Our ship entered Sydney Harbour around sunrise and fortunately, I was awake to see it. What a beautiful sight to see the Opera House, Sydney Bridge and all the sky scrapers appear.
The above is a photo of the Opera House taken just after sunrise, and here is the bridge.
We are docked within walking distance of each and from my cabin window, I can see the opera house. It is such a thrill for me to be here – a dream come true.
After breakfast this morning around 8 a.m., I went on a little walking tour of the area. It was too early for the shops to be open and since I had forgotten my map of the city, I returned to the ship to get it. Every Sunday, there is a large Market in the close vicinity, so I went back out to spend the morning wandering through there. It was really hot and muggy, so I was in my element, but I made certain I walked in the shade.
In the afternoon, I went on a tour of the city which took us to the beach where there must have been thousands sunbathing and swimming. I was wishing I could join them, but we only stopped there briefly for picture taking and a snack. Then it was on to the opera house where we were given a tour. What an extraordinary building that is ! ! ! Acoustically, I think it is probably the best of all opera houses in the world. It is huge. There are several concert halls, large and small. The Symphony Hall holds over 1700 people and the one for the opera holds over 1500.
At 5 p.m. Mary and Jim met me there and we went to a Rock and Roll concert. You are probably wondering why I would go to a rock and roll concert when I am at the Sydney Opera House. There are no operas presented there on Sundays. Mary and Jim were planning to go to the rock concert and when they invited me to join them, I readily agreed, because I really wanted to see a performance there. As it turned out, it was a wonderful 2 hour concert. A group of excellent Australian musicians were performing the music of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. As the story goes, these 4 musicians one day just happened all to be in a recording studio at the same time, and as musicians the world over do when they get together, they began a jam session, each trying to out do the other and this went on for a couple of hours. The owner of the studio, without their knowledge, turned on his recording equipment and taped the whole session. These musicians were not famous at the time, so the tape was stored away with others and never played again until many years later when someone else purchased the studio. The concert was soooooo good and everyone there came out of it all charged up.
The concert was over at 7 p.m. and we were hungry so we decided to walk to an Italian restaurant that Jim and Mary knew from one of their past voyages. It took us about a half hour to get there so we worked up a good appetite. By 9:30 we were on our way back to the ship, walking along George Street, one of the main streets in Sydney. There were crowds of people out and about -- everyone appeared to be having a good time.
I was a bit weary from this long day and would have liked to go straight to bed, but Sallie, one of the ladies who loves to dance, and who I got to know quite well, is leaving the ship here in Sydney and I wanted to go and say my farewell, so I took a quick shower and went up to the Ocean Bar where she was having a final evening aboard. Sallie is from Virginia. She is considerably older than I am, but she is a good dancer and loves to dance. I don’t think she missed a dance session during the entire time she was aboard. Clothing wise, she came well prepared. Every evening was formal night for her. She had beautiful outfits the likes of which you see in the musical movies we went to in our youth. She wrote a beautiful thank you note and gave it to each of the dance hosts. (James showed me the one she gave him and it was very gracious and written in beautiful hand writing) What a lovely lady she is ! ! ! We exchanged calling cards and I hope that we will keep in touch. That is one of the perks of taking a long cruise like this – you get to meet such nice people and make life long friends.
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