Wednesday 6th September, 2023. Day 1.
Arrived this morning at Sydney international airport, having circled for about 10 minutes, just as Bruce predicted (no landings before 6am permitted). Painless experience with immigration and customs and it took perhaps 15 mins from leaving the plane to being in the non-secured terminal. To be fair, my bag was one of the first out, so that made a difference. Cleared customs even with my dog biscuits and Jackie’s fruit cake, spent 10 minutes talking to Vodafone about getting my eSIM sorted and got my train pass into the city.
Flight was about 1/4 full in premium economy, 1/3 full in economy and completely full in business class. Guess who paid for the fuel on this flight :). I had no seat companion and was able to sleep 13 of the 16:45 hour flight thanks to good sleep aids, Bose noise cancelling headphones and an eye mask. The guy in front of me spent a lot of time watching TV so I suspect his Wednesday would be miserable.
Kudos to Marriott for their great customer service – being Platinum whatsit for life helps – I got to the hotel just around 7:30am and was able to check in and get a nice room. They even offered to upgrade me to a better room tomorrow if I want (I don’t – I don’t need anything better) but I really appreciate being able to drop off my bags, do a quick clothing change and be ready to head out. I hit the concierge lounge for a nice cooked breakfast and headed out for a walkabout.
So, the famous Sydney Opera House. It’s a lovely building. But like many opera houses in Europe, it’s actually much smaller than you think it is. Does not detract from it in any way, but when you see pictures of the harbour, the opera house dominates. All about the angles 🙂
Today being an art and culture day, I visited the art museums and the really magnificent botanical gardens.
Also the local cathedral which was very nice indeed.
Finally a walk through the park to the ANZAC memorial (with the reflecting pond), site also of the Captain Cook statue. The last two images are the Sydney town hall and the Queen Victoria building, now reduced to a shopping centre LOL.
It’s 3pm here now. Had some lunch, a couple of pints of local beer and headed to the hotel for a short nap, then heading back out early evening for dinner and a walk around.
- Day 1 in Sydney is now available here: https://cynicalgsd.com/2023/09/06/welcome-to-sydney/
- Day 2 in Sydney is now available here: https://cynicalgsd.com/2023/09/07/a-nautical-day/
- Day 3 in Sydney is now available here: https://cynicalgsd.com/2023/09/08/il-porcellino/
- Day 4, the coastal drive to Eden will be available on September 9th.
Sage and Pepper's Musings 
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