The following will be a daily summary of what occurred on
our very special vacation. It is a
vacation that Pam and I have been looking forward to for quite some time.
While we had talked about it even before my going to
The items listed in red below are what are supposed to be
happening according to the brochure that we had received from our travel agent
and published by Globus the company that is leading our tour.
We did not contract the flights to and from the
Click on date in calendar to read what is going to happen or what did happen on that date.
Board
your transpacific flight and cross the International Date Line.
Pam liked the idea of having a reduced check in line because we were flying Business Class. (Actually, we flew first class from Chicago to San Francisco and Business from San Francisco to Sydney.) We also found out that there is special security check in for Business/First Class. It was a much shorter line. The flight to San Francisco was nice, but Roy wasn't that impressed with First Class. There wasn't as much room between rows as he would have liked to see for the difference in price. But, he was the one that has flown to Australia and back three times in coach. So, it was fine, just not what he expected.
The transfer in San Francisco went off well. We were walking off the plane with the San Francisco United person who greeted the plane. He had announced what gate we were going to go to, but we asked him to confirm. Not only did he do that, but he told us where to go to catch a shuttle so that we wouldn't have to go through security again.
As we arrived at the gate, almost everyone had boarded, but they were paging Pam. It seems she had two visas and that was a problem. (We had caught an error with the date of birth on her initial one and asked to have it corrected. It appears that instead of correcting it, they issued a new one so now she had two visas.) The gentleman who had been paging her spent a couple of minutes on the telephone, and it was all straightened out. We then boarded the plane. The Business Class on this 747 was the upper deck and provided far more room between rows than the First Class on the flight to San Francisco. There was enough room between rows that with the row in front fully reclined the person at the window still could get out without the person on the aisle having to get up.
The food on the flight to San Francisco was good, but the food on the flight to Sydney was very good (Pam says excellent). The flight took about 14 hours. During that time we ate two meals (dinner and breakfast), did a little wine drinking, a little reading, saw 3 movies, and even slept for a while. Roy is afraid that he'll never get Pam back to coach again.
We checked in, went to our room, showered, and decided to check with the concierge as to a location of an ATM so that we could get some Australian cash for tips and the like. He pointed us to one in the hotel. While Roy was getting the cash, Pam ran into three ladies from the tour. Two are from Canada and the other from Ohio.
With Australian cash in hand (or at least in Pam's purse), we decided on a four or five block walk to the Chinese Friendship Garden. It was quite beautiful with one thing more beautiful than the next and great to be able to walk around without a jacket on.
What was so amazing to us was that this little piece of serenity was in the middle of one of the most urban (and clean) cities we have visited.
The garden provided the opportunity to rent costumes so the people renting them could then be photographed by friends or family, or as the case below complete strangers.
(Pam and Roy didn't opt for that opportunity.) We did have a nice lunch there, purchased from the on site Tea House.
After a walk along the harbor, it was back to the hotel. Pam was very good and stayed awake reading. At least that's what she told Roy, as he took about a 2.5 hour nap. By the way, for those of you who care about such things, the way we have it figured out, Sydney is 17 hours ahead of Chicago in regard to time zones. It doesn't feel that it should be that many hours different, but that's the way it seems to work out.
Shortly after the nap, it was back to the area by the harbor for dinner. We ate in a restaurant named "Meat and Wine." It appears that it is a small chain on various continents. Pam had a hamburger and Roy had the catch of the day - salmon. Both were quite tasty.
Back to the hotel to a note from our tour
guide Karen telling us that tomorrow morning we would meet at 7:45 after we had
breakfast. That shall be another "real start" to the tour, but today
was a lovely semi-start to it.
While buffet style breakfasts are not Roy's favorite things, the breakfast at the hotel was great even if buffet style. Plenty to eat and all tasty.
There was a meeting at 7:45 where we met all of the tour members. There are 32 in all. There are a number of Canadians, a couple from Israel, and the rest from the States. I don't think we are the youngest of the group, but we are also not the oldest. I'd say the group is mainly about our age. Of course, that isn't too surprising. Who beside people our age could afford to be gone for a month? Our tour guide is Karen Chopping. She is a tiny Australian young woman with a lovely personality.
