“As your ship passes Harbour Heads, you are presented with the shimmering skyline of Sydney – hailed by many seafarers as “the most beautiful harbor in the world.” Two prominent landmarks, Harbour Bridge and the sail-like curves of the Sydney Opera House, grace the backdrop of this picturesque harbor. There is a wealth of adventure waiting in Sydney – from its cosmopolitan city center to miles of beautiful beaches and the Blue Mountains.
Australia’s oldest and largest city was born in 1788 with the arrival of the “First Fleet” transporting 760 British convicts. Today, Sydney is the largest port in the South Pacific and is often voted the most popular destination in the South Pacific.” – Princess Patter
We greeted Sidney at 5:30 am in the morning, about a half hour before dawn, as the Pacific Princess Harmony Choir sang, “I’ll Always Call Australia Home” and “Waltzing Mathilda” to the Harbour Bridge and the Sidney Opera House. The original plan had been to sing as we passed these two Sidney icons just after dawn (about 6:00 am or a few minutes later) but there was a snafu with scheduling the pilot who would guide the Pacific Princess into Sidney Harbour. So, we had no choice but to sing in the dark …
We have been to Australia before and spent five days in Sidney at that time. We both love the city! The Pacific Princess was only going to dock for about ten hours. So, we decided to just spend the day walking around the harbor and out to the opera house. Our ship docked on the other side of the harbor away from the city proper but we were shuttled over to the SW footing of the Sidney Harbour Bridge from where we could easily walk around Darling harbor to the Sidney Opera House and then back through the oldest part of Sidney known as ‘The Rocks’. This part of Sidney will be familiar to most of you from New Years Eve. It is here that most New Years telecasts kick off with the first New Year’s celebration showing the fireworks over the Sidney Harbour Bridge …
Our walk around Darling Harbour was highlighted by some very whimsical sculptures depicting the Chinese Zodiac …
It was a very warm day and we were happy to drive at the Sidney Opera House. We went down into the shade of the lower concourse where we could watch the ferries and water taxies and other traffic on the bay. Frances ordered freshly squeezed apple juice and I had a lemon squash while we cooled down, rested our tired feet and availed ourselves of the excellent free wifi provided by the opera house.
(let me just say a word here about wifi. You may have notices that the posting of this blog has been a bit erratic. Some of that has been due to our busy schedules and, to some extent, my personal sloth, but the biggest culprit is wifi. Wifi on the ship is expensive and slow. Uploading the blog and the pictures and then getting everything formatted can be a very tedious project. We also need wifi for updating our devices, checking the news and email and paying our bills. So, a good wifi hotspot can be a treasure. On occasions we have been forced to spend time searching out hotspots … but more about that in Cairns.)
After resting and cooling down, checking email and updating some of our internet apps, we set off from the opera house to The Rocks. We had spent a whole day exploring this part of Sidney in 2004 but to day it was hot and we were tired. So, we did a quick walk through and then caught the shuttle back to the ship. After dinner about the Pacific Princes our tablemates, Ed and Bonnie, invited us to join them for the sail away from Sidney on there balcony at the front of the ship. So, we ended the day with the views that we had missed in the morning! Sometimes things just work out …
