Nov 28 - 30, 2009 - Travel Day from USA to Australia - It all begins.....

HI Everyone... Well here we start again. Embarking on a new adventure this time We left Tampa on Sat, Nov 28 flying from there to NYC, to LAX, to Sydney. Well, just so you know, that's 29 and 1/2 hours. Wow... We it was really interesting. From LAX to Sydney it was exactly 14 hours fly time and LOTS of turbulence. We flew overnight, and arrived in Sydney at 9:30 in the morning. Crossed the international date line, so we arrived on Nov 30. We are way ahead of you all. Sydney is a multi-cultural mecca of people. All speaking English, of course, but with a nice accent. We got to our hotel, the Marriot at Circular Quay down by the Sydney Harbor but our room wasn't ready yet. We had them hold our bags while we walked around town and got something to eat. It's a bit over cast today and slightly sprinkling, but nice overall. Light jacket. We found out that today is the last day of spring, tomorrow is the first day of summer. Our room was finally ready in the afternoon and we are on the 29th floor overlooking the harbor and the bridge. You can see people walking on it. My adventure on the bridge is scheduled for Friday. Its very expensive here, so don't bother looking for a bargain. We are going on an excursion tomorrow to the Blue Mountains to see the countryside and some of the wildlife. Then Wed we will hit the Big Markets. I'm really tired, but I wanted to get this out to everyone since we are so ahead of you in the timeline. I think I'll just crash soon. Tomorrow should be interesting and a lot of things to talk about.

Dec 1, 2009 - Sydney, Australia - Blue Mountain Tour

It's Tuesday, the first day of Summer here in Sydney. We headed out today to the Blue Mountains on a tour. We took the 4WD Adventure Tour. What fun. Turned out there were only 6 of us plus the driver - Jed - what a cutie...

We headed out at 7:15 am in the morning. Pick up from our hotel. Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park. This was really nice. We actually got to see pretty much most of the Australian animals. Multiple species of Kangaroos and Wallabys, millions of beautiful birds with such beautiful plumage, Emu's, Tasmanian devils, snakes, crocodiles, lizards, and of course Koala bears. All sooo cute. The little wallabys were all hopping around free. We got to pet and feed them. We really didn't want to leave. It was fun. The other couples on the bus were a couple from Bristol, England - the honeymooners and the other couple was from Germany. Nice people. We headed out again this time to the base of the Blue Mountains to ride down some of the fire trail roads. There was tons of Eucalyptus trees everywhere and red gum trees. We took a walk just to listen to the birds and just enjoy the quiet, peaceful forest. We stopped to have the guide show us the Didgeridoo which is a type of Aboriginal musical instrument. They guys tried it.

It was interesting. Then we went over to a clearing to practice throwing the boomerang. This was tons of fun. It's really neat how it comes back to you. We then went to Mt. Tomah to the visitors center for lunch. All day it was really cool and rainy. We expected warm summer weather here, but it's averaging in the low 60's. we are dragging out several clothes so we can layer to keep warm. May have to break down and buy another jacket or hoodie. Well, we continued to Govets Leap where it looked like the Grand Canyon. Beautiful waterfall and cliffs. At Katoomba we saw the 3 sisters (a triple mountain formation). We took a cable car down into the canyon, walked around to see the tree ferns, blue gum trees and more, then took the Scenic Railway Train back up the mountain. A 52 degree incline. Very wild.

Well, finally back to Sydney to catch the Ferry back to the harbor. Very nice, we went down the river, under the famous bridge, and right in front of the Opera House. Snapped a million pics!!! Yes... crashed again in the evening. What a day. Tomorrow is for relaxing.. I'm sure it's a Peggy shopping day.... LOL.... Night..

Dec 2, 2009 - Sydney, Australia

It was a shopping day today... Peggy is in her glory. We got up early, had breakfast in the executive room, then headed out. We walked all day.  Headed down Pitt street, then down George Street toward Chinatown. We finally got to Paddy's Market. It's a large 3 story building with outlet stores throughout and a large food court. Very high class.
We finally went down to the basement and we found all the Vendor Booths were with the discount items and clothing. This was an all day affair. We grabbed a quick dinner at one of the food courts - pasta this time. I couldn't eat anymore oriental food.

Snacks and wine for the evening at the Marriott executive room then early to bed. Big day tomorrow.....

