so it was to be expected.

Location, Location, Location

Our hotel location couldn’t be any better. it was right in the middle of downtown Sydney and barely a minute walk to the Sydney harbour bridge and fantastic views of the famous opera house.

We’ve had great weather since we’ve been here – sunny and in the mid to low 20’s. We ended up taking a two hour harbour cruise and it was one of the best decisions that we made. There are great views of the city that you can really see from the water and since it was a great day it was nice to be out on the water. On our first day in Sydney we had ended up doing a lot of walking (perhaps too much) and being able to relax on the boat was a much preferable way of seeing the sights.

One of the really interesting things that we’ve seen in Sydney is how the architecture has such a mix of old and new. I’m not sure if I’ve seen any other city in the world that has so many brand new skyscrapers right next to 1800’s Victorian-era buildings in the downtown core. It’s really quite spectacular and offered quite a lot of photo opportunities.

Recovery

I’m writing most of this section in our hotel room at it’s around 6AM so we have plenty of time before we all meet for breakfast which is usually around 9AM. Today is our last full day in Sydney and tomorrow we leave for Melbourne. Yesterday we went on an all-day tour of the Blue Mountains area which is a couple of hours outside of Sydney. It was a nice diversion from only spending time inside the city but I personally was feeling miserable due to a cold that I have been fighting. Under normal circumstances I would be staying in bed but of course when you’re travelling you tend to want to make the best use of your time and take some pills to allow you to get by.

The tour through the Blue Mountains was quite good although we all felt a bit rushed through some sections and by the time we got home were pretty tired. I suspect that today will be a recovery day where we don’t do much other than relay a bit from the previous few days.

My next update will occur in a few days somewhere in the Melbourne area.

Baden