Sydney

Well let's add Sydney to the list of places we think are wonderful and would be a good place to live. The streets are clean and wide, people are friendly, really nice buildings, and lots of green parks. There are great beaches within a 30 minute drive where you can have a family beach with shallow water and good for wading to beaches where the waves are big enough for good surfing. As we looked at some of the beaches, the first thing that struck us was that the people had very few things at the beach. They just sat on their towels, no deck chairs, no loud music, no cabanas or umbrellas. If they were hungry they only had to walk across the street to find all kinds of restaurants and outdoor cafes to get food or drink. We liked the relaxed attitude because it kept the beach clean. Now that we are beach experts we notice things like that. One good thing, NO ALCOHOL allowed on one of the most popular beaches around Sydney, Bondi Beach.

We arrived on Friday morning and as we were walking up to the Lido for breakfast we looked out the window and could see the Opera House. The harbor is deep and we could sail right into the Circular Quay, which is downtown Sydney. On the other side of the boat we could see an area called "The Rocks," which is where the first settlers came in and set up the penal colonies. On the Friday we took a city tour and were struck by how very pretty the city is. Then in the afternoon we took another tour on a city bus out to the beaches and to some of the suburbs and small towns. It was a lovely, warm day, not too hot and with the sunshine everything looked beautiful. When we got back to the quay we decided to take a walk over to the Opera house. If we could have walked on water it would have only been a few yards away but because we had to walk around the harbor it was about half a mile. After climbing 72 steps the place was locked and we could only look in. They were performing "Tosca" that night and we didn't have tickets to go so we did not get inside the building.

Saturday we had to be up early because we had to move rooms. We only had to pack up loose items, not the clothes that were on hangars. The cabin attendants moved everything for us but it was still a hassle to us when we got back that evening just to put things away. During the day we took a ferry to Manly, a suburb with a nice beach. We looked at a few shops, walked to the beach, and then came back to Sydney. We were only there for an hour. When we came back we walked through an open-air market near to the ship. That market was full of artisans and craftsmen who had made all sorts of items but mostly jewelry. We had lunch then took a walking tour of the area called "The Rocks" which was the area where the first prisoners settled. The tour guide was very enthusiastic and humorous and he loved Australia. He said he had over 6,000 books on Australian history in his own private library. Fortunately he said Australian history is only recent so they didn't have to do any guessing or surmising. So from its start as a penal colony to the present day all its history has been recorded. He was one of the best tour guides we have ever had. He was wonderful.

And so back to the ship because we had to unpack and set up our new stateroom. We are now on our way to Melbourne on the south coast of Australia.

Love to you all.

Mel and Morag