Can't Say Enough about Sydney, Australia!

Anticipating our arrival in Sydney was genuinely bittersweet for us.  Sydney is a world class city with a harbor which is strikingly beautiful and we had so thoroughly enjoyed it in 2009, we couldn’t wait to come back this year too.  Just how much do we like Sydney?  Barb commented, and I concur, that she wouldn’t do a cruise in that part of the world if Sydney wasn’t included on the itinerary.  The pleasure of seeing Sydney again was muted to some extent as we realized that, sadly, our friend Pam would be leaving us after 50 short days and so would our new tablemates and friends, Bill and Candy.  Our table in the evening would go from six to three unless someone new was assigned to us.

Our time in Sydney was to be limited to a mere two days including a late arrival on Saturday and an early departure at 4 PM on Sunday.  The sail in to Sydney is totally stunning in its drama.  Any of you who have seen the New Year’s fireworks at the Sydney Harbour Bridge and have seen pictures of the magnificent Sydney Opera House have some inkling as to what we would see in person. Nearly everyone was up and on deck by 7 AM on Saturday to view the arrival of the Amsterdam in Sydney.  The bow was opened so people could have a personal view of our arrival.  Travel Guide Barbara Haenni gave the commentary and announced that as we rounded one turn, we would have a spectacular view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.  From our previous visit, we knew what to anticipate and cameras began to click to get images of these two Sydney icons in what must have been the first of literally thousands and maybe tens of thousands of pictures taken by crew as well as passengers during our visit. 

Unlike 2009, unfortunately we weren’t docked at the Circular Quay, located between the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.  It seems that that some other cruise line had the audacity to apply for the berth position in Circular Quay before Holland America’s World Cruise itinerary was set, so we had to dock at the nearby Darling Harbour instead.  Under ordinary circumstances, in most cities, this would have been an ideal location but not when compared with Circular Quay. 

As we had taken shore excursions in Sydney each of the three days on our last time there, we chose to plan our own time on this visit.  Saturday morning we arranged to meet an Aussie friend, Andrew Paull, whom we had met on our World War II venues trip in June 2010.  On that trip, we had met such interesting people with the common interest in World War II history, including two World War II vets as well as four young guys under the age of 20. It was our good fortune that Andrew travelled with us, so that when we knew we would be back in Sydney, we contacted him to see if it would be convenient to get together with him.  Our plan was to spend a few hours before he had to be at work by 3 PM Saturday afternoon.

As our impressive sail in was nearing the end we had to wait for a cargo ship to clear the Harbour Bridge before we could sail under it, causing a bit of a delay.  Our ship was tall enough that we had to sail directly below the center.  It was fun to watch how close to the underside of the bridge we were.  Once we were docked at Darling Harbour, Barb and I were ready to get off quickly so we could meet Andrew as soon as possible after our 9 AM proposed meeting time.  But we hadn’t counted on Australian customs officials taking an extraordinary amount of time to clear the ship.  They had brought on the dogs to check out the ship and we waited and waited before we were given permission to disembark.  Barb and I were literally the fourth and fifth people off the ship and because there was construction at the pier, we were going to need to walk quite a bit farther than anticipated to reach the meeting point Andrew had suggested.   But just as we were ready to leave the port terminal, there was Andrew to greet us!  For any of you from the World War II trip who know Andrew, it was great to see him again.  He was the same friendly person we all knew on our trip nearly two years ago!

As we walked, we reminisced about some of our common friends from the 2010 trip and he told us of some of his adventures after we parted and he continued his European exploration—everything from being unable to find a place to stay in Bruges, Belgium, and sick for a few days in London, to his difficulty in getting into the UK (ironic since his grandmother had been born there) because he had already been traveling a few weeks, he was unemployed at the time, and couldn’t produce papers proving where he was going after leaving the UK.  We walked along the busy shops and restaurants at Darling Harbour, visiting the small but beautiful Chinese Garden in Sydney, watching the set up of apparently a Greece in Australia celebration that was taking place this weekend, and even stopping briefly at the Hard Rock Café there so Barb could pick up her collectible souvenir there which proved she had visited that city and the café there.  After a stop for a lunch, Andrew took us on the monorail ride which whisks people quickly through the modern downtown Sydney.  After dropping us off at the ship, Andrew headed to work.  We appreciated his spending the time with us and giving us his perspective on his native Sydney.

