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| Sydney Harbor Bridge |
Our two
days in Sydney were terrific. Once the
ship arrived and we were able to disembark, we went with a group to do the
Sydney Harbor Bridge climb. The bridge
opened for climbing in 1998 and has been running tours every ten minutes
throughout the day, with peopling ready to climb to the top and see the city
and harbor from a different vantage point.
The bridge is 134 meters tall and 1,149 meters long, with over 6 million
rivets are holding it all together. The
bridge climb itself includes nearly 1,400 steps, not an activity for those with
bad knees. The design used for the bridge was based on that of the much-smaller
Hell’s Gate Bridge, located in New York City.
The Harbor Bridge is the largest single span arch bridge in the
world. Anyway, we climbed to the top,
lucked on the nice weather and had our picture taken by the tour guide (can’t
bring your own cameras). A fun thing to
do and we’d do it again!
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| Hikers |
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| Sydney Street Scene |
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| Pour me one, Mate |
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| Historic Bar |
After the
climb, we stopped at a historic bar, The Hero of Waterloo, located in ‘The
Rocks’ area to celebrate with our group.
This bar was a place that the old sailing ships would use to ‘recruit’
crew for their ships. They did this by
waiting until they were dead drunk and then stick them in a chute which slid
down to the wharf where the ships were located.
Good story.
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| Really - a pay phone! |
The rest
of the day we spend wandering around The Rocks area and Circular Quay, near the
ship. We actually buy a phone card and
call Lesley & Geoff from a pay phone. Can you believe they still have pay
phones all over this city? This is
because free Wi-Fi is hard to find. Even
at Starbucks, Wi-Fi costs money to use.
McDonalds is free but not very good, mostly because they have so many
people trying to use it.
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| Lots of Interesting Old Buildings |
The
evening is the World Cruise Cunard Ball.
It is held in the Sydney Town Hall building with everyone in their
beautiful formal wear – ladies in gowns and jewels and men in tuxes. The Town Hall was built in the 1880’s and
houses an absolutely huge, powerful and magnificent pipe organ, well maintained
and in great working condition. We are
greeted as we walk in by the CEO of Cunard and the Captain of the Queen
Elizabeth ship, along with several of the officers in charge of the various
departments on ship. There is a
children’s choir singing and once everyone is seated the organ is played. WOW!
After that, the food and wine were continuous and a jazz singer and band
started playing. Dancing continued on
throughout the evening. Back on ship, we
collapse. A great party and definitely
Cunard let you know they appreciate you as a customer. The only slightly sad thing is our charming Captain’s
announcement that he is leaving our ship in Hong Kong for a much needed break
after being with this Queen from drawing board through its maiden voyages.
The
morning of February 29, Steve makes the comment that maybe this extra day is
meant to offset the one we lost, February 15, when we crossed the International
Dateline. More Okie logic? Hhhmmmm.
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| View from our balcony |
The Sydney
Opera House is adjacent, across the bay, from our room balcony on the ship. It is an amazing complex. We walk over and take a tour of the building. Did you know there are actually four
different venues inside – theatre, symphony, rock concerts and opera? The building took 13 years to build and cost
over $100M, which the Australians paid off in 1-1/2 years. The original architect quit during construction
and never saw it completed. He died two
years ago, but his son is now involved and they are making significant modifications
and improvements. One of symphonic hall
features is yet another landmark organ, a ten-thousand pipe tracker organ, the
largest in the world, not the powerhouse of the Town Hall organ but nuanced and
great in its own right. The Opera House
structure is concrete and steel covered with tile panels which never have to be
cleaned. The weird thing for Lynn is
that the tile came from the same town Sweden where her grandmother was
born. It is definitely worth taking a
tour of this iconic structure.
Afterwards
we walk up George Street and back down on Pitt Street, enjoying the
architecture and ambience, and stopping in various shopping arcades. It is drizzling when we begin our strolling
and then it starts really raining. At
least it is warm. We learn that this is
the kind of weather they have been having all summer because of La Nina. Maybe why the USA is so mild this
winter? This isn’t the best weather to
wander around in so we head back to the ship to rest and then get ready for our
evening of opera.
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| Sail Away from Sydney |
We see and
hear Puccini’s ‘Turandot’ this evening.
What a fantastic production! The
voices, orchestra, sets and costumes, everything, rival the Met and we feel so
fortunate to be able to experience the Opera House at its best. Another amazing evening! We run back to the ship in the rain because
the ship-provided buses will take forever to load and unload. We aren’t the only cruisers scurrying in the
pouring rain and indeed, we beat the bus by a good thirty minutes. Back on ship, we change out of our soggy clothes,
grab a late-night snack, then stand on our balcony gazing over the Opera House
and talking about the opera we’ve just seen.
The Captain announces at midnight that the ship is pushing away to sail away
from this beautiful city. The ship may have departed Sydney but we have our
wonderful Sydney memories to hold onto.
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