After cruising the Fjordland National Park and two days at sea over the "Ditch", we arrived in Sydney, our disembarkation point. It's hard to believe that our cruise came to an end. The 29 days had gone by so quick!. And here was Sydney, greeting us on a pleasant spring Monday, October 22. As the ship entered the Botany Bay, we could see the famous Sydney landmarks from the ship. What awesome sight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House! Fortunately our ship docked in the same harbour for disembarkation. The Sydney Harbour is not only in a very pretty setting, but also a fun place to promenade and people watch. It's a very busy harbour with overseas passenger terminal, bay cruise terminal, the Circular Quay trains and bus terminal. Our disembarkation went smoothly. We were excited to set foot on our 7th and last continent of the globe! Yeah, we checked off one more item on our bucket list. We said goodbyes to friends and walked a short distance from the terminal to our hotel in the Rocks. Our hotel was on the 2nd floor of a pup and around the corner of the Harbour Bridge. It was too early to check in, but we could leave our luggage at the hotel. We could not wait to start our sight seeing around Sydney. We 're glad to stay in the Rocks. It's a good location and very convenient to walk to Circular Quay as well as to Sydney business center.
We enjoyed very much our first full day in Sydney. We visited the Royal Botanical Garden, walked around the Opera House and the business & shopping center.
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View of Sydney Harbor Bridge from the ship
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The Sydney Opaera view from the ship's dining room
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Just getting off the ship
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A beautiful morning in Sydney Harbour
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Our ship and the Harbour Bridge in background
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The Opera House and Harbour Bridge
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Resting in the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens
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The Royal Botanical Garden
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Victoria Square
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Queen Victoria Building
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Town Hall
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St. Andrew Cathedral
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Our hotel building in the Rocks
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The famous Strand Arcade shopping center
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The Strand Arcade entrance
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Hyde Park
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St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
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The Opera House at Sunset
 | Sydney Harbour evening
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The next day, our wonderful Australian friends Barry and Nieves from our Trans-Pacific cruise came to meet us at the Circular Quay. The Judges live about an hour train ride south of Sydney. It was very nice of them to volunteer to be our guides for the day. We were happy to see them again and to know that they got home safe and sound with all of their luggage and trip purchases the day before. We had the best tour guides in Sydney! It was a perfect day with spring-like weather to visit the nearby ports and island suburbs of Sydney by ferry boats from Sydney Harbour terminal. Some high-light attractions of the day included a visit to the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbor, a nice walk around Manly Cove, an enjoyable beach relaxation and a delicious "banh mi", spring rolls and BBQ pork dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant before heading back to Sydney Harbour.
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Barry and Paul on a ferry boat
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Cockatoo Island, Parramatta River
 | Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
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 | Luna Park- View from the ferry
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Luna Park
 | Darling Harbor
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With Barry and Nieves - Darling Harbor
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Australian National Maritime Museum
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Many Cove
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Sydney Sunset
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Sunsetting over Sydney
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Luna Park Amusement Park at night
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Thank you, Barry and Nieves for a lovely day and a wonderful time "Bay" cruising.
Goodbye friends... And goodbye Sydney for now. We will be back!
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Gift from Barry and Nieves - reminding us of our good time in Australia.
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