Sydney

A couple of asides first. I love watching the pilot boats assist as we enter and depart ports. Then there is the part of the process where the pilot boat comes along side as we are steaming away, and the actual pilot leaves our big ship and jumps aboard the pilot ship through a side hatch. I always think that takes some bravery and some careful timing.

Our past two days were at sea crossing the Tasman Sea on our way to Sydney. One of the things to do onboard is to watch a glass blowing demonstration. The day we went, the four kids who are onboard came too. They had drawn things they would like to see the glass blowers make, and so they chose to make "Alice the Peacock" for one little Chinese girl. It was pretty impressive to see this done from scratch.

We arrived in Sydney, AU this morning at 6:30AM. Our ship is parked directly across from the famous Sydney Opera House.

We did a harbor tour first, and I got this photo from that tour boat. The city is quite impressive.

You may have heard of the opportunity to walk the arch of the harbor bridge. You can see a few brave souls up at the top as we passed below.

After the harbor tour, we took a tour of the Opera House. Wow! What an amazing facility. We got to see the two main halls and even heard a brief bit of a rehearsal by the Australia Symphony.

The interior is a study in interesting architecture. How do you like the all purple carpet?

Later, we walked through a bit of the botanical garden and noticed lots of wild cockatoos flying about. Noisy show offs!

At sea again tomorrow and then Melbourne.