We set off by bus to the Sydney Opera House at about 9 AM. Once again Roy proved himself wrong. He was not looking forward to the tour of the Opera House, but found it one of the most fascinating parts of the day. One of the things learned was that Jorn Utzon, the architect who designed it was from Denmark. He won the right by entering a contest. The Opera House holds a number of venues seating from about 250 to about 2500. The construction of the Opera House included a number of firsts; therefore, it isn't surprising that the construction took longer and far more money than originally expected. Of course, it has become one of the most famous pieces of architecture in the world so was worth the wait. What we found so ironic was the man who designed it and headed up the construction for the first part, although still alive has never set foot inside the completed facility. The government had started applying heavy pressure to complete the project. Being a stubborn Dane and not willing to compromise with the perfection he was trying to achieve, Utzon quit the project and went back to Denmark. At that time the outside was nearly completed, but little had been done with the inside. The government brought in Australian architects to complete the inside. Utzon is still alive, hates to fly, and feels that his coming to the Opera House would take away from its significance. Another interesting thing is that it seems that Utzon and Australia have made up because his company has been hired to redesign some of the interiors. Utzon's son who works with him has been over. That combined with web cams have seemed to allow a suitable working relationship.
Roy, of course, took scads of pictures of the Opera House. Below is one of his favorites showing the opera house and Sydney Harbour Bridge taken from the park by Mrs. Macquarie's chair.
After the Opera House tour, it was on to the harbour cruise. Not only were there many interesting sites to keep us visually stimulated, but it was excellently narrated. The history of Australia/Sydney is young by European standards and is certainly interesting. To think that modern Australia was all started by prisoners and their keepers blows the mind.
After the cruise it was into the Aquarium for a 1 hour guided tour. It is a popular attraction and well worth a visit if you are in Sydney. Roy suggests not on Sunday as it was quite crowded, but then again he is rather infamous for his feelings about crowds. Pam was able to achieve one of her minor goals. She saw live duck-billed platypus (Does anyone know what the plural is? There were two of them.). Surprise, Roy tried to photograph them. He found it was like trying to photograph otters underwater in a large area with a large crowd around. In other words, there are no good pictures of a platypus to show.
From the aquarium it was on to a bus tour of the city narrated by Karen and the driver. One thing that became quite evident is that Sydney is an expensive place to live. It shares the same attraction as many of the larger cities around the world to the young people. It also shares the fact of urban sprawl. Housing becomes cheaper the further west from the city you go. (Remember Sydney is like Chicago; land east of the city is most likely pretty cheap but is a long way away.) One of the final stops on the bus tour was the park by Mrs. Macquarie's chair. Not only was the above photograph taken there, but there was also a group photograph taken that will be given to us by Globus. That should be helpful to us as we try to match faces and names as we go on.
After time to refresh ourselves at the hotel, we were taken by coach to a dinner hosted by Globus. (An interesting tidbit we learned that in Australia the word entrée is used for our word appetizer. When you think about it, it does seem more logical. It is what you use to start or enter the meal.) Anyway, there was a choice of three different entrées and three different main courses. We sat with the ladies who came from just outside of Toronto at a table for four. It sounds as if they had been on a number of Globus tours and had high praise for them.
Sydney
Full
day at leisure. Perhaps join our optional excursion to the Hawkesbury
Besides seeing the Three Sisters in Katoomba, we visited Scenic World. After going down in a canyon in a "train" (the world's steepest incline railway), back up in a cable car, and across in a gondola car (part of the floor allowed us to see the bottom of the canyon), it was time for a drive to the Featherway Wildlife Park. Once there, we had the opportunity to interact with koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies. Pam was thrilled when she patted a koala and fed and patted the kangaroos and wallabies. We also had the opportunity to see other Australian birds and animals. Roy liked the shot he was able to get of a salt water crocodile.
"Look at them choppers!" - from Romancing the Stone movie.
We were surprised to learn that saltwater crocs can swim almost as fast as dolphins. Combining that with those teeth, we think we are going to stay out of the water.
After the wildlife park, it was over an hour ride back to the hotel. Our biological clocks have not quite got into Australian time yet; therefore, we were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. Roy went out, picked up sandwiches from a place in the lobby, and we ate in the room. While we tried to stretch it as long as possible so we wouldn't wake up so early, we were both in bed 10:00 PM.