The Nomadic Adventurers: Sydney, the “Darling” Down Under

Entering the Harbor around 6:00 AM 4/13/2012

Yesterday was a quiet day at sea and we soon realized that we needed to pack up for our disembarkation today. We had received no information from Princess cruises as to what to do or where to go or when to leave. Jim went down and found out the needed information and we got ourselves ready to get off the boat. I guess they didn’t care if we stayed on or not!

Our first closeup of the Sydney Opera House

We also received no information as to when we would pull into Sydney Harbor. Our friends, Danny and Gaye from Sydney, said that we needed to view it upon arrival even though we will be seeing it again when we leave on Sunday. We finally found something that said that we should be pulling in around 5:45 AM so we set the alarm to 5:30. As always when we are excited or nervous about missing something we couldn’t sleep well and were up all night checking the clocks to make sure we hadn’t overslept.

We got up and out by 5:30 am just in case. And sure enough it was just as exciting to enter the Harbor and see the bridge and the Opera House as it is to see the Statue of Liberty when arriving in NYC. We got lots of pictures and even got a view of the sunrise behind the bridge.

We left the ship and had to once again go through the tough Australian customs. They had us so scared from the first time that we declared every single item we purchased. They moved us to another location but this time I had a list and I made Jim throw away all his food products. I declared "stuffed koala bears" and the poor man almost had a heart attack until I explained to him they were the fluffy toy items you give to children. He wanted to know what was the wood product and I told him they were boomerangs.....made in Australia. He then let us move on without too much trial.

Once at our hotel we couldn’t check in so we went on a walk. I had wanted to take the Hop On Hop Off bus around to get my bearings but Jim wanted to walk. So I let him walk whilst I took the Hop On Hop Off. I got a great overview of Sydney and learned a lot about the history of Sydney and how their buildings came to be.

The HOHO bus dropped me off in front of our hotel and Jim was waiting for me; positive that I would get myself lost I am sure. He said he was starving and was ready for lunch but I really think he was afraid that I would never come home.

We headed down to Darling Harbor where there are many restaurants and found one that served fish and chips for me and lamb souvlaki for Jim. The seagulls were prolific and as soon as someone exited their table they swooped down on the plate of food squawking and squealing. They even knocked over a glass and broke it! It reminded me of the scene in “Finding Nemo” where all the seagulls surrounded them waiting to pounce. It was just like that today except they came right to the table next to you and didn’t care one bit that people were nearby. Poor waiters have to hustle and get the tables cleaned or a feeding frenzy happens.

I got some great pictures of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow but we are taking all suggestions.