Dec 3, 2009 - Sydney, Australia

Today we decided to do the Hop on Hop off bus and see more of the city. We started early and decided on taking the full tour first to listen to the commentary before we got off to see something. The bus hit everywhere.


Since it was a double decker, we sat on the Open Top bus to view everything and grab some photos. We finally stopped at Hyde Park, got off and walked over to the Sky Tower. The tallest building in Sydney. At the top is an observation area, rotating bar, and rotating restaurant. We did the observation area and grabbed some pics. I was amazed at the size and expansion of Sydney. They actually call this "Little New York". From a City perspective, the size and expanse, and the amount of people that walk the streets daily, I would believe it. We walked from the Sky tower to Darling Harbor. There we visited the Aquarium saw some amazing fish that you would never see in our part of the world. Back to the bus to continue on our journey. This time we switched buses to head out to Bondi Beach.

This is on the East side of Sydney where all the Surfers go. It was beautiful. A huge bay, with nice sand, lots of shops, and many surfers.

Now we head back on the last bus of the day, back to Circular Quay to our Hotel. It was a long day. We turned in early tonight.  Climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge tomorrow.

Dec 4, 2009 - Sydney, Australia - Bridge Climb

We are up early again today... Peggy headed out to do some more shopping at the markets down the street. I headed over to the Bridge Climb. This was fantastic. I got in a little early than my appointment, but that was fine.  It takes about an hour to go through orientation to prepare you for the climb. You remove all jewelry, jeans, etc. They give you a jumpsuit to wear with attachments all over it. Your sunglasses are attached to the suit with connectors, handkerchiefs are attached to your wrists, a waist harness is added to hold your radio and the cable that keeps you connected to the steel cable that runs the complete length of the bridge climb. Along the tour we were given commentary by our guide about the building of the bridge and the surrounding area and islands. It was really very good. Once we got to the top we were experiencing 35 knot winds, but the cable kept us attached. A couple of helicopters flew directly over head as well as a couple of Sea Planes coming in for a landing. It was exhilarating. It takes about 3 to 3.5 hours to do it all. At the end you get a Climbing Certificate and a group picture. Well worth the money. In the afternoon we took the train out of town to see some of the surrounding suburbs of Sydney and back. Since it is Friday, there are all kinds of festivals going on down George street by the Rocks. The Rocks is the old part of town.  There were vendor tents everywhere selling tons of stuff, lots of the local food, and some of the bars in the area were packed with people. All drinking. From what we could tell, it looked like many were having their Company Christmas parties. At the Museum of Contemporary art there was a large company Christmas party and they were all dressed like the roaring 20's. And I do mean dressed to the hilt.... really neat. Well back to the room, again everything is way past our pricing budget, so back to the hotel to read and relax. Not sure what to do tomorrow yet... we'll see. Night...

Dec 5, 2009 - Sydney, Australia

Saturday was relaxing. Lots of walking all around Sydney. Down to Circular Quay to see the ships & Ferries, then over to the Opera House. Walked the complete length, then through the Botanical Gardens. Can you believe there was an area just loaded with the Fox bats? They were hanging in all the trees and flying about. It was weird. And smelled even worse! More walking downtown and around. We picnicked on park bench with crackers, fruit, and cookies. It was really nice just watching all the people going by. Later in the afternoon we just packed and repacked getting ready for leaving Sunday. Just stayed in and watched a moving on the TV. I think we are ready for our departure from Sydney.

Dec 6, 2009 - Volendam, Holland America - Sydney, Australia

We got up this morning and decided to do some walking before we checked out of the hotel and got on the cruise ship. We walked down to Paddy's Market in Chinatown again and got in a good 2 hours of walking. Back to the Hotel to finish our packing and head on over to the cruise ship. We were first told our ship was going to be docked at Darling Harbor, but it ended up docking at Circular Quay which was a 10 min drive from the hotel. Perfect. Well we loaded up all of our luggage and headed over about noonish. The ship is only 63,000 tons but beautiful none the less. Got to work as soon as we got settled in our stateroom. We pulled our documents together and visited each of the staterooms where our clients are staying. Some we met, some we didn't. Tomorrow morning we have a desk in the Atrium for our guests, then we have a nice cocktail party for them tomorrow night. I think we'll hit the hay early tonight. It's been a long, hot day. So far we are 12 nautical miles out to sea and the boats a rock'n. I hope it doesn't mean storms ahead.