Day 28 - It's taken a month in the coming but we have been in Australia today. Sydney reminds me a lot of home with lots of waterfront, modern growth, and a relatively small but crowded downtown core. I think I could like it equally as much as home.
Holland America docked the MS Noordam at White Bay, to take on provisions. That meant we had to take a ferry or taxi to get to the city centre. We opted for the ferry over to Darling Harbour. I bought one additional ticket from the Circular Quay but we decided to hike across town and use it to get back for the connection to the ship.
Marching across to 'The Rocks' was easy and the city seemed quiet on a Sunday morning. We eventually saw that we could walk right along the front of the Circular Quay to the Opera House. So, of course, we did. The sun was bright at this point and the morning warm and beautiful. We also walked uptown to Hyde Park by foot. We put on around 12 km on our urban hike. We did get back to the quay for a 'Captain Cook' Cruise boat back to Darling Harbour and the return to our ship.
We were back at the MS Noordam at about 3 o'clock. Fortuitously, rain clouds rolled in just as we were reboarding. It poured and we were able to catch a quick nap during the rain.
By departure time at 6:30, things had cleared but it was then only around 17C. When scooting out under the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, the air was cold. I held my ground, so to speak, along the railing and shot about 25 photographs of the Opera House as we passed it just before dusk.
