SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

We woke this morning to a beautiful blue sky day--just the opposite to our first encounter with Sydney.  We left the ship without too much hassle by Aussie Immigration and Quarantine--they permitted us to keep our Bali fisherman carving!  After a short taxi ride and check in at the hotel, we shopped for breakfast food to eat quickly next morning.  We found a nice deli beside the hotel and ate our lunch outside on a bench, then walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens to check on access to the Opera we'd booked for that night.  Everything worked and we can walk there in 20 minutes.

Now for the good part!  We took a 30 minute ferry ride to Manly, a distant suburb of Sydney.  It is a delightful town--clean, attractive, and very pedestrian friendly.  It has a great white-sand beach; people were swimming, but it was cold for Irene's toes and ankles!  After all, it is middle of autumn there.  The return ferry trip gave us opportunity to see the Dawn Princess leaving Sydney harbour with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge for a backdrop.

We'd eaten in Manly at Hungry Jacks (which is Burger King here), so when we returned to Sydney, we walked to the hotel, changed and were ready to go to the Opera.

La Traviata was performed on a stage built over the Sydney Harbour with the Opera House and Bridge behind it.  There was a huge Swarovski Chandelier that was raised and lowered by a huge crane instead of a curtain.  The performance was excellent, and the brilliant fireworks on two occasions really added to our enjoyment.  There were about 3000 people there and the majority were 25 to 45 years old.  Although it was outside, the day was so warm that the evening did not cool down too much.  What a great ending to a wonderful vacation!

Next morning (Saturday, Apr 14) we were up at 6:30 am, flew out of Sydney on a Boeing 777 at 10:25 am and arrived in Vancouver on Saturday, Apr 14 at 7:30 am (we had 2 Saturdays this week!).  We were met in Victoria by Jim (Debbie's husband) and he had washed our truck!  After a visit with him, we also saw Bruce for a while, then drove home by 7:00 pm.  After unpacking most of our things, we slept thoroughly until next morning. 

C'est tout!  We are home--this completes the blogs!