I am typing the first part of this post on the plane to Sydney. With my elbows tucked in as far as possible it is not the most natural position to be typing.
We had pre-booked a taxi to take us to the airport. At five past eight we received a call telling us that they weren’t going to be able to provide us with the seven seater we had booked and what would they like us to do! Given that we needed to get to the airport we elected to go in two cars. Some ten minutes later we were still waiting and beginning to fret as to whether we were going to get to the airport on time. Finally two cars arrived and we set off. We had the Greek Michael Schumacher driving ours and he was keen to make up for lost time. As he rushed to get through a set of yellow lights at the entrance to the Napean Highway he hadn’t noticed that the cars in front had stopped at the next set of lights which were red. He had to take avoiding action by slamming on the brakes and swerving into the nearside lane. Being a taxi driver he also swore at the driver in front for having the audacity to be stationary at red lights! Anyway we eventually arrived at the airport in one piece.
We checked into our hotel and then made our way to the waterfront and the iconic view of Sydney – the Opera House. I was amazed at how close the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge were to each other. Looking from the ferry terminal they looked like models sat where they were. We wandered round to the “house” and had a look round. Didn’t go inside, which was a mistake we will have to rectify over the next couple of days as it is difficult to work out how it al slots together to make anything useful. From pictures I had assumed that the outside was pure white but actually the surface is made up of tiles, some of which are off white, which form a pattern.
We then wandered back and got a ferry to Darling Harbour. Now you can get dedicated ferries that will take you round the harbour but we elected to take the normal commuter ride and save ourselves $30 and it was fantastic getting us to see all sorts of new views, such as the underside of the bridge.
In the evening we were joined by Grant and went off to a great Thai restaurant called Thai Riffic in Newtown. Tomorrow – Manly.
Click here for more pictures of Sydney