Pam had gone with Bill and Candy by ferry to the Taronga Zoo from Circular Quay and we had agreed we would either meet her back at our stateroom at about 2:30 or over at Circular Quay at 3:30.  I had walked around the beautiful Royal Botanic Gardens in 2009 and the three of us had planned to do the walk there on Saturday afternoon.  We also hoped to do a bit of shopping at the market in the historic Rocks area near Circular Quay.  But when Pam returned she admitted that she was too tired from her Zoo walk to set out again on another walk, and besides she still had some final packing to do before leaving for home on Sunday morning.  So Barb and I took the shuttle bus over to Circular Quay and decided to head for the Botanic Gardens instead of The Rocks since they were in opposite directions and we had both done substantial walking earlier.  Barb got a small taste of how genuinely gorgeous the gardens are.  The view of the nearly Opera House enhanced the beauty.  We couldn’t walk the extent to the gardens to see the flying foxes that have taken up residence there since both of us were somewhat weary after walking so much of this fantastic city.

That evening, Bill and Candy came up for a short visit and to say good-bye. It was difficult to say farewell to new friends but we hope to see each other again soon!  It reminded us of meeting Al and Carol on our 2008 Mediterranean cruise and Sally and Ange and Conrad and Carole on our UK/Norway cruise in 2010.  Interest in travel has created some great new cruise friends for us, and these are all people that we have already or will be sailing with again.  We had known none of these people before the respective cruise, but we knew we hit it off with them and they have remained excellent friends since.  We anticipate the same will be the case with Bill and Candy.  Establishing this friendship has been one of the highlights of our cruise so far.

Sunday morning we were up early, saying final goodbyes to Pam as she reluctantly boarded her shuttle bus to head for the Sydney airport and her grueling flight to Chicago via Los Angeles.  She left the ship about 8:15 AM on Sunday, flew a good 14 hours to LA and should have gotten home, if the flight was on time, at about 6:30 Sunday night, Chicago time.  That doesn’t sound like a fun flight¸ but she was thrilled with her 50 cruise and her visit to Antarctica as well as the elusive Falkland Islands and Easter Island.  Some friends of hers had expressed doubt as to whether she would like a cruise as long as 50 days, but she emphatically proved those concerns to be unfounded.!

After Pam left, we hopped the short shuttle ride to Circular Quay and boarded the ferry just as it was leaving for Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.  We had heard so much about it and since we spent Saturday morning with Andrew when Pam and Bill and Candy went, Barb and I wanted to see it.  It was a truly amazing zoo – one of the most impressive zoos, if not the most impressive zoo we have ever visited.  It’s hilly but one can take either the bus or cable car to the top entrance and work the way down the hill which is what we did.  When we arrived, we headed straight to the Australian animals section with a major purpose of seeing the rare indigenous duckbilled platypus which neither of us had ever seen.  As soon as we arrived at the dark indoor pool where it’s found, we saw it swimming around amidst the fish.  The wombat came outdoors and immediately scratched it butt up against the corner of the building.  The happy guy (assuming it was a guy since the previous action is more of a “guy thing”) found an uneaten ear of corn and happily munched on the delicious corn.  We could hear it smacking its lips on the sumptuous meal, so delicious that it had corn kernels all over its face!  The gorilla exhibit was outstanding with a human-like family of gorillas consisting of a male, a female caressing her baby in her arms and a very active adolescent gorilla.  When we arrived at the exhibit, there was one gorilla.  I snapped a picture.  Then two, and I snapped another, then a third came bounding out of the cave.  The young gorilla, smaller than the adults but definitely not a baby¸ walked upright on its hind legs everyplace it went.  They were fun to watch.  Likewise, the seal show was outstanding with seals responding perfectly to the prompts of their trainers.

After our enjoyable visit, we headed back to the ship for the all too quick departure from Sydney. We had a late lunch but were pleased to see our Australian friends, Ros and Gary, whom we had met on the Voyage of the Vikings.  They had just boarded in Sydney for the rest of the cruise so we enjoyed visiting with them.

 But at dinner, we missed our three tablemates, Pam as well as Candy and Bill.  Since    more got off in Sydney than got on, no one has yet been assigned to our table. 

Al had booked two tours, both of which Barb and I had taken in 2009 – the City Sights and Opera House which included visits to the well-known Bondi Beach and an inside tour of the famed Opera House.  His other tour was out to the Blue Mountains, a highly scenic area a couple hours drive beyond Sydney.  We had enjoyed both excursions when we did them in 2009 and were interested in hearing all about his experiences at dinner that evening. 

After two days at sea, we will revisit Cairns in Queensland in the more tropical northeast of Australia.  There is never enough time in Australia, a country that has quickly become one of our favorites in the world!

CT.t